PLUTARCHUS (c.46-c.120). Vitae illustrium virorum . Venice: Giovanni Ragazzo for Lucantonio de Giunta, 7 December 1491. Chancery 2° (335 x 225mm). Collation: a-r 8 s 1 0; A-S 8 (a1r title, a1v table of contents, a2 part one, s10v register, A1 part two, S8v blank). 290 leaves. 63 lines and head-line. Types: 110 R. (capitals), headings on a2r and A1r; 82 R b. a2 and A1r with architectural borders, the former with a woodcut illustration of Theseus and the Minotaur, the latter with a 17-line woodcut initial P depicting Cimon on horseback and in prison, final leaf with woodcut publisher's device, 7- and 6-line woodcut initials, publisher's. (Small wormhole slightly affecting text up to b4, another at lower margin occasionally touching text up to e2.) Contemporary Veneto blind-tooled quarter calf on wooden boards, covers with three rectangular panels enclosed by a repeated urn tool, four spine compartments with fillets forming a saltire pattern, name of author inscribed on upper board (calf on covers rubbed, spine chipped at head and tail and rather worn, clasps defective). Provenance : Johannes Protzer (c. 1450-1528, his 1492 purchase inscription on inner front board, noting that he bought the book in Italy). FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION. Even though Ragazzo produced only some half-dozen editions at this period, they constitute, with the books of Capcasa and Benalius, 'the most remarkable group of Venetian illustrated books of the early nineties'. While there is wear to the binding of this copy, the condition is otherwise fine and consistent with that of other books from the library of Johannes Protzer of Nördlingen who spent the years 1490-97 in Italy, pursuing the law studies that he had begun at Ingolstadt. According to A. Schmid ('Die Bibliotheken der Stadt Nördlingen' in Zeitschrift des Historischen Vereins für Schwaben u. Neuburg , 47, 1927, pp. 106-178), Protzer bequeathed 290 books, mostly incunables, to the Hospital of the Holy Ghost at Nördlingen; although over half were sold in 1859, the rest remained in the Nördlingen Stadtbibliothek in 1927. Dennis Rhodes locates 14 copies of books belonging to Protzer, all outside German libraries, in 'A fifteenth-century German book-collector in Italy: Johannes Protzer' in [ Wytze ] Hellinga Feestschrift , Amsterdam, 1980, pp. 435-39, noting the law student's evident interest 'in Roman history, philology, philosophy and Latin literature.' Other books from Protzer's library to be sold by Christie's are Petrarch's Opera latina (Basel, Johann Amerbach, 1496), included as lot 91 in the sale of the Helmut N. Friedlaender Library, New York, 23 April 2001; and Dionysisus Halicacarnassus' Antiquitates romanae (Treviso, Bernardinus Celerius, 1480), lot 55 in the sale of the Count Oswald Seilern Collection, London, 26 March 2003. HCR 13129; IGI 7923; BMC V 501 (IB. 23756); Essling 594; Sander 5781; Goff P-833.
PLUTARCHUS (c.46-c.120). Vitae illustrium virorum . Venice: Giovanni Ragazzo for Lucantonio de Giunta, 7 December 1491. Chancery 2° (335 x 225mm). Collation: a-r 8 s 1 0; A-S 8 (a1r title, a1v table of contents, a2 part one, s10v register, A1 part two, S8v blank). 290 leaves. 63 lines and head-line. Types: 110 R. (capitals), headings on a2r and A1r; 82 R b. a2 and A1r with architectural borders, the former with a woodcut illustration of Theseus and the Minotaur, the latter with a 17-line woodcut initial P depicting Cimon on horseback and in prison, final leaf with woodcut publisher's device, 7- and 6-line woodcut initials, publisher's. (Small wormhole slightly affecting text up to b4, another at lower margin occasionally touching text up to e2.) Contemporary Veneto blind-tooled quarter calf on wooden boards, covers with three rectangular panels enclosed by a repeated urn tool, four spine compartments with fillets forming a saltire pattern, name of author inscribed on upper board (calf on covers rubbed, spine chipped at head and tail and rather worn, clasps defective). Provenance : Johannes Protzer (c. 1450-1528, his 1492 purchase inscription on inner front board, noting that he bought the book in Italy). FIRST ILLUSTRATED EDITION. Even though Ragazzo produced only some half-dozen editions at this period, they constitute, with the books of Capcasa and Benalius, 'the most remarkable group of Venetian illustrated books of the early nineties'. While there is wear to the binding of this copy, the condition is otherwise fine and consistent with that of other books from the library of Johannes Protzer of Nördlingen who spent the years 1490-97 in Italy, pursuing the law studies that he had begun at Ingolstadt. According to A. Schmid ('Die Bibliotheken der Stadt Nördlingen' in Zeitschrift des Historischen Vereins für Schwaben u. Neuburg , 47, 1927, pp. 106-178), Protzer bequeathed 290 books, mostly incunables, to the Hospital of the Holy Ghost at Nördlingen; although over half were sold in 1859, the rest remained in the Nördlingen Stadtbibliothek in 1927. Dennis Rhodes locates 14 copies of books belonging to Protzer, all outside German libraries, in 'A fifteenth-century German book-collector in Italy: Johannes Protzer' in [ Wytze ] Hellinga Feestschrift , Amsterdam, 1980, pp. 435-39, noting the law student's evident interest 'in Roman history, philology, philosophy and Latin literature.' Other books from Protzer's library to be sold by Christie's are Petrarch's Opera latina (Basel, Johann Amerbach, 1496), included as lot 91 in the sale of the Helmut N. Friedlaender Library, New York, 23 April 2001; and Dionysisus Halicacarnassus' Antiquitates romanae (Treviso, Bernardinus Celerius, 1480), lot 55 in the sale of the Count Oswald Seilern Collection, London, 26 March 2003. HCR 13129; IGI 7923; BMC V 501 (IB. 23756); Essling 594; Sander 5781; Goff P-833.
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.jpg "Source: Christie's")
.jpg "Source: Christie's")
