Vida, Marco Girolamo. Marci Hieronymi Vidae Cremonensis, Albae episcopi, Opera. Quorum catalogum sequens pagella continent. Antwerp: Christophe Plantin, 1578. Bound with:
Jacopo Sannazaro, Iacobi Sanazarii Opera omnia. Quorum indicem sequens pagella continet. Lyon: Antoine Gryphe, 1569
Two anthologies of exemplary neo-Latin verse, in a binding lettered “Liberalitate Card. Borrh.” and “Prae. hvm. carm,” signifying that it was a prize, given by Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, to a student as a reward for excellence in Latin (or Greek) verse. Although the educational institution is not stated, it almost certainly was the Collegio di Brera, founded in Milan by Cardinal Borromeo on the model of the Collegio Romano. The date of the gift must be between 1578 (the publication date of the Vida) and 3 November 1584 (the Cardinal’s death).
The phenomenon of the prize binding was then in its infancy. The practice of annual prize contests and prize giving in schools had been initiated by the Jesuits around the middle of the sixteenth century. The first such ceremony held in the Collegio Romano was on 5 November 1564, in the presence of Alessandro Farnese and six other cardinals. According to a contemporary account (a letter dated 6 November 1564 by Juan Alfonso de Polanco), “certain well-bound books” selected by one of the cardinals were distributed in four classes: Latin and Greek prose and Latin and Greek verse. The authors of books gifted in subsequent years are known: thirty-nine in number, they included Cicero, Caesar, Homerus, Pindar, Sophocles, Prudentius, Sedulius, Sallustius, Silius Italicus, Vida, and Sannazaro—these last two the authors of the Latin poems collected in the present volume. Books with a prize inscription or binding from the Collegio Romano are unknown. The earliest recorded prize binding is one awarded in 1577 at an as yet unidentified school (probably in southern Germany): it covers St. Augustinus, Meditationes, soliloquia, manuale (Dillingen: Sebald Mayer, 1571); see Coppens, “The Prize is the Proof: Four Centuries of Prize Bindings,” in Eloquent Witnesses: Bookbindings and their History (London, 2004), pp. 53–105 (p. 101 & Fig. 8).
Four other books bestowed by Cardinal Borromeo are known:
(1) Biblia sacra. Quid, in hac editione, a theologis Lovaniensibus, praestitum sit, paulo pòst indicatur (Antwerp: Christophe Plantin, 1574). Binding lettered: Liberalitate Card. Borrh. | Solu[tae] Orat[ionis]. Giovanni Gallarini, Rome (Delbergue-Cormont & Bachelin, Paris, Catalogue d’une partie des livres de M. Gallarini, 7 May 1868, lot 2356). Current location not traced.
(2) Caecilius Thascius Cyprianus, Opera. Jam denuo quam accuratissime recognita, collatione facta editionum ad exemplaria aliquot manuscripta vetustissima (Antwerp: Widow & Heirs of Joannes Steelsius, 1568) — binding lettered: Liberalitate Card. Borrh. - Praemium Carminvm — Francesco Bellini — Giovanni Pietro Puricelli — Milan, Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense LP. 0003.Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense, Catalogo descrittivo della Mostra bibliografica: manoscritti e libri miniati, libri a stampa rari e figurati dei secc. XV-XVI, legature artistiche, autografi (Milan 1929), pp.45-46 no. 144 & Tav. 31; Francesco Macchi, Arte della legatura a Brera: Storie di libri e biblioteche, Secoli XV e XVI (Milan 2002), pp.142-143 no. 46.
(3) Dante Alighieri, Dante col sito, et forma dell’Inferno tratta dalla istessa descrittione del poeta (Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1515) — binding lettered: Liberalitate Card. Borrh. - Solu[tae] Orat[ionis] — “Dom . Prof. Soc . Jesu” (Domus professae Societatis Jesu) — Sotheby’s, Music, Continental manuscripts and printed books, science and medicine, London, 17-18 November 1988, lot 35 — Fletcher, London - bought in sale (£2090) — unidentified owner, exlibris “MB” (20C) — Livio Ambrogio — PrPh, New York; their Dante: Fifty books (New York 2016), item 19.
(4) Gaius Vettius Aquilinus Juvencus, Sacra poesis (Milan: Pacifico Da Ponte, 1569), bound with: Jacopo Sannazzaro, Iacobi Sannazarii Opera omnia, latine scripta (Venice: Biblioteca Aldina, 1570) — binding lettered: Liberalitate Card. Borrh. - Prae[mium] I[n] Gra[matica] Carm[inum] — Milan, Archivio Storico Civico e Biblioteca Trivulziana, Triv. L 115/2.Giulia Bologna, Le Cinquecentine della Biblioteca Trivulziana, I: Le edizioni milanesi (Milan 1965), no. 247; Giulia Bologna, La Trivulziana per San Carlo Borromeo 1584-1984, 6: Le edizioni del secolo XVI riguardanti San Carlo Borromeo (Milan 1985), p.14.
2 works in one volume, 16mo (118 x 76 mm). Italic and roman types, 33 lines plus headline. (I) collation: A–Z8 a–h8 i4: 252 leaves. Woodcut Plantin device on title-page, woodcut initials. (II) Italic and roman types, 29 lines plus headline. collation: a–m8 n4: 100 leaves (n4 blank). Woodcut Gryphe device on title-page, woodcut initial. (Occasional light browning, title-page of Vida with small marginal repair, tiny marginal wormhole in Sannazaro from i3 to end.)
binding: Italian (Milanese?) brown goatskin (125 x 83 mm), ca. 1578–1584, for Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, richly gilt, frame composed of 2 fillets, small trefoil at outer angles, large fleuron at inner corners, in center shaped cartouche composed of single fillet at sides and pair of azured leaves at top and bottom with flower and leaves finial containing, on the upper cover, LI | BERA | LITATE | . CARD . | . BORRH ., and on the lower, . PRAE . | . HVM . | . CARM ., traces of 2 pairs of red fabric ties, spine with 3 bands, gilt flower over blind arabesque roll in compartments, gilt and gauffered edges. (Extremities lightly rubbed.) Green cloth folding-case.
provenance: presumably Cardinal Carlo Borromeo (1538–1584; created Cardinal by Pius V, 31 January 1560; supralibros), his gift to: — unidentified owner — “Ex libris Joanni Tualae” (seventeenth-century inscription) — Francesco Cottino (1768–1840), Parrocchia S. Giovanni Battista, Moncucco Torinese (ink-stamp “Bib. Par. Moncvcchi | T[eologo] C[ottino]”) — Arturo Dazza (d. 2010; exlibris). — Bloomsbury Auctions, Rome, Libri e autografi, 6 December 2006, lot 11. acquisition: Purchased at Bloomsbury through Robin Halwas.
references: (I) NB 30725; USTC 406416; Belgica typographica 4756; Voet, Plantin Press, no. 2438; (II) FB 85767; USTC 140659; Baudrier, VIII, 354; Gültlingen, XIV, p.156: 71
Vida, Marco Girolamo. Marci Hieronymi Vidae Cremonensis, Albae episcopi, Opera. Quorum catalogum sequens pagella continent. Antwerp: Christophe Plantin, 1578. Bound with:
Jacopo Sannazaro, Iacobi Sanazarii Opera omnia. Quorum indicem sequens pagella continet. Lyon: Antoine Gryphe, 1569
Two anthologies of exemplary neo-Latin verse, in a binding lettered “Liberalitate Card. Borrh.” and “Prae. hvm. carm,” signifying that it was a prize, given by Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, Archbishop of Milan, to a student as a reward for excellence in Latin (or Greek) verse. Although the educational institution is not stated, it almost certainly was the Collegio di Brera, founded in Milan by Cardinal Borromeo on the model of the Collegio Romano. The date of the gift must be between 1578 (the publication date of the Vida) and 3 November 1584 (the Cardinal’s death).
The phenomenon of the prize binding was then in its infancy. The practice of annual prize contests and prize giving in schools had been initiated by the Jesuits around the middle of the sixteenth century. The first such ceremony held in the Collegio Romano was on 5 November 1564, in the presence of Alessandro Farnese and six other cardinals. According to a contemporary account (a letter dated 6 November 1564 by Juan Alfonso de Polanco), “certain well-bound books” selected by one of the cardinals were distributed in four classes: Latin and Greek prose and Latin and Greek verse. The authors of books gifted in subsequent years are known: thirty-nine in number, they included Cicero, Caesar, Homerus, Pindar, Sophocles, Prudentius, Sedulius, Sallustius, Silius Italicus, Vida, and Sannazaro—these last two the authors of the Latin poems collected in the present volume. Books with a prize inscription or binding from the Collegio Romano are unknown. The earliest recorded prize binding is one awarded in 1577 at an as yet unidentified school (probably in southern Germany): it covers St. Augustinus, Meditationes, soliloquia, manuale (Dillingen: Sebald Mayer, 1571); see Coppens, “The Prize is the Proof: Four Centuries of Prize Bindings,” in Eloquent Witnesses: Bookbindings and their History (London, 2004), pp. 53–105 (p. 101 & Fig. 8).
Four other books bestowed by Cardinal Borromeo are known:
(1) Biblia sacra. Quid, in hac editione, a theologis Lovaniensibus, praestitum sit, paulo pòst indicatur (Antwerp: Christophe Plantin, 1574). Binding lettered: Liberalitate Card. Borrh. | Solu[tae] Orat[ionis]. Giovanni Gallarini, Rome (Delbergue-Cormont & Bachelin, Paris, Catalogue d’une partie des livres de M. Gallarini, 7 May 1868, lot 2356). Current location not traced.
(2) Caecilius Thascius Cyprianus, Opera. Jam denuo quam accuratissime recognita, collatione facta editionum ad exemplaria aliquot manuscripta vetustissima (Antwerp: Widow & Heirs of Joannes Steelsius, 1568) — binding lettered: Liberalitate Card. Borrh. - Praemium Carminvm — Francesco Bellini — Giovanni Pietro Puricelli — Milan, Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense LP. 0003.Biblioteca Nazionale Braidense, Catalogo descrittivo della Mostra bibliografica: manoscritti e libri miniati, libri a stampa rari e figurati dei secc. XV-XVI, legature artistiche, autografi (Milan 1929), pp.45-46 no. 144 & Tav. 31; Francesco Macchi, Arte della legatura a Brera: Storie di libri e biblioteche, Secoli XV e XVI (Milan 2002), pp.142-143 no. 46.
(3) Dante Alighieri, Dante col sito, et forma dell’Inferno tratta dalla istessa descrittione del poeta (Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1515) — binding lettered: Liberalitate Card. Borrh. - Solu[tae] Orat[ionis] — “Dom . Prof. Soc . Jesu” (Domus professae Societatis Jesu) — Sotheby’s, Music, Continental manuscripts and printed books, science and medicine, London, 17-18 November 1988, lot 35 — Fletcher, London - bought in sale (£2090) — unidentified owner, exlibris “MB” (20C) — Livio Ambrogio — PrPh, New York; their Dante: Fifty books (New York 2016), item 19.
(4) Gaius Vettius Aquilinus Juvencus, Sacra poesis (Milan: Pacifico Da Ponte, 1569), bound with: Jacopo Sannazzaro, Iacobi Sannazarii Opera omnia, latine scripta (Venice: Biblioteca Aldina, 1570) — binding lettered: Liberalitate Card. Borrh. - Prae[mium] I[n] Gra[matica] Carm[inum] — Milan, Archivio Storico Civico e Biblioteca Trivulziana, Triv. L 115/2.Giulia Bologna, Le Cinquecentine della Biblioteca Trivulziana, I: Le edizioni milanesi (Milan 1965), no. 247; Giulia Bologna, La Trivulziana per San Carlo Borromeo 1584-1984, 6: Le edizioni del secolo XVI riguardanti San Carlo Borromeo (Milan 1985), p.14.
2 works in one volume, 16mo (118 x 76 mm). Italic and roman types, 33 lines plus headline. (I) collation: A–Z8 a–h8 i4: 252 leaves. Woodcut Plantin device on title-page, woodcut initials. (II) Italic and roman types, 29 lines plus headline. collation: a–m8 n4: 100 leaves (n4 blank). Woodcut Gryphe device on title-page, woodcut initial. (Occasional light browning, title-page of Vida with small marginal repair, tiny marginal wormhole in Sannazaro from i3 to end.)
binding: Italian (Milanese?) brown goatskin (125 x 83 mm), ca. 1578–1584, for Cardinal Carlo Borromeo, richly gilt, frame composed of 2 fillets, small trefoil at outer angles, large fleuron at inner corners, in center shaped cartouche composed of single fillet at sides and pair of azured leaves at top and bottom with flower and leaves finial containing, on the upper cover, LI | BERA | LITATE | . CARD . | . BORRH ., and on the lower, . PRAE . | . HVM . | . CARM ., traces of 2 pairs of red fabric ties, spine with 3 bands, gilt flower over blind arabesque roll in compartments, gilt and gauffered edges. (Extremities lightly rubbed.) Green cloth folding-case.
provenance: presumably Cardinal Carlo Borromeo (1538–1584; created Cardinal by Pius V, 31 January 1560; supralibros), his gift to: — unidentified owner — “Ex libris Joanni Tualae” (seventeenth-century inscription) — Francesco Cottino (1768–1840), Parrocchia S. Giovanni Battista, Moncucco Torinese (ink-stamp “Bib. Par. Moncvcchi | T[eologo] C[ottino]”) — Arturo Dazza (d. 2010; exlibris). — Bloomsbury Auctions, Rome, Libri e autografi, 6 December 2006, lot 11. acquisition: Purchased at Bloomsbury through Robin Halwas.
references: (I) NB 30725; USTC 406416; Belgica typographica 4756; Voet, Plantin Press, no. 2438; (II) FB 85767; USTC 140659; Baudrier, VIII, 354; Gültlingen, XIV, p.156: 71
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