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ALDE

49 - PLINE L'ANCIEN. Historia mundi, denuo emendata. Basel, Hiero…
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Estimate €2,000 - €3,000
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Description
PLINE L'ANCIEN. Historia mundi, denuo emendata. Basel, Hieronymus Froben, Johann Herwagen & Nikolaus Episcopius, 1535. In-folio, stamped fawn calf on wood, triple cold roulette bordering a diamond-shaped frame, embossed coat of arms in the centre, five-ribbed spine, handwritten title label, traces of clasps, red edges (Binding of the period). First edition published and annotated by the Czech humanist Sigismundus Gelenius (1497-1554). This is one of the most important 16th-century editions of Pliny's Natural History, based on that of Erasmus, whom Gelenius had known at Froben's, where he had worked as an editor and proofreader since 1524. A very fine Basel printing, decorated with two large marks by Froben on the first and last leaves and decorated lettering. A contemporary embossed calf copy bearing the arms of Benoît Le Court, one of Lyon's most illustrious bibliophiles of the Renaissance. A native of Saint-Symphorien-sur-Coise, near Lyon, the jurist Benoît Le Court built up one of the most remarkable libraries of the first half of the 16th century in Lyon. A doctor of law and parish priest in Coise, he was a knight of the Church of Lyon from 1540 until his death in November 1559. He was the author of various works, all published in Lyon. "The bindings of Benoît le Court form the most homogeneous group available in the field of sixteenth-century Lyonnais bookbinding. [He] was a bibliophile who paid close attention to the quality of his bindings, which were executed according to obvious specifications" (Jean Toulet). They were most often produced in cold-stamped calf and decorated with his arms, silvered or gilded on the boards. They are generally attributed to the Lyon bookbinding workshop known as the Atelier au compas. A large part of Benoît Le Court's library was kept by his descendants at the Château de Pluvy, but parts of it were dispersed after his death between 1559 and 1588. BM Lyon holds around thirty of them. This copy does not bear the price tag that Le Court usually left on the upper flyleaf of his books, but it may have been scratched off. From the libraries of Jacques Duverney, a doctor in Feurs, Forez, and father of the famous anatomist Joseph-Guichard Duverney (1648-1730), with a handwritten bookplate dated 1645 on the upper flyleaf; and of the oratorian abbot Jean-François Duguet (1660-1724), parish priest of Feurs, with a handwritten bookplate dated 1703 on the title. Binding worn, with significant loss of skin, traces of mould on the first cover, clasps missing, silvering of the arms oxidised, wetness and foxing, last leaf unbound. OHR, 2091/1 - Jean Toulet, "L'école lyonnaise de reliure", Le Siècle d'or de l'imprimerie lyonnaise, 1972, p. 147.
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About the sale Antiquarian books from the 15th to the 19th century - Astronomy
Auction location
Auction time 06/24/2026 at 2:00 PM
Pictures credits: Contact the Auction House
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