A fine C16th Entrelac binding possibly by the celebrated Ève family of binders

Demosthenis & Aeschinis orationes atque epistolae…
Hieronymus Wolf (1516–1580)  : Basel, Johann Oporinus, [c.1550s]

Lacking initial blanks, [48], 523, [1], 326pp. Two volumes in one. Gauffered edges, Some foxing throughout, but otherwise in good condition.
This important Renaissance edition of the speeches and letters of Demosthenes and Aeschines, edited by the humanist Hieronymus Wolf, represents the vigorous revival of classical rhetoric in sixteenth-century
Europe. Wolf’s scholarship was pioneering in its systematic collection and Latin translation of the Greek orators, and this Basel imprint by the renowned printer Johann Oporinus (best known as the publish er of
Vesalius’s De fabrica) was instrumental in disseminating such texts across Europe.

Binding
The present copy is preserved in a distinguished French Renaissance binding, executed c.1550–1570. The brown calf boards are gilt-tooled with an intricate panel of interlacing strapwork (reliure à l’entrelacs), framed by
multiple gilt fillets and enlivened with delicate arabesque corn er tools. The edges are gilt and gauffered with repeating star, rosette, and wave motifs.
This complex interlace style is one of the hallmarks of mid-sixteenth century Parisian bindings, and is attributed to the celebrated Ève family of binders, particularly Geoffroy and Clovis Ève, who served Henri II and Catherine de’ Medici.

Bindings à l’entrelacs are among the most admired products of t he French Renaissance, their interwoven geometry reflecting both ornamental refinement and intellectual prestige. Although unsigned, the pre sent
binding is closely related to documented examples from the Ève workshop, and demonstrates the transition from early interlace to the later, more elaborate fanfare style of Le Gascon. An attractive survival, it illustrates the Renaissance practice of ennobling humanist texts with bindings of exceptional artistry.