Gougework binding of Thomas Wotton, binder ‘C’, Antonio de Guevara, 1549

GUEVARA, Antonio de. La Institutione del prencipe christiano.  Venice: Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1549

8vo (170 x 100 mm).

Collation: *8 A-Y8 Z4 (final recto blank): 188 leaves. Italic type, 31 lines plus headline. Woodcut printer’s device on title-page and final verso, woodcut initials, ruled in red throughout. (Small stain to outer margin of quire I.)

Binding
Contemporary Parisian freehand gougework binding (176 x 112mm), likely by Wotton Binder C, gilt-tooled, with an elegant interlaced strapwork design surrounding a central cartouche, azured leaves and azured trefoils on tendrils towards head and foot, flat spine with 3 false bands tooled to a Guilloche design, edges gilt, in a brown morocco solander case. (Small neat repairs to corners, joints starting.)

The first Italian adaptation of Antonio de Guevara’s Relox de Principes, originally published in Rome in 1543. This work is a didactic treatise on princely virtue and Christian princely conduct in a period of significant
ecclesiastical and political upheaval.

Thomas Wotton (1521–1587) was an English squire, landowner, and sheriff of Kent who amassed a significant library, often acquiring works during his travels, particularly in France around the late 1540s and early 1550s. ‘’The Wotton bindings may be roughly divided into three groups: those with the elaborate designs, gilt and enamelled, and often bearing the smaller armorial stamp; those with plain sides, and the large armorial stamp; and, lastly, those with his name roughly printed on the sides, and generally with small medallion heads.’’ (Gordon Duff, ‘The Bindings of Thomas Wotton’, The Library, v s3-1, 4, p.341).

Provenance
1. “J. Grangier”, early signature to title, possibly Jean Gran gier (1576-1643, professor at the University of Paris)
2. Robert Samuel Turner (1818-1878), ex-libris to upper pastedown, his sale, Sotheby’s, 18 June 1888, lot 2323, to Bernard Quaritch, London.
3. Librairie Lardanchet, Lyon, Catalogue 38 (Lyon 1934), item 1627
4. Maurice Burrus (1882-1959), bookplate to upper pastedown and purchase note “Vénot Lyon, 1934”, by descent until sold, Christie’s, Paris, 15 December 2015, lot 187.

References
Edit16 CNCE 22172; USTC 835210

Institutional Copies
USTC identifies only 2 copies in institutional libraries in the UK (BL, Bodleian) and 2 in the USA (Harvard, Columbia).