Beschreibung:

Diogenes Cynicus (Pseudo). Diogenis Epistole Bruti Yppocratis medici. "Florence … 1487." [Venice: Christophorus de Pensis?, Thomas de Piasiis?, 1492]
Second edition of this collection of Hellenistic pseudepigrapha (Diogenes, Brutus, and Hippocrates), translated by Francesco Griffolini and Rinucius Aretinus, and including their original dedications to popes Nicholas V (1447–1455) and Pius II (1456–1464). The Greek originals were included in Aldo’s Epistolae diversorum philosophorum, 1499 (Goff E-64). This Venice printing counts as a piracy, for it copies the colophon of the first, Florence edition: “Florentiae ... Per Antonium Francisci Venetum. Anno Domini M. CCCC LXXXVII. X. kalend. Iulias.”
The workshop known as “Mahieu’s Aesop Binder” was founded at the beginning of the 1550s and was still in operation as late as 1567. It takes its name from a copy of Aesop (Basel, 1501) bound for Thomas Mahieu (Chicago, Newberry Library), one of some fifteen bindings it produced for that bibliophile.
Jean Grolier commissioned four bindings from the shop; the other three are:
§ Albertus Magnus, Postillatio in Apocalypsim (Basel, 1506) [Austin 12.1]: New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, 019351.Howard Nixon, Sixteenth-Century Gold-Tooled Bookbindings in the Pierpont Morgan Library (New York, 1971), no. 31.
§ Johannes Lichtenberger, Prognosticatio (Cologne, 1526) [Austin 271]: New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, 017283.Nixon, op. cit., p. 118; Nixon, “Foreign Bookbindings: The Mahieu Aesop Binder for Grolier, c. 1555” in The Book Collector 20 (1971) p. 353. 
§ Pandolfo Collenuccio, Apologi IIII (Rome, 1526) [Austin 372]: Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Res-Z-1992.Fabienne Le Bars, Jean Grolier à la Bibliothèque nationale de France: 50 reliures de la Réserve des livres rares (Paris, 2012), no. 45.
On all four bindings Grolier’s name is abbreviated to “IO GR ET AMICORUM”, with dots before and after each word.
4to (207 x 144 mm). Roman type 1:108R, 30 lines. collation: AA–FF⁸ GG⁶: 54 leaves. 2- and 3-line initial spaces with printed guide-letters.
binding: Mid-sixteenth-century Parisian tan calf over pasteboards (210 x 149 mm) by the Mahieu Aesop Binder for Jean Grolier, azured and open tools, author’s name and title lettered at center of upper cover, Grolier’s name .IO . GR . ET. AMICORUM at foot of upper cover and his motto in center of lower cover, spine with 4 full bands, compartments with gilt fleuron, edges gilt. (Edges very lightly stained; extremities very lightly rubbed.) Brown cloth folding-box.
provenance: Jean Grolier de Servières, vicomte d’Aguisy (1489?–1565, supralibros) — Louis Duret (1527–1586?, inscription) — Jacques Grozelier (inscription “A Maistre Jacques Grozellier achette à Paris de la bibliothèque de M. le médecin Duret”) — Jean-Louis Antoine Coste (1784–1851; Bonnefons de Lavialle & Antoine-Laurent Potier, Catalogue des livres rares et précieux de la bibliothèque de feu M. J.L.A. Coste, Paris, 17 April–13 May 1854, lot 1100), purchased by — unidentified owner (FF 800) — Carlo Riva (Boulouze & Antoine-Laurent Potier, Catalogue de livres rares et précieux, manuscrits et imprimés, composant la bibliothèque de M. C. R*** de Milan, Paris, 8–23 January 1857, lot 1512), purchased by — unidentified owner (FF 1000) — Félix Solar (1815–1871; Charles Pillet & Jacques-Joseph Techener, Catalogue de la bibliothèque de M. Félix Solar, Paris, 19 November–8 December 1860, lot 555), purchased by — Jacques-Joseph Techener, Paris (FF 1200; H. Lechat & Léon Techener with Auguste Aubry, Catalogue de livres anciens et modernes, rares et curieux, provenant de la librairie de Jacques-Joseph Techener Père, Paris, 4–7 April 1865, lot 1568), purchased by — Antoine-Laurent Potier, Paris (FF 885) — Louis Lebeuf de Montgermont (1841?–1918; Maurice Delestre & Adolphe Labitte, Catalogue de Livres rares et précieux imprimés et manuscrits composant la bibliothèque de M. L. de M***, Paris, 27 March–1 April 1876, lot 764), purchased by — unidentified owner (FF 2050) — François-Florentin-Achille, baron Seillière (1813–1873; Sotheby’s, 28 February–4 March 1887, lot 372), purchased by — Bernard Quaritch, London (£198) — Librairie Damascène Morgand (Bulletin mensuel, 1890, item 17996, FF 7500; Répertoire méthodique, 1893, item 6389; Livres imprimés et manuscrits, 1900, item 414, FF 6000; Bulletin Morgand, 1920, item 191) — Édouard Rahir, Paris (exlibris) — Charles Gillet (1879–1972) — Edmée Maus (1905–1971, exlibris) — Michel Wittock (1936–2020; Christie’s London, 7 July 2004, lot 54). acquisition: Purchased at the Wittock sale through Robin Halwas.
references: ISTC id00218000; BMC V 475 (IA.23529); Goff D-218; GW 8397; for the binding see: Austin no. 161; Bibliothèque Nationale, Exposition de la Société de la reliure originale: accompagnée d’une présentation de reliures ayant appartenu à Jean Grolier (Paris, 1959), p. 51 no. 122; G. D. Hobson, Maioli, Canevari and others (London, 1926), p. 38 no. 1; A. Hobson, Renaissance Book Collecting (Cambridge, 1999), p. 228 (Appendix I: Grolier’s bindings classified by workshop, Mahieu’ Aesop Binder); A. Hobson & Culot, Italian and French 16th-century Bookbindings (Brussels, 1991), no. 49; Culot, “La reliure en Italie et en France,” in Bibliotheca Wittockiana, Musea Nostra—38 (Brussels, 1996), p. 31;  Cinq siècles d’ornements dans le décor extérieur du livre, 1515-1983 … Bibliotheca Wittockiana (Brussels, 1983), no. 31.