Manuzio, Paolo. Apophthegmatum ex optimis vtriusque linguae scriptoribus libri IIX Paulli Manutii studio, atque industria, doctissimorum theologorum consilio, atque ope, ab omnibus mendis vindicati, quae pium, et veritatis catholicae studiosum lectorem poterant offendere. Venice: Damiano Zenaro, 1583
A reprint of Paolo Manuzio’s collection of apophthegms (Ex aedibus Manutianis, 1577), retaining its dedication to Matteo Senarega (13 November 1576), but omitting the privilege granted by Pope Gregory XIII (12 August 1572). The work is entirely based on Erasmus’ collection, but was published as Manuzio’s own, to satisfy the ecclesiastic authorities.
Four bindings are known with the coat-of-arms of the Gentile di Lesina family stamped in an escutcheon in the centers of both covers (Di rosso al leone metà di oro e metà di verde), and the name “Federico Gentile” lettered in capitals along the top and bottom. All four books are in sextodecimo format, and it could be that they once formed part of a travelling library.
Federico was one of three sons of Michele Gentile (d. 1592) and Dianora Santacroce. His family had been established in Apulia since the twelfth century, where they reputedly held 87 fiefs, including those of Lesina, Civitate, Nardò, and Torremaggiore, of which they were counts. Federico married Dionara Montoya de Cardona, daughter of Juan Montoya de Cardona (d. 1621), a powerful Spanish judge, appointed in 1614 to the ministry for Italian affairs in Madrid, the Consejo de Italia. His interactions with five artists are documented: with the painter Geronimo Avitabile, in 1614; with the painters Louis Croys and François de Nomé in 1614–1616; and with the sculptors Angelo Landi and Cosimo Fanzago for the decoration of a new Cappella Gentile in Santa Maria Maggiore, Barletta, August 1619–November 1620. From a payment receipt dated 4 February 1621 relating to the Capella Gentile, we learn that Federico is deceased, and that his widow was completing that project on behalf of his heir Michele.
The escutcheon on the covers of these four bindings is seen on numerous bindings of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, including a “friendship binding” for Giovanni Battista Crescenzi and Torquato de Cuppis in the Bibliotheca Brookeriana (on M.T. Ciceronis Epistolae ad Atticum, ad Brutum, & ad Q. fratrem, Lyon [= Geneva], [Jacques II Berjon for] Antoine Gryphe, 1585; to be offered in a future sale).
This escutcheon and several other tools used on Federico Gentile’s bindings are associated with a workshop established by Francesco Soresino and continued by his heirs, Prospero and Baldassare, which from 1575 until the mid-1630s bound for the Vatican, as well as other clients. The twin mermaid tools, and a small, four-leaf flower tool, are repeated across the covers of a manuscript “Libro del Depositaria di Sedia Vacante di Papa Clemente Ottavo 1608” (Archivio di Stato di Roma, Camerale I, Reg. 1857). The twin mermaid tools, the crowned-head tool, and star tool, appear also on a “friendship binding” for Giuliano Fontana and Scipione Orlandini of about 1595 (Claudianus, Opera, Lyon: Antoine Gryphe, 1589, last traced at Reiss & Sohn, Auktion 214, 3–4 May 2023, lot 818). The Soresini possessed a substantial kit of tools, including copies of the tools in most frequent use. A variant of the crowned-head tool used on the Federico Gentile bindings appears on a volume bound in the Soresini shop for a member of the Della Torre family after 1602 (Dionysius Carthusianus, De Quatuor Hominis Novissimis, Nempè. I. Morte. II. Iudicio. III. Inferni poenis. IIII. Gaudiis coeli, Cologne: Bernhard Walter, 1602, now in Bibliotheca Brookeriana, to be offered in a future sale).
Bindings for Federico Gentile
(1) Gaius Julius Caesar Rerum ab se gestarum Commentarii (Lyon: Antoine de Harsy, 1603) — Federico Gentile (armorial supralibros, name lettered in capitals at top and bottom). — Louis-Alexandre-Barbet (1850-1931); Maurice Ader, Henri Baudoin & Librairie Giraud Badin, Catalogue de la Bibliothèque de feu M. L.-A. Barbet, Deuxième partie, Paris, 7-10 November 1932, lot 520 — unidentified owner - bought in sale (FF 200) — Cambridge, MA, Harvard University, Houghton Library, GEN *OLC C116 603.
(2) Quintus Curtius Rufus, De rebus gestis Alexandri Magni Macedonum regis historiae. Aucta nunc ac locupletata (Lyon: Jean de Tournes for Antoine Gryphe, 1582). Federico Gentile (armorial supralibros, name lettered in capitals at top and bottom). — Joseph Baer & Co., Franfurt am Main; Frankfurter Bücherfreund. Mitteilungen aus dem Antiquariate von Joseph Baer & Co. Hervorragende Bucheinbände des XIV. bis XX. Jahrhunderts (13 Jahrgang, 1919-1920; Neue Folge Nr. II, Heft 2/3), item 1103 and Pl. 138 — “Dr Schuarte”; Sotheby & Co., Catalogue of fine illuminated & other manuscripts, early classical texts, valuable printed books, autograph letters and historical documents, London, 16-20 December 1929, lot 155k (one of 17 in “A small collection of decorative bindings”, offered as “The property of Dr Schuarte”) — Prideaux - bought in sale (£5) — Sotheby & Co., Catalogue of valuable printed books, London, 30 July-2 August 1951, lot 468 — Maggs Bros, London - bought in sale (£5) — Jean Fürstenberg (1890-1982) — Martin Breslauer Inc., New York; their Catalogue 107: Italy: Part II: Books printed 1501 to c. 1840 (New York [1984]), item 95 — Christie Manson & Woods, Valuable Continental books and fine bindings, mainly Italian, London, 3 April 1996, lot 79 — unidentified owner - bought in sale (£1200) — Martin Breslauer, Inc., New York; their Catalogue 110: Fine books and manuscripts in fine bindings from the fifteenth to the present century (New York 1992), item 68 ($5900). Current location not traced.
(3) Paulus Manutius Apophthegmatum ex optimis vtriusque linguae scriptoribus libri IIX Paulli Manutii studio, atque industria, doctissimorum theologorum consilio, atque ope, ab omnibus mendis vindicati, quae pium, et veritatis catholicae studiosum lectorem poterant offendere (Venice: Damiano Zenaro, 1583). Federico Gentile (armorial supralibros, name lettered in capitals at top and bottom). The volume offered here.
(4) Gaius Sallustius Crispus, C. Sallvstii Crispi Coniuratio Catilinae. Bellum Iugurthinum, Historiarum libri Porcii Latronis declamatio in Catilinam. Adversariæ Sallustij et Ciceronis: Cum scholijs et emendationibus Aldi Manutij, Cypr. à Popma, et Lud. Carrionis ([Geneva:] Jacob Stoer, 1601). Federico Gentile (armorial supralibros, name lettered in capitals at top and bottom). probably Ludwig Rosenthal’s Antiquariat, Munich — Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge, Catalogue of rare and valuable printed books and illuminated & other manuscripts, London 13-15 November 1902, lot 511 — Swann - bought in sale (£2 2s) — Ernst Weiser; Antiquariat Emil Hirsch, Sammlung Ernst Weiser: schöne und kostbare Bucheinbände, französische Kupferwerke des XVIII. Jahrhunderts, Munich, 1 December 1924, lot 107 and Pl. 12. Current location untraced.
16mo (116x 79 mm). Roman type, 37 lines plus headline. collation: A–Z8 Aa–Zz8 Aaa4: 372 leaves. Woodcut printer's device on title-page, woodcut initials, type-ornament headpieces. (A little scattered browning and soiling, small paper restoration to lower margin of Cc6.)
binding: Roman red goatskin (121 x 86 mm), ca. 1595, by the Vatican Bindery for Federico Gentile, profusely gilt, Gentile’s name lettered in capitals at top and bottom, in side panels arabesque and small stars, in center his arms, surrounded by 4 winged mermaids, leafy volutes, small dolphins, stylized draperies, crowned head, and small roundels containing quatrefoils, 3 raised bands on spine, floral and leafy tooling and title in compartments, traces of 2 pairs of ties, edges gilt and gauffered to a diaper pattern. (Tiny chip to head of spine, extremities rubbed, lower pastedown replaced.)
provenance: Federico Gentile (d. ca 1620; armorial supralibros), by descent to — Federico Gentili Di Giuseppe (1868–1940) — Adriana Raphaël (née Gentili di Giuseppe) Salem (1903–1976; pink circular exlibris “a.r.s.”) — possibly deposited at Houghton Library, Harvard University — possibly Ward Murphy Canaday (1902–1991) [regarding the two preceding entries, the Gentili di Giuseppe collection of “over a thousand volumes” was deposited at Harvard, ca. 1939–1945, by Adriana Salem; see Catalogue of the Fifteenth-Century Printed Books in the Harvard University Library (Binghamton, 1991–1997), V, p. 43. In 1955, the collection was purchased from Adriana Salem by Ward Canaday, who “gradually transferred ownership to Harvard over the next ten years.” This volume, however, bears no Harvard ownership stamps, and it may have been consigned to Sotheby’s in 1977 by Canady, or by the children of Raphaël (d. 1963) and Adriana Salem.] — Sotheby’s, London, 16 May 1977, lot 45 (lots 38–52 offered as “The Property of a Gentleman [formerly in the Gentili di Giuseppe Collection]”), purchased by — Patrick King Rare Books, Stony Stratford (£185) — Maggs Bros., London (Catalogue 986, [1978], item 185 and Pl. 1, £325) — E.P. Goldschmidt, London (Grolier Club, E. P. Goldschmidt & Co., Financial records, 1919–1981, Stock Books, #42977). acquisition: Purchased from E. P. Goldschmidt & Co., 1979.
references: Edit 16 40223; USTC 840502.
Manuzio, Paolo. Apophthegmatum ex optimis vtriusque linguae scriptoribus libri IIX Paulli Manutii studio, atque industria, doctissimorum theologorum consilio, atque ope, ab omnibus mendis vindicati, quae pium, et veritatis catholicae studiosum lectorem poterant offendere. Venice: Damiano Zenaro, 1583
A reprint of Paolo Manuzio’s collection of apophthegms (Ex aedibus Manutianis, 1577), retaining its dedication to Matteo Senarega (13 November 1576), but omitting the privilege granted by Pope Gregory XIII (12 August 1572). The work is entirely based on Erasmus’ collection, but was published as Manuzio’s own, to satisfy the ecclesiastic authorities.
Four bindings are known with the coat-of-arms of the Gentile di Lesina family stamped in an escutcheon in the centers of both covers (Di rosso al leone metà di oro e metà di verde), and the name “Federico Gentile” lettered in capitals along the top and bottom. All four books are in sextodecimo format, and it could be that they once formed part of a travelling library.
Federico was one of three sons of Michele Gentile (d. 1592) and Dianora Santacroce. His family had been established in Apulia since the twelfth century, where they reputedly held 87 fiefs, including those of Lesina, Civitate, Nardò, and Torremaggiore, of which they were counts. Federico married Dionara Montoya de Cardona, daughter of Juan Montoya de Cardona (d. 1621), a powerful Spanish judge, appointed in 1614 to the ministry for Italian affairs in Madrid, the Consejo de Italia. His interactions with five artists are documented: with the painter Geronimo Avitabile, in 1614; with the painters Louis Croys and François de Nomé in 1614–1616; and with the sculptors Angelo Landi and Cosimo Fanzago for the decoration of a new Cappella Gentile in Santa Maria Maggiore, Barletta, August 1619–November 1620. From a payment receipt dated 4 February 1621 relating to the Capella Gentile, we learn that Federico is deceased, and that his widow was completing that project on behalf of his heir Michele.
The escutcheon on the covers of these four bindings is seen on numerous bindings of the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries, including a “friendship binding” for Giovanni Battista Crescenzi and Torquato de Cuppis in the Bibliotheca Brookeriana (on M.T. Ciceronis Epistolae ad Atticum, ad Brutum, & ad Q. fratrem, Lyon [= Geneva], [Jacques II Berjon for] Antoine Gryphe, 1585; to be offered in a future sale).
This escutcheon and several other tools used on Federico Gentile’s bindings are associated with a workshop established by Francesco Soresino and continued by his heirs, Prospero and Baldassare, which from 1575 until the mid-1630s bound for the Vatican, as well as other clients. The twin mermaid tools, and a small, four-leaf flower tool, are repeated across the covers of a manuscript “Libro del Depositaria di Sedia Vacante di Papa Clemente Ottavo 1608” (Archivio di Stato di Roma, Camerale I, Reg. 1857). The twin mermaid tools, the crowned-head tool, and star tool, appear also on a “friendship binding” for Giuliano Fontana and Scipione Orlandini of about 1595 (Claudianus, Opera, Lyon: Antoine Gryphe, 1589, last traced at Reiss & Sohn, Auktion 214, 3–4 May 2023, lot 818). The Soresini possessed a substantial kit of tools, including copies of the tools in most frequent use. A variant of the crowned-head tool used on the Federico Gentile bindings appears on a volume bound in the Soresini shop for a member of the Della Torre family after 1602 (Dionysius Carthusianus, De Quatuor Hominis Novissimis, Nempè. I. Morte. II. Iudicio. III. Inferni poenis. IIII. Gaudiis coeli, Cologne: Bernhard Walter, 1602, now in Bibliotheca Brookeriana, to be offered in a future sale).
Bindings for Federico Gentile
(1) Gaius Julius Caesar Rerum ab se gestarum Commentarii (Lyon: Antoine de Harsy, 1603) — Federico Gentile (armorial supralibros, name lettered in capitals at top and bottom). — Louis-Alexandre-Barbet (1850-1931); Maurice Ader, Henri Baudoin & Librairie Giraud Badin, Catalogue de la Bibliothèque de feu M. L.-A. Barbet, Deuxième partie, Paris, 7-10 November 1932, lot 520 — unidentified owner - bought in sale (FF 200) — Cambridge, MA, Harvard University, Houghton Library, GEN *OLC C116 603.
(2) Quintus Curtius Rufus, De rebus gestis Alexandri Magni Macedonum regis historiae. Aucta nunc ac locupletata (Lyon: Jean de Tournes for Antoine Gryphe, 1582). Federico Gentile (armorial supralibros, name lettered in capitals at top and bottom). — Joseph Baer & Co., Franfurt am Main; Frankfurter Bücherfreund. Mitteilungen aus dem Antiquariate von Joseph Baer & Co. Hervorragende Bucheinbände des XIV. bis XX. Jahrhunderts (13 Jahrgang, 1919-1920; Neue Folge Nr. II, Heft 2/3), item 1103 and Pl. 138 — “Dr Schuarte”; Sotheby & Co., Catalogue of fine illuminated & other manuscripts, early classical texts, valuable printed books, autograph letters and historical documents, London, 16-20 December 1929, lot 155k (one of 17 in “A small collection of decorative bindings”, offered as “The property of Dr Schuarte”) — Prideaux - bought in sale (£5) — Sotheby & Co., Catalogue of valuable printed books, London, 30 July-2 August 1951, lot 468 — Maggs Bros, London - bought in sale (£5) — Jean Fürstenberg (1890-1982) — Martin Breslauer Inc., New York; their Catalogue 107: Italy: Part II: Books printed 1501 to c. 1840 (New York [1984]), item 95 — Christie Manson & Woods, Valuable Continental books and fine bindings, mainly Italian, London, 3 April 1996, lot 79 — unidentified owner - bought in sale (£1200) — Martin Breslauer, Inc., New York; their Catalogue 110: Fine books and manuscripts in fine bindings from the fifteenth to the present century (New York 1992), item 68 ($5900). Current location not traced.
(3) Paulus Manutius Apophthegmatum ex optimis vtriusque linguae scriptoribus libri IIX Paulli Manutii studio, atque industria, doctissimorum theologorum consilio, atque ope, ab omnibus mendis vindicati, quae pium, et veritatis catholicae studiosum lectorem poterant offendere (Venice: Damiano Zenaro, 1583). Federico Gentile (armorial supralibros, name lettered in capitals at top and bottom). The volume offered here.
(4) Gaius Sallustius Crispus, C. Sallvstii Crispi Coniuratio Catilinae. Bellum Iugurthinum, Historiarum libri Porcii Latronis declamatio in Catilinam. Adversariæ Sallustij et Ciceronis: Cum scholijs et emendationibus Aldi Manutij, Cypr. à Popma, et Lud. Carrionis ([Geneva:] Jacob Stoer, 1601). Federico Gentile (armorial supralibros, name lettered in capitals at top and bottom). probably Ludwig Rosenthal’s Antiquariat, Munich — Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge, Catalogue of rare and valuable printed books and illuminated & other manuscripts, London 13-15 November 1902, lot 511 — Swann - bought in sale (£2 2s) — Ernst Weiser; Antiquariat Emil Hirsch, Sammlung Ernst Weiser: schöne und kostbare Bucheinbände, französische Kupferwerke des XVIII. Jahrhunderts, Munich, 1 December 1924, lot 107 and Pl. 12. Current location untraced.
16mo (116x 79 mm). Roman type, 37 lines plus headline. collation: A–Z8 Aa–Zz8 Aaa4: 372 leaves. Woodcut printer's device on title-page, woodcut initials, type-ornament headpieces. (A little scattered browning and soiling, small paper restoration to lower margin of Cc6.)
binding: Roman red goatskin (121 x 86 mm), ca. 1595, by the Vatican Bindery for Federico Gentile, profusely gilt, Gentile’s name lettered in capitals at top and bottom, in side panels arabesque and small stars, in center his arms, surrounded by 4 winged mermaids, leafy volutes, small dolphins, stylized draperies, crowned head, and small roundels containing quatrefoils, 3 raised bands on spine, floral and leafy tooling and title in compartments, traces of 2 pairs of ties, edges gilt and gauffered to a diaper pattern. (Tiny chip to head of spine, extremities rubbed, lower pastedown replaced.)
provenance: Federico Gentile (d. ca 1620; armorial supralibros), by descent to — Federico Gentili Di Giuseppe (1868–1940) — Adriana Raphaël (née Gentili di Giuseppe) Salem (1903–1976; pink circular exlibris “a.r.s.”) — possibly deposited at Houghton Library, Harvard University — possibly Ward Murphy Canaday (1902–1991) [regarding the two preceding entries, the Gentili di Giuseppe collection of “over a thousand volumes” was deposited at Harvard, ca. 1939–1945, by Adriana Salem; see Catalogue of the Fifteenth-Century Printed Books in the Harvard University Library (Binghamton, 1991–1997), V, p. 43. In 1955, the collection was purchased from Adriana Salem by Ward Canaday, who “gradually transferred ownership to Harvard over the next ten years.” This volume, however, bears no Harvard ownership stamps, and it may have been consigned to Sotheby’s in 1977 by Canady, or by the children of Raphaël (d. 1963) and Adriana Salem.] — Sotheby’s, London, 16 May 1977, lot 45 (lots 38–52 offered as “The Property of a Gentleman [formerly in the Gentili di Giuseppe Collection]”), purchased by — Patrick King Rare Books, Stony Stratford (£185) — Maggs Bros., London (Catalogue 986, [1978], item 185 and Pl. 1, £325) — E.P. Goldschmidt, London (Grolier Club, E. P. Goldschmidt & Co., Financial records, 1919–1981, Stock Books, #42977). acquisition: Purchased from E. P. Goldschmidt & Co., 1979.
references: Edit 16 40223; USTC 840502.
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