Domenico Jacovacci (1604-1661) was the son of the Roman nobleman Marco Antonio Jacovacci de Faceschi by his third wife, Giulia di Fabrizio Muti. Domenico received family inheritances while a child, and from the age of 13 began to acquire civic offices: caporione for rione Colonna (1613), life-time appointments as a customs officer, as Custode of the Fontana di Trevi, of the Campo Vaccino, and of Colonna Antonina (all in 1626). In 1627, he was appointed by Urban VIII Scrittore delle Lettere apostoliche and Segretario apostolico partecipante. After the election of Alessandro VII, Domenico became a papal confidant, and in 1657 he was appointed supervisor of urban infrastructure (Maestro delle strade, 1657-1661). In a recent study by Maria Barbara Guerrieri Borsoi, he emerges as a patron of the arts, instrumental in securing Bernini’s access to Alessandro VII, and as a refined collector of sculpture and of paintings, by Jan Miel and Gaspard Dughet among others.¹

Six books from Domenico’s library are presently known. Each displays on the covers his family’s heraldic insignia (sei crescenti d’argento, disposti 2-1-2-1), supported by an erect lion, on the cross of the military order of Calatrava (a title conferred on Domenico in September 1625).² Domenico had designed this achievement and versions of it illustrate a family memoir he wrote ca 1635-1638 (fig. 1) and a multi-volume genealogical compendium he completed in 1642 (figs. 2-3).³

Domenico Jacovacci, Historia familiae suae (Bibl. Angelica, Ms. 1604)

BAV, Ms Ott. lat. 2548-2554 (“Arme da me usate”; Ms 2553, pt. 1, f. 5r) [link]

BAV, Ms Ott. lat. 2553. pt.1, f. 6r: “Hieroglifico fatta l’Anno 1640” (the Ouroborus is a symbol of eternity)

Three volumes, sixteenth-century editions of works by Boccaccio, Castiglione, and Guicciardini (nos. 2, 3, 6 in List below) display the Jacovacci family arms centred on both covers within two frames of double saw-edge gold fillets. The other three (nos. 1, 4, 5) feature the same arms combined on covers and spines with the gilt monogram MM, adossée letters CC, and symbol of an “S” pierced by an arrow. Judging from reproductions, two sets of tools were employed. It is nonetheless conceivable that all six bindings were produced in a single shop, managed by one Giovanni Antonio Bordone. A series of payments by Domenico to Bordone for unspecified “legature di libri”, the earliest dated 24 March 1640, the latest 28 July 1660, are recorded in Domenico’s accounts with the Monte di Pietà.⁴

The families (or persons) represented by the initials “MM” and “CC” are matters for speculation. They might designate the Massimo and Cesarini families, specifically Domenico’s friends Mario Massimo (1609-1672) and Giuliano Cesarini (1618-1665); the device of a letter S and arrow (S barré, or fermesse, fermeté), placed in the angles, can signify devotion, particularly in matters of love or friendship. In 1636, Domenico extended some of his Capitoline offices to Mario Massimo, and in 1638-1639, while Domenico was banished temporarily from Rome, he travelled across Europe in the company of Mario and Giuliano. Mario Massimo became in 1661 the unmarried and childless Domenico’s heir, with an obligation to assume his name and arms. Among property included in Mario’s inheritance was Domenico’s library of some 400 volumes.⁵

Domenico’s friendship with Giuliano meanwhile was of such nature that Giuliano’s mother, Cornelia Caetani, felt obliged in March 1640 to enter a convent, “per disgusto che il Duca Cesarini suo fig(lio)lo continui a praticare con Dom(eni)co Jacovacci, il qual Duca Cesarini va incognito dicendosi che voglia ritirarsi dalle molte spese per pagare li debiti fatti da esso, et da suo Padre”.⁶ When in 1657-1658 Giuliano Cesarini decided to publish collections of the Latin and Italian verses of his late uncle, Virginio Cesarini (1595-1624), he asked Domenico to commission a suite of engraved illustrations.⁷ A manuscript of Virginio’s “Poesie liriche toscane” - containing verses not appearing in the printed edition - survives in a binding with Jaccovacci insignia and the MM and CC monograms. The third binding decorated with the Jacovacci arms, monograms MM and CC, and device of a closed letter S, covers a copy Guarini’s Il Pastor fido (1605).

No. 1 - Berni

No. 3 - Castiglione (also appears on nos. 2, 4)

bindings with jacovacci insignia

 

(1) Francesco Berni, Orlando innamorato nuouamente composto da m. Francesco Berni fiorentino (Venice: Heirs of Lucantonio Giunta, October 1541)

provenance
● Domenico Jacovacci (1604-1661), armorial supralibros, monograms CC and MM on covers, and device of a letter S and arrow (S barré)
● André Desvouges & Librairie Giraud-Badin, Catalogue de livres anciens rares et précieux manuscrits et imprimés, Paris, 28-29 June 1927, lot 156 (“mar. rouge, compart. de fil. avec entredeux de dent., coins ornés, dos orné, tr. dor. (Rel. anc. italienne). … Exemplaire relié au XVIIe siècle, portant sur les plats des armes dont les pièces sont répétées sur le dos: les entredeux sont ornés des chiffres entrelacés CC et MM et d’S barrés.”)
● unidentified owner - bought in sale (FF 705)
● Sotheby & Co., Catalogue of valuable printed books, Americana, autograph letters and historical documents, London, 28 November 1966, lot 103 (“16th-century Italian red morocco gilt, borders and panel on sides, arms of Jacovacci family in centre, composite flower ornament at corners, 2 C’s and M’s, both interlaced, in border at sides of panel, at each corner an S pierced with an arrow, these tools repeated in 3 compartments of spine, spine tooled in compartments, g.e. … Charles Jacovacci was created a Knight of Malta in 1594. At the sides of the escutcheon, which is charged with six crescents and borne between the paws of a lion, are 4 fleurs-de-lys which may be intended to represent the Cross of the Knights of Malta”) [RBH Highgate-103]
● “Miss Rolfe” - bought in sale (£190)
● Sotheby’s, Printed books, London, 2-3 April 1985, lot 14 (“sixteenth-century Italian red morocco gilt, gilt decorative border on sides, a central panel with triangular decorations inside corners, in the centre the unidentified arms, 2 C’s and 2 M’s interlaced in the borders at the side of the panel, at each corner an S pierced with an arrow, flat spine tooled in compartments, where these tools are repeated gilt line round edges of covers, g.e. … At the sides of the escutcheon which is charged with six crescents within a dentelle border and borne between the paws of a lion, are four fleurs-de-lys”; offered among “Other Properties”) [RBH Atom-14]
● Martin Breslauer Inc., New York - bought in sale (£1430); their Catalogue 110: Fine books and manuscripts in fine bindings from the fifteenth to the present century (New York 1992), item 85 ($6500)
● T. Kimball Brooker (purchased from the above, 1993) [Bibliotheca Brookeriana ID #2116]
● Sotheby’s, Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library: Magnificent Books and Bindings, New York, 11 October 2023, lot 11
● unidentified owner - bought in sale ($13,970)


(2) Giovanni Boccaccio, Il Decamerone de messer Giouanni Bocaccio nouamente stampato con tre nouelle agiunte (Venice: Agostino Zanni 12 November 1518)

provenance
● Domenico Jacovacci (1604-1661), armorial supralibros after his design
● George Hibbert (1757-1837)
● R.H. Evans, A Catalogue of the Library of George Hibbert, Esq. of Portland Place, London, 16 March-6 June 1829, lot 1237 (“red morocco”)
● Thorpe, London - bought in sale (£10 10s)
● George John Warren, 5th Baron Vernon (1803-1866)
● Robert Stayner Holford (1808-1892)
● Lt Col. Sir George Lindsay Holford (1860-1926)
● Sotheby & Co., Catalogue of extremely choice & valuable books principally from continental presses, and in superb morocco bindings, forming part of the collections removed from Dorchester House, Park Lane, the property of Lt.-Col. Sir George Holford, K.C.V.O. (deceased), London, 5-9 December 1927, lot 104 (“Italian 17th Century binding, red morocco, two double saw-edge gold fillets forming a panel, at each corner a crescent moon, in the centre a coat-of-arms, on a shield supported by a lion, six crescent moon arranged two one, two one, gilt back, g.e.; Hibbert-Vernon copy … Shown at the Exhibition of Bookbindings held by the First Edition Club, 1926”)
● E.P. Goldschmidt & Co., London (E.P. Goldschmidt stockbook, in Grolier Club, entry #9797: “bdg crescent moon”); their Catalogue 14: Early printed books, medicine, mathematics and early science, XVIth century books and many specimens of early bindings (London 1928), item 288 & Pl. 21 (“Italian red morocco binding of the early XVIII century with the large coat of arms of Pompeo Piccolomini, supported by an upright lion on the sides, g.e. … The binding is very striking and remarkable; it has been exhibited at the Bookbinding-Exhibition held by the First Edition Club in 1926. The large coat of arms containing six crescents within a bordure engrailed, fills nearly the whole sides of the covers. The shield rests on the cross of the Order of Calatrava and is supported by a lion, of whom only the head and four paws are visible. The frame is formed by four compartments of indented fillets (recalling the engrailed border), and in the angles there are four crescents. The arms are probably those of Pompeo Piccolomini, Principe di Valle, who died in 1733”)
● Rosenbach Company, Philadelphia (Goldschmidt stockbook, op. cit., sold 18 May 1928 £140)
● Lessing J. Rosenwald (1891-1979)
● Washington, Library of Congress, PQ4267.A2 1518 Rosenwald Coll (opac “LC copy in seventeenth century red morocco binding, gilt, with coat of arms. Provenance: Hibbert, Holford”, link)

literature
A catalogue of the library at Sudbury Hall, Derbyshire (ca 1836-1840?) (Ms catalogue of Vernon’s library, in Grolier Club Library; not foliated, no item numbers; as “Boccaccio, Il Decamerone, Vinegia 1518, folio, woodcuts, old morocco from Mr Hibbert’s collection”]
The Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection: a catalog of the gifts of Lessing J. Rosenwald to the Library of Congress, 1943 to 1975 (Washington, DC 1977), no. 785


(3) Baldassarre Castiglione, Il libro del cortegiano del conte Baldessar Castiglione. Nuouamente ristampato (Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio, 1545)

provenance
● Domenico Jacovacci (1604-1661), armorial supralibros after his design
● Colonna di Sciarra, family library (Rome), circular red inkstamp “Biblioteca Colonna” [cf Bragaglia T32]
● Francis Canning (of Foxcote, Warwickshire), armorial exlibris
● Philip John Canning Howard (1853-1934) [of Corby Castle, Carlisle, Cumberland, and Foxcote, Shipston-on-Stour, Warwickshire, member of a cadet branch of the family of the Dukes of Norfolk; “Philipp C. Howard, Esq. (deceased), at Corby Castle, Carlisle, and Foxcote, Shipston-on-Stour” identified as the consignor of lots 1-147 in Sotheby’s sale 1-3 August 1934]
● Sotheby & Co., Catalogue of valuable printed books, London, 1-3 August 1934, lot 103 (“stamp of the Colonna library on title, 17th Century Italian binding (probably Roman), red morocco gilt, in the centre of each side a large coat-of-arms, six crescents arranged two one two one on a shield supported by a lion, gilt back, g. e. … For the water-mark on the end-papers, a prelate’s hat, compare the similar water-mark on the end-papers of a Roman binding illustrated in G.D. Hobson’s Bindings in Cambridge Libraries, 1929, pl. 54”) [RBH 01Aug1934-103]
● Maggs Bros, London - bought in sale (£10 10s)
● Librairie Lardanchet, Paris
● T. Kimball Brooker (purchased from the above, 2016) [Bibliotheca Brookeriana ID #0451]
● Sotheby’s, Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library: The Aldine Collection, A–C, New York, 12 October 2023, lot 257
● G. Scott Clemons


(4) Virginio Cesarini, Poesie liriche toscane di D. Virginio Cesarini [manuscript]

provenance
● Domenico Jacovacci (1604-1661), armorial supralibros, monograms CC and MM on covers, and device of a letter S and arrow (S barré)
● Martin Breslauer, London; their Catalogue 102: Books manuscripts fine bindings autograph letters from the ninth to the present century (London 1972), item 71 (illustrated)


(5) Giovanni Battista Guarini, Il Pastor Fido: Tragicommedia Pastorale (Venice: Giovanni Battista Ciotti, 1605)

provenance
● Domenico Jacovacci (1604-1661), armorial supralibros, monograms CC and MM on covers, and device of a letter S and arrow (S barré)
● Col. William E. Moss (1875-1953)
● Sotheby & Co., Catalogue of the very well-known and valuable library the property of Lt.-Col. W.E. Moss of the Manor House, Sonning-on-Thames, Berks., who is changing his residence, London, 2-9 March 1937, lot 770 (“contemporary red morocco (Italian), gilt border and panel on sides containing a shield bearing six crescents, the shield displayed by a lion, initial ‘S’ pierced by an arrow at each corner, and ciphers ‘M M’ and ‘C C’, each impressed twice in the border and once on spine (armorial of the Crescenzi, a Roman family, perhaps Marco Crescenzi, which would explain the ciphers, the ‘S’ standing for Senator)”)
● Albi Rosenthal, Oxford - bought in sale (£2 10s)


(6) Francesco Guicciardini, L’ historia d’Italia di m. Francesco Guicciardini, gentl'huomo fiorentino (Florence: Lorenzo Torrentino, 1561)

provenance
● Domenico Jacovacci (1604-1661), armorial supralibros after his design
● Edward Lee Stone (1864-1938)
● Charlottesville, University of Virginia, Typ 1561 G85 (opac Bound in contemporary red morocco, gilt pannelled back; gilt borders on sides; in the center is a large shield bearing six crescents and supported by a lion and fleur-de-lys (the arms of the Medicis’?) … Stone Typography Collection, from the library of Edward L. Stone, Printer, of Roanoke [link])