In 1975, Anthony Hobson drew attention to a group of ten or eleven bindings of the 1560s, each having on its covers an oval gilt stamp of a phoenix, not in relief (like a plaquette binding), but impressed by an engraved tool. They imitate the bindings decorated with a plaquette of Apollo and Pegasus (although there is no accompanying motto), which Hobson had linked to the Genoese patrician Giovanni Battista Grimaldi (ca 1524-1612). Their antiquated design – multiple gilt and blind straight borders with acute angle or semi-circular interlace – and a pair of leaf tools reminded Hobson of the Roman binder Niccolò Franzese’s work of the early 1540s, which he took as sure signs of a provincial binder. From various evidence, including watermarks in the endpapers characteristic of Lombardy and Genoa, he located the bindings to Genoa, and designated the shop “The Grimaldi Binder”.
Binding stamps (from left to right)
1. The Genoese “Grimaldi Binder” (no. 11) [link]
2. The Bolognese “Binder of Ulrich Fugger's Bible” (Appendix, no. a)
3. Anonymous Ferrarese (?) binder (Appendix, no. b)
4. Anonymous Venetian binder (Appendix, no. c)
Gabriele Giolito De Ferrari’s devices (from left to right)
1. 1543 Dolce, Thyeste [link]
2. 1546 Osiander [link]
3. 1542 Orlando furioso [link]
The stamp of a phoenix featured on these bindings resembles the devices employed by the printer, Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari, whose shop in Venice was located “all’insegna della Fenice”.1 Hobson could find however no evidence of a branch of the Giolito firm in Genoa, so he discarded the twin hypotheses that these were either Giolito’s personal copies, or “publisher’s bindings”, bindings a publisher might place on books displayed in a shop (see Appendix below). Hobson surmised that the stamp was the impresa of the Milanese Accademia dei Fenici, known to have several Genoese members, and guessed that the books belonged to Giovanni Battista Oliva Grimaldi, Duca di Terranova (d. 1582). Hobson thought that Battista Grimaldi could have been inspired, or even guided, by his namesake, the owner of the “Apollo and Pegasus” bindings, when in 1560 he began to furnish the studiolo of his newly-built Palazzo della Meridiana.2 In 1999, Hobson withdrew his suggestion that the phoenix device might indicate a member of the Academici dei Fenici, while sustaining the Genoese origin of the bindings. He revived the possibility that they were made by or for a presumed Giolito branch in the city, and cited three more bindings having the same phoenix stamp on their covers (nos. 1, 2, 15 in List below). Hobson’s list is recapitulated below, augmented by two bindings (nos. 3-4).3
Eight-volume set of the 1550-1552 Aldine Cicero, broken by Bernard Breslauer in 1950
Eight phoenix device bindings cover volumes of the 1550-1552 Aldine Cicero, four cover books printed at Basel between 1541-1555, and the remaining three are on Venetian imprints of 1548-1555, including one printed by Gabriele Giolito himself, his Orlando furioso of 1555. The Cicero is first recorded in the 1921 sale catalogue of Lord Vernon’s library at Sudbury Hill, where described as bearing “the family arms of Giolito of Ferrara”, the eight volumes offered in a single lot, and bought by Maggs (£25 15s). By 1930, the set was in Munich, illustrated in Catalogue 93 of Jacques Rosenthal, having lost that attribution;4 it was immediately purchased by the Florentine marchand-amateur Tammaro De Marinis. In 1949, the Cicero returned to London, presented in Catalogue 67 of the booksellers Martin Breslauer, with folding frontispiece illustration, as “Bound for Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari” (priced £780).5 When re-offered in Catalogue 71 in 1950, and again unsold, Bernard Breslauer broke the set into five parts, selling that same year De philosophia (2 volumes, 1552) to J.R. Abbey and Epistolae ad Atticum (1552) to Albert Ehrman. By 1952, Breslauer had sold Orationum pars I [-III] (3 volumes, 1550) to the bookseller Nicolas Rauch in Geneva, and Epistolae familiares (1552) to Pierre Berès in Paris. The circumstances of his sale of Rhetoricorum ad C. Herennium libri IIII, and its present whereabouts, are unknown.
When he came to describe Ehrman’s volume of the Cicero, in 1956, Howard Nixon concluded “it seems safe to assume that the binding is in some way related to Giolito … If this is so, it would seem likely that the book was from Giolito’s private library…”.6 De Marinis, who in 1960 had proposed Vittoria Colonna as owner of the phoenix device bindings,7 recanted in 1966, recognising the device on the Epistolae familiares as “das Emblem der Druckerei des Gabriel Giolito”, without venturing that it belonged to Gabriele Giolito himself.8 Anthony Hobson, describing Abbey’s volume of the set, in the June 1965 sale catalogue of his library, considered them Roman bindings, and “likely that they belonged to Gabriel Giolito, the Venetian printer”.9 As we have seen, by 1975 Hobson had changed his mind, and by 1999, once again. In his last (published) reference to the phoenix device bindings, Hobson re-positions them beside three bindings he assumes were made by or for the managers of the Giolito branches in Bologna10 and Ferrara,11 and for the main bookshop in Venice (see Appendix, below).12 Each of those bindings displays a different version of a phoenix device; none is identical with the device appearing on the Genoese phoenix device bindings. In his earlier work, Hobson accepted at face value Giolito’s deposition in 1565 before a tribunal of the Inquisition, when he named the cities where his firm had outlets, and did not mention Genoa.13 In 1999, Hobson took that statement with a grain of salt,14 suggesting that the phoenix device bindings might after all relate to the firm’s activities in Genoa. Ongoing research into commercial networks in the Renaissance may eventually resolve the matter.15
In addition to the volumes featuring the phoenix device, Hobson identified six bindings decorated by tools belonging to the same kit. Their covers are tooled to a panel design in blind and gold, the latter interlaced, with gilt leaf tools set in the angles, like the phoenix device bindings; three have a vertical spine title (the titles are lettered horizontally on the phoenix device bindings). The panelling and tools remind strongly of Roman bindings, and indeed De Marinis had mistaken them as such. One is the Grimaldorum Codex, a cartulary containing copies of documents relating to the Ansaldo Branch of the Grimaldi House, bound about 1561 in black goatskin, tooled in gold and blind with interlacing panels and leaf tools.16 Another manuscript, the Carmelite friar Constanzo Fusco’s “In acta apostolorum vigiliae,” bound in green goatskin, is lettered on its covers with the names of the dedicatee, marchese Giuseppe Malaspina di Fosdinovo (1533-1565), and of the author.17 The remaining four bindings are on printed books: a volume containing three, separately printed works of Pico della Mirandola, bound up in brown morocco, with an oval stamp of Phaeton falling from his chariot and the motto “Nosce te ipsum” of an unidentified owner in centres;18 and three works printed at Rome in 1562 by Paolo Manuzio,19 each with the name of the owner, Annibale Minali (d. 1617), Commendatore di San Giovanni di Prè in Genoa, lettered on the covers.20
1. The Giolito press employed about 30 different devices featuring a phoenix, most depicting the mythical bird turned toward the sun, rising from either a winged globe or amphora emanating flames, with one or more mottos (Vivo morte refecta mea, De la mia morte eterna vita i vivo, Semper eadem), and invariably the initials IGF (Giovanni Giolito De Ferrari, in use 1539) or GGF (Gabriele Giolito De Ferrari, in use 1540-1578).
2. Anthony Hobson, Apollo and Pegasus: an enquiry into the formation and dispersal of a Renaissance library (Amsterdam 1975), pp.97-100.
3. Anthony Hobson, Renaissance book collecting (Cambridge 1999), p.127.
4. Jacques Rosenthal, Katalog 93: Frühe Holzschnittbücher, Druckwerke des XVI. Jahrhunderts, spanische Bücher vor 1650, schöne Einbände (Munich 1930), item 604 (price RM 1800). The firm’s archive copy, deposited in the Stadtarchiv München (Nachlass Rosenthal), and now digitised, is annotated “Nach Hobson (Sotheby) ein Giolito-Einband vgl. Karte vom 12.7.32” and records the date of sale to De Marinis [link].
5. Martin Breslauer, Catalogue 67: One hundred fine books on many subjects (London 1949), item 28: “…That these volumes did indeed come from his library is shown by the fact that his device does not occur on a book emanating from his own press (in which case one might assume that the bindings were ‘publishers’ bindings’), but on a beautiful and accurate edition of Cicero produced by Giolito’s rival Aldus.”.
6. Howard Nixon, Broxbourne Library: styles and designs of bookbindings, from the 12th to the 20th century (London 1956), no. 32.
7. Tammaro De Marinis, La Legatura artistica in Italia nei secoli XV e XVI (Florence 1960), nos. 910-913 (as Roman bindings).
8. Tammaro De Marinis, Die italienischen Renaissance-Einbände der Bibliothek Fürstenberg (Hamburg 1966), pp.162-163.
9. Sotheby & Co., Catalogue of valuable printed books and fine bindings from the celebrated collection: the property of Major J.R. Abbey, London, 21-23 June 1965, lot 198.
10. Modena, Biblioteca Estense, α 2. 9: Petrarca, Il Petrarcha con l’espositione d’Alessandro Vellutello (Venice: Gabriele Giolito de’ Ferrari, 1545) [see List below, no. a]. Bound with a cupid on the upper cover, and a version of the Giolito device on lower cover. Giuseppe Fumagalli, L’arte della legatura alla corte degli Estensi, a Ferrara e a Modena, dal sec. XV al XIX. Col catalogo delle legature pregevoli della Biblioteca Estense di Modena (Florence 1913), no. 255 and Pl. IX; Bibliothèque nationale de France, Trésors des bibliothèques d’Italie, IVe-XVIe siècles (Paris 1950), no. 366; Tammaro De Marinis, op. cit. 1960, no. 1327 & Pl. 228 (as a Bolognese binding); Anthony Hobson & Leonardo Quaquarelli, Legature bolognesi del Rinascimento (Bologna 1998), p.28 no. 10; Hobson, op. cit. 1999, p.127 (as a Bolognese binding, by the “Binder of Ulrich Fugger’s Bible”).
11. Princeton, NJ, Princeton University Library, Kane MS. 44. Suetonius, “De vita Caesarum” (manuscript written in 1433 in Milan by the scribe Milanus Burrus) [see List below, no. b]. Bound in dark brown goatskin, a version of Giolito’s phoenix device (wings elevated, initials GGF) on covers.
12. Cambridge, Harvard College, Houghton Library, *IC5 Ar434 516o 1556c. Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando furioso (Venice: Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1556) [see List below, no. c].
13. Giolito declared branches in Padua, Ferrara, Bologna, and Naples; see Salvatore Bongi, Annali di Gabriel Giolito de’ Ferrari da Trino di Monferrato (Rome 1890), I, pp.ciii-cvi: “Constitutum Domini Gabrielis Joliti Mercatoris Librorum” (15 May 1565, transcribed from the document in Venice, Archivio di Stato, Processi, Busta 20) [link]. Pasquale Pironti, Un processo dell’inquisizione a Napoli (Gabriele Giolito e Giovan Battista Cappello) (Naples 1982), esp. p.50.
14. Hobson, op. cit. 1999, p.127: “he [Giolito] may have been economical with the truth.”
15. Angela Nuovo & Chris Coppens, Giolito e la stampa nell’Italia del XVI secolo (Geneva 2005), pp.151-169, and for these bindings p.464; Angela Nuovo, The Italian book trade in the Renaissance (Leiden & Boston 2013), pp.173-181.
16. Genoa, Biblioteca Civico Berio, m.r.Cf.Arm.21. Hobson, op. cit. 1975, p.97 no. 6, pp.187-188 no. 143 & Pl. 24. Tammaro De Marinis, La Legatura artistica in Italia nei secoli XV e XVI (Florence 1960), no. 833bis (as Roman).
17. Rome, Biblioteca Angelica, Ms. 1442. Hobson, op. cit. 1975, p.97 no. 5. De Marinis, op. cit. 1960, no. 666 (as Roman). Margherita Cavalli & Fiammetta Terlizzi, Legature di pregio in Angelica, Secoli XV-XVIII (Rome 1991), pp.18-19 no. 8 (“Legatura romana della metà del secolo XVI in marocchino verde…”, illustrated).
18. London, British Library, G.11761. Hobson, op. cit. 1975, p.97 no. 1 & Pl. 23. De Marinis, op. cit., no. 833 & Pl. 138 (as Roman). Anthony Hobson has suggested that this volume and another (Marsilio Ficino, Platonica theologica de immortalitate animorum, Florence: Antonio Miscomini, 1482; Ravenna, Biblioteca Classense, Inc 24), according to De Marinis (op. cit., no. 3001) similarly decorated, belonged to Battista Grimaldi; see his “A Genoese book collector” in Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 2012, pp.208-212 (p.208).
19. A copy of Cardinal Reginald Pole’s De Concilio (now untraced); De virginitate opuscula Sanctorum doctorum, Ambrosii, Hieronymi et Augustini and Sancti Ioannis Chrysostomi De virginitate liber a Iulio Pogiano conuersus, both offered by Chariot & De Bure frères, Catalogue des livres de M. *** consistant principalement en livres anciens éditions des Alde, Paris, 5-10 December 1827, lots 32 and 50 (reputedly the stock of the bookseller Jean-Pierre Giegler of Milan, mixed with books from T.-B. Emeric-David’s library), later in the Vernon and Holford collections (Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge, The Holford Library, Part II. Catalogue of extremely choice and 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, London, 5-9 December 1927, lots 24 and 186), bought by the booksellers Bernard Quaritch, by whom sold in 1951 to Henry Davis, now British Library, Henry Davis Gift 846-847. Hobson, op. cit. 1975, p.97 no. 7 and p. 222 no. 8. Mirjam Foot, The Henry Davis Gift: A Collection of bookbindings, volume 3: A Catalogue of South-European bindings (London 2010), nos. 328-329.
20. See the notice of his father by M.C. Giannini, “Minali, Donato Matteo” in Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, 74 (2010).
(1) Appianus, De bellis punicis liber de bellis syriacis liber de bellis parthicis liber de bellis mithridaticis liber de bellis civilibus libri V de bellis Gallicis liber ([Basel: Hieronymus Froben & Nikolaus Episcopius], 1554)
provenance
● unidentified owner using a stamp of a phoenix
● Genoa, Biblioteca Universitaria, 2.G.VI.38
literature
Mostra di legature dei secoli XV-XIX, Genova, Palazzo dell’Accademia, 9 gennaio-3 febbraio 1976 (Genoa [1975]), no. 64 (“Pelle marrone; sui piatti, impressi in oro e a secco, riquadrature filettate, cornice a linee rette e curve del tipo ‘Grolier’, agli angoli piccoli ferri aldini pieni, placchetta centrale con la figura della fenice; dorso decorato in oro e a secco, recante il nome dell’autore, con nove nervi di differente spessore disposti alternativamente, mutilo nella parte inferiore; taglio dorato e inciso a motivi puntiformi e cordami.” [link])
Anthony Hobson, Renaissance book collecting (Cambridge 1999), p.127
(2) Ludovico Ariosto, Orlando furioso, con la giunta di cinque canti d’un nuouo libro del medesimo (Venice: Gabriele Giolito de’ Ferrari et fratelli, 1555)
provenance
● unidentified owner using a stamp of a phoenix
● William Horatio Crawford (1815-1888)
● Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge, The Lakelands Library. Catalogue of the rare & valuable books, manuscripts & engravings, of the late W.H. Crawford, Esq. Lakelands, Co. Cork, London, 12-23 March 1891, lot 164 (“fine copy in old Venetian brown morocco, covered in gold tooling in the Grolier style, gilt édges, with device of Gabriel Giolito as centre ornament in gold on sides” [link])
● Ellis - bought in sale (£7 15s)
● Oxford, Taylor Institution, ARCH.8o.IT.1555(1)
literature
Fine bindings 1500-1700 from Oxford libraries: catalogue of an exhibition (Oxford 1968), no. 18
Hobson, op. cit. 1999, p.127
(3-4) Ambrogio Calepino, Dictionarium. In quo restituendo atque exornando cum multa praesititimus (Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio, 1552)
(a) Francesco Petrarca, Il Petrarcha con l’espositione d’Alessandro Vellutello di nouo ristampato (Venice: Gabriele Giolito de Ferrari, 1545)