Medallion and plaquette ornament on bindings had been conceived by Paduan antiquaries in the 1460s, as a style of binding appropriate for humanistic works. The models were Roman imperial coins, antique intaglios, and Renaissance medals, and the decoration was achieved by impressing the covers with an intaglio stamp, leaving an impression in relief. In Anthony Hobson’s words, such decoration “denoted an author’s or an owner’s faithfulness to the spirit of the ancient world”. Infrequently, a cameo was applied to a binding to proclaim ownership (such bindings were therefore excluded from Hobson’s census of medallion and plaquette bindings).¹ Six bindings are known which feature on both covers the distinctive heraldic device of a Saracen in profile, wearing a white headband, insignia associated with the Pucci family of Florence (D’argento, alla testa di moro di nero, attortigliata del primo, il tortiglio in genere caricato di tre).

Left Detail from no. 6. Right Detail from no. 3

The six bindings (see List below) cover books published by the Aldine Press from 1517 to 1523, and their uniformity suggests that they were executed on a single commission. Most (possibly all) have a title lettered on the tail-edge. None retains a recognisable inscription or other evidence of Pucci family ownership. Pandolfo Pucci (d. 1560) is known to have collected a library of classical texts, which was coveted by Cosimo I de’ Medici. Two of the recorded “Pucci bindings” cover editions of Cicero, and an inventory of the Pucci family library, made in October 1575, apparently “lists several volumes of Cicero, an author more completely represented in the Pucci collection than any other ancient writer”.² A binding in vellum with the painted arms of Cardinal Lorenzo Pucci (1458-1531) is also known.³

Tools of foliage entwined with a stem or trunk, repeated to create a border, are typically Venetian. De Marinis localised the Pucci bindings in the British Library and Victoria & Albert Museum to Venice, and also the binding on a 1515 Giunta Aphthonius, which displays another version of the stem-and-foliage tool in conjunction with a medallion of Nero (British Library, Henry Davis 737 [link]). Anthony Hobson⁴ and Mirjam Foot⁵ both assigned the Aphthonius to “Padua or Venice, c. 1530”, however Foot considered the Pucci binding “probably made in Florence, c. 1525”. Federico Macchi localised both the British Library’s Pucci binding and the Aphthonius to “Bologna, 1525-1550” (British Library Database of Bookbindings).

Detail from upper cover of no. 2

list of bindings

(1) Quintus Asconius Paedianus, Asconii Paediani Expositio in IIII orationes M. Tullii Cic. contra C. Verrem & in orationem pro Cornelio (Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, December 1522)

provenance
● probably a member of the Pucci family, Florence, armorial supralibros
● Jacques Techener, Description bibliographique des livres choisis en tous genres (Paris 1858), II, item 8347 (“mar. noir, dent. et ornements a froid, tr. dor. Très-bel exemplaire dans sa reliure originale, qui est parfaitement conservée”)
● Joachím Gómez de la Cortina, marqués de Morante (1808-1868)
● Delbergue-Cormont & Bachelin, Catalogue illustré de la bibliothèque de feu M. le marquis de Morante. Première partie, Paris, 21 February-2 March 1872, lot 622 (“Bel exemplaire dans sa reliure originale, qui est extrêmement belle. Sur les plats on remarque deux têtes de maure dans un écusson. C’est sans doute l’emblème d’un bibliophile dont le gout était aussi pur que celui de Canevarius” [link])
● James Thomson Gibson Craig (1799-1886)
● Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge, Catalogue of the valuable and very extensive library of the late James T. Gibson Craig. Second portion, London, 23 March-16 April 1888, lot 218 (“old black morocco, a la Canevarius” [link])
● Bernard Quaritch, London - bought in sale; their Catalogue 93: A catalogue of fifteen hundred books remarkable for the beauty or the age of their bindings (London 1889), item 67 (£10 10s; (£10 10s; “old black morocco, with a Moor’s head on the sides, gilt edges … Mr Gibson Craig, in describing this volume in his ‘Facsimiles of old book-binding,’ says ‘This identical volume is figured in ‘La Reliure ancienne et moderne’ by Brunet, and was acquired by me when the library of the late March. de Morante was dispersed by the hammer at Paris in 1872’.” [link])
● Samuel Sandars (1837-1894)
● Cambridge, University Library, SSS.39.1 (opac, Binding: A medallion stamped in blind-tooling, with a shield bearing a Moor's head, forms the centrepiece, within a rectangular border of gold, the framework being figured by figures of tree-stems entwined with wreathing foliage, ca. 1550 [link])

literature
Catalogus librorum doctoris D. Joach. Gomez de la Cortina, march. de Morante, qui in aedibus suis exstant (Madrid 1854-1870), no. 10886 (“hermosisimo exemplar en su encuadernacion original, que esta muy bien conservada. Catálogo de Mr. Techener, núm. 8347” [link])
Gustave Brunet, La reliure ancienne et moderne: Recueil de 116 planches de reliures (Paris 1878), Pl. 82 [link]
Fac-similes of old book binding in the collection of James Gibson Craig (Edinburgh 1882), [Pl. 24] (“Old black morocco, ‘A la Canevarius.’ This identical volume is figured in ‘La Reliure Ancien et Modern,’ [sic] by Brunet, and was acquired by me when the Library of the late March. de Morante was dispersed by the hammer at Paris in 1872.”)
Burlington Fine Arts Club, Exhibition of bookbindings (London 1891), Case G, p.38 no. 11 (“Italian binding of the 16th century; black morocco; with ‘Cameo’ on each cover”, “S. Sandars, Esq.”) & Pl. 47
Foot, op. cit., p.336 [describing the British Library copy: “Same arms and border on Cambridge University Library, SSS 39.11 (Venice, 1522)”]


(2) Marcus Tullius Cicero, In hoc volumine haec continentur. Rhetoricorum ad C. Herennium lib. IIII (Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, October 1521)

provenance
● probably a member of the Pucci family, Florence, armorial supralibros
● Nathaniel Evelyn William Stainton (1863-1940)
● Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge, Catalogue of valuable printed books, illuminated & other manuscripts, and books in fine bindings, London, 26-27 July 1920, lot 526 (“Contemporary Venetian brown morocco gilt, borders of vine stems and leaves, in the centre of each cover a medallion ornament containing a negro’s head (rebacked)”) [link] [lots 509-552 offered as “The Property of E. Stainton, Esq., Barham Court, Canterbury”]
● Amory - bought in sale (£1 10s)
● Harriet Wilhelmina Stainton (1887-1976)
● Sotheby & Co., Catalogue of a library of printed books, manuscripts and fine bindings; the property of Mrs. Evelyn Stainton, Barham House, Canterbury, London, 26-27 February 1951, lot 66 & Pl. 13 (“contemporary Venetian dark brown morocco, gilt border of a leafy bough, in the centre of each cover the painted impression of a coat-of-arms within a circle, argent, a Negro’s head proper, the surround painted red, re-backed, g.e., title on the lower cover … The attribution to Venice is based on the similarity of the border with that on a binding for Francesco Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, and on many Ducales in the Museo Correr. The arms are those of the Florentine family of Pucci; they are also found on a well-known maiolica service, one plate of which is illustrated by Rackham, Catalogue of Italian Maiolica, no. 916, vol. I, p. 306.”) [RBH TREE-66]
● Bernard Quaritch, London - bought in sale (£52)
● Henry Davis (1897-1977)
● London, British Library, Henry Davis Gift 777

literature
Tammaro De Marinis, La Legatura artistica in Italia nei secoli XV e XVI (Florence 1960), no. 1686
M. Foot, op. cit. 2010, no. 275 (“A binding probably made in Florence, c. 1525”)
British Library, Database of Bookbindings [link]


(3) Marcus Tullius Cicero, Secundo volumine haec continentur M. T. C. De natura deorum libri III. De diuinatione libri II. De fato liber I. Scipionis somnium, quod è sex de rep. libris superest. De legibus libri III. De Vniuersitate liber I. Q. Ciceronis De petitione consulatus ad Marcum fratrem liber I (Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, May 1523)

provenance
● probably a member of the Pucci family, Florence, armorial supralibros
● Arthur Lauria, Paris, circular red stamp on lower pastedown
● Maurice Burrus (1882-1959), his acquisition label dated 1937
● Maurice Rheims & Jacqueline Vidal-Mégret, Livres anciens en reliure d’époque, livres illustrés par Gustave Doré, livres illustrés de l’époque 1850-1900, Paris, 29 November-1 December 1971, lot 27
● unidentified owner - bought in sale (FF 4000)
● Artcurial & Bernard Clavreuil, Livres et manuscrits, Paris, 15 June 2010, lot 22 [lots 1-121 “Provenant de la collection de trois amateurs parisiens”, owner of this lot not identified; link]
● T. Kimball Brooker (purchased at the above sale, via Chamonal) [Bibliotheca Brookeriana ID #0331]
● Sotheby’s, Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library, The Aldine Collection, A-C, New York, 12 October 2023, lot 320 [link]


(4) Pomponius Mela, Pomponius Mela. Iulius Solinus. Itinerarium Antonini Aug. Vibius Sequester. P. Victor de regionibus urbis Romae. Dionysius Afer de situ orbis Prisciano interprete (Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, October 1518)

provenance
● Librairie Damascene Morgand, Paris; their Bulletin mensuel - No. 51, novembre 1900 (Paris 1900), no. 39526 (FF 200; “mar. noir, fil. dorés et à froid, tr. dor. et ciselée … Sur chacun des plats de la reliure, exécutée dans l'atelier des Alde, on a doré une tête de Maure, marque de possession d’un bibliophile demeuré inconnu” [link])


(5) Giovanni Gioviano Pontano, Ioannis Iouiani Pontani Amorum libri II (Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, February 1518)

provenance
● probably a member of the Pucci family, Florence, armorial supralibros
● William Beckford (1760-1844) (?)
● Alexander Douglas, 10th Duke of Hamilton (1767-1852) (?)
● Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge, Catalogue of the third portion of the Beckford Library, removed from Hamilton Palace, London, 2-13 July 1883, lot 908 (“very fine copy in the original Venetian red morocco, borders of gold, with medallion of a Moor's head impressed in centres of sides, gilt edges” [link])
● Bernard Quaritch, London - bought in sale (£19) [link]
● Librairie Damascene Morgand, Paris; their Bulletin mensuel - No. 27, avril 1890 (Paris 1890), item 18277; Répertoire méthodique … Première partie (Paris 1893), item 2780 (FF 500; “mar. rouge, dent., médaillons de mar. vert, tr. dor. … Ravissante reliure vénitienne. Au centre des plats entourés d’une large bordure de feuillage, un médallion sur fond de maroquin vert portant une tête de Maure, armoiries du premier possesseur.” [link])
● Henry Walters (1848-1931)
● Baltimore, Walters Art Museum

literature
Dorothy Miner, The History of bookbinding 525-1950 AD (Baltimore 1957), no. 217 & Pl. 45
De Marinis, op. cit., no. 1686bis


(6) Lucius Annaeus Seneca, Tragoediae (Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, October 1517)

provenance
● probably a member of the Pucci family, Florence, armorial supralibros
● Libreria antiquaria Luigi Arrigoni, Milan, printed label
● Victoria & Albert Museum, acquisition stamp and date “22.3.82 | 287”
● London, National Art Library, Drawer 51 (opac, [link])

literature
William H. Weale, Bookbindings and rubbings of bookbindings in the National Art Library, South Kensington. 2: Catalogue (London 1894), p.56 no. 233
De Marinis, op. cit., no. 1686