Four bindings are known with the initials of an owner “.V.C.A.” and a date, respectively “.M.D. XXIIII .II. April.” (2 April 1524), “Anno .M.D. XXIIII XIII April.” (13 April 1524), “Anno Dñi .M.D. XXIIII XXXI Avgv.” (31 August 1524), and “M.D. XXVI” (1526), lettered within a cartouche in the centres of the lower covers. A title appears inside a matching cartouche in the centres of the upper covers. Three of these bindings were known to Anthony Hobson, who attributed them to a Bolognese shop he designated “The German Students’ Binder” on account of the work it undertook from about 1520 to 1535 for Germans attending the university. The fourth binding (no. 1 Aristophanes in List below) features a corner tool widely used by Hobson’s “The German Students’ Binder”.

The shop was first identified by Ilse Schunke, who suggested that it was managed by Heinrich Riger, beadle of the Natio germanica Bononiae. Hobson disagreed, maintaining that it almost certainly belonged to a bookseller who was working also as a binder, perhaps the learned “Arnold of Cologne” (Arnoldus Coloniensis), said to have been proprietor in Bologna of the “most elegant bookshop of the Germans” (in elegantissimo Germanorum, cui videlicet tum is praeerat, bibliopolio).¹ Hobson presumed that books could be bought there ready-bound, and the purchaser’s name added at the time of sale. Most of the shop’s bindings cover Aldine editions. One  binding made for V.C.A. covers the reprint of the 1498 Aldine Aristophanes issued by the Giunta press in Florence in 1515; the others cover Aldines: the 1522 Asconius Pedianus, 1495 Theodorus Gaza, and 1523 Georgius Trapezuntius. Neither Hobson nor Tammaro De Marinis, who published one of the four bindings, inquired into the identity of V.C.A. The inscription “P. Vorstius Epus. Aquen.” on the front endleaf of the Asconius Pedianus is a promising clue.

Pieter Van der Vorst was the second of five sons of Jean (Gijs) van der Vorst (ca 1460-1509), a Chancelier de Brabant (1504-1509), Seigneur de Loenbeke (Loonbeke), Austruwel, Vroenhoven, and Eques auratus, and Jeanne van Thielt (d. 24 April 1519). Little about Pieter’s early years is verifiable.² In 1520, he travelled together with his elder brother, Jan (d. 1546), to Bologna, where they were entered in the register of German students at the university as “Ioanne van der Vorst domino temporali de Loonbeke diocesis Cameracensis” (Cambrai) and “domino Petro van der Vorst diocesis Cameracensis fratre prefati”.³ Both were promoted doctor juris utriusque, and it appears that they were still connected with the university in November 1526, when they gave to their Natio a present in silver as amends for some offence.⁴ The document relating to their gift refers to Pieter as a papal chaplain and auditor of the Rota in the Roman Curia (vero Serenissimi dni cappellanus et auditor rote). That appointment had been conferred on him by Clement VII, on 9 January 1526. The motu proprio describes Pieter as a doctor of both laws (utriusque iuris doctorem), a cleric of Cambrai (clericum Cameracen. dioc.), and “our chaplain and auditor” (Capellanum nostrum et causarum palatii apostolici Auditorem).⁵

Pieter became attached to Willem van Enckevoirt (Enckenvoirt), created cardinal priest by Adrian VI in the consistory of 10 September 1523. Enckevoirt was formerly Provisor of the religious fraternity of S. Maria dell’Anima in Rome, and Pieter’s admission to the brotherhood in 1525 probably was owing to his influence.⁶ Enckevoirt chose Pieter as one of his six testamentary executors, with particular responsibility for organising his exequies in S. Maria dell’Anima (d. 19 July 1534). Also in 1525, and probably with the assistance of Enckevoirt, Pieter acquired benefices in Utrecht.⁷ In 1526, he succeeded Jean de Beecke (Bèche) in the lucrative benefice of Prévot de Cambrai.⁸ Pieter was in Rome in 1527 during the Sack, and is said to have suffered (“male tractatum”).⁹ On 20 February 1534, he was nominated Bishop of Acqui.¹⁰ He became a private secretary to Paul III, and in 1536 was appointed papal nuncio in German and Low Countries. The date of his death is variously stated, as 8 December 1548 and 9 April 1549.

The inscription “P. Vorstius Epus. Aquen.” (Episcopus Aquensis) evidently was written in the Asconius Pedianus after Pieter’s appointment in 1534 as Bishop of Acqui.¹¹ Possible interpretations of the gilt letters “V.C.A.” on its lower cover are Vorstius-Capellanus-Auditor and Vorstius-Capellanus-Apostolice. Alternatively, the “C” in “V.C.A.” might signify “Cameracensis” (Cambrai), the diocese stated as Pieter’s origin in the Bologna matriculation roll, or (less probably) “Clericus”. The accompanying date on the cover - 2 April 1524 - is some two years before Pieter’s appointment as a papal chaplain and auditor, but it is most unlikely that this full date, or the dates 13 April 1524 on the Aristophanes, 31 August 1524 on the Theodorus Gaza, and 1526 on the Georgius Trapezuntius, are the dates of binding. They surely are commemorative dates, and the books mementos of significant occasions in Pieter’s life, perhaps the date of his promotion to the doctorate, or of his ordination to the priesthood (both those dates are unknown).¹² All four volumes might have been acquired in 1526, if Pieter and his brother should have delivered in person their gift of a silver altar sculpture to the Natio Germanica Bononiae.

bindings lettered v.c.a.

 
(1) Aristophanes, Aristophanis Comoediae nouem. Plutus. Nebulae. Ranae. Equites. Acharnes. Vespae. Aues. Pax. Contionantes [title also in Greek] (Florence: Filippo Giunta, September 1515), bound with Aristophanes, Aristophanis Cereris sacra celebrantes. Eiusdem Lysistrate [title also in Greek] (Florence: Filippo Giunta, February 1515 [i.e. 1516])

Image courtesy of Federico Macchi

provenance
● possibly Pieter Van der Vorst, supralibros, lower cover lettered: .V.C.A. | .M.D. | XIII | April.
● Parma, Biblioteca Palatina, AA VIII.24716 1-2 (opac Coperta in pelle; piatto anteriore con scritta: Bibliothecae regiae parmensis e fregi in oro; dorso con tassello in pelle con fregi, A. e tit.; tagli rifilati.)

literature
Unpublished


(2) Asconius Pedianus, Expositio in IIII orationes M. Tullii Cic. contra C. Verrem & in orationem pro Cornelio (Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, 1522)

provenance
● possibly Pieter Van der Vorst, supralibros, lower cover lettered: .V.C.A. | .M.D. XXIIII | .II. April
● Pieter Van der Vorst, inscribed “P. Vorstius Epus. Aqueni” on endpaper
● H.W. Belmore, Catalogue 13: Aldine Press: 400 items 1496-1594 (Rome [ca 1930?]), item 110 (Lire 3500; lower cover illustrated; “Contemp. red morocco, covers decorated with gilt and blind fillets and with fine gilt arabesques; in centre, on front cover the words ‘Asconi Paedani’, on back cover: ‘V.C.A. - M.D.XXIIII, II. April’ … Fine copy in a very beautiful and important contemporary Aldine morocco binding in good condition (slightly damaged at back only). The binding is dated on back cover, which is a rare feature.”)
● François, comte Chandon de Briailles (1892-1953)
● Maurice Rheims & Jacqueline Vidal-Mégret, Bibliothèque de M. le comte C. de X…Première partie : Précieuses reliures armoriées ou ornées des XVIe ou XVIIe siècles, manuscrits, Paris, 2-3 December 1954, lot 46 (“mar. rouge, compart. de fil, fleurons dans les angles et disposés en cartouche au centres et enfermant une inscription … Sur le premier plat, l’inscription: Asconii Paediani; sur le second: V.C.A. M.D. XXIIII. II. April - Cette signat. mss. sur la garde: P. Vorstius Epus. Aquen. [P. Vorsio, évêque d’Acqui de 1534 a 1546]”)
● unidentified owner - bought in sale (FF 15,100) [link]
● Martin Breslauer Inc., New York; their Catalogue 104: Fine books in fine bindings from the fifteenth to the present century (New York [1979]), item 19 (reproduced; “erroneously attributed by De Marinis to the Vaticana”) [the cataloguer reflects that the date “1524” on the binding is “a good fifteen or twenty years too early for the style of decoration” and suggests it may indicate the year of (the unidentified) V.C.A.’s birth, or be commemorative of some other event]
● Antiquariato Librario Bado e Mart, Padova [one of their books stolen in 2017 from a warehouse in London: “Beautiful contemporary binding in red morocco with gilt decorations within ruled frames; on the front cover, among Aldine decorations, ‘ASCONII / PAEDIANI’; on back cover, ‘V.C.A. / M.D.XXIIII / II Apri’; Prestigious provenance: Horace Vimercati, distinguished member of one of the oldest noble families of Cremona. Euro 12.000” - link]

literature
Tammaro De Marinis, La Legatura artistica in Italia nei secoli XV e XVI (Florence 1960), no. 2281 (“Marr. rosso; dec. dorata: tra fogliami aldini, sul piatto posteriore V. C. A. M.D.XXIII [sic]. II April. e in quello anteriore Asconii Paediani”) & Pl. 368 [treated as a Venetian binding; mislocated Biblioteca Vaticana: l.d.m. 102]
Ilse Schunke, “Venezianische Renaissance-Einbände” in Studi di bibliografia e di storia in onore di Tammaro de Marinis (Verona 1964), IV, pp.123-200 (p.199, ascribed to “Bologna Matrikel-Meister”)
Anthony Hobson, “Bookbinding in Bologna” in Schede umanistiche, n.s., 1 (1998), pp.147-176 (p.157)
Anthony Hobson & Leonardo Quaquarelli, Legature bolognesi del rinascimento (Bologna 1998), p.17

(3) Theodorus Gaza, Introductivae grammatices libri quatuor (Venice: Aldo Manuzio, 1495)

provenance
● possibly Pieter Van der Vorst, supralibros, lower cover lettered: .V.C.A. | ANNO DNI | .M.D. XXIIII | XXXI AV | GV.
● Sebastianus Miegius (d. 1609), inscription “Ex bibliotheca Sebastianj Miegij ad Andream Norrelium, fatis ita ducentibus, anno Christiano MDCCIII die xxiii octobris tandem penetravit” (Collijn)
● Andreas Norrelius (d. 1749) [librarian at Upsala, 1735; Collijn p.44]
● Lars Benzelstjerna, Bishop of Västerås 1759-1800 (Collijn p.42)
● Västerås, Stads och Landsbiblioteket, Ink. 54 (libris (Swedish union catalogue): V. C. A. ANNO DNI .M. D. XXIIII XXXI AVGV. (printed on lower cover). Ex bibliotheca Sebastianj Miegij ad Andream Norrelium, fatis ita ducentibus, anno Christiano [M] DCCIII die XXIII octobris tandem penetravit. Donation Benzelstjerna 1809. Gilt tooled black leather binding [link])

literature
Isak Gustaf Alfred Collijn, Kataloge der inkunabeln der schwedischen öffentlichen bibliotheken. 1, Katalog öfver Västerås läroverksbiblioteks inkunabler (Upsala 1904), p.19 no. 54 (“Sv. sk.-bd m. guldtr. på bakre pärmen: V. C. A. ANNO DNI .M. D. XXIIII XXXI AVGV” [link])
Anthony Hobson, Humanists and bookbinders: the origins and diffusion of the humanistic bookbinding, 1459-1559 (Cambridge 1989), p.164 (“no doubt a northern student”)
Hobson, op. cit. 1998, p.157
Hobson & Quaquarelli, op. cit., p.17


(4) Georgius Trapezuntius, Continentur hoc volumine. Georgii Trapezuntii Rhetoricorum libri V. Consulti Chirii Fortunatiani libri III. Aquilae Romani de figuris sententiarum, & elocutionis liber. P. Rutilii Lupi earundem figurarum e Gorgia liber. Artistotelis rhetoricorum ad Theodecten Georgio Trapezuntio interprete libri III. Eiusdem rhetorices ad Alexandrum a Francisco Philelpho in Latinum uersae liber. Paraphrasis rhetoricae Hermogenis ex Hilarionis monachi Veronensis traductione. Priscianus de rhetoricae praeexercitamentis ex Hermogene. Aphthonii declamatoris rhetorica progymnasmata Io. Maria Catanaeo tralatore [Latin and Greek] (Venice: Heirs of Aldus Manutius & Andreas Torresanus, April 1523)

provenance
● possibly Pieter Van der Vorst, supralibros, lower cover lettered: ANNO | M.D. XXVI | .V.C.A.
● unidentified owner, contemporary marginalia
● Collegio dei Gesuiti, Viterbo, inscription “Coll. Viter(bo) Soc. Jesu. Cat. Inscr.” on title-page [founded 1622, suppressed 1868]
● Louis Eugène Jean Birkigt (b. 1903)
● Librarie André Cottet, Manuscrits, incunables, XVIe-XIXe siècle riches reliures, Geneva, 10 November 1967, lot 76
● unidentified owner - bought in sale (CHF 4200)
● Martin Breslauer, Inc., New York
● T. Kimball Brooker, purchased from the above, 1977 [Bibliotheca Brookeriana #0325; offered by Sotheby’s, Bibliotheca Brookeriana: A Renaissance Library: The Aldine Collection, D-M, New York, 18 October 2024, lot 748]

literature
Hobson, op. cit. 1998, p.157
Hobson & Quaquarelli, op. cit., p.17