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The Pázmány–Vershbow–Brooker album of Lafreri’s architectural publications
The past twenty years have seen the publication of important studies on print-publishing in sixteenth-century Italy, particularly with regard to a central actor, the entrepreneur Antonio Lafreri, a publisher and dealer in prints and books, of French origin, who in 1544 set up shop near the parish church of S. Tommaso in Parione, and died there in July 1577. More than five hundred prints on archaeological, architectural, religious, historical and geographical subjects were issued from Lafreri’s premises over the years.1 Questions persist about the marketing of his most famous and influential series of prints, the so-called atlases, and a collection of plans and views of ancient and modern Rome, entitled Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae. What was the role of the customer in their assembly? The long-held assumption, based on the varying composition of surviving albums, is that all are informal collections, “assembled to order,” without fixed contents or internal arrangement, products of “negotiations” between the buyer and seller, during which the customer made a selection according to his means and interests.2 This is doubtless true, however there is a growing body of evidence that Lafreri himself assembled collections of prints, either as a convenience to customers, or as a commercial strategy to stimulate the sale of unsold prints, and that he sold these across the counter as more or less uniformly constructed albums. It is likely that some albums were sold by Lafreri ready-bound. Soon after his death, it is almost certain that Lafreri’s heirs were retailing such albums.3
About 1573, Lafreri published an ordered catalogue (Indice) of the prints available in his shop. It is organised (for reasons explained in the “A Lettori”) in thematic groups: geography, including maps, fortresses, and city views (Indice delle tavole moderne di geografia della maggior parte del mondo di diuersi auttori, iraccolte et messe per ordine); monuments of ancient Rome, including its buildings, sculpture, and other works of art (Tauola delle Antichità di Roma tanto di fabriche & edifitij moderni più celebri); monuments of modern Rome, including sculpture (Cose moderne); works by various painters of historical and mythological subjects (Tauola dell’Historie di Poesie & inuentioni di diuersi Pittori); scenes from the Bible by various painters and sculptors (Historie del Testamento vecchio & Nuouo con altre diuerse Historie di deuotione, cauate da diuersi Scultori & Pittori); portraits (Effigie diuerse); and books and prints on architecture and architectural ornament (Libri & Stampe di Rame). This last section of the Indice lists a total of nineteen books or suites of prints, of which nine are present in the Pázmány–Vershbow–Brooker album.
At uncertain dates, Lafreri commissioned title-pages to serve as frontispieces to collections of prints selected from particular groups: Geografia tavole moderne di geografia de la maggior parte del mondo for collections of cartographical prints; Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae for prints of ancient and modern monuments of the city; and Christi Dei Opt. Max. and Imagines veteris ac Novi Testamenti for devotional prints and Old and New Testament subjects. None of these frontispieces is listed in the Indice, so it is presumed that they were a late innovation, and produced sometime after 1573.4 Few albums containing these frontispieces survive undisturbed in their original bindings; most have been dismantled, and rebound, when their contents became susceptible to reorganization and to enhancement, sometimes in configurations inspired by Lafreri’s stocklist. Positive identification of albums constructed and readied for binding in Lafreri’s shop must depend therefore on material evidence in the albums, not on the sequence of prints in the album.
The Lafreri shop practice was to pull impressions in small batches in response to demand, rather than in editions for stock. Accordingly, a print series might be gathered from a mixture of existing and fresh impressions, the sheets carrying various watermarks, and possibly of irregular dimensions (folio, folio reale, folio imperiale). To regularise the prints’ format to a uniform scale for binding, it often was necessary to remargin them, by attaching paper strips along the relevant sheet edges.5
Conventionally, the binder received the sheets from the customer, and readied them for binding, not the publisher. Recent examinations of Lafreri albums have revealed that the margining strips sometimes have the same watermark as the album endleaves, and/or of the print-bearing sheets. This implies that it was both printed and prepared for binding in the publisher’s shop. Examples of such albums include Geografia ● Milan, Castello Sforzesco, Raccolta delle Stampe Achille Bertarelli, Vol. CC 1056 ● Rome, Biblioteca nazionale Centrale, 71.6.G.37 ● others;8 Speculum ● Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlung, Kupferstichkabinett, B 772/39 ● Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlung, Kupferstichkabinett, B 771/310 ● Edinburgh, National Library of Scotland, Newb. 498811 ● New Haven, Yale University, Center for British Art, Beinecke Library, Folio A 2023 3712 ● others;13Christi Dei Opt. Max. ● Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, ER/1284,14 and Imagines veteris ac Novi Testamenti ● Madrid, Real Biblioteca del Palacio Real de Madrid, IX/M/202.15
Two other types of material evidence assist in identifying albums made in the publisher’s shop. The first is offsetting (the ink of another print found on a sheet’s verso), which indicates that the matrices were struck at the same time in the same place, and perhaps not on demand, but to build several albums at a time.16 The second is the presence of a sheet (or two) of blank paper, bound between the sections of an album, as a guide for the reader. In a copy of the Geografia in the Bertarelli Collection, Milan, for example, a single white sheet was bound between Europe and Africa, between Africa and Asia, and before the “Mondo Nuouo”. The watermark in each of those three sheets is the same as that in the paper used as endleaves, and for certain prints.17 Blue paper was used for the same purpose in a copy of the Geografia ● Rome, Biblioteca nazionale Centrale, 71.6.G.318 and in a copy of the Speculum ● Monasterio de San Lorenzo, El Escorial, 28-I-18.19
For the publications listed in the 1573 Indice under the rubric “Libri & Stampe di Rame”, there is evidence that they sometimes were bundled-up and marketed by the publisher as miscellanies, with sheets of blue paper used to demarcate the album contents. For example, the last entry in the 1573 Indice, “Diuerse figure d’Anatomia” [504], refers to Lafreri’s reissues of the engraved plates (only) of Ippolito Salviani’s Aquatilium animalium historiae (“Al lettore Antonio Lafreri,” subscribed “il giorno 20 di Marzo 1559”) and of Juan Valverde de Amusco’s La anatomia del corpo umano (1560).20 A copy of this ● Padua, Biblioteca Universitaria, Minich 115621 has two blank sheets of paper dividing the publications, the first blue and the second white.
The first five of the nineteen “Libri & Stampe di Rame” are series of engraved portraits, entered in the stocklist as
[486] Effigie di uintiotto Pontefici creati dopoi che tornò la Sedia Apostolica d’Auignone a Roma, con le loro uite descritte dal Reuerendo Onofrio Panuino insino a Gregorio decimotertio22
[487] Effigie di uintiquattro primi Imperatori, ritratti parte dalle medaglie & parte da marmi23
[488] Libro de Termini & Filosofi, cauati de marmi antichi con la prefatione di Messer Achille Tatio24
[489] Libro di huomini Illustri cauati da uestigij antichi, & annotati dal Illustr. Signor Fuluio Vrsino con somma diligentia25
[490] Libro di diuersi Iure consulti cauati del Studio del Signor Marco Mantov clarissimo Iureconsulto Padouano26
Albums composed of these five publications, bound in the exact sequence of the Indice, and with divisional sheets of blue paper, are ● Milan, Biblioteca Braidense, CC.XI.1427 ● Milan, Biblioteca Trivulziana, Triv. B 49828 ● Roma, Biblioteca Casanatense, M.III.3929 ● Rome, Biblioteca Vallicelliana, Rari D 45.30 (Additional albums of ritratti await examination.31)
The next two entries in the Indice are also repertoires of portraits, described as
[491] Libro degli habiti delle Done Romane
[492] Libro delle medaglie delle Donne Auguste di Enea Vico
The first entry [491] is ambiguous;32 it could refer to a series of eight prints of Greek and Roman women, signed A.S. (Antonio Salamanca), which is bound (third) in an album in the Herzog August Bibliothek, together with [486] (bound fourth), [487] (bound second), [488] (bound first), [490] (bound sixth), a single print (a genealogical tree) published at Venice in 1567 (bound last), and works of northern printmakers (bound fifth and seventh).33 The second entry [492] is associated with a suite of 63 portraits of the wives and female relatives of the first twelve Roman Caesars, etched by Enea Vico of Parma. A work of this title was mentioned among the works of “Enea Parmigianino” in Anton Francesco Doni’s La Seconda Libraria (1551, f. 50 verso) and impressions taken in Rome about that date are known.34 Publication did not occur until 1557, when the prints were first issued at Venice under the title Le imagini delle donne auguste.
The remaining entries in the group of “Libri & Stampe di Rame” are series of architectural and other ornament prints, described by their publisher as
[493] Libro d’Archittetura d’Antonio Labacco
[494] Libro d’archittetura di Giacomo Vignola
[495] Libri di Cornice Capitelli & Basi cauato dalle uestigie de gli Antichi, quale giornalmente si trouano in Roma
[496] Libro di diuersi compartimenti
[497] Libro de Trofei cauati da dissegni di Polidoro, ad imitatione degli Antichi
[498] Libro de Maschere
[499] Libro de Grottesche
[500] Libro de Templetti & ruine di Roma35
[501] Libro di prospettiue36
[502] Libro de fresi et fogliami
[503] Libro de vasi et candelieri
Seven albums composed of prints selected from this group are recorded. At least three of them have divisional sheets of blue paper ● Milan, Veneranda Biblioteca Ambrosiana, S.C.L.X.13 ● New York, Morgan Library & Museum, E2 43 A ● the Pázmány–Vershbow–Brooker album.
The album in Milan contains three print series, in order [494] Vignola, [493] Labacco, and [495] Cornices, entablatures, capitals, and bases. Vignola’s work [494] first appeared sometime before 12 June 1562, apparently printed and distributed by the architect himself, under the protection of a ten-year privilege granted by Pius IV. Soon afterwards, perhaps before the end of 1562, Vignola made small additions to thirteen matrices (IIII-VIII, XI-XIIII, XVII, XVIII, XX, XXIIII, XXV), thus producing second states of those plates. Five further plates of four portals and a chimneypiece were added to the work at uncertain dates, possibly during the 1560s, by Vignola himself, or possibly by heirs after Vignola’s death in 1573, and copies including those plates are often designated a “third issue”. They are present in the Milan album,37 augmented by two more plates of portals.38 The Labacco [493] is dated 1559 and reportedly corresponds to Ashby’s second edition of that year, with the letterpress set in roman type.39 The third work [495] consists of 27 details of ancient Roman architecture, by the Monogrammist PS, the Monogrammist GA with the Caltrop, and anonymous engravers, imposed on 14 sheets.40 The stubs of two blank sheets, one of blue paper, the other white (both removed by clean cuts), are visible before Labacco’s book, and before the series of architectural details. The copy was formerly in the possession of Federico Fagnani (1775-1840)41 and is now in a modern binding.42
The album in New York contains nine print series from the “Libri & Stampe di Rame” group, in order [494], [493], [495], [499], [497], [502], [496], [498], [503]. As in the album in Milan, the Vignola [494] belongs to the “issue” with five additional plates, and also has two further prints of portals (album ff. 1-39).43 The letterpress of the 1559 edition of Libro d’Antonio Labacco [493] is set in Roman type (album ff. 40-69). A series of 26 cornices, capitals, and bases [495] is imposed on twelve sheets (album ff. 71-82).44 Then follow [499] a series of grotesque designs for wall decoration by an anonymous engraver entitled Leviores et (ut videtur) extemporaneae picturae quas grotteschas vulgo vocant, nineteen images printed from sixteen numbered engraved plates (album ff. 84-99);45 a series of sixteen numbered engraved plates of military trophies [497] engraved by Enea Vico after Polidoro da Caravaggio (album ff. 100-115);46 a series friezes and foliage [502], seventeen prints by George Reverdy, Enea Vico, and the Monogrammist F, imposed on twelve sheets (album ff. 116-127);47 a series of thirteen strapwork frames and cartouches [496] imposed on seven sheets (album ff. 130-136);48 a series of Roman actors’ masks [498], 23 prints imposed on six sheets (album ff. 137-142);49 and a series of vases [503], fourteen prints imposed on fourteen sheets, followed by one of candlesticks, four prints on four sheets (album ff. 143-156, 157-160).50
The De Thou copy of Lafreri’s architectural publications (Morgan Library & Museum, E2 43 A)
Comparative illustration De Thou’s copy of Palladio, Quattro libri dell'architettura (1570)
(Library of Congress, Lessing J. Rosenwald collection, 873)
Left Details from binding of De Thou’s Palladio. Right Details from De Thou’s Lafreri album
The album most probably was bound in France for Jacques Auguste de Thou the Elder (1553-1617).51 The evidence is the covering skin of the binding: calf parchment (Italian binders then utilised sheep, or hairsheep parchment); and its gilt decoration, which conforms to the pattern specified by De Thou for his architectural books.52 On one of the front endleaves is the bold inscription “Exlibris Jac. Aug. Thuani,” perhaps of the younger Jacques Auguste de Thou (1609-1677),53 who together with his elder brother, François (1604-1642), jointly inherited their father’s library in 1617.54
The prints arrived in France bound, or as a sewn bookblock, which the French binder chose to disturb as little as possible. He retained the pairs of blank leaves, one white and one blue, which the publisher had used to demarcate the print series.55 Included in the album are some extraneous prints, of which four (imposed on two sheets) are bound in on their own paper (album ff. 128-129). On one sheet is an alphabet engraved by the Lyonese printmaker George Reverdy, imposed together with an allegory of Narcissus; on the other, a Vanitas (putto and skull) is paired with another Vanitas (woman before a mirror).56 These prints could have been added to the album when it arrived in France. If they were part of the original configuration, then this looks more like an album printed or “assembled to order,” than a speculative production intended for sale over the counter. Inlaid into an album leaf is a print of an antique mask signed by Antonio Salamanca (before album f. 137).57 Tipped into the volume, perhaps in the nineteenth century, are four extraneous prints of capitals, bases, and a cornice, by the Master of the year 1515 (album ff. 69a, 69b, 69c)58 and the Master BM (album f. 83a).59 
Binding of the Pázmány–Vershbow–Brooker album (415 x 265mm)
The Pázmány–Vershbow–Brooker album also contains nine series, in order [494], [493], [495], [502], [499], [497], [496], [498], [503]. The Vignola [494] is from the so-called “second issue” of 32 plates, before the addition of the plates of portals and a chimneypiece.60 The four pages of letterpress in the Labacco [493] are set in italics (Ashby’s first 1559 edition). The series of cornices, entablatures, capitals, and bases [495] extends to 28 prints imposed on fourteen sheets, plus an additional print hors série by the Monogrammist GA with the Caltrop (a basket capital with fruit and satyr head).61 The series of friezes of foliate design and dancing putti [502] by George Reverdy, Enea Vico, and the Monogrammist F, here consists of eleven prints on eight sheets.62 The series of grotesques [499] consists of nineteen images printed on sixteen sheets (pls. 14-16 are double subjects). The set of sixteen military trophies composed of Roman arms and armour [497] (reversed copies of plates originally published by Antonio Salamanca) is imposed on sixteen sheets (no. 1 is dated 1553; nos. 15-16 are dated 1550).63 The series of frames and cartouches [496], copies of prints in Hans Vredeman de Vries’ Varium Protractionum (without the classical Latin texts), consists of thirteen engravings printed on seven sheets. The “Libro de Maschere” [498] is a series of 23 numbered etchings on six folios, of Roman actors’ masks, an antique head of Medusa (no. 21), and a 16th-century sculpture (no. 15). The series of fourteen numbered engravings by Enea Vico of antique vases [503] is imposed on fourteen sheets; and the four plates of candlesticks on four sheets.
One of eight blue sheets separating the parts of the Pázmány–Vershbow–Brooker album
Watermark in five of the eight blue sheets in the Pázmány–Vershbow–Brooker album
Following each print series are two blank sheets, the first blue and the second white. No watermark is observed in two of the eight divisional sheets of blue paper (those following [497] and [496]). In the blue sheet after Vignola [494], the watermark is Woodward’s “Arrows crossed” type (W.187-192). The watermark in the blue sheets following [493], [495], [502], [499], and [498] are “Crown with five points under a star with six points” types (closest to W.269). No watermark is seen in five of the white divisional sheets (those following [493], [495], [502], [497], [498]). The watermark in the white divisional sheets following [494], [499], [496] is a “Tulips in shield under six-pointed star A” type (Woodward 124, documented 1542-ca 1570).64 Three plates in the series of trophies [497] have margining strips; in two strips the dominant tulips watermark is visible (W.125 in pl.1 and W.124 in pl. 5).
Watermark (W.125) in the margining strip of the first plate of the Libro dei Trofei [497]. This paper was also used for many print-bearing sheets
The watermarks in the print-bearing sheets in the Morgan Library album are described by Elizabeth Miller, who also records the watermarks in the now dismembered album in the Victoria & Albert Museum (see below).65 We add to her data our observations of watermarks in the Pázmány-Vershbow-Brooker album:
|
|
Morgan Library & Museum |
Victoria & Albert Museum |
Pázmány-Vershbow-Brooker album |
|
[494] Vignola |
♦ Pilgrim, vertical staff/crook in circle; W.2-8 |
♦ Tulips in shield under six-pointed star; W.124-125
|
♦ Crown with five points under a star with six points; W.269 type (pls. 1, 2, 4, 6, 16) |
|
[493] Labacco |
♦ Pilgrim, vertical staff/crook in circle; W.2-8 |
♦ Letter ‘M’ under fleur-de-lys in shield; W.310-312 |
♦ Blacksmith; (not in W.; title) |
|
[495] Cornices, capitals, bases
|
♦ Pilgrim, vertical staff/crook in circle; W.2-8 |
♦ Tulips in shield under six-pointed star; W.124-125 (dominant) |
♦ Tulips in shield under six-pointed star; W.124-125 type |
|
[502] Friezes
|
|
♦ Tulips in shield under six-pointed star; W.124-125 (dominant) |
♦ Crown with five points under a star with six points; W.269 type (pl. 5) |
|
[499] Grotesques
|
♦ Lamb, Paschal with bent/straight standard; W.46-50 |
♦ Tulips in shield under six-pointed star; W.124-125 (dominant) |
♦ Tulips in shield under six-pointed star; W.124-125 type (pls. 9, 11, 13, 14, 15) |
|
[497] Trophies |
|
♦ Man’s Head with Headband; W.28-30 |
♦ Peacock in circle; W.85-86 type (pl. 2) |
|
[496] Frames, cartouches
|
Pilgrim, vertical staff/crook in circle; W.2-8 (dominant) |
♦ Tulips in shield under six-pointed star; W.124-125 (dominant) |
♦ Tulips in shield under six-pointed star; W.124-125 type (pls. 3/4, 7/8, 9/10, 13) |
|
[498] Masks
|
Pilgrim, vertical staff/crook in circle; W.2-8 (dominant) |
♦ Tulips in shield under six-pointed star; W.124-125 (dominant) |
♦ Tulips in shield under six-pointed star; W.124-125 (pls. 9/12) |
|
[503] Vases, candlesticks
|
|
[Vases] ♦ Man’s Head with Headband; W.28-30 |
[Vases] ♦ Tulips in shield under six-pointed star; W.124-125 (pl. 2) |
The first recorded owner of this volume was the Moravian count Miklós Pázmány, nephew of the archbishop of Esztergom, Cardinal Péter Pázmány (1570-1637, who inscribed his name and the date 1651 on the title of the Vignola. Miklós was educated in the Jesuit gymnasium at Graz, afterwards at Trnava, and in 1639, having inherited all of Péter Pázmány’s possessions, he travelled to Rome intending to continue his studies at the Collegium Romanum. From Rome he went to Paris, where he resided for three years. In 1642, he matriculated in the Faculty of Arts at Graz university; in 1648, he settled upon a military vocation.
Ownership inscriptions of Miklós Pázmány, dated 1651, and of Joseph Switil, dated 1809
Miklós spent his last years in his castle in Lišeň, near Brno, and the Jesuit college there became his general heir. An inventory of his property prepared for the probate court itemises 386 volumes in his library (83 folios, 60 quartos, 242 octavos, and a manuscript), including among the “Bücher in Folio” (no. 28) a copy of Vignola (“Regola deli Cinque ordini D Architectura giaccomi Barozzio da Vignola”).66 After the dissolution of the Jesuit order, his books were dispersed (20 bearing his inscription are now in Olomouc Research Library; 39 others without an inscription, but probably coming from Miklós’s library can be identified there; and it is supposed that more volumes survive in other Czech libraries).
Later owners were the theatrical scene painter, Joseph Switil (1749-1809), who had been apprenticed in Brno, and after 1790 worked in Vienna as a set designer for the Theater in der Leopoldstadt; and Arthur Vershbow (1922-2012) and Charlotte Vershbow (1924-2000), who in 1980 acquired the album from the London booksellers Marlborough Rare Books. It was offered by Christie Manson & Woods International Inc., The collection of Arthur & Charlotte Vershbow: Highlights from Schongauer to Chagall, New York, 9-10 April 2013, as lot 45, where purchased by T. Kimball Brooker ($105,750).
Another album of Lafreri’s architectural books and prints has been disbound and the binding with its material evidence lost ● London, Victoria & Albert Museum, Department of Prints & Drawings and National Art Library. According to research conducted by Elizabeth Miller, it belonged (probably in the late eighteenth, or nineteenth century) to an otherwise unknown collector whose ownership stamp was a monogram of the letters T L (10 x 11mm).67 The album was acquired in 1873 by the Victoria & Albert Museum from the London dealer Edwin Parsons, in a vellum binding. About 1899, the binding was broken, and the contents distributed between the Library and the Department of Prints and Drawings. Miller supposes that the original contents were (in unknown order) Labacco [493] (1559 edition, introductory texts set in italic); Vignola [494] (undated edition, 32 plates, some in second state); cornices, capitals, bases [495] (30 prints on fifteen sheets); frames and cartouches [496] (thirteen prints on seven sheets); trophies of arms [497] (sixteen prints on sixteen sheets); masks [498] (23 prints on six sheets); grotesques [499] (sixteen prints on sixteen sheets); friezes and foliage [502] (seventeen prints on twelve sheets); vases and candlesticks [503] (fourteen + four prints on eighteen sheets).68
Another album passed through ● Christie’s auction saleroom in 1993.69 A discontinous early foliation suggests that a number of prints were excised, before or after it received a binding of 18th-century English calf. According to the catalogue description, the print series were bound in this order [494], [493], [495], [496], [499], [497], [503]. The Vignola [494] was an issue consisting of 32 plates, without the plates of doors and a chimneypiece. The Labacco [493] was a 1559 issue with the text set in italics. The series of cornices, entablatures, capitals, and bases [495] extended to 21 prints imposed on ten sheets (conventionally, 26 prints imposed on twelve sheets); the series of cartouches [496] consisted of twelve prints on six sheets (conventionally, thirteen prints on seven sheets); the grotesques [499] fourteen prints on fourteen sheets (conventionally, sixteen prints on sixteen sheets); the trophies [497] (sixteen prints on sixteen sheets), vases and candlesticks [503] ten prints on ten sheets of vases, and four prints on four sheets of candlesticks (conventionally, fourteen plates of vases on fourteen sheets). Apparently absent from the volume was the entire series of antique masks [498] (23 prints on six sheets) and of friezes and foliage [502] (seventeen prints on twelve sheets). Included were some extraneous prints: nine double-page or folding prints of Roman architecture, of which two signed by Nicolas Beatrizet; a double page plate displaying two examples of foliage; and “4 plates of caryatids” by Agostino Veneziano (perhaps from the series of Hermae). The cataloguer does not mention blank divisional sheets between the print series.
Elizabeth Miller reported an album in ● Oxford, Bodleian Library, Theta 229, containing eight of the nine print series (the Vignola is absent).70 Critical details and present locations are lacking for ● another album, circulating in the Paris booktrade in 1998, said to contain 211 prints, with remnants of sheets of blue paper used to separate the suites;71 and for ● an album once in the library of Jean-Baptiste Paulin d’Aguesseau de Fresnes (1701-1784).72
1. The Indice (8 leaves, in quarto format) is known by a single copy: Florence, Biblioteca Marucelliana, R.u.720. First published by Franz Ehrle, Roma prima di Sisto V: La pianta di Roma Du Perac-Lafrery del 1577 riprodotta dall’esemplare esistente nel Museo Britannico (Rome 1908), pp.53-59 [link], it has been reedited by Birte Rubach, Ant. Lafreri formis Romae: der Verleger Antonio Lafreri und seine Druckgraphikproduktion (Berlin 2016), pp.425-437.
2. The term “negotiation” is favoured by Jean-Marc Besse, “The Birth of the modern atlas: Rome, Lafreri, Ortelius” in Conflicting duties: Science, medicine and religion in Rome, 1550-1750 (London & Savigliano 2009), pp.63-85 (p.69); Jean-Marc Besse, “Les atlas dans les cultures scientifiques et artistiques modernes et contemporaines: représenter, organiser, conserver les connaissances et les objets (1: Les recueils d’estampes cartographiques d’Antoine Lafréry et de ses héritiers),” ASCAM research group (2012-2016) [link]; Wouter Bracke, “Ad limen” in IATO Atlases and Lafreri: The Roman Connection (Rome 2018), p.7 [link].
3. See the evidence presented by Peter Parshall, “Lafreri’s ‘Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae’” in Print Quarterly 23 (2006), pp.3-28 (p.22); P. Parshall, “The History of the Speculum” in Print Quarterly 25 (2008), pp.179-180.
4. Rubach, op. cit., pp.394-395 nos. 418-421.
5. Alessia Alberti, “Contributi per Antoine Lafréry: Un editore francese a Roma tra Rinascimento e Controriforma” in Annali di critica d’arte 7 (2011), pp.75-116 (p.83); Wouter Bracke, “Roman atlases and Lafreri prints” in IATO Atlases and Lafreri, op. cit., pp.67-86 (pp.69-71: “Paper strips and watermarks”) [link].
6. Alberti, Contributi, op. cit., p.83 (“Nell’esemplare delle Tavole moderne di Geografia della Raccolta Bertarelli di Milano, queste carte hanno la stessa filigrana del foglio di guardia.”).
7. Bracke, op. cit., p.69 (“Volume III of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma … uses paper strips with watermark W 255-56 (‘Ladder in shield under cross pommy’), one that is very much present on maps in all three volumes of the Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma (see infra). Also its guard-leaves have this watermark…”).
8. Copies of the Geografia with remargining strips, but undetermined watermarks, include ● Padua, Biblioteca Comunale, I.3282; Alessia Alberti, L’Indice di Antonio Lafrery: origini e ricostruzione di un repertorio di immagini a stampa nell’età della Controriforma, PhD thesis, Università Cattolica del Sacro Cuore, XXII ciclo, 2008/2009, p.148 (“La maggior parte delle tavole presenta l’aggiunta di falsi margini coevi.”) ● Washington, Library of Congress, G1015 .L25 1575 (opac, “Strips of paper affixed to the margins of some plates … Rebound in brown leather incorporating original tooled front and back boards” [link]; digitised, [link]).
9. Parshall, op. cit. 2006, p.25 no. 2b (“There are margining strips on nine of the sheets that show a watermark of a Siren in a Circle under a Six-pointed Star (W. 91-92), and one with an Anchor with a Double Outline in a Shield (W. 157-180), which also appears in print-bearing sheets. … The latest dated prints are 1569.”).
10. Parshall, op. cit. 2006, p.26 no. 3a (“The predominant watermark on the margining strips is a Pilgrim with a Crook or a Staff in a Circle (W. 2-24), which also occurs on the print-bearing sheets. The latest dated print is 1581.”).
11. Parshall, op. cit. 2006, p.26 no. 3b (“Many have margining strips, some watermarked with a Ladder in a Shield under Six-pointed star (W. 242-253), which also occurs in the print-bearing sheets.”).
12. Parshall, op. cit. 2006, p.26 no. 3f (“Watermarks in the margining strips are a Letter M under a Six-pointed Star in a Shield (W. 313-314), which also occurs in the print-bearing sheets.”).
13. Other copies of the Speculum with remargining, but watermarks in the strips not yet fully examined, include ● Blickling Hall, Norfolk (Hilary Hunt, “A Speculum Romanae Magnificentiae in Norfolk” in Print Quarterly 25, 2008, p.180: “There are margining strips on many of the sheets, with watermarks that correspond to the printbearing folios within the album.”) ● Paris, Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, Fol Est 175 (digitised, [link]).
14. Alberti, L’Indice, op. cit., p.55 Fig. 18, p.269 (“Numerose carte presentano poi la stessa filigrana, la lettera M entro uno scudo sormontato da una stella, che in qualche caso è la stessa della carta utilizzata per costruire i margini.”).
15. Alessia Alberti, “Le Imagines veteris ac Novi Testamenti di Antonio Lafréry nell’esemplare inedito della Real Biblioteca di Madrid” in L’autunno della Maniera: studi sulla pittura del tardo Cinquecento a Roma (Milan [2018]), pp.69-78 (p.71: “… il volume IX/M/202 presenta le caratteristiche materiali proprie degli album lafreriani, come i falsi margini cartacei applicati allo scopo di uniformare la misura delle carte…”).
16. David Woodward, “The evidence of offsets in Renaissance Italian maps and prints” in Print Quarterly 8 (1991), pp.235-251; Parshall, op. cit. 2006, pp.20, 23; Alberti, Contributi, op. cit., pp.83-84; Bracke, op. cit., pp.71-73.
17. Alessia Alberti, “Le Tavole moderne di Geografia di Antonio Lafréry: Note sull’esemplare della Raccolta Bertarelli” in Rassegna di studi e di notizie 33-37 (2010), pp.13-44 (pp.34-43: album front endleaf; interleaves between prints 64/65, 72/73, 79/80, 82/83; prints 15, 17, 23, 94, 95, 96, 101, 102, 108, 109, 114, 119, 120).
18. Alberti, L’Indice, op. cit., p.89 (“Nel volume 711.6.G.3, a scandire le diverse sezioni sono presenti fogli in carta azzurra con filigrana Briquet 6684 (tre campanule entro cerchio sormontato da una stella).”); Maria Antonietta Conti, “Raccolte Lafreriane alla Biblioteca Nazionale Centrale di Roma: una tipologia” in IATO Atlases and Lafreri, op. cit., pp.87-96 (pp.94-95: “Un aspetto particolare della composizione del volume costituiscono le carte di colore azzurro che dividono alcune stampe dalle altre. Queste carte hanno una filigrana che raffigura un tulipano in cerchio con una stella a sei punte (variante W 122) e sono quindi contemporanee della produzione delle carte geografiche.”)
19. Mark P. McDonald, “The Print Collection of Philip II at the Escorial” in Print Quarterly 15 (1998), pp.15-35 (p.29); Alberti, L’Indice, op. cit., p.147 (“Nel foglio di guardia è presente la filigrana con la testa di moro documentata anche in altre raccolte lafreriane (simile a W. 30), mentre a scandire il passaggio tra le sezioni di antichità e le “cose moderne” è posta una carta azzurra (con filigrana di un giglio entro cerchio sormontato da una stella, W. 107).”).
20. Alberti, L’Indice, op. cit., pp.442, 472 nos. 375-376; Rubach, op. cit., pp.57-58, pp.388-390 nos. 414-415.
21. Alberti, Contributi, op. cit., p.104; pp.95-96 (“A tutte le carte è stato applicato un falso margine coevo (la filigrana è la stessa delle tavole dei pesci), e portate così alla misura di mm 347 x 240 circa; a segnare il passaggio da un libro all’altro è stato posto un foglio di carta azzurra (la filigrana, che ha per soggetto uno stemma, è poco leggibile) seguito da un altro, bianco (di maggiore spessore e con la filigrana dell’acro entro un cerchio).”).
22. Onofrio Panvinio, Onuphrii Panuinii Veronensis fratris eremitae Augustiniani XXVII pontificum maximorum elogia et imagines accuratissime ad viuum aeneis typeis delineatae (Rome: Antonio Lafreri, 1568). Edit 16 CNCE 47232. Alberti, L’Indice, op. cit., pp.443-447 no. 370; Rubach, op. cit., p.378 no. 403.
23. Effigies viginti quatuor Romanorum imperatorum qui ac Iulio Caesare extiterunt (s.l., s.n. [ca 1570]). Edit16 CNCE 79825. Alberti, L’Indice, op. cit., pp.472-477 no. A344; Rubach, op. cit., p.376 no. 401.
24. Aquiles Estaço, Inlustrium viror ut exstant in urbe expressi vultus (Rome: Antonio Lafreri, 1569 [1568]). Edit16 CNCE 18312, CNCE 79017. Alberti, L’Indice, op. cit., pp.447-454 no. 371; Rubach, op. cit., p.380 no. 404.
25. Fulvio Orsini, Imagines et elogia virorum illustrium et eruditor ex antiquis lapidibus et nomismatib. expressa cum annotationib. Ex bibliotheca Fului Vrsini (Rome: Antonio Lafreri, 1570; [letterpress:] Venice: Pietro Deuchino, 1570). Edit16 CNCE 37885. Alberti, L’Indice, pp.454-461 no. 372; Rubach, op. cit., p.380 no. 405.
26. Illustrium iureconsultorum imagines quae inueniri potuerunt ad viuam effigiem expressae. Ex musaeo Marci Mantuae Benauidij Patauini iureconsulti clarissimi (Rome: Antonio Lafreri, 1566). Edit16 CNCE 37882. Alberti, L’Indice, op. cit., pp.461-4655 no. 373; Rubach, op. cit., p.378 no. 402.
27. Alessia Alberti, “La raccolta lafreriana di ritratti della Biblioteca Trivulziana (Triv. B. 498)” in Libri & Documenti 42-43 (2016-2017 [2019]), pp.75-112 (“Sulla carta azzurra che segna la fine della silloge di Panvinio è annotata, come sull’esemplare della Biblioteca Trivulziana, la lista dei pontefici mancanti…” [link]).
28. Alberti, Contributi, op. cit., p.94 (“La successione delle opere all’interno del volume riflette l’ordine dell’Indice e il passaggio da un libro all’altro è messo in rilievo mediante l’uso di una carta azzurra.”); Alberti, La raccolta lafreriana, op cit., p.81 (“Tra un libro e l’altro il passaggio è scandito mediante l’inserimento di una carta azzurra che, in tre casi su quattro, è seguita da una seconda carta bianca. … Le carte azzurre nel volume Triv. B 498 sono ottenute ciascuna incollando tra loro tre ritagli di diverse dimensioni.” [link]).
29. Bracke, op. cit., pp.79-84 (“In this volume a blue sheet separates this part of the volume from the following (and that from its following one).” [link]); Alberti, La raccolta lafreriana, op. cit., p.81.
30. Alberti, L’Indice, op. cit., pp.349-440 (“Legatura in pergamena, restaurata. Soltanto in due casi tra un volume e l’altro sono stati posti intermezzi in carta azzurra: su uno di questi si riconosce la filigrana, formata da due frecce intrecciate, simile a Briquet 6300, ma senza il particolare della stella. Sull’ultima carta del volume (bianca), si registra la presenza di una filigrana con le due frecce e la stella in alto (simile a Briquet 6300), presente anche all’interno del volume e in particolare negli Inlustrium viror. di A. Estaço.”); Alberti, Contributi, op. cit., p.94 (“In questo esemplare le carte azzurre sono soltanto due, di cui una con filigrana coeva.”).
31. An unexamined album containing these five portrait books is ● Bordeaux, Bibliothèque Mériadeck, H 1428 (opac [link]; Catalogue des livres composant la Bibliothèque de la ville de Bordeaux: Histoire (Paris 1832), no. 6079) An album once in the library of Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland (1674-1722), cannot be located ● Puttick & Simpson, Bibliotheca Sunderlandiana: truly important and very extensive library of printed books known as the Sunderland or Blenheim Library, the third portion, London, 17-27 July 1882, lot 6661 (“in 1 vol. vellum”; contents described in the sale catalogue in reverse order [link]) ● Techener, Paris - bought in sale (£1 10s) ● Cesare Pirovano (d. 11 December 1900) ● Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge, Catalogue of the selected portion of the valuable library of an Italian collector, deceased, London, 17-20 July 1901, lot 705 (“5 parts in 1 vol. vellum, from the Sunderland Library” [link]) ● Horne, bought in sale (£6 10s). The album containing these five works in ● Oxford, Christ Church Library, AF.4.9 (opac “17th cent. gold tooled vellum over boards” [link]) does not contain divisional sheets of blue or white paper (I am grateful to Gabriel Sewell, College Librarian, for confirmation).
32. This publication is not positively identified by Alberti, L’Indici, op. cit., p.477, or by Rubach, op. cit., p.115. Alberti associates it with “3 Habiti di donne diuersi” listed in posthumous inventories of Lafreri’s matrices. No female subjects of Roman origin are presented in Enea Vico’s Diversarum gentium nostrae aetatis habitus (ca 1555-1558) [link].
33. Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, A: E 1.1 Geom. 2° (1-8) (opac 1 [link], 2 [link], 3 [link], 4 [link], 5 [link], 6 [link], 7 [link], 8 [link]).
34. Giulio Bodon, Enea Vico fra memoria e miraggio della classicità (Rome 1997), p.35 & Fig. 88 (Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, Ottob. lat. 2957, f. 28), Fig. 89 (Ottob. lat. 2957, f.51); G. Bodon, “Le ‘imagini’ delle donne auguste” in Le muse tra i libri: Il libro illustrato veneto del ‘500-’600 nella Biblioteca Universitaria di Padova (Padua 2009), pp.92-95 (online edition, [link]).
35. This publication is not identified by Alberti, L’Indici, op. cit., p.485 no. A353, or by Rubach, op. cit. It might be a series plates engraved by Nicolas Beatrizet, including his views of the Pantheon, Colosseum, Arco di Costantino, Tempio della Fortuna Virile, etc. Prints of this description were bound in the album sold by Christie’s, 3 November 1993, lot 120 (see discussion below).
36. This publication is not identified by Alberti, L’Indici, op. cit., p.486 no. A354, or by Rubach, op. cit. In the preface of the Regola, Vignola declares his intention to publish a companion treatise (“regole di Prospettiua”). This work was at an advanced stage in 1562, and the “Libro di prospettiue” may constitute the completed plates. A work of Vignola’s entitled Due regole della prospettiva pratica was published posthumously in 1583; one plate in it (L4 verso) is dated “MDLXII”.
37. Alberti, L’Indice, p. 478 no. A348; Rubach, op. cit., p.392 no. 417. On the contentious date of their addition, see Early printed books, 1478-1840: a catalogue of the British Architectural Library Early Imprints Collection (London 2001), IV, pp.2116-2117 (arguing for 1562-1573); and the most recent (2013) thoughts of Christof Thoenes, “Vignola: Regola delli cinque ordini d’architettura”, Architectura: Les livres d’architecture, Centre d’Études Supérieures de la Renaissance database (arguing for post-1573) [link].
38. Alberti, L’Indice, op. cit., p.440, pp.491-492 no. A359 (list of the seven prints).
39. Alberti, L’Indice, op. cit., p.440, citing Thomas Ashby, “Il libro d’Antonio Labacco appartenente all’Architettura” in La Bibliofilía 16 (1914), pp. 289-309 (p.300); p.478 no. A347. Rubach, op. cit., pp.390-392 no. 416. The catalogue of The Fowler architectural collection of the Johns Hopkins University (Baltimore 1961), no. 166, describes as “issues” four different settings of the four leaves of letterpress which accompany the engraved title dated 1559 (they are better described as editions).
40. Alberti, L’Indice, op. cit., pp.440-441, 479-481 no. A349. Twenty-six prints are imposed two per sheet; one print hors série is full-page (sheet 7). Rubach, op. cit., p.382 no. 406.
41. Archivio dei possessori [link].
42. Alberti, L’Indice, op. cit., p.440 (“… legatura moderna e foglio di guardia con grande filigrana raffigurante un martire (?) e le lettere “S T W”. … L’identificazione dello stesso come raccolta lafreriana coeva è resa possibile dall’esame delle filigrane, ma soprattutto dalla presenza, tra la serie di porte e camini e il libro di Labacco, e poi tra Labacco e la serie di elementi architettonici, di due fogli, uno in carta azzurra, l’altro bianco (come nel volume di Anatomia di Padova), che in seguito sono stati asportati con un taglio netto.”); Alberti, Contributi, op. cit., p.95 (“La divisone fra le ultime tre sezione era scandita mediante un foglio azzurro e uno bianco, che però sono stati recisi di netto, ma se ne possono ancora scorgere le tracce.”).
43. Morgan Library & Museum, Corsair opac (folios numerated in pencil 1-160, 69a, 69b, 69c, 83a) [link]. L’Alberti, L’Indice, op. cit., pp.441-442; Alberti, Contributi, op. cit., p.95; Elizabeth Miller, “Antonio Lafreri’s architecture and ornament volumes: Crossing the boundary between books and volumes of prints in late sixteenth-century Rome” in Renaissance Studies 33 (2019), pp.761-788 (pp.778-787). Plates “38” and “39” are identified by Miller as representing the Porta Pia and Porta Flaminia. Ten “watermark types” are identified (p.785).
44. There are 30 prints in this series in the Victoria & Albert Museum copy (see below). Absent here are four plates of Corinthian bases, conventionally printed on two sheets; see Elizabeth Miller, 16th-century Italian ornament prints in the Victoria and Albert Museum (London 1999), pp.184-193 no. 55a (pp.190-191 pls. 27-30).
45. Alberti, L’Indice, op. cit., pp.483-485 no. A352; Rubach, op. cit., p.382 no. 407.
46. Alberti, L’Indice, op. cit., pp.465-470 no. 374; Rubach, op. cit., p.384 no. 408.
47. Alberti, L’Indice, op. cit., pp.486-488 no. A355; Rubach, op. cit., p.386 no. 410.
48. Alberti, L’Indice, op. cit., pp.482-483 no. A350; Rubach, op. cit., p.409.
49. Alberti, L’Indice, op. cit., p.483 no. A351; Rubach, op. cit., p.386 no. 411.
50. Alberti, L’Indice, op. cit., pp.489-491 no. A356; Rubach, op. cit., pp.386-388 nos. 412-413.
51. Miller, op. cit. 2019, p.778 & Figs. 8-9 (regarded as the “original Italian binding”).
52. Compare the binding on De Thou’s copy of Palladio’s I quattro libri dell’architettura (Venice 1570), in Library of Congress, Lessing J. Rosenwald collection, 873 (digitised, [link]). The Palladio is covered with higher-quality calf parchment.
53. Miller, op. cit. 2019, p.783 Fig. 12 (identified as the signature of Jacques Auguste de Thou, the Elder). Compare the same inscription, but attributed to the younger De Thou, in the copy of Martialis, Epigrammata (Bologna 1477) in Glasgow University Library (image, [link]). It appears also in De Thou’s copy of Palladio [link].
54. The copy is described in the posthumous “Inventaire des livres de la Bibliothèque de M. de Thou” of 1617 (Paris, Bibliotheque nationale de France, Ms Lat 10389, f.97 verso): “Regola delli v quinque ordini darchitectura di M Jacomo Barozzio da vignuola, Libro di Ant Labacco appartenente a larchitectura nel quale si figurano alcune notabili antichita di Roma. il porto d ostia AV. Capitell di Colonne antiche, Grotesche Antiche, Trophi antichi, frigie, Compartimenti, mascare vari antichi, fol Roma ant Lafreri” [link]. The entry was truncated for a later manuscript inventory “Catalogue méthodique et alphab. de la bibliothèque de de Thou” (Paris, BnF, MS Lat 17920, f.74 recto): “Di Jac. Baroccio da Vignola, Regola delle cinque ordini d’Architettura. fol°” [link]. That abridgement appears in the printed Catalogus bibliothecae thuanae, a clariss. vv. Petro et Iacobo Puteanis ordine alphabetico primum distributus, tum secundum scientias et artes a clariss. viro Ismaele Bullialdo digestus, nunc vero editus à Iosepho Quesnel parisino et bibliothecario. Cum indice alphabetico authorum (Paris 1679), p.121: “Iacomo Baroccio da Vignola. Regola delli cinque ordini d’ Architettura. fol.” [link]. The volume passed through the libraries of Jean-Jacques Charron, marquis de Ménars (1643-1718), Armand Gaston Maximilien, Cardinal, prince de Rohan (1674-1749), to Charles de Rohan, prince de Soubise (1715-1787), and written on the vellum of the inside front cover is the shelfmark of the Soubise library in the Hôtel de Rohan: “Vest[ibule] 4.° L. C. 82” (the aforementioned copy of Palladio was shelved nearby: “Vest. 4. C. 78”; for the later history of De Thou’s library, and interpretation of the Soubise shelfmarks, see Antoine Coron, “Note sur les côtes dites de la bibliothèque de Thou” in Bulletin du bibliophile, 1982, pp.339–357). The copy is next seen in the library of William Beckford (1760-1844), inherited by his son-in-law the tenth Duke of Hamilton, and sold by Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge in the first portion of the Beckford-Hamilton Palace sale (London, 30 June-13 July 1882, lot 587 [link]), where it was bought by Bernard Quaritch (£186), for Hippolyte-Alexandre-Gabriel-Walter Destailleur (1822-1893). In the Destailleur sale (Paris, 28 November-1 December 1894, lot 233 [link]), it was acquired by the Parisian bookseller Théophile Belin (FF 2050). The album is next sighted in the library of Robert Hoe (1839-1909; Carolyn Shipman, A catalogue of books printed in foreign languages before the year 1600, forming a portion of the library of Robert Hoe, New York 1907, II, p.5 [link], pp.212-213 [link]). It realised $365 in the dispersal of the Hoe library (New York, 18-22 November 1912, lot 3185 [link]). It came to the Morgan Library via Jane Norton Morgan (1868-1925) and the bequest of her son, Henry Sturgis Morgan (1900-1982), in 1965.
55. Some series are separated by a single blue sheet. The endleaves (two folios of white paper, at front and back of the volume) have a crossbow in circle watermark (48 x 45 mm, ||| 61 mm) of the type documented by David Woodward, Catalogue of watermarks in Italian printed maps, ca 1540-1600 (Florence 1996), nos. 205-209, in Italian maps of the late 1550s [image, link]. They seem to have been part of the original sewn bookblock [image of structure, link].
56. Album folio 128 (upper): Roman alphabet in a cartouche (The Illustrated Bartsch, Vol. 31, Italian Artists of the Sixteenth Century, New York 1986, p.334 no. 33); f. 128 (lower): Narcissus gazing at his reflection (TIB 31, p.353 no. 12); f. 129 (upper): Putto leaning on a skull, lettered eccl. xliiii. memor esto quonia mors non tardat; and: sapien. vii unus ergo introitus omnibus ad vitam et similis exitus (TIB, 31, p.351 no. 10); f. 129 (lower): Woman looking in a hand-mirror, lettered quod vides non diu (TIB, 31, p.352, no. 11). All four prints are attributed to the printmaker George Reverdy by Estelle Leutrat, Les débuts de la gravure sur cuivre en France: Lyon, 1520-1565 (Geneva 2007), respectively nos. GR51, GR41, GR40, GR39. Reverdy worked in Lyon between 1529 and 1564/1565 and Leutrat supposes that his matrices were sold posthumously to Lafreri (pp.117-118).
57. Engraving signed “Ant. S.S.” (135 x 85 mm). Miller, op. cit. 1999, p.781, reports that it is “inlaid into a blank cream page”.
58. Capitals of five Corinthian columns; bases of five Corinthian columns; a cornice with historiated frieze, with trophy suspended at right, respectively A.M. Hind, Early Italian engraving: a critical catalogue (London 1948), V, p.286 nos. 23-25. Cf. Michael J. Waters, “A Renaissance without Order: Ornament, single-sheet engravings, and the mutability of architectural prints” in Journal of the Society of Architectural Historians 71 (2012), pp.488-523 (pp.494, 521), reproducing as Fig. 5 the first of these sheets (Hind 23). Miller, op. cit. 2019, p.781: “These unnumbered additions are glued rather than sewn into the binding, and are both smaller in size and have different treatments to the edge of the page (red or orpiment colouring, as opposed to gilding) indicating they had previously formed part of other volumes.”
59. Fifteen unsigned studies of capitals, lettered “Capiteli Corinthii,” “Thuscano,” “Dorico,” “Ionico” (117 x 170 mm). J.D. Passavant, Le Peintre-graveur (Leipzig 1864), VI, p.101 no. 88 [link]. Cf. Waters, op. cit., p.521 and Fig. 19 (impression in first state, before erasure of initials BM; attribution to the Master of the Die rejected).
60. Absence of these plates is weak evidence for positioning them in the sequence of “issues”; they might have been purposefully excluded, because the purchaser considered them (rightly) as irrelevant to Vignola’s exegesis of the five Orders.
61. There are 30 prints in this series in the Victoria & Albert Museum copy; see Miller, op. cit. 1999, pp.184-193 no. 55a (absent in the Pázmány–Vershbow–Brooker album are Miller pls. 17-18, two matrices imposed on the same sheet). Another impression of the print hors série is New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Accession Number: 41.72(2.26) [link].
62. There are seventeen continuously numbered prints on twelve sheets in the Victoria & Albert Museum copy; see Miller, op. cit. 1999, pp.53-57 no. 9b (absent in the Pázmány–Vershbow–Brooker album are Miller’s 9b pl. I; pl. II upper and pl. II lower; pl. IV upper and pl. IV lower; pl. VII).
63. Three sheets of this series are remargined. The watermark in the strip attached to pl. 1 is of the “Tulips in shield under six-pointed star B” type, documented Woodward, op. cit., no. 125 (1557-1565); the watermark in the strip attached to pl. 5 is “Tulips in shield under six-pointed star A” type (Woodward no. 124, documented 1542-ca 1570); the strip attached to pl. 11 has no observable watermark. See Miller’s remarks on these two watermarks, in Miller, op. cit. 1999, pp.267-268.
64. This watermark is seen in the print-bearing sheets of the Victoria & Albert Museum copy of [494] (see below); reproduced by Miller, op. cit., 1999, pp.45-48 no. 5 (watermark in pls. 7-8 reproduced p.274).
65. Miller, op. cit. 2019, p.785; Miller, op. cit. 1999, pp.267-273.
66. A transcription of the “Cathalogus librorum, nach demseel[igen] Herrn graffen Pasman” was published by Péter Ötvös, “Pázmány Miklós gróf könyvei [Books of Count Miklós Pázmány]” in Klaniczay-emlékkönyv. Tanulmanyok Klaniczay Tibor emlékezetére, edited by József Jankovics (Budapest 1994), pp.344-364 [link]. Miklós’s reading habits and the dispersal of his library are treated by Eszter Kovács, “Pázmány Miklós és Olomouc” in Magyar Sion 43 (no. 2, 2007), pp.228-240 [link].
67. The inkstamp appears on the second plate of the Vignola. See Frits Lugt, Les Marques de collections de dessins & d’estampes, online edition, no. 5090 [link]. The stamp is reproduced also by Eileen Budd & E. Miller, “Doing things twice: Exploring a V & A Lafreri volume,” Victoria & Albert Museum blog, 30 October 2017 (reporting on a workshop held in the Research Department of the Victoria and Albert Museum, on 18 November 2016 [link]).
68. Miller, op. cit. 1999, pp.8-11 and passim; Alberti, L’Indice, op. cit., p.53; Alberti, Contributi, op. cit., p.95; Rubach, op. cit., pp.129-130; Miller, op. cit. 2019, pp.761-788.
69. Christie’s, Valuable atlases, travel and natural history books, London, 3 November 1993, London, lot 120 [link]. Provenance ● unidentified owner, inscription on first title “A despiles et ses amis” ● Robert James Petre, 8th Baron Petre (1713-1742), armorial exlibris.
70. Miller, op. cit. 2019, p.778.
71. Offered by Librairie Benoît Forgeot, Catalogue 4: Livres et documents anciens (Paris 1998), item 45 (FF 300,000; “Précieux et unique recueil de 211 estampes ornementales du XVIe siècle, formé par Antoine Lafréry à Rome vers 1560. On y trouve grotesques, cuirs et cartouches, entrelacs, cariatides et atlantes, trophées, modèles de chapiteaux, vases et aiguières, etc. … Ce recueil d’estampes d’ornements est le plus rare de ceux formés par Lafréry. En effet, une étude savante et inédite de Peter Fuhring, jointe à l’exemplaire, fait état d’un seul autre recueil comparable, conservé à Boston [the Pázmány–Vershbow–Brooker album], et formé, comme celui-ci, par l’éditeur franc-comtois. Les suites sont séparées par des intercalaires de papier bleu dont usait Lafréry; ces intercalaires, qui étaient également reliés dans notre exemplaire, ont été arrachés mais une partie demeure en gouttière. … Le présent recueil, formé vers 1560 par Lafréry, a été relié de nouveau en veau brun dans la seconde moitié du XVIIe siècle. Il porte, sur les gardes, différentes notes manuscrites. Le relieur a par ailleurs monté en tête, en guise de titre, un cartouche gravé sur cuivre d’après Gebrandt van den Eeckhout vers 1650-1655.”). The volume was subsequently with ● Librairie Thomas-Scheler, Paris; its present location is unknown.
72. Sold by Gogué & J. F. Née de La Rochelle, Catalogue des livres imprimés et manuscrits, de la bibliothèque de feu monsieur d’Aguesseau, doyen du conseil, commandeur des ordres du roi, Paris, 14 February 1785, 2863 (“Regole degli cinque ordine d’Architettura, di M. Jac. Barozzio da Vignola. 31 feuillets gravés; & 58 feuillets gravés par Lafreri en 1550, contenant des Arabesques, Vases & Ornemens variés” [link]).
