CAESAR Caius Julius
£850
Auction: 1 February 2005 at 11:00 GMT
Description
I commentari di C. Giulio Cesare, con le figure in rame ... fatta da Andrea Palladio ... Woodcut device on the titlepage, with 1 of 2 doublepage maps and 35 of 40 doublepage engravings of camps, battle positions, etc. , by Palladio and his son, 19th century full olive green morocco over bevelled boards, gilt ruled with central gilt arabesque ornaments, a.e.g. and gauffred, professional paper repairs to the edges of the titlepage, to the lower corners of the plate to face p. 36, and to the lower margins and wormhole in the last few signatures, 4to., Venice: Girolamo Foglietti, 1618 [i.e. 1598]
Note: Index Aureliensis 128.841; Not in Adams
Provenance: With a washed inscription on the titlepage in the upper margin, under ulta violet light, possibly ending ".... Crail 1636 J. Balfour". (But uncertain). Further scored inscriptions around the printer's device have been washed and cannot now be read. With the signature of James Graham, 1st Marquess of Montrose signing as "Montrose" to the right of the device, and again at the foot of the page under a quotation "Si totus Illabatur orbis", a variant of Horace Odes Bk.3.3 "Si fractus illabatur orbis impavidum ferient ruinae". He signs again on page 1 of the text under an unidentified inscription in Spanish "En dificultades la gloria consiste".
Other examples of Montrose inscribing books in his possession with Latin and Italian mottos are known. (See Bell Civil warrior, 2002, pp. 26-38.
Tipped in at the end is an undated letter from the antiquary David Laing, Librarian of the Signet Library , to Robert Graham of Redgorton, discussing the book and enclosing two precepts, one dated 1628 signed by the Marquess, the other, dated 1623, signed by his father the 4th Earl. The Marquess signs himself as "Montrois" which seems to have been his usual signtaure up to at least 1631. He was abroad between 1633 and 1636 (France, Germany, Italy). From at least 1638, he signs himself "Montrose" which suggests that he probably did not aquire the present volume until after his return.