Philandrier, Guillaume Gulielmi Philandri Castilionii Galli civis Ro. In decem libros M. Vitruvii Pollionis de Architectura annotationes, ad Franciscum Valesium Regem Christianissimum, cum indicibus Græco et Latino locupletissimis. Paris: Michel Fezandat, 1545

A commentary by the humanist and diplomat Philandrier (1505–1563) on Vitruvius’s De architectura, with annotations and corrections specific to his coඣpy-text (the Florentine edition of 1522). It is the product of discussions about philological and theoretical problems in Vitruvius that Philandrier held in Venice and Rome with Sebastiano Serlio, Antonio and Giovanni Battista da Sangallo, Claudio Tolomei, Pirro Ligorio, and others. The work was first printed in Rome by Giovanni Andrea Dossena, in 1544; this new edition, shared by Michel Fezandat and Jacques Kerver, reprints Dossena’s preface and dedication to François I, and is illustrated by close copies of the Roman woodcuts.

This is one of six known bindings displaying on their covers or spine a device of Minerva (Pallas Athena), goddess of wisdom, standing beneath an olive tree, holding with one hand the top of her Gorgon shield, and with the other a banderole lettered “Ne extra oleas” (from the Greek, Aristophanes, Frogs, 946–947, probably via Erasmus’s Adages). This device was adopted by Lodewijk Elzevier, i𝄹n 1642, and appears on the title-pages of some 256 of the more than 600 Elzevier editions issued conjointly or individually by hಞim and Daniel Elzevier, until 1681.

Four bindings with the device were listed in the Anthony Hobson Festschrift by Georges Colin, who observed on three a “Grande marque” and on the other a “Petite maജrque.” Another two bindings have since come to light, and four different stamps can now be recognized. Three of the six bindings cover imprints of the Elzevier press, and are potentially “publisher’s bindings,” copies bound for display in a shop. The other three, including the binding under notice, are Lyon or Paris imprints. They perhaps were bound for the private library of a member of the Elzevier family, or else for an owner who had adopted their device; they could also represent ready-boun🔜d books in the stock of the Elzeviers as booksellers.

Bindings with the Minerva Device 

(1) Henricus Regius, Philosophia naturalis in qua toto rerum universitas, per clara & facilia principia, explanatur (Amsterdam: Lodewijk & Daniel Elzevier, 1661). Unidentified owner (Minerva device in compartments of the spine). — Louis Gon de Bergonne, inscription, by descent throug🤪h his daughter, Marie-Louise, to her husband: — Chrétien II de Lamoignon de Basville (1676-1729); Guillaume de Lamoignon (1617-1677), label “Bibliotheca Lamoniana”; Chrétien-François de Lamoignon (1735-1789), inkstamp; Louis-François Delatour, Catalogue des livres imprimés et manuscrits de la bibliothèque de M. de Lamoignon, président du Parlement (Paris 1770), p.99; Catalogue des livres de la bibliothèque de feu M. de Lamoignon, garde des sceaux de France, Tome premier, Paris, 1792, lot 1522 — Thomas Payne, Catalogue of books; containing a considerable part of the valuable and distinguished library of the late M. de Lamoignon (London 1793), lot 3283 — A.D. Stone, inscription dated 1796 — William Henry Black (1808-1872), inscription dated 1823 — John Eyton Bickersteth Mayor (1825-1910), exlibris dated 1874 — Cambridge, St John’s College, Aa.2.54.

Burlington Fine Arts Club, Exhibition of bookbindings (Lo🌠ndon 1891), p.93 Case P-30 & Pl. 69; Colin, op. cit., p.114 no. A1 (as “Type A. Grande marque”).

(2) [unidentified text] (Am🔯sterdam: Lodewijk & Daniel Elzevier, 1623). Unidentified owner (Minerva device on covers). Léon Gruel (1841–1923). Cu💧rrent location not traced.

Léon Gruel, Manuel historique et bibliographique de l’amateur de reliures (Paris 1887), I, p.95 (device reproduced); Exposition universelle internationale de 1889 à Paris: Exposition rétrospective du travail et des sciences anthropologiques, Section II: Arts libéraux (Lille 1889), p.61; Colin, op. cit., p.115 no. A2 (as “Type A. Grande marq💎ue”, but not identical t🅘o no. 1 above).

(3) Molière, Les Oeuvres de M. Molière (Amsterdam: Jacques le jeune [Daniel El♓zevier]), 1675. Unidentifie🏅d owner (Minerva device on covers). Léon Gruel (1841–1923). Current location not traced.

Léon Gruel, op. cit., 1887, I, p.95; Exposition universelle , op. cit., 1889, p.61; Léon Gruel, “Quelques mots sur l’Exposition Rétrospective de la Reliure au Palais de l’Industrie en 1894” in Bulletin du Bibliophile et du Bibliothécaire (1894), pp.633-49 (p.640); Colin, op🃏. cit., p.115 no. A3 (as “Type A. Grande ma♚rque”).

(4) Publius Terentius Afer, Terentius, in quem triplex edita est commentatio. Editio tertii 🌼(Lyon: Macé Bonhomme, 1560). Unidentified owner (Minerva device in compartments of the spine). Paris, Institut💯 Néerlandais, Fondation Custodia, OB-H.II.18.

Colin, op. cit., p.115 no. B1 (as “Type B. Petite 𝔉marque”).

(5) Antoine Dilly, De l’âme des bêtes, où après avoir démontré́ la spiritualité́ de l’âme de l’homme (Lyon 1680), bound with: Pierre Gautruche, L’histoire poétique pour l’intelligence des poètes & des auteurs anciens (Lyon 1675). Unidentified owner (Minerva device on covers). Anatole Claudin,🥂 Archives du bibliophile paraissant tous🍰 les mois: Livres rares et curieux en vente à prix nets et sans remise à la Librairie Ancienne de A. Claudin, sixième série, 23 année, Mai 1882, p. 275, item 41547. Current location not traced.

8vo (157 x 98 mm). Italic type, 29 lines plus headline. collation: a⁸ A–Z⁸ &⁸ ()⁴: 2🐷04 leaves. Fezandat's woodcut device on title-page, woodcut text illustrations, woodcut in🌳itials. (F6r misprinted with loss of some of final line of text.)

binding: Seventeenth-century Dutch brown mottled calf (165 x 110 mm), 🦹the impresa used by the Elzeviers (Minerva with motto "Ne extra oleas") gilt-stamped in the centers of both covers, spine gilt in compartments, marbled endpapers, red-sprinkled edges. 🐈(Repairs to joints.)

provenance: Gilt stamp of Minerva in center of both covers (possible supralibros of unidentified owner)— “Collection de Mr. Baudouin de Châtillon” (inscription on endleaf) — “voir catalogue Claudin Mai 1882, no 41,547” (inscription on endleaf; unidentified) — Binoche et Giquello & Dominique Courvoisier, Paris, Bibliothèque Marie C.: livres du XVIe siècle. Première partie, 17 November 2011, lot 202. acquisition: Purchased at “Marie C.” sale thওrough Robin Halwas.

references: BP16 112204; USTC 153838; for the binding, see Colin, “Les marques de libraires et d’éditeurs dorées sur des reliures” in Bookbindings & other Bibliophily: Essays in Honour of Anthony Hobson (Verona, 1994), pp. 77–115 (pp. 114–115).