BEAUTIFULLY BOUND BIBLE
[BIBLE.]
Biblia sacra vulgatae editionis Sixti V. Pont. Max. iussu recognita, et Clementis VIII. auctoritate edita.
Cologne, Balthasar von Egmondt, 1659.
8vo, pp. [24], 876, [50 (index)], [2 (blank)]; title-page copper-engraved, text in 2 columns within ruled frame, woodcut initials and tailpieces; a little marginal dampstaining to title, some browning, lower corner of K1 repaired without loss; a beautiful copy in early eighteenth-century red morocco, borders triple-filleted in gilt, spine richly gilt in compartments with gilt green morocco lettering-piece, board-edges and turn-ins roll-tooled in gilt, all edges gilt over marbling, marbled endpapers; a few minute wormholes at foot of spine; arms of Cardinal Annibale Albani blocked in gilt to upper board, Albani devices in gilt to spine, gilt lettering to lower cover ‘Ad usum Annibalis S.R.E. Cardinalis S. Clementis.’ within foliate lozenge, ‘Nicolaus Pagliarinus’ lettered in gilt to rear lower turn-in (see below), eighteenth-century shelfmarks in ink to front free endpaper.
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Biblia sacra vulgatae editionis Sixti V. Pont. Max. iussu recognita, et Clementis VIII. auctoritate edita.
An attractive pocket size Vulgate Bible in a beautiful red morocco binding executed for Cardinal Annibale Albani (1682–1751) by the Roman printer and bookseller Niccolò Pagliarini (1717–1795).
The engraved title incorporates scenes depicting the Creation, the Temptation of Adam and Eve, Moses, King David, the Nativity and Crucifixion, and the Four Evangelists sat together around a table busily writing.
Niccolò Pagliarini, whose name appears here in gilt to the rear turn-in, took over his father’s printing and bookselling business in Rome in the early 1740s, working with his brother Marco. Arrested in 1760 for printing anti-Jesuit material, he spent years in exile in Lisbon (serving as director of the Stamperia Reale) before eventually returning to Rome in 1778. Pagliarini had this Bible bound for Annibale Albani, whose arms and name appear on the boards. Nephew of Clement XI, Annibale became a Cardinal in 1711 and served as ambassador to Austria for the Holy See from 1720 to 1748. He acquired a valuable library, in addition to paintings, sculptures, and coins.
Provenance: later in the collection of the art critic and photographer Eugène Piot (1812–1890); see Catalogue des livres rares et curieux … provenant du cabinet de M. Eug. P… (Paris, 1862), p. 1 (lot 2).
Darlow & Moule 6230.
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