AN ALTERED IMPRINT BOUND FOR A NORMAN NOBLEMAN
DIONYSIUS of Halicarnassus.
Antiquitatum Rom. libri XI. Ab Aemylio Porto recens & post aliorum interpretationes Latine redditi.
Geneva, Jacob Stoer, 1614.
16mo, pp. [xxxii], 1010, [30]; woodcut Stoer device to title, imprint (‘Coloniae Allobrogum’) obscured in ink and ‘Genevæ’ added in type (see below), woodcut initials and headpieces; title-page and final leaf slightly soiled, a few tiny wormholes to first few quires, lower outer corner of final two leaves torn away (affecting a few characters without loss of sense), otherwise a good copy; bound in contemporary brown morocco gilt, large oval armorial of Poërier d’Amfreville (Olivier 257 fer 1) to each board with small fan tooling at corners, spine gilt in compartments with later ink label on orange paper, edges gilt; binding somewhat rubbed and wormed, loss to upper outer corner of front board, cracks to joints and spine, headcap and -band lost, front flyleaf becoming detached; contemporary ink inscription ‘Joannes Poubelle | Dominicus Ab[…]’ to front free endpaper, a few illegible inscriptions on title-page.
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Antiquitatum Rom. libri XI. Ab Aemylio Porto recens & post aliorum interpretationes Latine redditi.
A rare pocket-sized edition of Dionysius of Halicarnassus on the early history of Rome, in an armorial binding for Adrien Poërier.
Stoer had previously printed Dionysius of Halicarnassus in 1590 and 1603, on both occasions omitting Geneva from the imprint. This third edition was printed with a false ‘Cologny’ imprint, a common ruse among Genevan booksellers hoping to circumvent restrictions on the import of Swiss books into France; in our copy ‘Coloniæ Allobrogum’ has, however, been curiously obscured from the imprint and replaced with ‘Genevæ’.
Provenance:
Adrien Poërier (or Poirier), baron d’Amfreville and sieur de Fontenay (Normandy), who became president of the Parlement of Rouen in 1657; his family had obtained the seigneury of Amfreville during the French Wars of Religion.
OCLC finds no copies in North America, while Library Hub finds only three in the UK (BL, Middle Temple, Senate House).
USTC 6703604.
