Pillone binding.- Tomai (Tommaso) Historia di Ravenna, collation: †⁴, 2†², A-Z⁴, Aa-Dd⁴, Roman and italic type, woodcut arms of Pope Gregory XIII on title, woodcut decorated initials, lightly stained and spotted, more prominently in quires M and T, pale water-stain in blank outer margin of first leaves, original limp vellum, covers decorated with ink drawings by Cesare Vecellio, upper cover depicting the church of Santa Maria della Rotonda in Ravenna, lower cover part of the city ramparts, traces of two pairs of ties, smooth spine decorated in ink with stylised acanthus leaves, painted edges, fore-edge with a view of the city, and the inscription 'ravena', 4to (text block 196 x 127mm.; binding 200 x 130mm.), Ravenna, Francesco Tebaldini, 1580.

⁂ A splendid copy of the second edition of this rare work on the history of Ravenna, owned by the well-known bibliophile Odorico Pillone (1503-1593), of Belluno. In 1580 Pillone famously commissioned the painter Cesare Vecellio (1521-1601) to decorate, with drawings or painted fore-edges, the bindings of 172 volumes preserved in his Villa Casteldardo in the Dolomites, in which he had established his Studio. Vecellio, was a cousin and pupil of Titian, and worked in his atelier until his death. He decorated the fore-edges of the majority of Pillone's library, depicting characters and landscapes relating to the subject of each book. He is also known as the author of Habiti antichi et moderni, the well-known illustrated history of clothing, in which he mentions the library and other collections of the Pillone family, as well as the generous hospitality in their Villa.

The present example represents one of only 21 volumes that Vecellio adorned with drawings on the covers, and one of the very few with both decorated vellum covers and painted fore-edges.

In 1874, a Pillone descendant sold the entire collection to the English bibliophile Thomas Brooke for 20,000 lire. After the latter's death, Humphrey Brooke, the heir of the collection, entrusted the sale to Alan Keen, who compiled a catalogue of its contents (The Venetian Library Collected at the Close of the Sixteenth Century by Doctor Odorico Pillone and the Sides and Edges Painted by Cesare Vecellio, London 1951). The collection was then purchased in 1957 by the French bookseller Pierre Berès, who immediately put it on sale, publishing a catalogue with the help of Italian art historian Lionello Venturi. The collection, united until then, was thus dispersed.

Provenance: Odorico Pillone (1503-1593); Sir Thomas Brooke of Armitage Bridge House, Huddersfield (1830-1908; ex-libris on the front pastedown; see A Catalogue of the Manuscripts and Printed Books Collected by Thomas Brooke, F.S.A. Vol. ii. M-Z, London 1891, no. 158, "Tomai, Tommaso. Historia di Ravenna. In Ravenna, 1580. 4to. v."); from Humprey Brooke to Pierre Berès (P. Berès, Un group de livres Pillone. Catalogue no. 67, Paris 1957, no. 158; label on the front pastedown 'Livre no. 158 de la Bibliothèque Pillone Pierre Berès'); Sotheby's London, 25 May 2000, lot 97.

Literature: P. Berès, Bibliothèque Pillone, Paris, 1957, no. 158; T. Conte (ed.), Cesare Vecellio, 1521 c.-1601, Belluno 2001.