868 Cæsar's commentary 1521 rear (bottom) board

This is a remarkable survival of Renaissance printing and binding practice, a book that tells its story on several levels—through its text, its images, its binding, and even the waste materials used to construct it.

At its heart lies the 1521 edition of Julius Cæsar’s works, a handsome printing that reflects the early sixteenth century’s renewed fascination with the classical world. The text is accompanied by a suite of woodcuts that illustrate episodes of Cæsar’s campaigns, combining humanist scholarship with vivid visual appeal.

Equally fascinating is the binding, which appears to be either Flemish or Oxford work of the 1520s–1530s. The blind-stamped calf covers are panelled with rolls that carry moral and biblical legends—among them the memorable humanist maxim: “Omnia si perdas, famam servare memento, qua semel amissa nulla revisio erit” (“If you lose everything, remember to keep your honour, for once lost, it cannot be regained”)—and the penitential psalm incipit “De profundis clamavi ad te Domine”. These mottoes, found on both Flemish and Oxford rolls of the early sixteenth century, root the binding firmly in a milieu where moral wisdom, scripture, and the book arts were intertwined.

Opening the volume reveals still more layers of history. The pastedowns are cut from a fourteenth-century Latin manuscript, of two scholastic commentaries (Walter Burley on Aristotle or Peter Lombard’s Sentences), fragments repurposed once the manuscript itself had been rendered obsolete by the press. The flyleaves are written in a dense English secretary hand of the mid-sixteenth century, recording legal formulae—probably a draft of a will or indenture—further evidence that this book travelled through English hands. Thus it unites classical antiquity (Cæsar), scholastic philosophy (the manuscript waste), Reformation-era English legal culture (the flyleaves), and the international trade in bindings (Flemish or Oxford).

This single volume is therefore not only a Renaissance edition of Cæsar but also a palimpsest of the intellectual and material cultures of the later Middle Ages and early modern period. Its pages and covers preserve the voices of antiquity, of medieval scholastics, of early printers and binders, and of English readers—each layer reinforcing the book’s extraordinary historical resonance.

868J. .  Gaius Iulius Caesar100? B.C.-44 B.C [Giovanni Giocondo]

        Commentariorvm Caesaris Elenchvs : De bello Gallico libri VIII. De bello ciuili Po[m]peiano libri IIII. De bello Alexandrino liber I. De bello Africano liber I. De bello Hispaniensi liber. Pictura totius Galliae, diuisæ in parteis treis secundum C. Cæsaris commantarios. Pictura Pontis in Rheno. Item Auaria. Alexiæ. Vxelloduni. Maßiliæ. Adhæc, totius quoque Hispaniæ. Nomina locorum urbiumq[ue], et populorum Galliae, ut olim diceba[n]tur latine, et nu[n]c dicuntur gallice, secundu[m] ordine[m] alphabeti.

Colophon: Basileae, pridie calendas Ianuarias. Anno M D. XXI. Excudebat Thomas Vuolff.

                                                                                                                    Price $6,500

Open book displaying handwritten notes on the left page and a printed title page on the right, featuring decorative elements.

Octavo 16×10.5 cm. Signatures: A-B8 a-z8 aa-pp8 qq6. Hors signature, the pastedowns at both ends made from recycled manuscript leaves. The front  pastedown in a tiny and highly abbreviated script, probably from the thirteenth century 1250-1320 of Peter Lombard’s Sentences Book I Distinction 8 . .  .” 

An open historical manuscript page featuring handwritten Latin text with red and blue ink markings, displaying ancient script and annotations.

The front free end page is a Litany on both sides written in sixteenth century cursive english secretary hand. Text the first leaf is in two columns, Litany of saints , some of which I list below.

An ancient manuscript page filled with handwritten text in multiple scripts, showing signs of age and wear.

In n(om)i(n)e d(omi)ni a(m)en Ihesus Christus p(ri)ncipiu(m) et fi(n)is Maria Virgo mater eius S(an)c(tu)s Ioseph S(an)c(tu)s Iohannes Baptista S(an)c(tu)s Petrus S(an)c(tu)s Paulus S(an)c(tu)s Andreas S(an)c(tu)s Iacobus S(an)c(tu)s Philippus S(an)c(tu)s Bartholomeus S(an)c(tu)s Thomas S(an)c(tu)s Matheus S(an)c(tu)s Simon S(an)c(tu)s Mathias S(an)c(tu)s Lucas S(an)c(tu)s Marcus

A handwritten page with cursive text, featuring a series of interconnected letters and words on yellowed paper.

At the end of the book there is a free endpaper with in the same hand as the leaf in the front is an English will or a indenture : “praesens scriptum continet…”, “bona et catalla…”, “heredi suo legitimo”, “in cuius rei testimonium sigilla nostra apposuimus”, are absolutely standard in English legal deeds and wills.The word “catalla” = “chattels” is a classic marker of English legal Latin. and there is what appears to be a reference to a name Line 5–6: after “ordinacionem factam p̄dicti dñi …” there seems to be a proper name (compressed, with tall letters).Line 8: “ad usum et commodum p̄dicti.

 

The rear Pastedown leaf is Walter Burley (1275-1344/5) Expositio Super December Libros Ethicorum Aristotelis , Commentary on Nicomachean Ethics, Book II, lectio 6–7, this leaf is textualis, mid-13th to early 14th c.1380–1420 rubricated Item and Et) it looks like other English university books I have had .

An open page from an ancient manuscript featuring handwritten text in Latin, with red accents and elaborate script within a faded parchment background.

There are eight woodcuts, two are 2 page folding maps, 5 full page military machines and one full page engraving of the printer, VVolf.

An illustration of Thomas Wolff, depicted with a prominent hat and robe, gesturing towards a scroll amidst clouds, with Latin text above and below.
Map of Gallia and Germania, featuring labeled regions such as Albionis Pars, Belgiae, and Treveri, included within a decorative frame.

This edition with contrabutions by  Marlianus, Raimundus <1420-1475>  Manuzio, Aldo Pio <1450-1515> Giocondo <Fra, 1433-1515>  is the first After Aldus’ edition of 1513 and then the 1518 edition. (Open Library OL7635605A)

Bound in full contemporary  panel-stamped calf over thin wooden boards archtypically Flemish (Ghent?).  It is decorated in blind with vines roundels inhabited by imaginary birds, framed by Gothic text: “o[mn]ia si perdas / fama[m] seruare memento qua semel  amissa nulla reuisio erit” ; ( “If you lose everything, remember to keep your honor, because once lost, it cannot be regained.”)  and  “De profundis / clamaui ad  te domine / domine / exaudi vocem meam.”    (“Out of the depths I have cried to you, Lord, Lord, hear my voice”. This is the opening line of Psalm 130 (129 in the Vulgate). 

Close-up of a decorative panel-stamped leather bookbinding featuring circular motifs with various animals and floral designs.

VD16 C 31; (Permalink: https://gateway-bayern.de/VD16+C+31) Panzer XVII, 229, 414; not in Adams, nor in Michiels, Soltesz, Dibdin, Brunet, Graesse.

There are similar multi panel stamped bindings in Fogelmark , Flemish and related panel-stamped bindings BSA 1990) NM.6 and NM.10. Also Goldschmidt, Gothic and Renaissance Bookbindings describes no.’s 117 and 118 which are similarly made up of two end panels and a center panel of Dragons surrounded by text. 190, as “Panels with animals’ which is also similar. This volume has the same parchment endleaves and red and blue paragraphs, which Goldschmidt states are characteristic of Ghent bindings; it had leather lace ties originally, the stubs of which are still visible.

Fogelmark (p. 33) calls panel-stamps with gothic animals in foliage “the Flemish panel stamp par préférence”. We have not found an exact match in the literature. The impressions of the panels are very crisp and clear, especially that on the lower half of the front board.

An open antique book displaying handwritten pages with faded script and illustrations, held by a hand against a wooden surface.
An open antique book displaying handwritten notes in the margins and the title page featuring 'Commentarii de Bello Gallico' by Julius Caesar.
An antique book with a richly textured leather cover featuring intricate designs and gold lettering.

A large and unsophisticated copy, preserved in its first binding of Flemish panel-stamped calf, of a fine early edition of Cæsar.

Jamesgray2@me.com

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