Cl. Claudianus, Theod. Pulmanni Craneburgii Diligentia, & side summa, è vetustis codicibus restitutus. Unà cum Del-rio notis. [Ensemble] Aviani Aesopicarum Fabularum Liber. A Theod. Pulmanno Craneburgio Ex Membranis in Lucem Editus [Ensemble] Claudiani opera Marinii Antonii Del-Rio notae

Antwerp, Ex officina Plantiniana, apud Ioannem Moretum, 1602. Small duodecimo, 8.2 x 12.6 cm. Three works bound in one volume.

A collection of three portable editions issued by the Plantin Press under the imprint of Jan Moretus: Cl. Claudianus, Theod. Pulmanni Craneburgii diligentia, & fide summa, è vetustis codicibus restitutus. Unà cum Del-Rio notis, 351 pages and 1 unnumbered leaf; Aviani Aesopicarum fabularum liber. A Theod. Pulmanno Craneburgio ex membranis in lucem editus, 29 pages and 3 unnumbered leaves; and Ad Cl. Claudiani V. C. Opera Martini Antonii Del-Rio notae, 90 pages and 3 unnumbered leaves. Ruled throughout in red ink.

Contemporary flexible full brown morocco, with an elaborate fanfare binding of Duodo type. Smooth spine richly tooled with six medallions, each containing a flower and enclosed within a foliage border. The covers are entirely decorated with a network of twenty-four medallions combining floral tools with emblems including a sun, heart, acorn, bouquet and sheaf of wheat. The arms of Nicolas de Villars are stamped at the centre of the covers. Gilt edges, lacking ties.

Discreet and skilful restoration to the joints, corners and headcaps. Leather worn along approximately 0.5 cm of the upper and lower borders. Pinhole at the head of the spine. A wormhole begins in the lower margin of the first title and continues, gradually diminishing, to the final leaves of Avianus's Fables.

An important copy bearing the arms of Nicolas de Villars, clerical councillor at the Parlement of Paris and treasurer of the Sainte-Chapelle, appointed Bishop of Agen in 1587 and consecrated in the following year. He retained the see until his death in 1608. Its portable format, red ruling and flexible morocco suggest a volume conceived for personal reading as well as display.

Jan Moretus succeeded his father-in-law Christophe Plantin as head of the Officina Plantiniana in 1589. Under his imprint, the press continued to issue classical texts established by the distinguished humanist scholars associated with the house. Claudian is presented here in the text revised by Theodorus Pulmannus from early manuscripts, with the notes of Martín Antonio Del Río, while the second work contains the Latin Aesopic fables of Avianus, rather than a text by Aesop himself. The collection thus brings together late antique poetry, the Aesopic tradition and humanist scholarship in a particularly convenient format.

The binding places this scholarly collection within the highest level of Parisian bookbinding at the end of the sixteenth century. Its decoration belongs to the family of bindings known as "Duodo style", named after Pietro Duodo, Venetian ambassador to the court of Henri IV from 1594 to 1597. During his residence in Paris, Duodo assembled a portable library of small-format books, bound in a distinctive scheme of floral medallions and foliage borders, with the colour of the morocco indicating the subject of each volume.

These bindings were long attributed to Marguerite de Valois, one of their floral tools having been interpreted as her emblematic daisy. Ludovic Bouland restored them to their true owner in 1920, notably through the identification of Duodo's arms. The workshop responsible remains less certain. Nicolas and Clovis Ève were traditionally proposed, but more recent scholarship distinguishes a group of Parisian binders working for Duodo without assigning the bindings conclusively to a named craftsman.

The present volume did not belong to the Venetian ambassador's library. It instead demonstrates the immediate adoption of this decorative language by other patrons of high rank. While the spine closely follows the alternating floral medallions and foliage borders associated with Duodo's books, the covers display a denser composition and a markedly broader repertory. Flowers are joined by a sun, heart, acorn and sheaf of wheat around the arms of Nicolas de Villars. Rather than a straightforward imitation, the binding is a personal and episcopal variation upon the Duodo model.

The history of the volume continued after the death of its first owner. A manuscript inscription on an endleaf, dated 1637, records its presentation at the Jesuit college of Quimper to a pupil in the first grammar class as a prize for prose composition. Opened on 18 October 1620, the college had already become an important centre of humanist education in Lower Brittany.

The choice of prize was highly appropriate. Claudian and Avianus belonged to the Latin culture taught in the colleges, where the reading of poets, imitation of ancient models and practice of prose formed the basis of grammatical education. The personal book of a prelate from the courtly world of Henri IV thus became, less than thirty years after his death, both an instrument and a reward for the literary training of a young pupil in Cornouaille.

This double provenance gives the volume an unusual historical depth. The arms and fanfare decoration preserve the world of ecclesiastical and parliamentary book collecting around 1600, while the inscription of 1637 records its passage into the educational culture of the Society of Jesus. The same classical texts moved from the private library of a bishop to the desk of a schoolboy.

An exceptional collection of three Plantin editions, ruled throughout in red and preserved in a sumptuous contemporary binding bearing the arms of Nicolas de Villars. Inspired by the Duodo model without belonging to the Venetian diplomat's own library, the volume combines the rarity of its decoration with the unexpected history of an episcopal book awarded as a prose composition prize at the Jesuit college of Quimper in 1637.