62. Roman binding executed by the Soresini workshop, late 16th c.

Marc-Antoine Muret,M. Antonii Mureti... Orationes. Ejusdem Interpretatio quinti libri Ethicorum Aristotelis ad Nicomachum. Item Caroli Sigonii orationes

Lyons: Symphorien Beraud and Claude Michel, 1586 16mo

Size of binding: 124 x 85 x 30 mm

Provenance: Paolo Emilio Filonardi (cf inscription on recto of front flyleaf); Angelo Maria Durini (cf bookplate on verso of front board)



Red morocco over pasteboards, gold-tooled. Double fillet border with arabesque to an all-over design made up of winged and tailed sphinxes, contrarampant rams, floral volutes, foliated tools, caryatides arranged symmetrically on either side. Upper cover, central oval with double fillets and the symbol of the Society of Jesus. The flaming oval contains the inscription in capital letters, "IHS", the Cross and the three nails of the Passion. Lower cover, an oval with a basilical pavilion and supporting cherubs. Evidence of four dark brown silk ties. Spine with four raised bands and compartments decorated with contrarampant rams. Red and blue headbands. Edges gilt and engraved.

Tools as typical as the caryatides, the winged and tailed sphinxes, the contrarampant rams, the acanthus leaves, the basilical pavilion ¹ and the floral volutes make the binding attributable to the Vatican-based Soresini workshop ². That the binding dates back to the workshop's early spell, c. 1585-1610 can be inferred from an inscription on front flyleaf to the effect that the book was given to Paolo Emilio Filonardi, a student of rhetoric at the Roman Seminary ³, as a reward in the jubilee year, 1600. The binding is arguably original, as shown by the contemporary endpapers with remnants of turn-ins, the text block cut flush with the boards' margins, and the standard-sized squares. This is one of the four bindings housed in the Brera Library to have been decorated by the Soresini workshop ⁴. Another volume closely resembling the present binding is housed in the Brera Library ⁵. The Milan Biblioteca Trivulziana holds an example decorated to the same scheme ⁵.

¹ The basilical pavilion was the insignia of the Apostolic Chamber, which presided over the secular authority of the Roman Catholic Church. The insignia consisted of an umbrella with red and gold panels, supported by a staff whose end bore St Peter's keys in saltire. ² Late 16th-early 17th-century Roman bookbinding is associated with the Soresinis, active between c. 1585 and 1630. The Soresinis were: Francesco, who set up the workshop, Prospero and Baldassarre. The latter, active between c. 1590 and 1634, reached his peak between 1605 and 1621, when he worked for the house whose name is linked with a spell in a history of Roman bookbinding, i.e. the Borghese family. Bindings by Baldassarre Soresini were bound in flaming red morocco and showed dense gilt decoration: the border usually consisted of a wide frame with figured tools, while the central panel was edged by arches (the favourite motif in contemporary Roman bookbinding) and was divided into compartments decorated with a host of tools, such as volutes, leaves, scale leaves, sitting cherubs. Tools also include: interlaced cornucopia, volutes with contrarampant dolphin- or lion heads, sphinxes, hermae, caryatides, snails, canopies. ³ The Brera Library holds two more bindings on prize books, as follows: a) Thascius Caecilius Cyprianus, Works, Antwerp, widow and heirs of Joannes Steelsius, 1568, L.P. 3; b) Jean Brodeau, Epigrammatum Graecorum annotationibus Iohannis Brodaei, Frankfurt-am-Main, Claude Marne, Johann Aubry and heirs of Andreas Wechel, 1600, L.P. 7. ⁴ Giovanni Pietro Maffei, Historiarum Indicarum libri XVI, Bergamo, Comino Ventura, 1590, 8.9.F.14; Euclid, Elementorum libri XV, Rome, Luigi Zanetti, 1603, C.IX.8569; Pontificale Romanum, Rome, Giacomo Luna and Leonardo Parasole & Co., 1595, Gerli 91. ⁵ Homer, Iliad [Greek and Latin], Geneva, Eustache Vignon, 1590, L.P. 30. ⁶ C. SANTORO, I tesori della Trivulziana…, quoted, plate CL.