Roman armorial binding executed for Andrea Peretti Baroni by the Soresini workshop, presumably first quarter of the 17th c.

65. Roman armorial binding executed for Andrea Peretti Baroni by the Soresini workshop, presumably first quarter of the 17th c.

Giovanni Pietro Maffei, Historiarum Indicarum libri XVI
Bergamo, Comino Ventura, 1590 4to
Size of binding: 252 x 183 x 35 mm
Provenance: Andrea Baroni Peretti (cf inscription on recto of front flyleaf); Count Pace (cf inscription on titlepage)

Limp vellum with fore-edge flap, gold-tooled. Fillet frame. In the centre, the arms of Cardinal Andrea Baroni: the shield is edged by the prelatical cap and tassels. At angles, a triangular tool with caryatides and winged mermaids with curled tails. Remnants of a pair of ties. Flat spine. A tool in the centre of each compartment. Yellow and blue headbands. Edges gilt.

The present example is one of the four bindings housed in the Brera Library ¹ to have been executed by the Soresini workshop. It shows in fact the typical Soresini tools - caryatides at angles, winged mermaids with curled tails at angles and tools in the shield. The workshop was founded by Francesco Soresini, who was appointed binder as early as 1575. Baldassarre Soresini, a better known binder than Francesco was, kept the workshop in business for at least a half century until as late as 1630. Flaps, which in some cases were decorated, were typical of this kind of binding, and were intended to protect the edges from the dust. Andrea Peretti Baroni – whose arms are found on the present binding - was appointed cardinal by Clement VIII Aldobrandini in 1596. Peretti Baroni usually placed the arms of his foster family side by side with those of the Aldobrandinis, in honour of the Pope. He died in 1629. The present book was on display in the exhibition, El Siglo de oro in Brera, May 8 to 17, 1995. The Rome Biblioteca Casanatense houses a similar vellum binding executed for the cardinal ².

¹ EUCLIDES, Elementorum libri XV, Rome, Luigi Zanetti, 1603, C.IX.8569; Pontificale Romanum, Rome, Giacomo Luna and Leonardo Parasole and C., 1595, Gerli 91; Marc Antoine Muret, M. Antonii Mureti… Orationes. Ejusdem Interpretatio quinti libri Ethicorum Aristotelis ad Nicomachum. Item Caroli Sigonii orationes, Lyons, Symphorien Beraud et Claude Michel, 1586.
² P. QUILICI, Legature antiche e di pregio, tomo II, p. 63, No 216, fig. 89.