AULU GELLE.

Noctes atticae. Lyon, Sébastien Gryphe, 1542. In-8, fawn calf, set of cold fillets in frame, gilt fleuron in the corners, small medallion with Plato's portrait gilt in the centre, spine gilt, edges gilt (Binding of the time). Lyon edition printed in italics of the Attic Nights, the most famous work of Aulu-Gelle, a Roman grammarian of the 2nd century. INTERESTING EARLY BOOKBINDING with a medallion, in this case a portrait of Plato. Other examples of such bindings are known, with effigies of Mars, Lucretia, Dido, Aeneas, Judith, Holofernes, etc., the latter usually associated in pairs (see Mirjam Foot's Henry Davis Gift catalogue, vol. III, no. 33, on a Paris edition of 1538). The copy bears on the title the handwritten bookplate of Louis Chaduc (1564-1638), a famous antiquarian and collector from the Puy-de-Dôme region who had assembled an important collection of antique engraved stones. A binding with the effigies of Lucretia and Mars, which belonged to him, appeared in the catalogue of the Claude Lebédel sale (II, 2007, n°1). It then passed through the hands of Michel Pelissier de Féligonde (ex-libris). Unidentified engraved armorial bookplate. Edge of the title repaired, small marginal wetness. Binding very rubbed, two jaws cracked.