HUTTICH Johannes Imperatorum Romanorum libellus. Una cum imaginibus ad vivam effigiem expressis.

VD-16, H-6473; Austin, 237; pour une reliure proche voir: BNF, Reliures, Smith-Lesouef R-274 (Salluste. De conjurationes. Venise, Alde, 1508); Hobson, Renaissance Book Collecting, p. 224, n° 237 & p. 58. 

Deuxième édition de cet ouvrage très élégant, imprimée par le typographe Köpfel et ornés de très nombreuses gravures sur bois par Hans Weiditz. 

Les gravures, dessinent les empereurs de l’empire romain et on y les portraits de César, Maximilen, Charles Quint, Ferdinant I, et d’autres. Elles sont, sans exception, bien encrées et bien imprimées. 

Exemplaire de Jean Grolier habillé par l’atelier du relieur à la Fleur de Lys. Après avoir été accusé à tort de détournement de l’argent des contribuables au début de 1520, Grolier fut envoyé en prison dans les années 1530 mais libéré en 1538. 

« The fact that he was guiltless was widely recognized. Bandello commended the prudence and constancy with which he had suffered the raging blasts of misfortune, his heroism in submitting to its battering and his wisdom in opposing the shield of innocence to its poisonous darts. Grolier had been reinstated in his office of Treasurer of France by April 1538. As soon as he was released, he began to rebuild his library. He bought another copy of the Aldine Livy; two copies of Huttich’s series of emperor portraits based on the Roman coinage; books published in Lyons during his imprisonment – Marliani’s topography of Ancient Rome, Lazare Baïf on Roman clothing, Sadoleto on the fiftieth Psalm; he bought Latin poetry by Pontano and Sannazaro and Vida. He had them bound by, and probably bought them from, a man known in the literature as the ‘Fleur-de-lis binder’” (Hobson) 

Provenance: Heathcote – Heber – Thorpe – Vernon – Holford – Baer – Abbey – Heilbrun – Bernard Malle. Dos habilement refait, coins restaurés.