Beschreibung:

Rouillé, Guillaume. Prima [-secunda] pars promptuarii iconum insigniorum a seculo hominum, subjectis eorum vitis, per compendium ex probatissimis autoribus desumptis. Lyon: Guillaume Rouillé, 1553. Bound with:
Jacopo Strada, Epitome thesauri antiquitatum, hoc est, imperatorum Romanorum orientalium et occidentalium iconum. Lyon: Jean de Tournes and Thomas Guérin, 6 November 1553
First edition in Latin of Guillaume Rouillé’s best-selling compilation of medallion portraits from Adam and Eve to Henri II of France, bound with the first edition (second issue; the earlier issue has a privilege dated 1 September 1553) of the Mantuan antiquary Jacopo Strada’s biographies of the Roman emperors (and their relatives), from Julius Caesar to Charles V. Both works are iconographical repertories, aiming at a much larger audience than collectors of ancient coins, although Strada’s, the more scholarly of the two, methodically identifies the portraits on the obverses, and the objects on the reverses, names the metal, provides a rough indication of size, and cites the collection in which he had seen it.
Strada had begun working as antiquarian for Johann Jakob Fugger (1516–1575) about 1544, however for unknown reasons he settled in Nuremberg rather than Augsburg, acquired a house, and became a citizen in 1549. Before departing for Rome, where he spent two years (1553–1555) as Fugger’s agent, Strada studied the coin cabinets of Nuremberg collectors, and wrote the Epitome, the only printed book he ever published. One of the cabinets Strada examined in Nuremberg, sometime before November 1546, belonged to the original owner of this copy, Georg (Jörg) Römer.
Born in 1505 at the Saxon town of Mansfeld, Georg studied at Leipzig and Wittenberg, where he was friendly with Luther, Melanchthon, and Joachim Camerarius. His passion for medals developed early, and by 1524 he had already commissioned three portrait medals. In 1525, Georg married Magdalena Welser, sister of the wealthy Nuremberg merchant Jacob Welser, with whom he had ten children. As a court assessor and lay judge (Schöffe) in Nuremberg’s Landgericht and Stadtgericht, Georg was involved in public projects, including a renewal of the city’s fortifications in 1538–ca. 1544, and the design of ephemeral architecture for the ceremonial entry of Ferdinand I as king of the Romans in 1540. In the former project, he participated as a translator between the Italian-Maltese architect Antonio Fazuni and local craftsmen, including his friend, Georg Pencz; in the latter, as designer of street decorations executed by Sebald Beck and Georg Pencz. The community of artists in Nuremberg was of great interest to Georg and in 1547 he commissioned from Johann Neudörffer a compendium of seventy-nine local artists’ and artisans’ lives, the first such work written in German, which was circulated in multiple manuscript copies.
On 9 February 1554, Georg was granted a coat of arms. The shield is charged with a black ostrich (neck only), shown rising from a blue mountain (Dreiberg) and feeding on an iron horseshoe, with above a helmet, mantle, and crest. Two versions of an exlibris displaying this insignia were made. The base of each is a printed woodcut outline, painted, and heightened with gold. Some thirteen volumes containing the Römer exlibris are known. Judging by available descriptions, it invariably appears on a leaf placed by the binder at the front of the volume; in two volumes (Alciati, Fulvio), that flyleaf is vellum. Another five volumes, lacking the exlibris, but likewise in red or light brown morocco and harmoniously decorated with the same gilt center- and corner-pieces (the quartos with added border roll), probably belonged to Georg as well. These books perhaps were bound before 1554, when Georg was granted arms. Another six bindings decorated by the same tools have a weaker claim to Georg’s ownership.
The eighteen Römer books (see list below) were published at Antwerp, Basel, Florence, Lyon, Nuremberg, Rome, Strasbourg, and Venice, in Latin, German, Italian, and Spanish. Those retaining the Römer exlibris were printed between 1517 and 1555, all but two in the narrower range 1548–1555; those without an exlibris were printed in the years 1538–1557. The volumes appear to have been bound within a short period of time, but probably not as a single order.
Georg’s interest in coins and medals is proved by two more compilations of images of the Roman emperors retrieved from ancient coins, assembled by Andrea Fulvio and Johann Huttich, each containing the Römer exlibris. A copy of Onofrio Panvinio’s similar repertoire is in a matching binding but has no exlibris; it was published in the year of Georg’s death. A complementary book, Ammianus Marcellinus’s Roman history, retains the exlibris. Georg’s fluency in Italian—utilized during Fazuni’s rebuilding of the city walls of Nuremberg—and his interest in artist biographies are manifested by the copy of Vasari’s compendium of artists’ biographies (with Römer exlibris), also by a copy of Cosimo Bartoli’s 1550 Italian translation of Leon Battista Alberti’s architectural treatise (without exlibris).
Georg Römer died on 4 April 1557. In his testament, he bequeathed his library including his maps and charts to his four sons (“alle Libereÿ sampt Mappen v. Charten den söhnen”), mandating them to keep it intact (“so sie vnzerstreut behalten sollen”). Philip was the last of his sons to die, in 1593, after which the collections passed eventually to Georg’s daughter, Catherina. Following her death, in 1622, the contents of Georg’s study was dispersed.
Three volumes (Alciati, Fulvio, Rouillé) soon entered the library assembled at Schloß Lobris in Silesia by Otto von Nostitz (1608–1665) and his son, Christoph Wenzel von Nostitz (1643–1712), where they received the latter’s distinctive armorial exlibris. After the death of Joseph Graf von Nostitz-Rieneck (1821–1890), Schloß Lobris passed through the marriage of his daughter Ernestine to the Wolkenstein-Trostburg family, and the library was removed. The Fulvio, Rouillé, Belon and Huttich were included in an auction sale conducted in 1895 by the bookseller Ludwig Rosenthal. Rosenthal took other books from Schloß Lobris into his stock, and the Alciati, Ammianus Marcellinus, Brandt, and Tarapha probably passed through his hands. A four-volume set of Livy, already in the trade by December 1892, could be evidence of an earlier disposal. Investigation of a manuscript catalogue of the Schloß Lobris library (8,824 volumes) compiled in 1769 might help to decide the matter (Prague, Nostitzbibliothek, Ms f 16: Catalogus librorum qui in bibliotheka illustrissimae familiae comitum de Nostitz et Rinek reperiuntur).
Other volumes were more widely distributed. The Alberti (without exlibris) was in the library of Sir Andrew Fountaine (1676–1753), at Narford Hall, Norfolk. The Vasari contains in addition to the Römer exlibris the exlibris of Amadeo Svajer (1727–1791), a German merchant in Venice, whose library was sold there in 1794.
The handsome bindings have perplexed cataloguers, who have argued at various times that they originated in France (Paris, or Lyon), Italy (Rome, or Venice), and Germany (Nuremberg). The similarity of the tool used for the corner-pieces and centerpiece to one deployed on Roman bindings of the mid-sixteenth century is striking. Anthony Hobson, who knew of seven such volumes (five with Römer exlibris, two without), at first considered the bindings Roman, then surmised that they all were made in Nuremberg for the same collector, speculating that he was Philipp Römer (1543–1593), the third of four sons of Georg and Magdalena Römer (“Some Sixteenth-Century Buyers of Books in Rome and Elsewhere,” pp. 74-75).
In Die Einbände der Palatina in der Vatikanischen Bibliothek, Ilse Schunke credited the binding on the Panvinio (no Römer exlibris) to the Nuremberg binder Christoph Heußler (Heusler, Häussler), without stating her grounds. Heußler had married in Nuremberg in 1541 and worked there as a printer from about 1556 until 17 February 1574, when he declared before the city council that he wished to cease printing and continue exclusively as a binder; at the time of his death, 2 October 1578, he was chairman (Vorsitzender) of the bookbinders’ guild. A binding decorated by the same tools is hesitantly credited to Heußler by the Einbanddatenbank, citing Schunke (EBDB w003205). It covers a copy of Johann Neudörffer, Ein gute Ordnung und kurtze Unterricht (1538–ca 1543). Another copy of that book, in the British Library, is decorated by the same tools, as is one in New York. Given Georg Römer’s strong friendship with Neudörffer, it may be that he arranged around 1549 to have multiple copies of the Gute Ordung specially bound.
In demonstrating the Nuremberg origin of the Römer bindings, Hobson illustrated a book bound about the same date in a similar style. A copy of the Syriac New Testament, edited by Johann Albrecht Widmanstetter (1555), it is decorated by the large corner ornaments and a roll found on some Römer bindings; it has, however, an oval mauresque plaque (49 x 38 mm) in the centers of its covers (EBDB k009827). The Einbanddatenbank credits this binding to an anonymous Nuremberg workshop (EBDB w007963).
Bindings With Römer Exlibris
(1) Andrea Alciati, Clarissimi viri d. Alciati Emblematum libri duo (Lyon: Jean de Tournes & Guillaume Gazeau, 1549).Bibliotheca Brookeriana (to be offered in a subsequent sale).
(2) Ammianus Marcellinus, Rerum gestarum libri decem et octo (Lyon: Sébastien Gryphe, 1552). Georg Römer (painted exlibris). — Charles-Henri-Auguste Schefer (1820-1898); Léon Tual & Charles Porquet, Catalogue de bons livres anciens et modernes, provenant de la bibliothèque de feu Ch. Shefer, Première partie, Paris, 8-16 May 1899, lot 468 — Joseph Baer & Co., Frankfurter Bücherfreund. Mitteilungen aus dem Antiquariate von Joseph Baer & Co. Hervorragende Bucheinbände des XIV. bis XX. Jahrhunderts (13 Jahrgang, 1919–1920; Neue folge Nr. II, Heft 2/3), item 972 and Pl. CV (M 2000); Joseph Baer & Co., Lagerkatalog 690: Bucheinbände (Frankfurt am Main 1923), item 192 & Pl. 15. Current location not traced.
(3) Pierre Belon, Les observations de plusieurs singularitez et choses memorables, trouvées en Grece, Asie, Judée, Egypte, Arabie et autres pays estranges (Antwerp: Christophe Plantin, 1555). Georg Römer (painted exlibris). Ludwig Rosenthal’s Antiquariat, Bibliothek Lobris: Katalog der reichhaltigen Bibliothek des gräflichen Schlosses Lobris bei Jauer in Schlesien und anderer Sammlungen, Munich, 22 April 1895, lot 313. Current location not traced.
(4) Bernhard Brandt, Volkumner Begriff aller lobwürdigen Geschichten und Thaten (Basel: Jacob Kündig, 1553). Georg Römer (painted exlibris). Henry Huth (1815–1878; Sotheby’s, London, 15–24 November 1911, lot 896), purchased by — J. & J. Leighton, London ([£10 5s]; Catalogue of German, Dutch & Flemish Illustrated Books, XV–XVI Cent., [1914], item 146; J. & J. Leighton, Early Printed Books Arranged by Presses, [1918?], item 2124 (£24). Current location not traced.
(5) Andrea Fulvio, lllustrium imagines (Rome: Giacomo Mazzocchi, 1517). Bibliotheca Brookeriana (to be offered in a subsequent sale)
(6) Johann Huttich, Roemische Keyser ab contravegt vom ersten caio Julio an untz uff den jetzigen H.K. Carolum. (Strassburg: Wolfgang Köpfel, 1526). Georg Römer (painted exlibris). Ludwig Rosenthal’s Antiquariat, Bibliothek Lobris: Katalog der reichhaltigen Bibliothek des gräflichen Schlosses Lobris bei Jauer in Schlesien und anderer Sammlungen, Munich, 22 April 1895, lot 1099. Current location not traced.
(7-8-9-10) Titus Livius, Titi Livii Patavini Latinae Historiae Principis Decas prima (Lyon: Sébastien Gryphe, 1548). Georg Römer (painted exlibris). Oskar Roesger, Bautzen — Adolf M. Hildebrandt, “13. Sitzung des Ex-Libris-Vereins. Berlin, den 13. December 1892” in Zeitschrift für Bücherzeichen- Bibliothekskunde und Gelehrtengeschichte 3 (1893), pp.46-48 (p.46: “Die Weller’sche Buchhandlung (Oskar Roesger) in Bautzen übersendet vier in Holzschnitt gedruckte, sehr sauber kolorirte, fein mit Gold aufgelichtete Darstellungen ein und desselben Wappens in verschiedenartiger Stilisirung. Die Blättchen waren vier Bänden einer Ausgabe des Livius vom Jahre 1548 vorgebunden. Das Wappen (Römer in Nürnberg) zeigt in Gold einen aus einer schwebenden blauen Wolke wachsenden schwarzen Straussenrumpf mit einem eisenfarbenen Hufeisen im Schnabel; derselbe wächst auch aus dem Helm, dessen Decken golden und schwarz sind.”) [two of the four volumes, the Decas prima and Decas tertia:] — Ernst Weiser; Antiquariat Emil Hirsch, Sammlung Ernst Weiser: schöne und kostbare Bucheinbände, französische Kupferwerke des XVIII. Jahrhunderts, Munich, 1 December 1924, lots 156-157 & Pl. 8.
(11) Guillaume Rouillé, Prima [-secunda] pars promptuarii iconum insigniorum a seculo hominum, subjectis eorum vitis, per compendium ex probatissimis autoribus desumptis (Lyon: Guillaume Rouillé, 1553), bound with: Jacopo Strada, Epitome thesauri antiquitatum, hoc est, imperatorum Romanorum orientalium et occidentalium iconum (Lyon: Jean de Tournes and Thomas Guérin, 1553). The volume offered here.
(12) Franciscus Tarapha, De origine, ac rebus gestis regum Hispaniae liber, multarum rerum cognitione refertus (Antwerp: Joannes Steelsius, 1553). Georg Römer (painted exlibris. New York, Pierpont Morgan Library, 075769 (purchase of Miss Julia P. Wightman, 1978).Pierpont Morgan Library, Nineteenth Report to the Fellows (New York, 1981), p.106 & Pl. 18. 
(13) Giorgio Vasari, Le vite de’più eccellenti architetti, pittori et scultori italiani (Florence: Lorenzo Torrentino, 1550). Georg Römer (painted exlibris). — Amadeus Svajer (1727-1791), armorial exlibris — John Roland Abbey (1894-1969); Sotheby & Co., Catalogue of valuable printed books and fine bindings from the celebrated collection; the property of Major J.R. Abbey, London, 21-23 June 1965, lot 670 — “Dr Ferguson” - bought in sale (£550) — Sotheby’s, Catalogue of Italian printed books with sections on political economy and science. The second and final portion, London 12–13 May 1975, lot 922, purchase by — “Evans” (£4800). Current location not traced.
Bindings Without Römer Exlibris
(14) Leon Battista Alberti, L’architettura di Leonbatista Alberti tradotta in lingua fiorentina da Cosimo Bartoli (Florence: Lorenzo Torrentino, 1550). — Sir Andrew Fountaine (1676-1753), added crest on spine — Sotheby Wilkinson & Hodge, Catalogue of a selection of valuable books & manuscripts from the library of Sir Andrew Fountaine, of Narford Hall, Norfolk, collected by him in the reigns of Queen Anne and Kings George I and II, London, 11-14 June 1902, lot 8 — J. & J. Leighton, London - bought in sale (£2 12s) — Joseph Baer & Co., Lagerkatalog 690: Bucheinbände (Frankfurt am Main 1923), item 326 & Pl. 48 — Lessing Julius Rosenwald (1891–1979) — Washington, D.C., Library of Congress, Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection, NA2517.A34 1550. A Catalog of the Gifts of Lessing J. Rosenwald to the Library of Congress, 1943 to 1975 (Washington, DC 1977), no. 847.
(15) Paolo Giovio, Libro de la vida y chronica de Gonçalo Hernandes de Cordoba, llamado por sobrenombre el gran capitan (Antwerp: Gerard Speelmans, 1555). Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale Albert I, LP 5.657 A.
(16) Francisco Lopez de Gómara, Historia de Mexico con el descubrimiento dela nuena España (Antwerp: Joannes Steelsius, 1554). Libreria Ulrico Hoepli & E. Aeschlimann, Autographes, miniatures, manuscrits, incunables, livres illustrés du XVIe au XIXe siècle, éditions de luxe, livres d’art, reliures, Zurich, 11–12 June 1929, lot 67 & Pl. 35. Current location not traced.
(17) Cristoforo Messi Sbughi, Libro novo nel qual s’insegna a far d’ogni sorte di vivanda secondo la diversità de’ tempi (Venice: Giovanni Dalla Chiesa, 1552). — Maggs Bros, Catalogue 913: Music, a catalogue of manuscripts & printed books, Part one: Late medieval to second half eighteenth century (London 1968), item 137 (£140) — E. P. Goldschmidt, Catalogue 143: Books for Scholars and Collectors (London, 1970), item 144. Current location not traced.
(18) Onofrio Panvinio, Fasti et triumphi Rom. a Romulo rege vsque ad Carolum V Cæs. Aug. siue epitome regum, consulum, dictatorum, magistror. equitum, tribunorum militum consulari potestate, censorum, impp. & aliorum magistratuum Roman. cum Orientalium tum Occidentalium (Venice: Jacopo Strada, 1557). Biblioteca Apostolica Vaticana, R.I.II.960.
Bindings by the Römer Binder
(19) Bible. NT. Syriac, Liber Sacrosancti Evangelii de Iesv Christo Domino & Deo nostro, ed. Johann Albrecht Widmanstetter and Moses Mardenus (Vienna: Michael Zimmermann, 1555). Johann Conrad Feuerlein (engraved exlibris) — Zurich, Zentralbibliothek, Gall. VII bis. 74. Hobson, op. cit., Pl. VII.
(20) Georg Hartmann, Manuscript: Compositiones horologiorum et aliorum instrumentorum, ca. 1527. Weimar, Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek, Fol max 29. Herzogin Anna Amalia Bibliothek, Die lateinischen Handschriften bis 1600 (Wiesbaden 2004), pp.35-44 (“wahrscheinlich von Christoph Heusler, 1578 Vorsitzender der Buchbinderinnung in Nürnberg, vgl. die Stempel auf R.I. II. 960 [Vatikanstadt], abgebildet in Schunke …”). 
(21) Johannes Neudörffer, Ein gute ordnung, und kurtze unterricht, der fuernemsten grunde aus denen die jungen, zierlichs schreybens begirlich, mit besonderer kunst und behendigkeyt unterricht und geuebt moegen werden ([Nuremberg] 1538–ca. 1543). Hanns Lebzelter — Louise Wolf (exlibris) — London, British Library, c69aa18.
(22) Johannes Neudörffer, Ein gute ordnung, und kurtze unterricht, der fuernemsten grunde aus denen die jungen, zierlichs schreybens begirlich, mit besonderer kunst und behendigkeyt unterricht und geuebt moegen werden ([Nuremberg] 1538–ca. 1543). Unidentified owner (supralibros, upper cover lettered “S W G D M D | V I N I N E | 1549” and the lower cover “H I B | 1590”) — Nuremberg, Bibliothek des Germanischen Nationalmuseums, Postinc. 8° W.954.Katalog der im germanischen Museum vorhanden interessanten Bucheinbände (Nuremberg 1889), p.70 no. 280; Zierlich schreiben: der Schreibmeister Johann Neudörffer d.Ä. und seine Nachfolger in Nürnberg (Munich 2007), pp.77, 116.
(23) Johannes Neudörffer, Ein gute ordnung, und kurtze unterricht, der fuernemsten grunde aus denen die jungen, zierlichs schreybens begirlich, mit besonderer kunst und behendigkeyt unterricht und geuebt moegen werden ([Nuremberg] 1538–ca. 1543) — New York, Metropolitan Museum of Art, Gift of Felix M. Warburg, 1928 (28.106.28).Susanne Meurer, “Translating the hand into print: Johann Neudörffer’s etched writing manual” in Renaissance Quarterly 75 (2022), pp.403-458 (p.439).
(24) Francesco Petrarca, Le rime del Petrarcha tanto piu corrette, quanto piu ultime di tutte stampate (Venice: Vincenzo Valgrisi, 1549). Marchese Gian Giacomo Trivulzio (exlibris) — Milan, Biblioteca Trivulziana, Petr.74. Marisa Gazzotti, in Il Fondo Petrarchesco della Biblioteca Trivulziana: Manoscritti ed edizioni a stampa (sec. XIV-XX), edited by Giancarlo Petrella (Milan 2006), pp.149-150 no. 27.
2 works in one volume, 4to (252 x 175 mm). (I) Roman and italic types, 39 lines plus headline. collation: (part 1) a8 b4 c–m8: 92 leaves; (part 2) aa–qq8: 128 leaves. Woodcut cartouche at head of title to part 1 (repeated on m8v), Rouillé’s eagle and serpent device on title to part 1, emblematic woodcut device to title of part 2, historiated and floriated woodcut initials; 828 circular woodcut medallions (from 827 blocks, one repeated [Henri II qq3v=qq4v]), oval woodcut medallion of the Nativity. (II) Roman, italic, and Greek types, 37 lines plus headline. collation: A–L4 a–z4 2A–V4: 216 leaves. Guerin’s large woodcut device on title (Baudrier no. 1), Full-page woodcut arms of dedicatee Jakob Fugger on verso of title; 488 circular white-on-black woodcut medallions (391 with portraits, 97 with name only in frame). (Scattered browning.)
binding: Nuremberg red goatskin over wooden boards (263 x 196 mm), ca. 1553, perhaps by Christoph Heußler (?), in the style of Roman gold tooled bindings, richly gold-tooled outer border formed by 2 sets of double gilt fillets, arabesque in square formed at angles, frame with repeated arabesque, fleuron at inner angles, large central ornament composed of 4 arabesques (the tool used at the outer corners) surrounded by a single gilt fillet forming loops containing a marguerite at ordinal points, traces of 4 pairs of silk ties, plain edges. (Very light rubbing, spine dulled save for first compartment [later label removed?].)
provenance: Georg Römer (painted exlibris) — Christoph Wenzel Graf Von Nostitz-Rokitnitz (1643–1712; engraved armorial exlibris, lettered “C.W.G.V.N.”) — Ludwig Rosenthal’s Antiquariat, Bibliothek Lobris (Katalog der reichhaltigen Bibliothek des gräflichen Schlosses Lobris bei Jauer i/Schlesien und anderer Sammlungen, Munich, 22 April 1895, lot 1164, binding illustrated) — Robert Hoe (1839–1909; exlibris; Carolyn Shipman, A Catalogue of Books Printed in Foreign Fanguages Before the year 1600, Forming a Portion of the Library of Robert Hoe [New York, 1907], II, p. 134; Anderson Galleries, New York, 1–5 May 1911, lot 2666), purchased by — unidentified owner ($60) — Thomas Jefferson Coolidge, Jr. (1863–1912) — Marlborough Rare Books, London — Otto Schäfer (1912–2000; circular ink-stamp OS 1328 [acquired in 1986]; Sotheby’s, New York, 1 November 1995, lot 186). acquisition: Purchased at the Schäfer sale through Martin Breslauer, Inc. 
references: (I) FB 85137; USTC 151373; Baudrier, IX, p.204; Gültlingen, IX, p.176: 267; Adams P-2161; (II) FB 87031/87032; USTC 156064/151288; Baudrier, X, 365; Gültlingen, IX, p.176: 267; Cartier, de Tournes, no. 260; Adams S-1916; Mortimer, French, 502; for the binding, see A. Hobson, “Some Sixteenth-Century Buyers of Books in Rome and Elsewhere,” in Humanistica Lovaniensia 34A (1985), pp. 65–75 (p. 74, no. 5 & Pl. VI); Von Arnim, Europäische Einbandkunst aus sechs Jahrhunderten: Beispiele aus der Bibliothek Otto Schäfer (Schweinfurt, 1992), no. 47b.