Renaissance Book Collecting: Jean Grolier and Diego Hurtado de Mendoza, their Books and Bindings
Cambridge University Press
Edition: Illustrated, 7/8/1999
EAN 9780521651295, ISBN10: 0521651298
Hardcover, 296 pages, 27.9 x 21.6 x 1.8 cm
Language: English
This book, first published in 1999, studies and compares two sixteenth-century libraries. Jean Grolier's was a bibliophilic 'cabinet' of fine books; Diego Hurtado de Mendoza's was a much larger and more scholarly collection; a full catalogue is provided for the first time. Both men were greatly influenced by experience of Italy. Grolier has been called 'the Prince of Bibliophiles'; the books he commissioned have long been famous. This is the first full account of his life for eighty years. Hurtado de Mendoza was a poet, historian, Greek scholar and Arabist. He served as the Emperor's Ambassador in Venice (1540–6), to the Council of Trent (1545–6), and to the Pope (1547–52). In Venice he set out to form for Spain a collection of Greek manuscripts to rival that being formed for France by Francis I's agents. Anthony Hobson's text is complemented by ninety-one illustrations, several thematic indexes, eleven appendices and a bibliography.
List of illustrations
Abbreviations
1. Grolier
the early years
2. Grolier in Italy 1515–21
3. Grolier in France
4. Diego Hurtado de Mendoza
5. Venetian sixteenth-century bookbinders
Catalogue of Diego Hurtado de Mendoza's library of printed books
Index of printers and publishers
Index of editors, commentators and translators
Index of plaquette bindings
Appendices
1. Grolier's bindings classified by workshop
2. Grolier's petition to Francis I
3. Anne Briçonnet's coins and medals
4. The Venetian catalogue of Diego Hurtado de Mendoza's Greek manuscripts
5. Bindings by the Mendoza Binder (Andrea di Lorenzo)
6. Andronicus Nucius's power of attorney
7. Bindings by the Cicero Binder
8. Bindings by the Fugger Binder
9. Venetian Bindings by Anthoni Lodewijk
10. Bindings by the Agnese Binder (Bartolomeo di Giovanni da Fino?)
11. Bindings by the Emblematic Binder
Bibliography
Index.