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15 CASTIGLIONE, Baldassare. The Book of the Courtier. New York: Charles Scribner’s Sons, 1901 kelliegram binding First American edition, number 193 of 500 copies only, in a splendid example of a Kelliegram binding, the ornate onlaid bindings pioneered by Kelly & Sons. The Book of the Courtier comprises a philosophical dialogue on what constitutes an ideal courtier to a political leader. Baldassare Castiglione (1478–1529) was a courtier at the court of Urbino, afterwards the court’s ambassador to Rome, then ambassador of the Holy See in Madrid, where he followed the court of Charles V. The dialogue was written in Urbino and Rome between 1508 and 1516, and first published in 1528 by the Aldine Press. The work was enormously popular over the following centuries, with over 140 editions listed in the bibliography appended to this volume, which identifies this as the first edition printed in the Americas. It did much to shape European court behaviour in the 16th century, disseminating Italian culture and courtly customs across the continent, and into Tudor England where its effect was pronounced and is a recognized influence on Shakespeare.
“Kelliegram bindings were one of many innovations of the English commercial binding firm of Kelly & Sons. The Kelly family had one of the longest connections in the history of the binding trade in London, having been founded in 1770 by John Kellie, as the name was then spelled. The binding firm was carried on by successive members of the family into the 1930s . . . The development [during the 1880s] that came to be known as Kelliegram was one of the bindery’s most notable, and the popularity continues today as demonstrated by the prices Kelliegram bindings command at auction and in the rare book trade” (Dooley, p. 4). Quarto (277 × 202 mm). Contemporary brown morocco by Kelly & Sons, spine lettered in gilt, covers and compartments with elaborate gilt heraldic design incorporating onlays of blue, red, and brown morocco, green morocco doublures and gilt turn-ins, green moire silk endpapers, top edge gilt. With frontispiece and 75 plates of portraits and facsimile autographs, with captioned tissue-guards. Slight foxing and toning, early leaves with peripheral nicks and tiny chips, short closed tear at foot of half-title. A very good copy, exquisitely bound. ¶ John Dooley, “Kelliegram Bindings”, in Bryn Mawr College Library Newsletter , No. 2, April 1998. £3,500 [157190]
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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