An early manuscript of Caporali’s poetic history of Rome, bound for Cardianl Aldobrandini, who soon became Pope Clement VIII.
 
Contemporary manuscript handwritten on 108 leaves in a neat cursive hand. Octavo (195 x 135mm). In a contemporary armorial binding for Cardinal Ippolito Aldobrandini (later Pope Clement VIII). Full dark red morocco, gold-tooled Ventian borders, enclosing the arms of Cardinal Aldobrandini, the intervening spaces powdered with stars, large stars in gilt to the spine, all edges gilt. A very good copy, some dampstaining internally. The binding with loss to the head of the spine, and some old bits of restoration.
 
An exceptionally decorative 16th century Italian binding, extravagantly produced for Cardinal Aldobrandini.
 
The manuscript is a copy of the Vita di Mecenate by Cesare Caporali, which first circulated in manuscript form, as attested by other copies in public libraries (noteworthy is the autograph ms.I74 dated 1591, preserved in the Biblioteca Comunale Augusta in Perugia), before being published in 1604.
 
The manuscript later left Italy, joining Vernon Library at Sudbury Hall in Derbyshire. After the First World War the library had to be sold, and in 1918 it was sold at Sothebys and bought by the great collector of bookbindings Michael Tomkinson.
 
PROVENANCE: Pope Clement VIII (1536-16050, his Cardinal arms to binding; George John Warren, 5th Baron Vernon (1803-1866), a Dante scholar, his bookplate to front pastedown the motto 'Vernon semper viret'; by descent to Lieutenant Francis Venables-Vernon, 8th Baron Vernon (1889-1963), sold at the sale of the Sudbury Hall Library, Sotheby, 10th June 1918, lot 117, to; Michael Tomkinson (1841-1921).