St Marys Books

A stunning collection of 139 sixteenth century engravings and prints. Beautifully bound in eighteenth century red morocco, with elaborate gilt tooled borders to boards, and gilt inner dentelles. Five raised bands to the spine, black label band with gilt titles, intricate gilt tooling. Very minor loss to the titles bind, minor rubbing to the extremities and some light marking to the boards but still presents very well overall, gilt to the boards still nice and bright. Marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. Small early Porkington library book plate to the front pastedown. Plates mounted one per page, starting with 24 after Salvator Rosa, then 4 of Saints after Albrecht Durer. The rest are mostly a combination of the Wierix Brothers, Bodart, Brueghel, and Peter Hus among others, most of which are hallmarked with initials. The last 40 depict nuns in various costume and have Latin text to the base. These are numbered and appear to be from the same source. Plates generally in excellent condition, most trimmed within platemark, many biblical scenes with intricate detail. Just slight water damage and minor foxing to a few pages, predominantly the last few. First page a little loose, hinges starting in places but generally binding tight. Two neat ink inscriptions, light pencil annotations through out referencing the engravings. Pencil to the page only, never to the engravings. An astonishing large collection of engravings from the sixteenth century, including two of the best known engravers of the period, very well preserved in a beautiful later period binding.