{"product_id":"a-magnificent-medici-related-mosaic-binding-possibly-presented-by-cosimo-i-de-medici-to-paolo-giordano-orsini","title":"A Magnificent Medici-Related Mosaic Binding Possibly Presented by Cosimo I de’ Medici to Paolo Giordano Orsini","description":"\u003ch3\u003eMambrino Roseo’s \u003cem\u003eLives of the Ten Emperors\u003c\/em\u003e in an Extraordinary Renaissance Mosaic Binding\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eMambrino Roseo (translator). \u003cem\u003eLe vite dei diece imperatori, incominciando dal fine di Suetonio, nella lingua Italiana tradotte.\u003c\/em\u003e Venice, Michele Tramezzino, 1544.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAn exceptionally preserved Renaissance binding with direct dynastic connections to the Medici court, possibly commissioned by Cosimo I de’ Medici as a wedding gift for his son-in-law Paolo Giordano Orsini upon his marriage to Isabella de’ Medici in 1558. The volume combines political symbolism, aristocratic genealogy, and moral instruction within one of the most visually striking Italian mosaic bindings of the sixteenth century.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eEdition \u0026amp; Bibliographic Information\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eA8 a–z8 aa–ff8 = 8 leaves, 231 numbered leaves, 1 leaf.\u003cbr\u003eWith woodcut printer’s device on the title and printed guide letters for initials throughout. Pale red ruling.\u003cbr\u003eSmall octavo (156 × 101 mm).\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe work is an Italian translation by Mambrino Roseo of Antonio de Guevara’s celebrated imperial biographies, first published in Spanish only a few years earlier in 1539. Structured after Suetonius and Plutarch, the text presents moral and political portraits of Roman emperors intended as exempla for rulers and noble readers.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eRoseo promised the “curious reader” not only “remarkable examples,” but also “furious punishments.” The book moves deliberately between virtuous and depraved rulers, culminating in the contrast between the corrupt Heliogabalus and the exemplary Alexander Severus.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003ePhysical Description \u0026amp; Binding\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eContemporary citron morocco binding over five raised bands, richly decorated in gilt and black mosaic work. The covers are framed by black onlaid strapwork enclosed within gilt fillets, with elaborate corner ornaments and a central armorial supralibros surrounded by interlaced black ornament. Gilt edges with floral and ornamental tooling. Two ties removed.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe binding is among the most remarkable features of the volume. The central medallion bears the alliance arms of Paolo Giordano Orsini and Isabella de’ Medici together with the inscription “PAVL IORDAN URS. D. ARAGON.” The surrounding black strapwork appears to allude directly to Giovanni de’ Medici, the legendary condottiere known as \u003cem\u003eGiovanni delle bande nere\u003c\/em\u003e (“John of the Black Bands”), father of Cosimo I de’ Medici.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe decorative vocabulary closely recalls bindings associated with Thomas Mahieu and the sophisticated French-Italian court style connected to Catherine de’ Medici. Hobson’s so-called “Dotted Group” provides the closest stylistic comparison.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eA Renaissance Mirror for Princes — in the Hands of a Murderer\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe irony at the heart of this volume is extraordinary.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe book was likely intended as a moral and political guide for the young Paolo Giordano Orsini, future Duke of Bracciano, presenting imperial biographies as lessons in rulership, virtue, and statecraft. Yet Orsini himself would become infamous for violence, political brutality, and scandal.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eIn 1576 he had his wife Isabella de’ Medici strangled at the Medici villa in Cerreto Guidi after accusations of infidelity. The following year he arranged the murder of her alleged lover. Later he orchestrated the assassination of the husband of his own mistress, Vittoria Accoromboni, before eventually being murdered himself in 1585 near Lake Garda. Vittoria was assassinated later the same year.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe tension between the refined humanist ideal embodied by the book and the violent reality of its owner gives the volume an almost theatrical historical dimension. It becomes not merely a Renaissance binding of aristocratic beauty, but an object standing at the intersection of dynastic propaganda, political ambition, moral literature, and personal catastrophe.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eHistorical Context\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe volume emerges directly from the unstable political world of sixteenth-century Florence. Following the assassination of Alessandro de’ Medici in 1537, Cosimo I consolidated Medici power and transformed Tuscany into a grand duchy. Throughout his reign, Cosimo cultivated the legacy of his father Giovanni delle bande nere as a symbol of dynastic legitimacy and military heroism.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eThe present binding appears to participate in precisely this political language. Even within an intimate wedding gift, dynastic symbolism remains carefully embedded into the decoration itself.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eProvenance\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eAlliance supralibros of Paolo Giordano Orsini and Isabella de’ Medici.\u003cbr\u003eOwnership inscription of “Del Dr Jacopo Collini,” likely an eighteenth-century Florentine physician.\u003cbr\u003eKundig sale, Geneva, 27 March 1950, lot 112, purchased by Marc Loliée.\u003cbr\u003eLater in the collection of André Langlois, with gilt exlibris.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003ch3\u003eLiterature\u003c\/h3\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eNot in Adams; BM STC Italian 588; EDIT 16 CNCE 35135; not in Brunet, Graesse, or Mortimer, \u003cem\u003eItalian Books\u003c\/em\u003e; Tinto 56; for Guevara see Palau 110328; for the binding see Hobson, \u003cem\u003eMaioli\u003c\/em\u003e, pp. 40–41.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\u003cp\u003eFor a fuller scholarly description and illustrations, see \u003cem\u003eWunderkammer\u003c\/em\u003e Catalogue 90, lot 81:\u003cbr\u003e\u003ca href=\"https:\/\/issuu.com\/heribert-tenschert\/docs\/katalog_90_vol_2_web?utm_source=chatgpt.com\"\u003eWunderkammer Catalogue 90, Volume II\u003c\/a\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":46829888864444,"sku":null,"price":0.0,"currency_code":"USD","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0736\/1285\/3436\/files\/mambrino-roseo-1.png?v=1778880764","url":"https:\/\/atelierzweig.com\/products\/a-magnificent-medici-related-mosaic-binding-possibly-presented-by-cosimo-i-de-medici-to-paolo-giordano-orsini","provider":"Atelier Zweig Rare Books","version":"1.0","type":"link"}