One of the Great Surviving Duodo Bindings from the Libraries of Thorold, Rahir, and Langlois
Enchiridion psalmorum ex Hebraica veritate latinati donatum, & mira claritate illustratum. Item Magni Athanasij opusculum in Psalmos, Angelo Politiano interprete. Paris, Claude Chevallon, 1533.
An exceptionally rare edition of the Psalms translated from the Hebrew by the Swiss reformer Huldrych Zwingli, preserved in one of the celebrated red morocco bindings commissioned by the Venetian ambassador Pietro Duodo for his extraordinary Parisian travelling library. Only two additional copies of this edition are recorded in France. The present copy passed through the great collections of Sir John Hayford Thorold, Édouard Rahir, and André Langlois.
Edition & Bibliographic Information
a–z8; A–B8 = 368 numbered pages; 16 pages (final leaf blank). With occasional Greek and Hebrew text. The second work with separate title page. Entirely ruled throughout in pale red.
With woodcut printer’s devices, ornamental initials, and decorative borders throughout. Duodecimo (112 × 73 mm).
The volume combines Zwingli’s Latin translation of the Psalms from the Hebrew text with Angelo Poliziano’s translation of Athanasius’ treatise on the Psalms. Far from functioning merely as devotional literature, the work presents the Psalms as a mirror of the human soul — an interpretation deeply resonant with Renaissance humanist philosophy and particularly meaningful for Pietro Duodo himself, who had written philosophical works de anima.
Physical Description & Binding
Magnificent late sixteenth-century dark red morocco binding executed for Pietro Duodo, with lavish gilt decoration on smooth spine. The spine compartments contain four distinct floral tools enclosed within oval laurel wreaths, with the remaining surface densely filled with petits fers. Covers framed by palm branches bordered by double gilt fillets; the central panels decorated as a semé with the same floral tools used on the spine.
At the centre of the front cover appears the celebrated Duodo supralibros with three Bourbon fleurs-de-lis; the rear cover bears three fleur-de-lis rising from a hill beneath the motto:
“Expectata non eludet”
The volume further preserves gilt board edges and entirely gilt edges throughout and is housed in a modern Plexiglas case.
The binding belongs to one of the most fascinating aristocratic travelling libraries of the late Renaissance. For generations these richly decorated small-format morocco volumes were mistakenly attributed to Marguerite de Valois and the workshop of Clovis Ève. Only in 1925 did Ludovic Bouland definitively identify the true owner as the Venetian diplomat Pietro Duodo.
Pietro Duodo and the Parisian Travelling Library
Pietro Duodo (1554–1610), Venetian ambassador to the court of Henry IV from 1594 to 1597, assembled during his Paris years one of the most refined portable libraries of the late sixteenth century. Approximately ninety editions in 133 volumes are known today.
Duodo had studied law, philosophy, mathematics, and astronomy in Padua under the Aristotelian philosopher Francesco Piccolomini, whom he regarded as “the greatest philosopher of our age.” His collecting reflects this humanist synthesis of theology, philosophy, science, and literature.
The bindings themselves formed part of an elaborate intellectual classification system. Theology, philosophy, and history were uniformly bound in red morocco; scientific works in citron morocco; literary works in olive green. All volumes received characteristic red ruling throughout.
The present Psalter, though theological in content, also carried philosophical significance through the appended Athanasius text, which interprets the Psalms as reflections of the entire emotional and spiritual condition of humanity.
A Library Lost to Diplomacy
On departing Paris in November 1597, Duodo was forced to leave behind his beloved library. His later diplomatic career — at the court of Rudolf II in Prague, in England, France, and Rome — prevented him from recovering it, and he never saw the collection again.
The library nevertheless survived substantially intact for nearly two centuries before its eventual dispersal. Today the surviving Duodo bindings are regarded among the great achievements of late Renaissance bibliophily, admired for their refined decorative coherence and extraordinary historical individuality.
Provenance
Pietro Duodo (1554–1610), with his armorial supralibros.
Sir John Hayford Thorold (1734–1815), among the great English collectors of his age; later his son, whose Sotheby’s sale in 1884 realized the remarkable price of £131 for the volume.
Édouard Rahir, with gilt bookplate.
André Langlois.
Literature
Not in Adams or BM STC French; Delaveau/Hillard 3292; Kerney 3 (this copy); Moreau IV, 586; Panzer VIII, p. 167, nos. 2258–2259; Quentin-Bauchart I, 146, no. 2 (this copy).
For the binding: cf. Esmerian I, nos. 59–61; Hobson/Culot no. 66; Olivier 65; Tenschert XIX, no. 21.
For a fuller scholarly description and illustrations, see Wunderkammer Catalogue 90, number 78:
Wunderkammer Catalogue 90, Volume II
