Ammianus Marcellinus in a Contemporary Gilt Vellum Binding from the Circle of Jean Grolier
Ammianus Marcellinus. Rerum gestarum libri decem et octo. Lyon, Sebastianus Gryphius, 1552.
A remarkably elegant pocket edition of the greatest surviving historical work of late antiquity, printed by the eminent Lyon humanist-printer Sebastian Gryphius and preserved in a strictly contemporary gilt vellum binding attributed to the celebrated Cupid’s Bow Binder — one of Jean Grolier’s principal Parisian binders during the years 1547–1553.
Edition & Bibliographic Information
a–z8 A–Z8 aa4 = 736 pp., 2 leaves, 2 blank leaves.
With woodcut printer’s device on the title and several woodcut initials.
Sixteenmo (123 × 71 mm).
The Res gestae of Ammianus Marcellinus survives from a single medieval manuscript tradition descending from the now-lost Hersfeld Codex, rediscovered in 1417 by Poggio Bracciolini. The present edition belongs to the remarkable Renaissance recovery and dissemination of one of antiquity’s greatest historical texts.
Physical Description & Binding
Contemporary flexible gilt vellum binding, probably by the Cupid’s Bow Binder. Smooth spine entirely decorated with floral and ornamental tooling. Covers within double gilt fillet borders enclosing a highly symmetrical arabesque design of curved and straight lines with stylized hatched leaves. Turn-ins with gilt border decoration. Entirely gilt gauffered edges with dotted vine ornament and brown-red coloured foliage.
Binding lightly stained; paper somewhat browned throughout with a continuous lower marginal dampstain; occasional minor worming to blank margins.
Though physically small and conceived as a portable “pocket edition,” the volume was elevated into a sophisticated object of aristocratic bibliophily through its refined contemporary binding. The delicate curvilinear arabesques and hatched ornamental tools reflect the newest Parisian decorative fashions introduced around 1545 under the influence of goldsmiths’ ornament and Fontainebleau court design.
A Binding from the Circle of Jean Grolier
The binding is closely associated with the workshop known today as the Cupid’s Bow Binder, named after a characteristic bow-shaped tool frequently employed in his decorative schemes. This workshop produced bindings for some of the most distinguished bibliophiles of Renaissance France and served as one of Jean Grolier’s principal binderies between approximately 1547 and 1553.
Several tools identified by Howard Nixon as characteristic of the Cupid’s Bow Binder appear closely related to those used on the present volume. The attribution is further reinforced by comparisons with bindings made for Grolier himself, particularly examples now preserved in major institutional collections.
The restrained intelligence of the design is especially notable. Unlike larger ceremonial Grolier bindings built around central cartouches or medallions, the compact format here allows the arabesque geometry itself to dominate the entire surface in a perfectly controlled symmetrical composition.
Ammianus Marcellinus and the Fall of Rome
Ammianus Marcellinus (c. 330 – c. 395) was not merely a historian, but a former Roman officer who personally witnessed many of the events he described. His surviving books (14–31) chronicle the Roman Empire between 353 and 378, including the growing threat posed by the migrations of the Huns and Goths and culminating in the catastrophic Roman defeat at Adrianople.
Beyond military history, Ammianus offers extensive digressions on geography, ethnography, religion, and philosophy, making the Res gestae one of the richest surviving literary documents of late antiquity. Renaissance humanists regarded the work as indispensable precisely because it went far beyond the abbreviated imperial chronicles of writers such as Aurelius Victor and Eutropius.
It is therefore unsurprising that Sebastian Gryphius — one of the most intellectually ambitious printers of sixteenth-century Lyon — incorporated the text into his publishing programme.
Sebastian Gryphius and Humanist Lyon
Sebastian Gryphius (1491/93–1556) stood at the centre of Lyon’s humanist printing culture and became renowned for producing scholarly yet highly elegant classical editions. The present Ammianus combines that humanist typographical clarity with one of the most refined small-format bindings of the French Renaissance.
The binding was likely executed shortly after publication in 1552, before the apparent dissolution of the Cupid’s Bow Binder’s workshop around 1556. It is entirely possible that the volume was offered already bound in this refined form for elite collectors and cultivated readers.
Literature
Adams A 973; Baudrier VIII, 257; BM STC French 301; Graesse I, 104; Schweiger II/1, 2.
For a fuller scholarly description and illustrations, see Wunderkammer Catalogue 90, lot 86:
Wunderkammer Catalogue 90, Volume II
