This book, first published in 1999, studies and compares two sixteenth-century libraries. Jean Grolier's was a bibliophilic 'cabinet' of fine books; Diego Hurtado de Mendoza's was a much larger and more scholarly collection; a full catalogue is provided for the first time. Both men were greatly influenced by experience of Italy. Grolier has been called 'the Prince of Bibliophiles'; the books he commissioned have long been famous. This is the first full account of his life for eighty years. Hurtado de Mendoza was a poet, historian, Greek scholar and Arabist. He served as the Emperor's Ambassador in Venice (1540–6), to the Council of Trent (1545–6), and to the Pope (1547–52). In Venice he set out to form for Spain a collection of Greek manuscripts to rival that being formed for France by Francis I's agents. Anthony Hobson's text is complemented by ninety-one illustrations, several thematic indexes, eleven appendices and a bibliography.
• Contains valuable information on Grolier and Hurtado de Mendoza's work, including catalogues, lists of bindings and indexes of printers, publishers, editors, commentators and translators • Provides an account of Venetian sixteenth-century bookbinding by individual binders • Extensively illustrated with 91 black and white half-tones, including many original bookbindings
Contents
List of illustrations; Abbreviations; 1. Grolier: the early years; 2. Grolier in Italy 1515–21; 3. Grolier in France; 4. Diego Hurtado de Mendoza; 5. Venetian sixteenth-century bookbinders; Catalogue of Diego Hurtado de Mendoza's library of printed books; Index of printers and publishers; Index of editors, commentators and translators; Index of plaquette bindings; Appendices: 1. Grolier's bindings classified by workshop; 2. Grolier's petition to Francis I; 3. Anne Briçonnet's coins and medals; 4. The Venetian catalogue of Diego Hurtado de Mendoza's Greek manuscripts; 5. Bindings by the Mendoza Binder (Andrea di Lorenzo); 6. Andronicus Nucius's power of attorney; 7. Bindings by the Cicero Binder; 8. Bindings by the Fugger Binder; 9. Venetian Bindings by Anthoni Lodewijk; 10. Bindings by the Agnese Binder (Bartolomeo di Giovanni da Fino?); 11. Bindings by the Emblematic Binder; Bibliography; Index.
Review
'Renaissance Book Collecting, while adding much to familiar bibliographical subjects such as library history and bookbinding studies, enriches much more our knowledge of the history of the book … This is a work that synthesizes several centuries of scholarship at the same time as adding much that is genuinely new. The Lyell electors were no doubt delighted with the original lectures; they have much to thank Cambridge University Press for in producing a lasting version of them.' The Library
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