Apollo and Pegasus: An enquiry into the formation and dispersal of a Renaissance library

Amsterdam: Gérard Th. Van Heusden, 1975 4to (31 cm), front., XVIII, 252 pp, 25 plates. Publisher's cloth and dust jacket. "The group of Italian Renaissance bindings decorated with a plaquette of Apollo and Pegasus has attracted the attention of scholars and collectors since they were first noticed in print by Yhomas Frognall Dibdin in 1817. Anthony Hobson has submitted the 144 recorded volumes of the collection to close scrutiny.The owner proves to have been a young man whose name had not previously been mentioned in connection with the bindings. The author considers the circumstances and chronology of the library's formation and craftsmen who produced the bindings. Other topics include the relationship between binders and book trade in 16th century Italy and the choice of title and editions in the collection, in particular to what extent it was influenced by a taste for fine printing. The final chapter traces the dispercal of the libary." (from the publisher's description)