De asse

BUDÉ, Guillaume (1468-1540). Libri V de asse et partibus eius. Venice: Heirs of Aldus and Andreas Torresanus, September 1522.
First Aldine edition of an important work on ancient coinage. "Jean Grolier personally urged the Aldine press to publish this work on Roman coinage by his friend Guillaume Budé … There was local resistance to the work itself, which had first been published in Paris in 1515. Italian scholars could not accept the fact that a Frenchman had successfully treated the as, an important element of classical Roman coinage" (Clemons and Fletcher). Although originally conceived as a luxury edition in royal folio, the final product was this broad-margined quarto. Adams B-3101; Ahmanson-Murphy 212; Renouard 94.3; Clemons and Fletcher 75.
Quarto (205 x 134mm). Greek and Roman types. Woodcut Aldine devices on title and verso of final leaf (some dampstains, a few small spots). Old stiff vellum, title in ink on spine. Provenance: early marginalia – Herbert Claibourne Pell (bookplate).