Books with Royal Bookplates
Marie de' Medici
Marie de' Medici was Queen of France as the second wife of King Henry IV of France, the mother of Louis XIII and the Duke of Gaston of Orleans. She married Henry IV in 1600. Since 1610, she acted as regent for her son, a minor Louis XIII. In 1617, Louis exiled his mother to the Château de Blois to get rid of her guardianship and political influence. In 1631, a conflict with the first Minister Richelieu, the future Cardinal de Richelieu, was followed by her self-exile. Marie de' Medici fled France and until her death moved through European cities, dying eleven years later in Cologne.
Piccolomini, Alessandro (1508-1578).
Piena, et larga parafrase; di M. Alessandro Piccolomini; nel secondo libro della Retorica d' Aristotele à Theodette: Con la tavola dei capi in quella contenuti : dalli argomenti dei quali potra il lectore agevolmente conoscere, quanto utile & necessaria lettione se li appresenti. — In Venetia [Venezia] : appresso Gio. Francesco Camotio, 1569.
4° (146 х 210 mm). Brown leather binding with blind and gold embossing. The super-ex-libris of Marie de 'Medici — monogram of two letters "M" on the front and back covers of the binding and on the spine (is established by: OHR, pl. 2504, №3, 4).
Provenance: Jean Ballesdens (1595-1675) (a handwritten note on the title page «Ballesdens»); Załuski, Józef Andrzej (1702-1774) (characteristic notes on the title page).
Shelf mark: 7.9.2.52
This copy is notable for its binding, decorated with gilded monograms of two letters "M" and black flowers indicating that this book belonged to Queen Mary of the Medici. The title page carries the name of the second owner written in the neat hand, — "Ballesdens" between two crossed out letters "s". He was the Paris lawyer and bibliophile Jean Ballesdane (1595-1675). For a long time, Ballesdane served as an assistant to Chancellor of France Pierre Séguier. In 1648, he was elected to the French Academy, where he make acquaintance with the great dramatist Pierre Corneille. All his life, Ballesdan collected a rich library which, after his death, fell in the hands of J.-B. Colbert and was almost completely sold out. The book came to the National Library of Russia from the collection of the Zaluski brothers (who bought it in the second half of the 18th century), as evidenced by the characteristic notes on the title page.
The book contains «Full and extensive retelling of the second book of Rhetoric of Aristotle, performed by Alessandro Piccolomini», published in Venice in 1569. Alessandro Piccolomini (1508-1578) now known as an astronomer, although during his lifetime was more famous as a writer and philosopher-moralist. The printerof this publication is Giovanni Francesco Camochio (Camotius), the maps of the eastern coast of the Adriatic Sea are now considered his most famous works.
Aristoteles (384-322 до н.э.).
I tre libri della Retorica d'Aristotele a Theodette Tradotti in lingua volgare, da M. Alessandro Piccolomini. Nuovamente dati in luce, con la tavola de' sommarij. — In Venetia [Venezia] : appresso Francesco de' Franceschi Sanese, 1571.
4° (154 х 210 mm). The brown leather inding with gold and blind embossing. The super-ex-libris of Marie de 'Medici — monogram of two letters "M" on the front and back covers of the binding and on the spine (is established by: OHR, pl. 2504, №3, 4).
Provenance: Jean Ballesdens (1595-1675) (a handwritten note on the title page «Ballesdens»); Załuski, Józef Andrzej (1702-1774) (characteristic notes on the title page).
Shelf mark: 7.44.9.7
The second book of Maria Medici, kept in the National Library of Russia, has the similar binding and handwritten notes of Ballesdan and Zaluski on the title page. Это Translation of the three books of Aristotle's Rhetoric into Italian, made by Alessandro Piccolomini and published in Venice in 1571 by the publisher Francesco de Francesca Sanese.