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Parisian Greek-Style Binding for Marcus Fugger, ca. 1555
On: Plato. Opera (Greek). Basel: Johann Walder, 1534
Black goatskin over wooden boards, bound à la grecque with lavishly dotted gilt backgrounds, exuberant gilt interlaces, and varicolored goatskin onlays; painted armorials on center; edges gilt and goffered in an arabesque pattern with red and green paint
PML 42590. Purchased with the assistance of the Fellows, 1951
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This exceptionally elaborate and splendid binding was created for Marcus, or Marx, Fugger (1529–1597), a member of the Augsburg banking family, who shared the family’s passion for learning, the arts, and elegance. It is abundant in its luxury, especially considering that the ensemble has been made up entirely of very small tools, repeated endlessly. Gommar Estienne, the royal binder at Paris, 1555–59, is probably responsible for this tour de force.

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