Oratio Manassæ

Esdræ Lib. III. & IV. Indices Bibliorum.

Title within woodcut architectural border.
12mo in 6s. [117 x 74 x 29 mm]. 156, [191] pp. Bound in contemporary red goatskin, the covers with a border of two gilt fillets and three blind fillets with a gilt mask and head-dress tool in the corners and the arms of Cardinal Desiderio Scaglia at the centre. Smooth spine divided into four panels by gilt double fillets, each panel with a blind double fillet compartment, lettered in the top panel, the others tooled with a gilt flower head, the edges of the corners of the boards hatched in gilt, plain endleaves, gilt edges with simple gauffering. (Four miniscule worm-holes in the spine). Stock no. ebc2102.
Romæ [i.e. Rome]: sumptibus Andreæ Brugiotti, 1624.

This appears to be the first edition of this Bible commentary, and it has a 191pp index. OCLC records only one copy, at the Bibliotheque Nationale du Quebec. Further editions, under the title Manassæ Oratio, were published at Cologne in 1638, 1647, 1670 and 1678. There is a little worming to the inside of the boards, a small patch of the front pastedown is missing, revealing printed waste beneath and a booklabel has been neatly removed. The binding is almost as good as new.

Variations of the mask and head-dress tool were used by a number Roman binders but this particular example does not feature in Tolomei, Legatura Romana Barocca 1565-1700 or in Legatura Papali da Eugenio IV a Paolo VI. The arms are those of Desiderio Scaglia, O.P. (1567-1639) who was created a Cardinal in 1621 and was commonly known as the Cardinal of Cremona (see McCarthy, Heraldica Collegii Cardinalium. A Roll of Arms of  the College of Cardinals. Vol.I. 1198-1799, p.359).