[BOLONGARO-CREVENNA, Pierre-Antoine.]
ONE OF ONLY FIFTY COPIES
Catalogue des livres de la bibliothèque de M. Pierre-Antoine Bolongaro-Crevenna
Amsterdam, J. Changuion & P. den Hengst, 1789£1,750.00
4 (of 5) volumes, without separate index. Small 4to, pp. (vi), lxxxiii, 258; (iv), 264; (vi), 254, (ii), 171 (i); (iv), 250, 54. Roman letter, some Italic. Printed on papier supre-fin d’hollande, one of only fifty copies, engraved plate in vol. 1, vol.1 priced in ink and pencil; slight spotting or dust soiling to blank upper margins in places, slight water stain to t.p. vol.4. Very good, clean volumes in contemporary cat’s paw calf, tooled and gilt floral decorations on spines and bands, green and red morocco lettering and numbering pieces, also gilt, sprinkled edges, extremities rubbed. Armorial bookplate of celebrated bibliographer Anthony Hobson inside front covers, Hobson’s ‘ARAH from Maggs 18/3/54’ on ffep v. vol.1, and probably his pencil markings vol.1.
Pierre-Antoine Bolongaro-Crevenna (1736-1792) was a rich Amsterdam tobacco and snuff merchant, a member of the wealthy Bolongaro-Crevenna trading family based in Frankfurt. Bolongaro ‘amassed an impressive bibliophile’s library, of which he published a catalogue in 1775–6. The main part of the collection was sold in 1790, the remainder three years later.’ (The Oxford Companion to the Book, 2010). ‘It seems to have been the ruling passion of B. Crevenna’s life to collect all the materials, from all the quarters, which had any connection, more or less, with the origin and progress of printing’ (Bigmore and Wyman I, 149). The greater part of Crevenna’s library was described in the Catalogue raisonné de la Collection des Livres de M. Crevenna, Amsterdam, 1776, 6 vols. The catalogue presented here however lists a second portion of his library, concerned with theology, jurisprudence, belles-lettres and arts and sciences. The 8046 lots include over 260 MSS and more than 1500 incunabula, as well as a large number Aldines, Elzevirs, Etiennes and other printers of note. The collection was sold at auction at Crevenna’s house in Amsterdam in 1789. This copy has the supplement of Jesuit related works at the end of vol.4 but not the general index which may have been issued later.
Brunet II, 424