This binding was made in Rome by Marcantonio Guillery for Giovanni Battista Grimaldi around 1545. Since the mid-19th century, scholars and amateurs have hazarded guesses as to whom the Apollo and Pegasus device might have belonged. Attributions ranged from the absurd to the fanciful, but also included more credible suggestions, such as Demetrio Canevari and Pier Luigi Farnese, until in 1975 Anthony Hobson published his conclusion, more firmly based than any of those of his predecessors, that the owner of the Apollo and Pegasus device was a Genoese patrician, Giovanni Battista Grimaldi, son of Geronimo Grimaldi and Francesca Cattaneo.¹ Giovanni Battista was born in, or shortly before, 1524. He visited Rome in 1543 and 1544. In 1543 he came under the influence first of the humanist and writer, Claudio Tolomei and then of Jacopo Bonfadio. Giovanni Battista was rich and well-educated. He amassed a large library, estimated at around 200 books, which were kept in Genoa, either in his town house in the Via San Luca or in his magnificent villa on the river Bisagno, built by Alessi. The 144 volumes now known, decorated with the Apollo and Pegasus device, were all bound in Rome and were probably acquired in batches between 1544 and 1548. Classical literature, Italian poetry and history form the main part of the collection, but there are also books on agriculture, on the art of war, on horses, on government of a republic, on alchemy, Roman antiquities, and duelling, as well as a few romances. Giovanni Battista married Marietta Negroni, who bore him five daughters and three sons. He was a banker by profession but got involved in politics and in 1591 was elected Senator. He was still alive in 1610, but probably died soon thereafter, as in 1612 one of his books came into the possession of his grandson. His books were bound by three different binders. The volume described here was the work of Marcantonio Guillery. He was born probably around 1510, the son of Étienne Guilliery, who came from Lunéville and established himself in Rome at the beginning of the 16th century, where he printed twenty-seven books between 1506 and 1524. Marcantonio published a book printed by Valerio Dorico in 1558. He was active as a bookseller near the Torre dei Mellini in 1562. He was both a bookseller and a binder, or at least he seems to have employed the same binder. The tools used on the bindings from his shop occur on books printed mainly between the mid-1540s and the mid-1560s. In Italy during the 16th century, it was the norm for owners to have their books bound by the bookseller from whom they bought them. All three binders who bound books owned by Grimaldi were booksellers as well. Among the ninetyfour books known to have been bound by Marcantonio or his binder, thirtyeight were on foreign imprints, quite a number covering octavo editions of classics printed by Gryphius. His largest customer was Giovanni Battista Grimaldi, but he also bound books owned by Apolonio Filareto and Pope Julius III. 

Mirjam Foot 

¹ Hobson A. 1975.