This binding was made in Paris for Pietro Duodo at the end of the 16th century. Pietro Duodo was born in 1554 into an illustrious Venetian family. He was Ambassador to the Duke of Savoy and then to the King of Poland. In 1594 he became the Venetian Ambassador to King Henri IV of France, staying for three years in Paris, with visits to Lyons (1595), St Maur (1596) and Rouen (1596/97). His successor, Francesco Contarini, was appointed in 1597. From 1599 to 1602 he was Venetian Ambassador to the Emperor Rudolph at Prague. In 1603 he was sent to England on a mission to secure an indemnity for two English ships sunk by the Venetians. He was successful and went back to France. Later he was sent on missions to Pope Leo XI and Pope Paul V. He died in 1611.¹ He collected a library of mostly 12mo and 16mo books, suitable for a travelling Ambassador. About one hundred bindings made for him are known, all but two printed before 1597, and all decorated to the same design with his arms on the upper cover and his motto on the lower, but in differently coloured leather, according to the subject of the books. Red leather was used for theology, philosophy, law and history, citron for poetry and olive green for prose, although the leather of the binding on the book of psalms described here looks brown rather than red. The attribution by Esmerian of Duodo’s bindings to Clovis Eve does not seem to be based on any ascertainable fact.² His library came to England during the French revolution and appeared in English sales after 1800. 

Mirjam Foot 

¹ Hobson A. 1953, n. 30. 

² Paris (Palais Galliera), Bibliothèque Rafael Esmerian, 6 June 1972, I, lots 59-61.