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The 1516 edition of works of neo-platonic philosophers, including
Iamblichus, Proclus, Porphyrius, Synesius and others, translated into Latin by
Marsilio Ficino, is one of the significant books issued by the Aldine press.
This copy is bound in an architectural style, ca. 1545, one of four known
showing porticoes and the only one without perspective features, made by Claude
de Picques for the noted French bibliophile Jean Grolier (1476-1565). The motif
is derived from an illustration of the Corinthian temple in Diego da Sagredo's
Raison d'architecture antique (1539). Among the owners of the volume
after Grolier were Count Hoym, ambassador to France from Saxony and bibliophile,
the dealer-bibliophile A.A. Renouard who documented the Aldine publications, and
the notorious thief Count Libri.
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