A 1533 Aldine, rebound by Kalthoeber
One of my favourite recent finds: a 1533 Venetian edition of the Roman agricultural writers Cato, Varro, Columella and Palladius, printed by the heirs of Aldus Manutius.
Aldus himself had died in 1515, but his press continued under his family and the Torresani. By this point the Aldine name was already synonymous with high-quality editions of the classics.
What really sold me on this copy, though, is the binding. More than two centuries later it was rebound in London by Christian Samuel Kalthoeber, one of the leading binders of the Georgian period, and it still retains his binder’s ticket.
It also carries the bookplate of the Earl of Kimberley.
So in one volume you get Roman agricultural texts, Renaissance Venetian printing, Georgian London bookbinding and later aristocratic provenance.
That layering of history is probably what I enjoy most about old books, the secrets peeled back slowly over time.