Antiquarianism and self-fashioning in a group of bookbindings for Gian Vincenzo Pinelli

This article considers a group of six Greek manuscripts that entered the Biblioteca Ambrosiana in Milan with the collection of Gian Vincenzo Pinelli. It examines their hybrid Greek-style bindings as a telling case-study in the intellectual and cultural history of late sixteenth-century Europe. Through the analysis of the complex history of the individual items, it is possible to argue that Pinelli himself commissioned the bindings, and to challenge the widely held opinion that he had no interest in how his books were bound. Finally, it considers how Pinelli, as a bibliophile and scholar, chose to have these manuscripts bound in expensive materials but decorated very soberly, ultimately creating a powerful tool of self-fashioning in opposition to the cultural trends of his time.