Appianus: Historia Romana (Partes I-II).
Translated by Petrus Candidus Decembrius.
Venice: Bernhard Maler (Pictor), Erhard Ratdolt and Peter Löslein, 1477.
4to. Part I: a-i10 k-n8 o10. [132] leaves, the first blank. Part II: a-c10 d12 e-x10. [212] leaves, the first blank.
Woodcut borders; woodcut initials.
ISTC ia00928000; GW 2290; Goff A928; BMC V 244 (IB. 20486); Bod-inc A-363; CIBN A-482; BSB-Ink A-651.
Two copies held by the University of Glasgow.
Copy 1
| GIP number: | A71/2 |
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll BD7-d.16 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Note: | Some copies have borders printed in red (GW Anm.); in this copy of part II only, the woodcut border on a2r is printed in black. |
| Provenance: | George Willis (1813-1895), bookseller, London: sold book to William Euing. William Euing (1788-1874), insurance broker, Glasgow: purchased from Willis 1 Nov. 1851 according to Euing’s pencil acquisition note with price code on verso of front free endpaper “1.11.51 ae/- Willis” together with an early Euing inventory number “No. 5” (repeated on Euing’s armorial bookplate on front pastedown). University of Glasgow: presented by Euing in 1872 according to University Library bookplate on front pastedown. |
| Binding: | France(?), 18th-century red goatskin decorated with triple gold fillets, a small gold fleuron at each corner; gold-tooled spine; marbled endpapers; gilt-edged leaves; green silk bookmark. Size: 277 x 206 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 269 x 193 mm. |
| Annotations: | Brief marginal note in a 16th-century hand on a5r; “nota” marks on a4v; 16th-century marginal annotation in Greek on t4r with underlining of text; running book numbers “1”-“5” in centre of upper margins of recto leaves; 18th-century code in ink on rear free endpaper “nhdtt” or perhaps “12hdtt” with a bar above and below the code (for a closely similar code, see infra By.3.13 Mela, Pomponius, Cosmographia. [Venice: Simon Bevilaqua, ca. 1498]); 19th-century pencil number “2486” on rear free endpaper together with price codes “m/-” and “w-d-b”; 19th-century price code faintly written in pencil on verso of front free endpaper “b/-/-”; Euing’s note of Dibdin’s comments on this edition in 'Bibliotheca Spenceriana', IV, pp. 439-40, tipped onto front free endpaper. |
| Decoration: | Capitals touched with yellow wash throughout. |
| Imperfections: | Part II only. Wanting the blank leaf a1. |
Copy 2
| GIP number: | A71/1 |
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll Hunterian Bw.2.14, 15 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Bound with: | Some copies have borders printed in red (GW Anm.); in this copy the woodcut border of part I on a2r is printed in black, that of part II on a2r is printed in red. |
| Provenance: | Unidentified library: largely erased early ownership inscriptions on a2r of part I and a2r of part II beginning “Bibl ...” Edward Harley (1689-1741), Lord Harley; from 1724 2nd Earl of Oxford: see below. Thomas Osborne (d. 1767), bookseller: purchased all the Harleian printed books; top corner of front free endpaper of part II cut off - as in many other Harleian volumes - probably by Osborne to remove his earlier price (cf. J.B. Oldham, 'Shrewsbury School bindings', p.114); revised price in pencil “2V 2=12=6” adjacent to excision and the number "157" in pencil below; no. 4514 in Osborne’s 'Catalogus bibliothecae Harleianae', vol. 1 (London: 1743) and no. 1069 in Osborne’s 'Catalogus bibliothecae Harleianae', vol. 3 (London: 1744). William Hunter (1718-1783), physician and anatomist: source unknown. University of Glasgow: Hunterian bequest 1807; Hunterian Museum bookplate on front pastedown of each volume, with former shelfmarks “N.4.3” and “Au.4.16”. |
| Binding: | England, 18th-century gold-tooled diced russia, bound for Lord Harley by Thomas Elliott. On the covers of both volumes triple fillets form the frame of a centre panel, whose outer corners are decorated with an ornamental tool (Nixon, ‘Harleian bindings’, pl. 15, Elliott no. 8); within the frame is an unidentified foliate roll in blind; the covers are further decorated with a gilt border formed by double fillets. Spine compartments of vol. 1 decorated with a tool not illustrated in Nixon, ‘Harleian bindings’, pl. 14, and the compartments of vol. 2 are decorated with a different tool (also not illustrated in Nixon); edges decorated with a smaller version of Nixon, ‘Harleian bindings’, pl. 14, Elliott roll 2; turn-ins undecorated; sprinkled red-edged leaves. Size: 288 x 221 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 281 x 211 mm. |
| Annotations: | On rear free endpaper of part II “1726 ye 2 Vol. cost £2..2..0”. |
| Decoration: | Woodcut borders of both parts and woodcut initials throughout coloured by hand; capitals touched with yellow wash throughout; offsetting from the painted border on a2r of part II visible in the lower and inner margins of e10v. See N.R. Thorp, 'The glory of the page', no. 98. |
| Imperfections: | Wanting the blank leaf a1 of Part II. |
