Bessarion, Johannes, Cardinal: Epistolae et orationes [Italian].

Translated by Ludovicus Carbo.   Add:  Demosthenes:  Olynthiaca prima (translated by Bessarion).

[Venice:  Christophorus Valdarfer], 1471.
8vo.   [1¹⁰ 2-3⁸ 4¹⁰ (4/1+χ1) 5¹⁰ 6-7⁸].   [61] leaves (7/8 blank).
ISTC ib00521000;  GW 4186;  Goff B521;  BMC V 183 (IA. 19755);  CIBN B-359.

GIP number:	B36
Shelf-mark:	Sp Coll Hunterian Bx.3.4 (see main library entry for this item)
Provenance:	Louis-Jean Gaignat (1697-1768), Secretary to King Louis XV:  Gaignat sale, 1769;  lot 1511 in Guillaume de Bure, Bibliographie instructive:  supplément ... ou catalogue des livres de feu M. L.J. Gaignat, 2 vols (Paris: 1769). William Hunter (1718-1783), physician and anatomist:  purchased by Hunter at the Gaignat sale through his agent, Jean-Baptiste Dessain, for 24 livres 4 sous;  see Dessain-Hunter correspondence (University of Glasgow Library, MS Gen. 36, f. 12Ar). University of Glasgow:  Hunterian bequest 1807;  Hunterian Museum bookplate on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “Af.10.31”.
Binding:	France, 18th-century red grained goatskin;  covers decorated with a single gold-fillet border;  gilt spine title;  gilt-edged leaves (gauffered);  marbled endpapers;  green silk bookmark.   Size:  193 x 135 mm.
Leaf size:	187 x 129 mm.
Annotations:	Evidence of numbered sequences in extreme inner top corner of most rectos, perhaps added by the 18th-century binder.
Decoration:	On 1/1r a four-line initial “C” is supplied in gold on a square blue ground;  three other initials supplied in either blue or red;  in lower margin of 1/1r is a blank shield on a purple (or oxidized silver) background decorated with a pattern of three white dots, which is set within a green laurel wreath, the latter decorated above and below with red ink pen-work (BMC describes what appears to be a similar blank shield within a wreath on the same page and suggests that this may be a woodcut painted).
Imperfections:	Wanting the blank leaf 7/8.