Boccaccio, Giovanni: Il Filocolo.
Add: Hieronymus Squarzaficus: Vita di Boccaccio.
Venice: Gabriele di Pietro and Filippo di Pietro, 20 Nov. 1472.
Fol. [1-210 3-68 710 8-98 10-1310 14-178 1810 198 2010 218 22-2410 258]. [224] leaves (1/1 blank).
ISTC ib00740000; GW 4463; Goff B740; BMC V 199 (IB. 19901); Bod-inc B-367; CIBN B-537 (+ Accurti(1936) p.83).
| GIP number: | B81 |
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll Hunterian Bf.1.9 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Note: | In this as in all but one of the surviving copies, two columns of text have been printed upside down on 25/8v (f. 224v). The text of column 1 belongs to book IV, chapters 93 and 94, of column 2 to chapter 98, though differently set up from 18/3r (f. 153r) and 18/4v (f. 154v). BMC followed by GW, explains this as a result of erroneously inked bearer type. Neil Harris, ‘Una pagina capovolta nel Filocolo veneziano del 1472’, Bibliofilia, 98 (1996), pp. 1-21, suggests that an error in setting up the text of chapters 93 and 94 was discovered before the whole sheet was printed, and that the sheets were not discarded but used for printing the last bifolium, probably as a result of shortage of paper - see Bod-inc. |
| Variants: | Bifolium 1/4.7 is reset: 1/4r, col. 1, lines 1-2 read: ‘... cō la gratia di colui || che ...’ not ‘... colla gratia di cho||lui ...’ (contrary to what is stated in the article by Neil Harris supra, the Hunterian copy has the cancellans sheet 1/4.7 and not the cancellandum - confirmed in a written communication from Neil Harris to Glasgow University Library, 31 July 2003); 22/4r (f. 190r), col. 1, line 3: ‘... calcitrare ...’ not ‘... calcitratte ...’; 22/4v (f. 190v), col. 1, line 15: ‘... exiguo ...’ not ‘... egiguo ...’ and line 16: ‘... offenditore ...’ not ‘... uffenditore ...’ (for the last three variants see CIBN B-537). |
| Provenance: | Louis Jean Gaignat (1697-1768), Secretary to King Louis XV: Gaignat sale, 1769; lot 2240 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 130 livres 1 sou; see Dessain-Hunter correspondence (University of Glasgow Library, MS Gen. 36, f. 25v). University of Glasgow: Hunterian bequest, 1807; Hunterian Museum bookplate on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “Aj.3.4”. |
| Binding: | France, 18th-century red goatskin; covers decorated with a triple gold-fillet border, a small gold fleuron at each corner; gold-tooled spine; marbled endpapers; bunch of grapes watermark and date “1742” on front and rear flyleaves; gilt-edged leaves; turquoise silk bookmark. Size: 337 x 225 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 325 x 219 mm. |
| Annotations: | Very occasional brief marginal annotations in an early hand together with nota marks and manicules; evidence on the lower margin of 25/8r (f. 224r) of a two-line (ownership?) inscription which has been almost entirely excised; note by William Hunter on rear flyleaf regarding the inverted text on 25/8v (f. 224v), made after comparing his copy with that of Lord Foley. |
| Decoration: | On 1/2r a six-line initial ‘M’ is supplied in gold on a square blue ground embellished with floral decoration in white and buff and patterned with four white dots, with the blue ground and its floral decoration extending into the inner margin; on 3/4v (f. 24v) is a similarly decorated eight-line initial ‘A’ but without the border; on 8/3r (f. 65r) is a similarly decorated six-line initial ‘R’ without the border but with a putto added; on 20/9v (f. 177v) is a similarly decorated six-line initial ‘A’ without the border and without the putto; on 13/1r (f. 109r) is a ten-line initial ‘I’ which shows a putto posed on a rectangular blue ground and holding a cornucopia; other initials at the beginning of chapters supplied in alternate red and blue; occasional evidence of guide-letters in brown ink. |
| Imperfections: | Wanting the blank leaf 1/1 and bifolium 23/5.6. |
