Cicero, Marcus Tullius: De natura deorum.
With additions by Raphael Zovenzonius. Contents: I) De natura deorum; II) De divinatione; III) De fato, De legibus; IV) Academica lib. II; Pseudo- Modestus: De re militari.
[Venice]: Vindelinus de Spira, 1471.
4to. [112 2-78 86 9-138 146 15-238 244]. [188] leaves, 1, 151, 152, 188 blank.
ISTC ic00569000; Goff C569; BMC V 158; Bod-inc C-299; CIBN C-391; GW 6902.
The De re militari, which is often attributed to Modestus and also to Julius Pomponius Laetus, consists of extracts from Vegetius, Epitoma rei militaris - see Lorenzo Dalmasso ‘La storia di un estratto di Vegezio saggio sulla fortuna dell’ Epitoma rei militaris’ in 'Rendiconti Istituto Lombardo di scienze e lettere', ser. 2, 40 (1907) pp. 805-814.
University of Glasgow holds two copies
Copy 1
| GIP number: | C42/1 |
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll Hunterian Bg.3.9 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Variant: | The setting of gathering 8 is as described in the main GW transcription, not as in GW Anm. 2. |
| Note: | The make-up of the first gathering of 12 leaves conforms to the description given in CIBN (with leaves 1/6 and 1/7 clearly conjugate); leaf 1/12 beginning “citari fecit ...”, following an error in imposition, has been excised and correctly inserted between 1/2 (beginning of “Vita Ciceronis”) and 1/3 (“Cicero inter damnatos ...”) - cf. the explanatory note in CIBN. |
| Provenance: | William Hunter (1718-1783), physician and anatomist: source unknown. University of Glasgow: Hunterian bequest 1807; Hunterian Museum bookplate and book label on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “X.3.6”. |
| Binding: | Italy, 18th-century vellum; red leather title label on spine; yellow-edged leaves; green silk bookmark. Size: 288 x 206 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 278 x 199 mm. |
| Annotations: | Occasional marginal annotations in a humanist hand, mainly extracting keywords; very occasional pointing hands; evidence of early manuscript signatures and numbering of gatherings. |
| Decoration: | None. |
| Imperfections: | Wanting the first blank leaf. |
Copy 2
| GIP number: | C42/2 |
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll Hunterian Be.3.16 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Bound with: | The third of three incunabula bound together. Bound with: (1) Cicero, Marcus Tullius, Tusculanae disputationes. Paris: In vico sancti Jacobi [Louis Symonel et Socii (Au Soufflet Vert), between 1475 and 1479]; (2) Cicero, Marcus Tullius, De finibus bonorum et malorum. [Paris: Au Soufflet Vert (Louis Symonel et Socii), between 1475 and 1479]. |
| Provenance: | Louis Jean Gaignat (1697-1768), Secretary to King Louis XV: Gaignat sale, 1769; lot 1497 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 26 livres 1 sou; see 'Dessain-Hunter correspondence' (University of Glasgow Library, MS Gen. 36, f.23v). University of Glasgow: Hunterian bequest, 1807; Hunterian Museum bookplate and book-label on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “Aa.5.12”. |
| Binding: | France, 18th-century red morocco decorated with triple gold fillets, a six-pointed gold star at each corner; gold-tooled spine; marbled endpapers; gilt-edged leaves; turquoise silk bookmark. Size: 280 x 195 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 273 x 186 mm. |
| Annotations: | Occasional marginal annotations and “nota” marks in a 16th-century hand (mostly washed out); gatherings numbered “16”-“20” in pencil in an 18th-century hand in extreme inner top corner of first recto leaf. |
| Decoration: | Three-line initial “S” on [q1r] (leaf [121r]) and three-line initial “S” on [r3r] (leaf [131r]) supplied in red and blue with reserved white; capitals washed in yellow throughout. |
| Imperfections: | Part III only: De fato, De legibus (gatherings 15-19 i.e. ff.113-152, but without the final blank leaf). Many leaves are brittle and fragmenting. |
