Chronicles of England [English].

St. Albans:  Schoolmaster Printer, [ca. 1486]
Fol.   [*]8 a8 b-z8 [et]8 [con]8 A-I8 K10.   In the preliminary gathering the second, third, and fourth leaves are signed a, b, c.   [290] leaves, 1, 9, 290 blank.
Woodcuts.
On the date, see BMC.
ISTC ic00479000;  Goff C479;  Duff 101;  BMC XI 303;  Bod-inc C-196;  GW 6672.

Shelf-mark: Sp Coll Hunterian Bv.2.17 (see main library entry for this item)
Variants: [*2r], line 1:  “(red)H(black)Er ...” not as BMC and GW “(red)H(black)Ere ...”;  [*2r], line 4:  “... ſhorli ...” not as BMC “... shortli ...”;  a3v, line 21:  “... And fro crist wos borne. vn to” not as BMC “... And fro crist was borne. vn to”;  b6v, line 30:  “... namd albiō ...” not as BMC “... namdalbiō ...”;  b7r, line 1:  “(red)I(black)N ...” not as BMC “(red)I(black)n ...”;  B7r, line 2:  “... wos called ...” not as BMC “... was called ...”
Note: 3 cm wide stub between a7 and a8.
Provenance: Thomas Lewkenor (16th century):  inscription with cropped surname “Thomas Lewkenor(?)” on i3r.
John Ratcliffe (1707-1776), book collector:  lot 1394 in 'Bibliotheca Ratcliffiana' (1776).
William Hunter (1718-1783), physician and anatomist:  purchased by Hunter for £7.7.0 at the Ratcliffe sale according to the annotated BL copy of the Ratcliffe sale catalogue (shelfmark 822.d.6).
University of Glasgow:  Hunterian bequest, 1807;  Hunterian Museum label on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “Ab.9.16”.
Binding: England, 18th-century gold-tooled red morocco, covers have a single fillet border together with corner-pieces made-up of a floral tool, separate stars, and an unidentified tool of a ducal coronet above an encircled inverted dolphin - a binder’s ornament (rather than armorial stamp indicating ownership), which appears in various guises on mainly French but also on English bindings (ex inf. Philip Oldfield 7.ix.2013);  gold-tooled spine;  dark green-edged leaves;  front free endpaper and second flyleaf have a fleur-de-lys watermark.   Size:  269 x 210 mm.
Leaf size: 262 x 199 mm.
Annotations: Very occasional marginal annotations in English in a 15th/16th-century hand e.g. on the date of the battle of Agincourt on G2v;  frequent marginal annotations throughout in English in various 17th and early 18th-century hands with some paraphrasing of text and responses to text;  the title of “Pope”, which appears frequently in the text, is deleted in black ink almost throughout;  a passage of nine and a half lines on o6v relating to the legendary female Pope Joan is scored through - though a later owner has reinstated the censored lines in the outer margin;  16th-century pen trial on K8v “Rygth Trusty And Wylbelouyd mayst[ter] I gave no”;  possible early ownership inscription (partially deleted and cropped) in upper margin of [*2r].
Decoration: None.
Imperfections: Wanting the three blank leaves [*1], a1, and K10;  also wanting K9 (containing the explicit, colophon, and printer’s device) - explicit and colophon supplied in manuscript on a rear flyleaf bearing a Pro Patria watermark;  outer margin of [*2] damaged and repaired, with slight loss of text.

Censorship of text in Anon.: Chronicles of England [English]