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. |