Donatus, Aelius: Commentarius in Terentii Comoedias.
Edited by Raphael Zovenzonius.
[Venice]: Vindelinus de Spira, [ca. 1472].
Fol. [110 2-48 56 6-88 910 106 (10/1+χ1) 1110 12-138 1410 15-198 206]. [163] leaves (1/1, 20/5-6 blank).
ISTC id00353000; GW 9035; Goff D353; BMC V 163 (IB. 19583); Bod-inc D-153; CIBN D-237; BSB-Ink D-277.
| GIP number: | D24 |
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll Be.1.11 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Note: | Printer's pin-holes visible. |
| Note: | Bifolia 9/4.7 (ff. 68 and 71) and 9/5.6 (ff. 69 and 70) are transposed, the misplacement noted in early manuscript catchwords. |
| Note: | Stub showing between 10/5 and 10/6. |
| Provenance: | House of Rochefort (France): painted coat of arms of the House of Rochefort on 1/2r: d’azur semé de quatorze billettes d’or (5, 4, 3, 2), au chef d’argent chargé d’un lion passant de gueules. Louis Jean Gaignat (1697-1768), Secretary to King Louis XV: Gaignat sale, 1769; lot 1578 (“Donati Grammatici Commentarii in Terentii Comœdias”) 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. The Dessain-Hunter correspondence (University of Glasgow Library, MS Gen. 36, f. 24r) records Hunter’s purchase of “Donatus in Terentium fol: 1470” at the Gaignat sale but confuses it with the previous lot number (lot 1577 “P. Terentii, Aphri, Comœdiæ sex, cum Vitâ hujus Poëtæ excerptâ de Dictis Franc. Petrarchæ”) and consequently gives an erroneous price of 202 livres 4 sous; according to the priced copy of the Gaignat sale catalogue in University of Glasgow Library (shelfmark BD17-g.22, 23) Hunter’s purchase of lot 1578 cost him 106 livres. University of Glasgow: Hunterian bequest, 1807; Hunterian Museum book-plate on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “Ag.6.2”. |
| 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; gilt-edged leaves; turquoise silk bookmark. Size: 344 x 243 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 334 x 233 mm. |
| Annotations: | Occasional marginal annotations in a 15th/16th-century hand, mainly extracting keywords; occasional nota marks and manicules; early manuscript signatures. |
| Decoration: | A fifteen-line initial ‘P’ on 1/2r is supplied in blue with white tracery and set on a gold ground edged in black (the body of the initial decorated with two pink flowers on an intertwined stem) and from the initial, red and green foliage extends into the inner and upper margins; the outer and lower margins of the same page are decorated with floral borders in pink, blue, green and gold, and the lower margin has a painted coat of arms (see Provenance). Five other principal initials are supplied in lilac with white tracery and set on a blue ground also decorated with white tracery (the initials infilled with green foliage on a yellow background) and from the initials red and green foliage extends into the margins; smaller initials throughout supplied in alternate red and blue. |
| Imperfections: | Wanting the blank leaves 1/1 and 20/6. |
