Duns Scotus, Johannes: Quaestiones in primum librum Sententiarum.
Edited by Thomas Penketh and Bartholomaeus Bellatis.
Venice: Johannes de Colonia and Johannes Manthen, 26 July 1477.
Fol. a12 b10 c8 d10 e-f6 g8 h-k10 l-o8 p-t10 v-x8 aa-ff8 gg10 2a-b8. [262] leaves (a1, gg10 blank).
ISTC id00379000 (Part I); GW 9073 (Part I); Goff D379 (Part I); BMC V 228 (IB. 20307); Bod-inc D-166 (Part I); CIBN D-256 (Part I); BSB-Ink D-302.
| GIP number: | D26 |
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll Hunterian By.2.3 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Provenance: | Giovanni of Aragon (1456-1485), Cardinal, son of Ferrante I, King of Naples: illuminated coat of arms in lower margin of a2r (see Decoration). Naples, Aragonese Royal Library: Giovanni of Aragon’s books passed into the care of the Aragonese Royal Library. Charles VIII (1470-1498), King of France: part of the Aragonese Royal Library was confiscated by Charles VIII of France in 1495 following his invasion of Naples and was initially moved to his consort, Anne of Brittany’s residence at Amboise and subsequently transferred to the royal library at Blois. The confiscated books were given a numbering in a French hand probably whilst still at Amboise - in the case of this volume “xlj” on gg9v. François I had the books removed from Blois to Fontainebleau in 1544 and in 1567 the books were transferred to Paris to form part of the Bibliothèque du Roi (cf. Bg.2.6 (F14)). Paris, Bibliothèque du Roi: the numbers “MDCCCLII” (scored through) and “813” at the top margin of a2r correspond respectively to entries in two 17th-century catalogues of the Bibliothèque du Roi - the first compiled in 1622 by Nicolas Rigault, the second compiled in 1645 by Jacques and Pierre Dupuy (cf. Bg.2.6 (F14), Be.2.4 (G16), Bx.1.10 (P73/1)). Bibliotheca Colbertina, Paris i.e. the library owned successively by Jean-Baptiste Colbert de Torcy (1619-1683), marquis de Seignelay, Minister of Finances under Louis XIV; Jean-Baptiste Colbert (1651-1690), marquis de Seignelay; Jacques-Nicolas Colbert (1655-1707), Archbishop of Rouen; and Charles-Eléonor Colbert (1689-1747), Comte de Seignelay. Jean-Baptiste Colbert’s ownership is indicated by the inscription “Bibliothecae Colbertinae” in the top margin of a2r and by his coat of arms and monogram on the binding; Colbert directed the Bibliothèque du Roi from 1661 to 1683 and at some unknown date this book passed into his personal collection - perhaps in 1671 when around 1,200 duplicates were removed from the Bibliothèque du Roi (the word “Double” is written on the front flyleaf). The Colbert Library was sold in Paris in 1728 (Bibliotheca Colbertina: seu catalogus librorum bibliothecae, quae fuit primum J.B. Colbert ... ac demum Caroli-Leonorii Colbert, 3 vols); lot 618 in vol. 1 of the Colbert sale catalogue, which together with five other items sold for 12 livres 10 sous according to the priced copy of the Colbert sale catalogue in the University of Glasgow Library (shelfmark Hunterian Add. 49-51). Louis Jean Gaignat (1697-1768), Secretary to King Louis XV: Gaignat sale, 1769; lot 264 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 15 livres 1 sou; see Dessain-Hunter correspondence (University of Glasgow Library, MS Gen. 36, f. 24v). University of Glasgow: Hunterian bequest, 1807; Hunterian Museum bookplate on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “Aw.2.12”. Thanks are due to Dr Ursula Baurmeister, Bibliothèque de France, for much of the above provenance information and also to Julie Gardham, University of Glasgow Library (see http://special.lib.gla.ac.uk/exhibns/month/jan2008.html); see also, Thomas Haffner, Die Bibliothek des Kardinals Giovanni d’Aragona (1456-1485), (Wiesbaden: 1997), pp. 356-7, no. 11. |
| Binding: | France, 17th-century red goatskin; covers decorated with a triple gold-fillet border, a small gold fleuron at each corner; arms in gilt of Jean-Baptiste Colbert on both covers; gold-tooled spine with the monogram “J B C” surmounted by a coronet stamped in six compartments; sprinkled red and green-edged leaves. Housed in a green buckram-covered box. Size: 306 x 213 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 296 x 200 mm. |
| Annotations: | On front pastedown the number (or date) ‘1738’ followed by a word or code ‘Elas’(?); on rear pastedown ‘901511’ (the final two digits scored through). |
| Decoration: | On a2r a seven-line initial ‘C’ in gold is set on a square ground of white vine decoration defined in crimson, blue and green, which extends into the inner and upper margins; in the lower margin of a2r are the illuminated arms of Cardinal Giovanni of Aragon within a laurel wreath supported by putti; offsetting from this decorated page visible on g8v and, to a lesser extent, on h8v; on c4v a six-line initial ‘C’ in gold is set on a blue and crimson square ground decorated with tracery; other initials and paragraph marks supplied in red or blue. According to N.R. Thorp, The glory of the page, no. 97, the decoration was added in Naples by Matteo Felice for Giovanni of Aragon. |
| Imperfections: | Wanting the blank leaf a1 and (like the British Library copy) the final two quires 2a-b. |
