Gesta Romanorum.
[Cologne: Printer of the Flores Sancti Augustini (Johann Schilling), for William Caxton, 1472]
Fol. [1-1210]. [120] leaves (1/1, 12/10 blank).
ISTC ig00281000; GW 10881; Goff G281; BMC I 235 (IB. 3759); Bod-inc G-144; CIBN G-233; BSB-Ink G-205.
Printer identified as Johann Veldener by Severin Corsten, ‘Caxton in Köln’ in his Studien zum Kölner Frühdruck (Köln, 1985), pp. 171, 177), but as Johann Schilling by Paul Needham, ‘William Caxton and his Cologne partners: an enquiry based on Veldener’s Cologne type’ in Ars impressoria: Entstehung und Entwicklung des Buchdrucks. Eine internationale Festgabe für Severin Corsten zum 65. Geburtstag, ed. H. Limburg, H. Lohse, and W. Schmitz (München: 1986), pp. 118-19. Ascribed to Veldener in GW. Polain(B) 1647 dates [ca. 1475].
| GIP number: | G37 |
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll Hunterian Bg.2.5 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Bound with: | When acquired by Hunter, this copy of the Gesta Romanorum was bound with a copy of Jacobus de Theramo, Consolatio peccatorum seu Processus Belial. [Louvain]: Johann Veldener, [between 7 Aug. 1474 and 1475] (J4) - see Hunter’s undated manuscript note tipped-in at the front of the Gesta Romanorum: “This book I met with in a sale bound up with J. de Theranio [sic] Consolatio Peccatorum printed at Colonia 1474. The Type & paper the same, & therefore no doubt the printer, viz Joh. Veldener”. Hunter had the two incunables rebound separately in identical bindings. |
| Provenance: | Thomas Knyvett (16th/17th century): signature on 1/2r ‘Thomas Knyuett’ in violet ink (the same hand has also supplied a six-line initial ‘P’ on 1/2r); probably not to be identified with Sir Thomas Knyvett of Ashwellthorpe (c. 1539-1618) since not listed in D.J. McKitterick, The library of Sir Thomas Knyvett of Ashwellthorpe, c.1539-1618 (Cambridge: 1978). William Hunter (1718-1783), physician and anatomist: source unknown. University of Glasgow: Hunterian bequest 1807; Hunterian Museum bookplate on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “A.7.26”. |
| Binding: | England, 18th-century calf decorated with a gold-fillet border; gold-tooled spine; marbled endpapers; pale green-edged leaves. Size: 278 x 208 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 273 x 198 mm. |
| Annotations: | Marginal annotations and underlining in a 16th-century hand in quires 1-4 - mainly extracting keywords and phrases; occasional marginal annotations thereafter. |
| Decoration: | None. |
| Imperfections: | Wanting the blank leaves 1/1 and 12/10. |
