Herodotus: Historiae.
Translated by Laurentius Valla. Edited by Benedictus Brognolus. Add: Benedictus Brognolus: Epistola ad Nicolaum Donatum.
Venice: Jacobus Rubeus, [before Dec.] 1474.
Fol. [1-2510 266 274]. [260] leaves (1/1 blank).
ISTC ih00088000; GW 12321; Goff H88; BMC V 213 (IB. 20067a) & XII 14 (IB. 20067); Bod-inc H-054; CIBN H-54; BSB-Ink H-120.
| GIP number: | H10 |
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll Hunterian Bw.2.18 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Variant: | This copy conforms to the variant copy described in BMC XII 14 - as opposed to the copy printed on parchment described in BMC V 213. |
| Provenance: | Amboise, House of (France): painted shield in lower margin of 1/2r bearing the arms of the House of Amboise: a paly of six or and gules. Louis Jean Gaignat (1697-1768), Secretary to King Louis XV: Gaignat sale, 1769; lot 2858 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 21 livres 1 sou; see Dessain-Hunter correspondence (University of Glasgow Library, MS Gen. 36, f. 24r). University of Glasgow: Hunterian bequest, 1807; Hunterian Museum bookplate on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “Au.5.7”. |
| Binding: | France, 18th-century blue goatskin; covers decorated with a triple gold-fillet border, a six-pointed gold star at each corner; gold-tooled spine; marbled endpapers; gilt-edged leaves. Size: 285 x 218 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 278 x 207 mm. |
| Annotations: | Occasional marginal numbering in quires 1 and 2; traces of early manuscript signatures. |
| Decoration: | Seven-line initial “H” on 1/2r supplied in gold on a dark blue ground, the body of the initial infilled with crimson; upper, inner and lower margins of 1/2r decorated with a floral border, and included in the border of the lower margin is a painted armorial shield - see Provenance above; other initials throughout supplied in either red with black pen-work decoration or in blue with red pen-work decoration (the pen-work sometimes incorporating a human face); capitals washed in yellow throughout. |
| Imperfections: | Wanting the blank leaf 1/1. |
