Josephus, Flavius: De antiquitate Judaica. De bello Judaico.
Translated by Rufinus Aquileiensis.
[Augsburg]: Johann Schüssler, 28 June 1470; 23 Aug. 1470.
Fol. [110 (1/9+χ1) 2-312 4-1610 178 18-1910 208 21-2710 28-298]. [287] leaves.
ISTC ij00481000; GW M15160; Goff J481; BMC II 327 (IC. 5612); Bod-inc J-218; CIBN J-306; BSB-Ink I-615.
Collation as lot 39, Doheny sale, Christie’s, N.Y., 22 Oct. 1987, i.e. the first quire is of ten leaves with an inserted leaf between ff. 9 and 10, and not as BMC, in error, a quire of twelve leaves, the first blank.
First colophon on 20/8v (f. 201v) dated 28 June 1470; second colophon on 29/8v (f. 287v) dated 23 Aug. 1470.
| GIP number: | J27 |
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll Hunterian Bx.1.11 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Provenance: | Unidentified coat of arms (15th/16th century): painted coat of arms in lower margin of 1/1r: tierced per pale (1) argent, (2) azure, thereon a cross rayonnant(?) or, (3) argent. 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 Seignely. Heavily washed-out inscription “Bibliothecae Colbertinae” (visible under ultraviolet light) on upper margin of 1/1r. 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); lot 1683 in vol. 1 of the Colbert sale catalogue, which sold for 61 livres 19 sous according to the priced copy of the Colbert sale catalogue in the University of Glasgow Library (shelfmark Hunterian Add. 49-51). Louis-Léon-Félicité, duc de Brancas de Lauraguais (1733-1824): arms on covers (Olivier 740). Louis Jean Gaignat (1697-1768), Secretary to King Louis XV: Gaignat sale, 1769; lot 2840 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 150 livres; 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 “Ae.4.10”. |
| Binding: | France, 18th-century red goatskin; covers decorated with a triple gold-fillet border, a small gold fleuron at each corner, and with the Brancas de Lauraguais arms in gilt in the centre; gold-tooled-spine; marbled endpapers; gilt-edged leaves; blue silk bookmark. Size: 395 x 290 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 387 x 281 mm. |
| Annotations: | Foliated in red ink “i”-“cclxxxviii” (“cclxxxvii” omitted); traces of a pencil foliation also in roman numerals. |
| Decoration: | On 1/1r, col. 1, a ten-line initial “H” is supplied in blue with white pen-work decoration and is set on a square gold ground; the body of the initial is decorated with entwined foliage in red, blue and brown, and floral borders decorate the inner, upper and lower margins - the border in the lower margin incorporating a coat of arms (see Provenance); the principal initial at the beginning of each book is supplied in gold on a square ground of purple and blue with added white pen-work decoration; smaller initials and paragraph marks throughout supplied in red. |
| Imperfections: | Wanting 12/6 (f. 121) and 18/1 (f. 174). |
