Livius, Titus: Historiae Romanae decades I, III, IV.
Edited by Johannes Andreas de Bussis, bishop of Aleria. Add: Lucius Annaeus Florus: Epitome decadum XIV.
[Venice]: Vindelinus de Spira, 1470.
Fol. [1-212 3-1110 1210 (12/9+χ1) 13-1510 16-178 18-3410 35-368 37-4110 4214]. [421] leaves (1/1, 17/8, 42/14 blank).
ISTC il00238000; GW M18494; Goff L238; BMC V 154 (IB. 19517); Bod-inc L-116; CIBN L-177; BSB-Ink L-188.
| GIP number: | L27 |
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll Hunterian By.1.7 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Note: | Printer's pin-holes visible. |
| Variants: | In this copy (as opposed to BMC copy IB. 19519), the outer sheet of quire 3 is reset to include a portion of text omitted from the original setting and conforms to BMC copies IB. 19517 and IB. 19518; the woodcut borders and intials present in BMC IB. 19519 are absent, as in the two other BMC copies. |
| Provenance: | Louis-Jean Gaignat (1697-1768), Secretary to King Louis XV: Gaignat sale, 1769; lot 2885 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 484 livres; see Dessain-Hunter correspondence (University of Glasgow Library, MS Gen. 36, f. 24r). University of Glasgow: Hunterian bequest, 1807; Hunterian Museum bookplate and book label on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “Ab.4.1”. |
| 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 book-mark; rear flyleaf has watermark of a six-petalled flower. Size: 418 x 292 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 407 x 280 mm. |
| Annotations: | Headings provided in a humanist hand for the opening letter of Andreas de Bussis to Paulus II and for the Epitome of Lucius Annaeus Florus which follows it; decade and book numbers supplied in the same hand; signatures in a 16th-century hand. |
| Decoration: | Partially decorated up to and including quire 8; eight-line initial ‘A’ supplied in red and blue with reserved white on 1/4r and a similar initial ‘A’ supplied on 6/3v (f. 57v); nine-line initial ‘F’ supplied in interlocking red and blue on 3/1r (f. 25r) and a similar eight-line initial ‘L’ on 4/7v (f. 41v); eight-line initial ‘H’ supplied in red on 8/2r (f. 76r); thereafter initial spaces have only guide-letters in brown ink; initials and paragraph marks in the Epitome (1/4r-2/12v i.e. ff. 4r-24v) supplied in alternate red and blue; paragraph marks in alternate red and blue continue up to 8/8r (f. 82r). |
| Imperfections: | Wanting the blank leaf 42/14. |
