Martialis, Marcus Valerius: Epigrammata.
[Bologna: Printer of the Suetonius Vitae (H 15113), ca. 1477]
4to. [1-1710 188]. [178] leaves.
ISTC im00301000; GW M21249; Goff M301; BMC VI 853 (IA. 29280); Bod-inc M-117; CIBN M-163.
Ascription to printer from CIBN.
Also recorded as [1474] - see ISTC.
| GIP number: | M19 |
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll Hunterian By.3.29 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Provenance: | Jacques Auguste de Thou, the Younger (1609-1677): ‘Jac. Aug. Thuani’ on third front (paper) flyleaf – below which, in an 18th-century hand, a note to the binder ‘laissés cette feuille’. Probably not the signature of the historian, Jacques Auguste de Thou, the Elder (1553-1617) but more likely to be that of Jacques Auguste de Thou, the Younger (1609-1677) who, together with his elder brother, François (1604-1642), jointly inherited their father’s library of ca. 13,000 volumes in 1617. Jacques Auguste, the Younger, added around 25% more to the original library. This edition of Martial does not appear in a manuscript inventory of the original De Thou library produced in 1617 (BnF MS Latin 10389). It is perhaps to be identified with an entry in a manuscript catalogue of the De Thou library produced in 1648 (with additions until 1666) “[M. Valerii Martialis epigrammata] 8° (sic) grandiore sine anno & nomine typographi, impressus ante annum 1500, relié en parchemin” (BnF MS Latin 17921, f.30v). This Provenance note is a substantially revised version (where previously Jacques Auguste de Thou, the Elder, was believed to be the owner) and is based on detailed information generously provided by Mme Valérie Neveu, Université d’Angers, December 2021. William Hunter (1718-1783), physician and anatomist: source unknown. University of Glasgow: Hunterian bequest, 1807; Hunterian Museum bookplate on front pastedown, with former shelf-mark “As.8.17”. |
| Binding: | France, 18th-century blue goatskin; gilt title on spine ‘MARTIALIS OPERA ANTIQ. EDIT CUM NOTIS MSS. JAC. AUG. THUANI’ [but probably a mistaken attribution by the 18th-century owner or binder – see Annotations]; top and lower edges gilt, red fore-edge; pink watered-silk doublures; blue silk bookmark; paper flyleaves; two parchment flyleaves, one inserted before the first leaf of text and the other after the final text leaf. Size: 214 × 143 mm. Leaf size: 211 × 136 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 211 x 136 mm. |
| Annotations: | Marginal annotations throughout written in a regular, calligraphic hand in Latin and Greek using red and black ink. Despite the wording of the spine title, the annotations are probably not by Jacques Auguste de Thou but by an earlier, unidentified humanist owner (ex inf. Mme Valérie Neveu). Inscription on front parchment flyleaf: ‘MDXV xxja maij ut deo placuit macarius mutius eques et comes ultima[m] die[m] clausit ac postridie celebri papa tumulo datus fuit’ - referring to Macarius Mutius, author of De triumpho Christo, Venice, 1499 (ISTC im00882000); inscriptions (Latin mottoes) in a 16th-century hand on verso of rear parchment flyleaf; number “1308” in ink on free front endpaper; many epigram titles underlined in red. |
| Decoration: | On 1/2r an eight-line epigraphic initial “B” is supplied in brown ink and green watercolour; the lower margin of the same page has a 16th-century drawing (cropped at lower edge) in brown ink with green and pink watercolour shading, which depicts two tritons or mermen holding a mirror or shield, on which is a nude male figure with a cape standing over a headless and armless torso - perhaps relating to epigram 66 in book 3, in which the poet condemns Mark Antony for ordering the murder of Cicero whose head and hands were severed from his body. |
| Imperfections: | None. |
