Roelans de Mechlinia, Cornelius: Opusculum aegritudinum puerorum.
[Louvain: Johann Veldener, ca. 1486-87]
4to. [16 2-158]. [118] leaves, the last blank. Leaves 1-117 numbered “lxxviii”-“Cxciiii”, with errors.
ISTC ir00241000; GW M38569; Goff R241; BMC IX 163 (IA. 49338).
Almost all copies recorded (including this one) begin with leaf lxxviii - ISTC.
| GIP number: | R11 |
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll Hunterian Bw.3.1 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Bound with: | The second of two incunabula bound together; bound with: Matheolus Perusinus, De memoria augenda. [Louvain: Johann Veldener, not before 1486]. |
| Provenance: | Michiel Onyn (16th century): “Michiel Onyn” written on 15/8r (f.118r). Edward Harley (1689-1741), Lord Harley; from 1724 2nd Earl of Oxford: see below. Thomas Osborne (d. 1767), bookseller: purchased all the Harleian printed books; top corner of first front flyleaf cut off - as in many other Harleian volumes - probably by Osborne to remove his earlier price (cf. J.B. Oldham, 'Shrewsbury School bindings', p.114); revised price in pencil “7=6” adjacent to excision; no. 7178 “Matheolus de Memoria & de Aegritudinibus Infantum (sine Anno aut Loco)” in Osborne’s 'Catalogus bibliothecae Harleianae', vol. 5 (London: 1745). William Hunter (1718-1783), physician and anatomist: source unknown. University of Glasgow: Hunterian bequest 1807; Hunterian Museum bookplate on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “Ay.7.5”. |
| Binding: | England, 18th-century calf, bound for Lord Harley by Thomas Elliott. On both covers double gold fillets form a frame, within which is an ornamental roll in blind (Nixon, ‘Harleian bindings’, pl. 14, Elliott roll 5). Rebacked in the 19th/20th century; original spine covering not preserved; edges decorated with a gilt roll, which is a smaller version of Nixon ‘Harleian bindings’, Elliott roll 2; turn-ins are decorated with an unidentified zig-zag roll in blind; marbled endpapers. Size: 215 x 145 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 205 x 139 mm. |
| Annotations: | Brief marginal annotation and guide-letter in an early hand on 3/5r (leaf “xcvi” recto). |
| Decoration: | On 15/7v (leaf “Cxciiii” verso) is a full-page 16th-century pen-and-ink drawing of a man wearing a cloak and holding a halberd. |
| Imperfections: | 8/1-5 (ff.55-59) damaged (by rodent?) with loss of text on 8/1. |
