Suetonius Tranquillus, Gaius: Vitae XII Caesarum.

Add:  Ausonius:  Versus.

[Bologna:  Printer of the Suetonius 'Vitae' (H 15113), ca. 1475-77?]
4to.   [1-12^10.12 13-14¹⁰ 15¹²].   [164] leaves.
ISTC is00819000; GW M44193; Goff S819; BMC VI 853 (IA. 29282); Bod-inc S-340; CIBN S-488; BSB-Ink S-611.

Dated ca. 1475-77 in CIBN;  unassigned and dated ca. 1477 by Goff.

Two copies held by the University of Glasgow.

Copy 1

GIP number:	S60/1
Shelf-mark:	Sp Coll Hunterian Bw.3.12 (see main library entry for this item)
Provenance:	Ricardus Rossius(?) (16th century), Italy:  cropped inscription at top margin of 1/1r beginning “Ricardj rossj(?) [...]”. Joseph Smith (1673/4?-1770), British Consul in Venice:  lot 1788 in 'Bibliotheca Smithiana: a catalogue of the curious, elegant, and very valuable library of Joseph Smith ... Which will be sold by auction, by S. Baker and G. Leigh ... on Monday, January the 25th, 1773';  bookplate (almost certainly Smith’s) on front pastedown overlaid by Hunterian Museum bookplate. William Hunter (1718-1783), physician and anatomist:  purchased by Hunter at the Smith sale for £2.2.0 according to the annotated BL copy of the Smith sale catalogue - shelfmark S.C.S. 8(7). University of Glasgow:  Hunterian bequest 1807;  Hunterian Museum bookplate on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “L.6.9”.
Binding:	Italy, 18th-century parchment;  green leather title label on spine;  paste-paper endpapers;  red-edged leaves;  inner fold of middle leaves of each quire guarded with thin vellum strips from a late medieval manuscript.   Size:  225 x 167 mm.
Leaf size:	223 x 165 mm.
Annotations:	Frequent marginal annotations in several 16th-century hands, mainly in brown ink but occasionally in red;  Greek text supplied in spaces left blank by printer;  occasional corrections of text;  first five leaves foliated in lower margin “i”-“5”.
Decoration:	Seven-line initial “I” on 1/1r supplied in crimson and blue on rectangular (silvered?) ground with foliate decoration in blue and green extending into inner margin;  other initials supplied in alternate red and blue throughout (a few of which have been corrected in brown ink at a later date);  capital strokes in yellow throughout.
Imperfections:	None.

Copy 2

GIP number:	S60/2
Shelf-mark:	Sp Coll Hunterian Bw.3.13 (see main library entry for this item)
Provenance:	Anthony Askew (1722-1774), physician and classical scholar:  Askew sale, 13 Feb. 1775 onwards;  lot 3109 in 'Bibliotheca Askeviana' … (London:  Baker & Leigh, 1775). William Hunter (1718-1783), physician and anatomist:  purchased by Hunter at the Askew sale for £2.2.o according to the priced copy of the Askew sale catalogue (partially annotated with buyers’ names) in University of Glasgow Library (shelfmark Mu36-c.8). University of Glasgow:  Hunterian bequest 1807;  Hunterian Museum bookplate on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “K.4.1”.
Binding:	18th-century gold-tooled red goatskin;  covers tooled to a two panel design;  the outer frame is formed by a double fillet;  the frame of the centre panel is formed from a fleur-de-lys and anthemion roll bordered by a double and a single fillet, with a lozenge-shaped floral ornament at each outer corner;  marbled endpapers;  rebacked in the 19th/20th century.    Size: 245 x 178 mm.
Leaf size:	238 x 169 mm.
Annotations:	Single word marginal annotation on 4/3r (f. 35r);  “Cesaris” added in brown ink as a running heading on 1/2r and 1/3r;  names of the emperors from Nero to Domitian added in brown ink as running headings (i.e. for Books 6-12);  evidence of an inscription almost entirely overlaid by the illuminated border on the lower margin of 1/1r.
Decoration:	Seven-line initial “I” on 1/1r, at the beginning of Book 1, supplied in purple and green on a square gold ground bordered in black;  the initial is placed on a column of gold, blue and purple with leaf decoration in green and blue;  the top margin has a border of purple, green and blue foliage on a rectangular gold background edged with two black lines;  the lower margin has a similar border - at the centre of which is a green laurel wreath, which frames a unicorn resting in an open landscape.   Opening initials of Books 2-8, 10-12 supplied in gold on a square ground of blue with white floral tracery, the body of each letter decorated in crimson with white floral tracery (the colours blue and crimson in some instances reversed).   All other initials supplied throughout in alternate red and blue.
Imperfections:	None.