Vergilius Maro, Publius: Opera. Bucolica, Georgica, Aeneis, with argumenta.
Additional texts. Edited by Johannes Andreas de Bussis, bishop of Aleria.
Rome: Conradus Sweynheym and Arnoldus Pannartz, [1471].
Fol. [110 28 3-2310]. [228] leaves (1, 19, 208, 228 blank).
ISTC iv00151400; GW M49939; CIBN V-105; C6000; IGI 10180.
| GIP numbers: | V21 |
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll Hunterian Be.2.7 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Variants: | 1/2r, line 3: “ad Pomponium ...” not, as Copinger, “ad Pomponi ...”; 1/3v, line 5: “totiuſ ſtudioſiſſimuſ Maroniſ ...” not, as Copinger, “totius studiosissimi Maronis ...” |
| Note: | Quires 23 and 22 misbound (in that order) between quires 1 and 2. |
| Provenance: | Unidentified owner (Italy, 16th century): unidentified painted coat of arms on 3/2r (f. 20r) depicting within a gold roundel the figure of Justice in green, pink and white robes holding a sword and scales, and in the fore-ground a dog(?) seated sideways on its hindquarters and holding a shield on which is the letter “N” and two stars. Frater Deodatus (16th/17th century), Gesuati/Jesuats (Clerici apostolici Sancti Hieronymi/Apostolic Clerics of Saint Jerome): partially read inscription on 1/1r “Hic est Virgilius Mei Deodati fratris [...] Gesuat[orum] fratru[m] populariq[ue] [...]”; the number “2350” written in the same hand in the top right-hand corner of the same page. William Hunter (1718-1783), physician and anatomist: source unknown. University of Glasgow: Hunterian bequest 1807; Hunterian Museum bookplate on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “Av.1.6”. |
| Binding: | 18th-century red goatskin; covers decorated with a gold fillet border, a small ornament at each corner; gold-tooled spine; marbled endpapers; pale green-edged leaves. Size: 332 x 225 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 325 x 213 mm. |
| Annotations: | Frequent marginal annotations in Latin, written in brown ink in a 16th-century hand, in Bucolica and Georgica (often extracting keywords); fewer marginal annotations in Aeneis, except in Aeneis, Lib. VI, where lengthy marginal annotations in a different 16th-century hand have been masked by the superimposition of blank strips of paper; occasional manicules, nota marks and underlining. On 2/5v, 2/6r, 2/7v, 3/3r, 4/3v, 7/2r, 7/2v, 7/4r, 7/6r, 8/3r, 9/3r, 12/7r, 12/8r and 23/1r (i.e. ff. 15v, 16r, 17v, 21r, 31v, 60r, 60v, 62r, 64r, 71r, 81r, 115r, 116r and 219r) there are marginal inscriptions in Arabic and in Italian employing the Arabic script, one of which is a direct quote from Torquato Tasso’s poem, 'Gerusalemme liberata' - suggesting a dating in the latter part of the 16th century; the Arabic is unclear and displays errors in a number of places, and these marginalia were probably written by a learned Italian senior cleric, who had studied some classical Arabic and who adapted the Arabic script in several ways to represent the phonology of the Italian language e.g. by placing an obelus over ‘waw’ to indicate /o/ (ex inf. David Weston, June 2014, whose full typescript transcription of these fourteen marginalia is loosely inserted in the volume); 16th-century manuscript foliation in two sequences ‘1-18’, ‘1-196’ from 1/2 onwards; double-sided sheet of notes discussing this edition, signed by William Hunter, tipped-in at front; a note dated ‘6th Augt 1816’and signed ‘I.C.’ is attached to 1/1v, observing that ‘This 2d Edition of Virgil is the only one in Britain, and no other any where else, known to Earl Spencer, except an imperfect copy at Lucca. His Lordship is of opinion that the Posterior editions of Virgil have never been collated with this one. He is possessed of the 1st Edition, but it is said to be less correct than this one - He thinks it was printed a year or two earlier than is mentioned in Dr. Hunter’s notice’. |
| Decoration: | On 3/2r (f. 20r) an eight-line initial “T” is supplied in gold and set on a square ground of white-vine decoration defined in crimson, blue and green, which continues as a border into the four margins, and incorporated into the lower margin is a coat of arms set within a roundel (see Provenance); other principal initials throughout supplied in gold on a background of white-vine decoration with marginal extensions, or in gold on a background of crimson and blue embellished with white tracery; smaller initials throughout supplied in gold or in blue; marginal pen-and-ink drawing of a landscape of hills on 10/4r (f. 92r). |
| Imperfections: | Wanting 4/4.7, 20/9-10, 21/1-10, and the blank leaf 23/10 (ff. 32, 35, 197-208, and 228). |
