Incunabula: annotations index

Significant notes and/or textual annotations are indexed here. Many of the books contain brief bibliographical and ownership notes made by later owners (ie. 17th century onwards) - these are noted in the individual descriptions of the books but are not indexed here. Annotations that have been so washed out as to be illegible are mentioned in the individual records, but not indexed here.

 Annotations have been grouped as follows:

Insertions

Letters/notes etc

167504: slip of paper tipped-onto front pastedown of part I signed “J.B.S” referring to Maittaire’s Annalium typographicorum supplementum;  brief note in the same hand on the author and text tipped-onto a1r of part I.
167517 & 167518: 19th-century bibliographical notes tipped-in at front of volume.
167528: small remnants visible of an extract from a bookseller’s catalogue formerly tipped onto front free endpaper but later removed (with evidence remaining that the Rolewinck was item 4 in the catalogue).
167529: at the front of the volume are bound-in two paper leaves containing manuscript text in double columns in a 15th/16th-century hand beginning “Quid est homo”, “Quid est deus”, and with frequent quotations from the Book of Isaiah.
Af-f.81: bibliographical note by Richard Garnett of BM, 1888.
Ag-x.11: part of a letter identifying the printer from S. Leigh Sotheby to John Inglis tipped-in at front;  extract from a French catalogue pasted onto to front pastedown.
Ag-y.8: 19th-century bibliographical note affixed to front pastedown relating to a copy of this edition with a fabricated date.
Ah-a.29: slip of paper pasted onto front free endpaper with manuscript excerpt  from Dibdin’s 'Typographical antiquities', vol. 2, p.16.
Al-b.45: two leaves extracted from an English newspaper dated May 1832.
Al-c.7: torn piece of paper with 19th-century notes on the author in English loosely inserted.
BC7-y.11 (item 1): 16th-century woodcut coat of arms pasted onto a1r.
BC7-y.11 (item 1) & BC7-y.11 (item 4): partial extract from 19th-century German bookseller’s catalogue pasted onto inner front board.
BD7-b.15: brief extract from Dibdin and a reference to G.B. Audiffredi tipped in.
BD7-b.16: Slip of paper pasted onto front free endpaper containing Euing's bibliographical references to Santander, Laire, Audiffredi, Dibdin
BD7-c.9: loosely inserted at front is a folded sheet of paper containing Euing’s notes on this edition.
BD7-d.2: loosely inserted letter (postmarked Nov. 1854 and probably from an unnamed bookseller) which lists this and other incunabula.
BD7-d.11: slip tipped-in at front with instructions to binder; cancelled leaf matching stub [E3] loosely inserted.
BD7-d.16: Euing’s note of Dibden’s comments on this edition in Bibliotheca Spenceriana, IV, pp. 439-40, tipped onto front free endpaper.
BD7-e.5: slip with a 19th-century bibliographical note pasted onto free front endpaper.
BD7-e.19: bibliographical note copied from Santander’s 'Dictionnaire bibliographique choisi du quinzième siècle', tipped on to front free endpaper.
BD7-e.27: note referring to another edition of the work in the 'Bibliotheca Spenceriana'.
BD7-f.18: note from Dibdin’s Bibliotheca Spenceriana tipped-in at front.
BD9-b.9: the text of the missing leaves t1.8 has been supplied in manuscript, in a 15th/16th-century hand, on two inserted leaves of paper.
BD9-d.3: notes by Euing relating to this edition (including a full list of the Psalms).
BD9-d.10: bibliographical note by Euing tipped onto front free endpaper.
BD12-a.5: extract from German bookseller’s catalogue tipped-onto front pastedown ; sheet of paper inserted at front containing a reference to Johann Saubert, Historia bibliothecae reip. Noribergensis (Nuremberg:  1643) p. 134.
Be.1.14: bibliographical notes in a 19th-century hand referring to an edition of Didbin’s 'Introduction to the knowledge of rare and valuable editions of the Greek and Latin classics'.
Be.2.7: double-sided sheet of notes discussing this edition, signed by William Hunter, tipped-in at front a note mounted on [a1v] (leaf [1v]) dated “6th Augt 1816” and signed “I.C.” observing that “This 2d Edition of Virgil is the only one in Britain, and no other any where else, known to Earl Spencer... He thinks it was printed a year or two earlier than is mentioned in Dr. Hunter’s notice”; blank strips of paper pasted over a number of early marginal comments.
Be.3.29 (item 2): brief questions (“Omnes questiones”) on the Rhetorica written in a 16th-century hand on a early flyleaf inserted after g6.
Bf.2.1: 18th-century slip with titling instructions to binder tipped-in between [a1] and [a2].
Bf.3.15 (item 1): on the blank verso of [k8] (leaf [98v]), and continuing onto the recto and verso of an inserted vellum leaf, is a contemporary copy of a panegyric by Petrus de Rivo, Professor of Theology at the University of Louvain, on the marriage in 1477 of Maximilian of Hapsburg, son of the Emperor Frederick III, to Mary of Burgundy, daughter of Charles the Bold, Duke of Burgundy; loosely inserted at the front of the book are two sheets of paper containing notes in an 18th-century hand on a letter of Pius II to Charles VII of France.
Bf71-a.4: bibliographical notes by James A. Ure tipped in.
Bg.2.2: 18th-century note on the author tipped in at front, to which Hunter has added an annotation regarding the make-up of his copy at the time of purchase.
Bg.2.4: Hunter’s titling instructions to binder loosely inserted “Calf Gilt Petr. Yspan. Thes. Paup.”
Bg.2.5: undated manuscript note in Hunter's hand tipped-in at the front of the Gesta Romanorum:  "This book I met with in a sale bound up with J. de Theranio [sic] Consolatio Peccatorum printed at Colonia 1474. [i.e. Bg.2.3]  The Type & paper the same, & therefore no doubt the printer, viz Joh. Veldener".
Bg.2.23: sheet of paper containing William Hunter’s manuscript notes in which he compares the typography of this edition with that of his copy of the Fust and Schoeffer, Mainz, 1466 edition.
Bg.3.2: fabricated (18th cent?) titlpage inserted to replace missing blank (a1).
Bg.3.3: loosely inserted in the volume is a folded foolscap sheet of notes by William Hunter on the typography and watermarks of this edition.
Bg.3.5: on rear free endpaper a tipped-in note on the Mainz 1478 edition from the press of Peter Schoeffer, and a second tipped-in note in Latin on this Strassburg edition signed “E.B.” i.e. Ebenezer Brown.
Bg.3.11: a torn fragment of paper (probably used as a bookmark) on which is written, in Italian, a reference to the convent of St. Catherine at Pisa, with the date 1563.
Bh.2.15: extract copied from Dibdin’s 'Introduction to the classics', vol. 1, p. 173, tipped-in at front.
Bv.1.7: two leaves of a manuscript index written in a 16th-century hand are bound in at the end.
Bv.2.1: tipped onto the front free endpaper is a sheet of paper containing notes by William Hunter on this and other editions
Bv.2.9: text of the missing leaves is supplied in manuscript in an 18th-century hand on nine leaves inserted at the beginning of the book.
Bv.2.29: text of the missing leaf is supplied in manuscript on inserted leaf.
Bv.2.31 (item 1): a folded sheet of paper, inserted between [c8] and [d1] (leaves [24] and [25]) of Higden’s Description of Britain (the first work in the volume), contains a detailed index to the Chronicles of England (Bv.2.31 (item 2)) with reference to that pagination.  
Bw.1.4: tipped-onto the front free endaper is a lengthy note by William Hunter discussing this undated edition, the editio princeps printed at Mainz in 1460, and the Augsburg edition of 1469, with reference to copies in the King’s library.
Bx.1.10: 23-page manuscript index (“Tabula plinij p[er] alphabetum”) in a 16th-century hand bound in at front
Bx.2.9: blank leaf inserted before [a2] with various inscriptions and a manuscript copy, written in a 15th/16th-century hand, of the letter of Johannes Andreas de Bussis to Pope Paul II; on a blank leaf inserted before [b1] (leaf [13]) - which is conjunct with the blank leaf before [a2] - is a manuscript copy of the letter of Angelus Sabinus to Dominicus de Dominicis;  on the blank verso of [v9] (leaf [204]) - and continuing on three inserted leaves following it - are copies (written in the same early hand as the other letters) from the text of De Phoenice of Lactantius (“Est locus in primo felix oriente remotus”), from Ovid’s Metamorphoses XV (“Haec tamen ex aliis generis primordia ducunt”), and from Dante’s Inferno XXV (“Cossi per li gran savi se confessa”). All of these texts are included in different 15th-century editions of Lactantius.
Bx.3.2: letter from bookseller George Nicol.
Bx.3.27: fragment of what appears to be an 18th-century binder’s note tipped-in at end.
Bx.3.30: note by Chastre de Cangé on the colophon tipped-in before [e2] (leaf [42]), together with William Hunter’s comments on that note written on a loosely inserted piece of paper
Bx.3.44: lozenge-shaped slip of paper with lot(?) number “2177” pasted onto AA1r.
By.1.4: piece of paper affixed with sealing wax to front flyleaf containing a note by William Hunter referring to variant setting of leaf [284r].
Cn.1.2: extract from a bookseller’s (or auction) catalogue pasted onto front free endpaper.
Da-a.13, 14: extract from an English bookseller’s catalogue (item 102, price deleted) mounted on front flyleaf of first volume.
Da-b.1: inserted at the front of the volume is a ruled vellum leaf, whose recto and verso are divided into six columns containing manuscript tables of Gospel readings throughout the liturgical year written in a 16th-century hand, the text on the verso being continued onto the blank page [a1r] which is similarly ruled and divided into columns, and the text is then continued onto both sides of a ruled vellum leaf inserted at the rear of the volume.
Dq-a.16: bound in at the front are four leaves of manuscript text written in two columns in a 15th-century hand on paper, the text consisting of various prologues;  a similar manuscript insert on paper containing a prologue to Hosea bound-in between [M8] and [M9] (leaves [360] and [361]).
Dq-b.10: loose sheet of paper inserted with annotation “Bible Historiée - 189 Offor per BQ now in possession of W. Euing”.
E.1939.65.2549: extract from a bookseller’s catalogue advertising this copy (item number and price not included) pasted onto front pastedown.
E.c.38: 19th-century biographical references to Gafurius tipped-in at front.
E.c.43: bibliographical note by William Euing loosely inserted.
Eg7-c.1: vellum leaf inserted at end containing a list, in a late medieval hand, of saints’ days from the liturgical calendar and references to Roman churches including S. Paulus extra muros and S. Laurentius extra muros.
Euing Add. f45: mid 20th-century duplicated typescript description of this copy (perhaps intended as caption for an exhibition?) tipped onto rear free endpaper.
Euing Add. f52: fabricated printed 17th-century title-page inserted.
Mu11-y.1: two pages of pencil notes by A.J. Horwood on selected passages of text loosely inserted at front.
S.M. 1435: two-page manuscript bibliographical note by Sir William Stirling Maxwell tipped-in at front.
S.M. 1985: 19th-century manuscript note extracted from BM catalogue tipped-in at front.
S.M. 1986: Sir William Stirling Maxwell’s note on the woodcut initials tipped-in at front.
S.M. 1987: letter referring to the book, dated 9 Sept. 1923, to Sir John Stirling Maxwell from Gerald Walter Erksine Loder (1861-1936) loosely inserted.
T.C.L. 389: two-page biographical and bibliographical note in English on Savonarola in a 19th-century hand tipped in at front.
T.C.L. f12: 19th-century printed title-page inserted with imprint “Romę E Prelo Conradi Sweynheim et Arnoldi Pannartz MCCCCLXX”.
X.2.15: Loosely inserted is a page proof(?) of an 18th-century French medical text on the blank verso of which are manuscript notes in French on “hernie de naissance”.  Also loosely inserted (presumably as a bookmark) is the torn-off lower part of what appears to be the final page from an 18th-century English bookseller’s priced catalogue.

Illustrations

Ag-x.11: cut-outs pasted onto front pastedown.
An-y.32 :16th century woodcut of King David and Urias mounted on blank verso.
BC7-y.11 (item 1) & BC7-y.11 (item 4): 16th-century woodcut of St John as bishop and 16th-century woodcut of zodiac man pasted onto inner front and rear boards respectively.
BC33-d.11: unidentified hand-coloured woodcut of the Annunciation, formerly pasted onto the inside of the front board, is preserved separately.
BD7-d.11: cut-outs pasted onto front and rear pastedowns.
Bf.3.15 (item 1): Engraving of Pius II mounted on third front flyleaf.
Bf.3.19: a ten-line illuminated initial “Q” on [a2r] (leaf [4r]) - together with a portion of the text at its right - has been excised and later replaced with an inserted piece of paper containing a representation of the missing illumination and a manuscript copy of the missing text.
Bv.2.29: engraving of William Caxton pasted to verso of third front flyleaf.
Bx.1.1-4: in part III a leaf containing a revised version of the woodcut of the Temple of Ezekiel has been pasted over the original woodcut on U7r.
Mu43-a.4: cut-outs pasted onto front pastedown.

Mottoes/proverbs

 

Al-c.9 (possibly - of Brunyncx); BD7-d.2 (one in Latin; one in French); Bg.2.23 (motto of Johan Radermacher); Bk5-g.22 (item 1: one in Latin; one in Scots); Bn6-d.1 (in parallel Latin and Greek);  By.3.29 (Latin);  BD15-i.23 (Latin with German translation)