Michael Scotus: Liber physiognomiae.
[Basel: Johann Amerbach, ca. 1485-86]
4to. a-e8. [40] leaves.
ISTC im00555000; GW M23280; Goff M555; BMC III 748 (IA. 37420); Bod-inc M-216; CIBN M-352; BSB-Ink M-380.
Dated [ca. 1485-86] in CIBN. Dated [not before 1485] by Bod-inc, BSB-Ink and Sack(Freiburg).
Wrongly attributed by Pellechet to Petrus Metlinger, who uses Amerbach's types 185G and 92G with slight modifications - see CIBN and BMC VIII 405.
Two copies held by the University of Glasgow.
Copy 1
| GIP number: | M37/2 |
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll Ferguson Ak-a.40 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Provenance: | John Ferguson (1837-1916), Professor of Chemistry, University of Glasgow: source unknown. University of Glasgow: Ferguson collection purchase, 1921. |
| Binding: | Scotland, 20th-century dark green cloth; gilt title and oval stamp of Glasgow College Library on spine; remnants of early fore-edge lettering in ink. Size: 205 x 143 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 198 x 137 mm. |
| Annotations: | Brief 16th/17th-century annotations in German on a1r and a5r; brief marginal annotations in Latin in an early hand on a7r and e3r; number “3.” in ink on a1r; number “52” in pencil on e8v. |
| Decoration: | None. |
| Imperfections: | None. |
Copy 2
| GIP number: | M37/1 |
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll Ferguson Al-a.75 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Provenance: | Beatus Dietrich (15th/16th century), of Wissembourg, Alsace: inscription on a1r “Beatj Dietherich Decanj Wissenburgen[sis]”. Molsheim, Alsace, Jesuit College (founded 1580, dissolved 1765): inscription on a1r “Collegij Societatis Jesu Molshemij”. David Laing (1793-1878), antiquary and librarian of the Signet Library: lot 3348 in Catalogue of the second portion of the extensive and valuable library of the late David Laing ... which will be sold by auction by Messrs. Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge ... on Monday, the 5th of April, 1880 ... (London: 1880); sold to Pickering for £1.6.0 according to the annotated British Library copy of the sale catalogue - shelfmark S.C.S. 797. Pickering & Chatto, booksellers and publishers, London (firm founded in 1820 by William Pickering, continued by his son, Basil Montagu Pickering, and purchased by Thomas Chatto in 1878); see above. John Ferguson (1837-1916), Professor of Chemistry, University of Glasgow: Ferguson’s pencil acquisition note on a1r “J.F. 20 iv 80 Laing’s 3348”; presumably purchased from Pickering; Ferguson’s note on e8v “Marked 300 Marks in L. Rosenthals Cat. 100 No 1932”. University of Glasgow: Ferguson collection purchase, 1921. |
| Binding: | Germany, 15th/16th-century wooden boards, partially covered in red-stained calf, which is decorated with a blind-tooled panelled design formed by intersecting fillets and a separate, unidentified square-shaped tool; title 'phiſionomia' written in ink on front board in an early hand; ink title on spine and the number “20”(?); single brass clasp with traces of a leather thong, catch plate on front board; pastedowns (covering only the inner half of each board) are fragments of bifolia from an unidentified parchment manuscript of small format, ruled in ink, text in two columns and rubricated; remains of a paper tab on a1r; traces of a circular paper label at foot of spine. Size: 226 x 159 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 215 x 156 mm. |
| Annotations: | Occasional early marginal annotations, nota marks and underlining in brown ink; 18th-century marginal annotation on a6v relating to a woman who had given birth to a daughter at the age of 52; bibliographical references in a 19th-century German hand written in ink and in pencil on inner front board. |
| Decoration: | Initials supplied in red with pen flourishing; capital strokes, paragraph marks and underlining supplied in red throughout; initials “,B,D,” in red below colophon on e8r - the rubricator(?) perhaps to be identified with Beatus Dietrich (see Provenance). |
| Imperfections: | None. |
