Cicero, Marcus Tullius: Epistolae ad Brutum, ad Quintum fratrem, ad Atticum.

Add:  Francesco Petrarca:  Epistola ad Ciceronem;  Cornelius Nepos:  Vita Attici.


Venice:  Nicolaus Jenson, 1470.
Fol.   [1-310 412 5-710 812 9-1110 1212 13-1710 186].   [182] leaves, the last blank.
ISTC ic00500000;  Goff C500;  BMC V 166;  Bod-inc C-284;  GW 6859.

Shelf-mark: Sp Coll Hunterian Be.2.12 (see main library entry for this item)
Note: This copy has the full colophon on 18/5v (f. 181v) as transcribed by BMC and GW - copies are known with the colophon lacking the two lines of prose stating the contents of the book (cf. GW Anm.).
Note: Printer's pin-holes visible.
Provenance: Jean Couthier (16th/17th century):  inscription on 18/5v (f. 181v) “Jo[hannes] couthier”.
Louis Jean Gaignat (1697-1768), Secretary to King Louis XV:  Gaignat sale, 1769;  lot 1480 in Guillaume de Bure, 'Bibliographie instructive:  supplément ... ou catalogue des livres de feu M. L.J. Gaignat', 2 vols (Paris:  1769).
William Hunter (1718-1783), physician and anatomist:  purchased by Hunter at the Gaignat sale through his agent, Jean-Baptiste Dessain, for 90 livres;  see 'Dessain-Hunter correspondence' (University of Glasgow Library, MS Gen. 36, f.23v).
University of Glasgow:  Hunterian bequest, 1807;  Hunterian Museum bookplate on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “Av.1.7”.
Binding: France, 18th-century blue morocco decorated with triple gold fillets, a small gold fleuron at each corner;  gold-tooled-spine;  marbled endpapers;  gilt-edged leaves;  pink silk bookmark.  Size:  329 x 236 mm.
Leaf size: 319 x 224 mm.
Annotations: A few marginal annotations, “nota” marks and underlining in a 15th/16th-century hand in gathering 1;  some evidence of gatherings numbered in arabic numerals in an early hand in top right-hand corner of first recto (most numbers cropped).
Decoration: Principal initials supplied in red and blue with reserved white;  other initials supplied throughout in alternate red and blue;  all initials are embellished with a reddish-brown pen-and-ink decoration consisting of several vertical lines with loops and horizontal strokes added;  capital strokes in red throughout.
Imperfections: None.

Decorated penwork intial in Cicero, Marcus Tullius: Epistolae ad Brutum, ad Quintum fratrem, ad Atticum