Cornelius Nepos: Vitae imperatorum, sive De vita illustrium virorum.
Venice: Nicolaus Jenson, 8 Mar. 1471.
4to. [1-610.8]. [54] leaves, the first and last blank.
With illuminated woodcut borders and initials - see F.R. Goff, ‘Illuminated woodcut borders and initials in early Venetian books (1469-1475)’, Gutenberg Jahrbuch (1962) pp. 380-389.
ISTC ic00915000; Goff C915; BMC V 167; Bod-inc C-460.
For a note on the text, see CIBN C-587.
Two copies held by the University of Glasgow.
Copy 1
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll BD9-d.10 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Note: | Printer's pin-holes visible. |
| Provenance: | Strozzi family of Florence (15th-16th century): painted coat of arms on 1/2r - see Decoration. William Euing (1788-1874), insurance broker, Glasgow: source unknown; bibliographical note by Euing tipped onto front free endpaper; his inventory number "15" in pencil also on front free endpaper. University of Glasgow: Euing bequest, 1874. |
| Binding: | 19th-century calf; covers decorated with a blind-tooled border; gilt spine title; brown endpapers; gilt-edged leaves. Size: 287 x 197 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 282 x 190 mm. |
| Annotations: | Evidence of frequent early marginal annotations in red ink - all heavily erased; manuscript index in a humanist hand on the recto of the first blank leaf with names in black ink and chapter references in red; leaves foliated “1” - “53” in ink in an 18th-century(?) hand (entirely or partially cropped by binder in the early gatherings); on the verso of the front free endpaper an annotation “v.2 Dibdin’s Spenceriana (182) - for a full Description of this rare and estimable Production of Jenson’s Press” signed “I.H.” and continuing “The first Edition with a Date £11.11.0d (value) says the Bibliog. Dictionary - vol. 3. 56”, below which is a note of the supplier and price - presumably of the above copy - “Thorpe 6.6.0”; frequent 19th-century marginal annotations in pencil in the same hand. |
| Decoration: | On 1/2r a six-line woodcut initial “N” is decorated in silver (now oxidized) and is embellished with white-vine decoration defined in blue and green and with a pattern of white dots - the initial is set on a square purple ground with a pattern of white dots; similarly decorated woodcut borders at top and bottom of the same page; the lower border incorporates a reserved white shield with the partially painted arms of the Strozzi family of Florence - three increscents on a fess; the same page has a left-hand border of two vertical lines painted in red and in (oxidized) silver and a right-hand border of a band of green laurel leaves. Similarly decorated woodcut initials in (oxidized) silver on a square blue ground at the beginning of each “Vita”. |
| Imperfections: | Wanting the final blank leaf. |
Copy 2
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll Hunterian Be.3.2 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Note: | This copy does not have the woodcut borders and initials. |
| Note: | Printer's pin-holes visible. |
| Provenance: | William Hunter (1718-1783), physician and anatomist: source unknown. University of Glasgow: Hunterian bequest 1807; Hunterian Museum bookplate on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “Au.5.14”. |
| Binding: | 18th-century diced russia decorated with a single gold fillet; gold-tooled spine; marbled endpapers; sprinkled red and green-edged leaves. Size: 285 x 203 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 278 x 196 mm. |
| Annotations: | Frequent marginal annotations in more than one humanist hand - mostly in black ink, occasionally in red (the annotations in gathering 1 are heavily washed but mainly legible); frequent interlinear corrections or additions; occasional faintly printed letters over-written in ink; early ink foliation “1” - “51” in top right-hand corner of recto leaves (2/5 i.e. f. 15 overlooked); 18th-century price “2-2-” in pencil on front flyleaf. |
| Decoration: | None. |
| Imperfections: | Wanting the first and final blank leaves. |
