Petrarca, Francesco: Canzoniere e Trionfi.

Add:  Leonardus Brunus Aretinus:  Vita di Petrarca.

Padua:  Bartholomaeus de Valdezoccho and Martinus de Septem Arboribus, 6 Nov. 1472.
Fol.   [18 2-1410 158 16-1810 198 206].   [190] leaves, 184 and 190 blank.
ISTC ip00373000;  Goff P373;  BMC VII 904;  Bod-inc P-152.

Shelf-mark: Sp Coll Hunterian Bg.2.12 (see main library entry for this item)
Note: The Index (gathering 1) is bound at the end.
Note: Evidence of offsetting from the painted lower margin of 2/1r on 7/9v (f. 67v).
Variants: 2/1r (f. 9r):  as in the two BL copies, the entire page of text is printed in capitals, except for “Sono”, the last word on l.10 (according to Hain copies exist in which this page is partly in minuscules);  20/5r (f. 189r), line 1:  “... petarcæ ...”, not as BMC “... petrarcæ ...”;  20/5r, lines 4-5:  “... fragmē-||ta ...”, not as BMC “... fragmē||ta ...”;  20/5r, lines 10-12:  “lutus eſt || fœlici||ter.” not as BMC “lutus eſt fœlici||ter.”;  20/5r, final line:  “BIRS.” not as BMC “-BIRS.”.
Provenance: Capello family, Venice (possible owners):  overpainted coat of arms - see Decoration below.
Louis Jean Gaignat (1697-1768), Secretary to King Louis XV:  Gaignat sale, 1769;  lot 1979 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 563 livres;  see 'Dessain-Hunter correspondence' (University of Glasgow Library, MS Gen. 36, f. 25r).
University of Glasgow:  Hunterian bequest, 1807;  Hunterian Museum bookplate on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “Ad.9.17”.
Binding: France, 18th-century olive green morocco with gold-tooled dentelle decoration;  gold-tooled spine;  marbled endpapers;  gilt-edged leaves;  pink silk bookmark;  ascribed by J.B. Oldham to Jacques Antoine Derome in his 'Notes on bindings in the Hunterian and general libraries in Glasgow University' (University of Glasgow Library, MS Gen. 759, p.4).   Housed in a green buckram-covered box.   Size:  273 x 170 mm.
Leaf size: 265 x 162 mm.
Annotations: Early foliation in upper case roman numerals (many cropped) in reddish ink;  “No 183” in black ink in an 18th-century hand on verso of front free endpaper.
Decoration: 2/1r (f. 9r) is decorated with a pen-and-ink architectural border, heightened by wash.  The border includes, on the right, a pillar supporting a blindfolded Cupid, and, on the left, a candelabra;  both rest on a sarcophagus-like base decorated with a male and a female sea-creature with putti astride their tails (the two sea-creatures holding a laurel wreath containing the arms of France: azure, three fleurs-de-lys or).  On the same page a six-line initial ‘V’ is supplied in dull gold with a square background of two dolphins and a female head in profile;  eight other historiated initials supplied in pen-and-ink and heightened with wash on 15/6r, 16/1r, 17/3r, 17/6v, 18/5v, 19/2v, 19/5r, 20/1r (ff. 144r, 147r, 159r, 162v, 171v, 178v, 181r, 185r);  other initials added throughout in plain blue.  The decoration is attributed to the London Pliny Master: see Nigel Thorp, 'The glory of the page' (London: 1987), no. 90 (who tentatively suggests that the arms of France on 2/1r have been painted over a blazon of the Capello family of Venice);  see also Lilian Armstrong, 'Studies of Renaissance miniaturists in Venice', (London: 2003), pp. 240-41, 266, 281.
Imperfections: Wanting the blank leaves 19/8 (f. 184) and 20/6 (f. 190).

Decorated page with coat of arms in Petrarca, Francesco: Canzoniere e Trionfi