Plinius Secundus, Gaius (Pliny, the Elder): Historia naturalis.

Venice:  Johannes de Spira, [before 18 Sept.] 1469.
Fol.   [110 28 3-910 1012 11-1810 19-208 21-2810 2912 30-3210 338 34-3610].   [356] leaves, the last blank.
ISTC ip00786000;  Goff P786;  BMC V 153;  Bod-inc P-358.

Shelf-mark: Sp Coll Hunterian Bv.1.5 (see main library entry for this item)
Variants: 1/1r, lines 13-15:  “... apud me || proxima fętura licentiore epiſtola narrare cōſtitui || tibi ...”;  1/5r, col. 1, line 5:  “Vbi naſcantur ...” - cf. BMC’s description of variants in its four copies.
Note: In the fourth line of the colophon on 36/9v (f. 255v), the first “ſ” of “Exſcripſitq[ue]” has been erased.
Note: Printer's pin-holes visible.
Provenance: Richard Mead (1673-1754) M.D.:  Mead’s shelfmark in ink “D,5,,21.” on first front flyleaf;  lot 165, p. 25 (23 Nov. 1754) in 'Bibliotheca Meadiana' (London:  1754) where the binding is described as “C. R.” (i.e. corio russico);  sold for £11.11.0 according to the copy of the Mead sale catalogue (priced and partially annotated with buyers’ names) in University of Glasgow Library (shelfmark Mu33-e.30), where the buyer’s name is recorded as “The King of France”.
Louis XV (1710-1774), King of France - see above.
William Hunter (1718-1783), physician and anatomist:  the identification of Hunter’s source is problematical - given the evidence of the annotated Mead sale catalogue above;  a further anomaly is contained in the 'Dessain-Hunter correspondence' (University of Glasgow Library, MS Gen. 36, f.24r), which records that Hunter purchased, through his agent Jean-Baptiste Dessain, a copy of the Spira 1469 edition of Pliny for 749 livres 19 sous at the sale of the library of Louis Jean Gaignat (1697-1768), Secretary to King Louis XV - lot 999 in Guillaume de Bure, 'Bibliographie instructive:  supplément ... ou catalogue des livres de feu M. L.J. Gaignat', 2 vols (Paris: 1769).   However, the binding of that copy is described in the sale catalogue as “m. c.” (i.e. maroquin citron) - the 'Dessain-Hunter correspondence' (unusually) does not describe the binding but if the De Bure catalogue description is accurate, the former Gaignat copy would appear to be a duplicate which is no longer in the Hunterian Library.
University of Glasgow:  Hunterian bequest, 1807;  Hunterian Museum bookplate and book label on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “Ab.3.1”.
Binding: England, 18th-century gold-tooled diced russia;  covers decorated to a three-panel design using double fillets, a fleur-de-lys and floral roll, and a separate floral tool;  gold-tooled spine whose decoration includes a separate drawer-handle tool and a tool of a radiant sun with human features;  marbled endpapers;  front and rear flyleaves have watermark of three mountains within a circle (cf. Briquet, 'Filigranes', 11845-50).   Size: 455 × 300 mm. 
Leaf size: 430 x 286 mm.
Annotations: Book numbers and chapter numbers added in red ink to the printed index contained in gatherings 1 and 2;  text rubricated throughout by reference to the printed index and its manuscript additions;  running book numbers ‘I-XXXVII’ supplied in red ink on rectos;  early marginal annotations in black ink on 8/3r (f. 71r) ‘hermaphroditi’ and on 8/7r (f. 75r) ‘de opere virgilii’;  gatherings numbered ‘1-36’ in an early hand;  evidence of early signatures;  possible shelfmark beginning ‘XXVII’ (remainder cropped) in red ink in an early hand at foot of 3/1r (f. 19r);  ‘f3’ written in pencil (18th century) on front free endpaper.
Decoration: On 1/1r a 17-line epigraphic initial “L” is supplied in blue on a rectangular pink background containing white-vine decoration defined in blue and green with the head of a dragon(?) devouring the stem of the vine;  principal initials supplied in red or blue, both generally with reserved white;  other smaller initials supplied throughout in alternate red and blue;  small guide-letters in brown ink are visible for almost all initials.
Imperfections: None.

Epigraphic initial and rubrication in Plinius Secundus, Gaius (Pliny, the Elder): Historia naturalis