Spiera, Ambrosius de: Quadragesimale de floribus sapientiae.

Venice:  Vindelinus de Spira, 18 Dec. 1476.
Fol.   [*]10 [†]8 a-l10 m8 N6 n-z10 aa-ii10 kk12 ll-rr10 ss12 ſſ10 tt-zz10 [et et]10 [con con]6.   [512] leaves, 1, 19, 511, 512 blank. Gathering [*] numbered from 2 to 5, gathering [†] from 6 to 9 (neither gathering is signed).
ISTC is00678000;  Goff S678;  BMC V 248;  Bod-inc S-277.

Shelf-mark: Sp Coll Hunterian By.2.11 (see main library entry for this item)
Provenance: Louis-Léon-Félicité, duc de Brancas de Lauraguais (1733-1824):  lot 72 in Guillaume de Bure, 'Catalogue d’une collection de livres choisis, provenans du cabinet de M***' (Paris:  1770).
William Hunter (1718-1783), physician and anatomist:  purchased by Hunter at the Brancas de Lauraguais sale through his agent, Peter Molini, for 40 livres 4 sous;  see Molini’s bill to Hunter (University of Glasgow Library, Hunter Papers H214).
University of Glasgow:  Hunterian bequest, 1807;  Hunterian Museum bookplate on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “Aw.2.2”.
Binding: France, 18th-century red morocco, each cover decorated with a border of triple gold fillets and eight separate ornaments at the corners and edges, with the Brancas de Lauraguais arms (Olivier 740) in gilt in the centre;  gold-tooled-spine;  marbled endpapers;  gilt-edged leaves;  red silk bookmark.   Size:  305 x 215 mm.
Leaf size: 300 x 205 mm.
Annotations: Marginal annotations in Latin in several 16th/17th-century hands;  occasional “nota” marks and pointing hands in a 16th-century hand;  running headings “i”-“XXXXV” indicating each sermon;  several medicinal recipes in Italian in a 16th-century hand on [con con]4v, and the same hand is responsible for some of the marginal annotations in Latin e.g. on f6r and f6v;  inscription in a 16th/17th-century hand on [*1r] “diuersitas mor[um] i[n] hominibus no[n] prouenit ex temperatura corpor[is] ut uolu[n]t medicj nec ex syderibus ut uolu[n]t astronomi, sed ex libero arbitrio ut uolu[n]t phil[osophi] et theologj [...]”;  16th/17th-century shelfmark(?) “Q1” in ink on [*1r].
Decoration: Initials (often with marginal flourishes), paragraph marks, and capital strokes supplied in red in gatherings [*], [†], a-ſ, x-y, ff, ll-nn, qq-rr (the remaining gatherings are completely undecorated).
Imperfections: Wanting r5.6, and the blank leaves a1 and [con con]6.

Penwork initial and incipit title in Spiera, Ambrosius de: Quadragesimale de floribus sapientiae