Franc, Martin: L’estrif de fortune et vertu
[Bruges: Colard Mansion, ca. 1484]
Fol. [1-158 164 17-208 218 (21/7+χ1) 22-248 2510 (-25/10) 268 (±26/5) 27-288]. [222] leaves (16/4, 28/8 blank).
ISTC if00277200; GW M00438; C 2565; Pell 4893; CIBN F-162.
Dated on paper evidence (WILC). Dated [between 1477 and 1484] in HPT.
| GIP number: | F21 |
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll Hunterian Bg.3.3 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Variants: | 1/1r, line 6: “... ſuſtraites ...” not as Pellechet “... sustraistes ...”; 1/1v, line 13: “... voloir ...” not as Pellechet “... valoir ...”. |
| Note: | 7/8 (f. 56) misbound before 7/7 (f. 55) - the misplacement noted by the insertion of catchwords in a 16th-century hand; stubs showing between 21/1 and 21/2 (ff. 157 and 158) and between 25/9 and 26/1 (ff. 198 and 199). |
| Provenance: | Jacques Dasoust(?) (16th/17th century): partially read inscription on 28/7r (f. 221r) “[...] Jacques Dasoust(?) [...]”. Robert Foulis (1707-1776) & Andrew Foulis (1712-1775), printers and booksellers, Glasgow: item 1255, priced at £5.5.0, ‘L’Estrif de Fortune et Vertu, par Martin le Franc ... This book was purchased as a manuscript, but upon nearer examination it appears to have been printed ...’ in A catalogue of books of various ages, languages, and sciences; to which is subjoined a catalogue of manuscripts ... Gentlemen, who choose any articles of this catalogue, are desired to direct their orders to Robert and Andrew Foulis, Printers to the University of Glasgow (Glasgow: 1771). William Hunter (1718-1783), physician and anatomist: purchased from the Foulis brothers; for a detailed account of the Foulis/Hunter copy, see David Murray, Some letters of Robert Foulis (Glasgow: Maclehose, 1917) pp. 44-53, which includes information on the examination of this copy by Benjamin Franklin (on a visit to Glasgow in 1771), who in conjunction with the type-founder and Professor of Astronomy, Alexander Wilson, both thought the work was printed from blocks rather than from movable types. University of Glasgow: Hunterian bequest 1807; Hunterian Museum bookplate and book label on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “X.4.19”. |
| Binding: | 17th-century parchment with fore-edge cover extensions; sprinkled red-edged leaves; watermark on front free endpaper of a five-pointed coronet surmounted by three circles arranged in the form of an inverted triangle at the top of a stem. Size: 266 x 197 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 261 x 195 mm. |
| Annotations: | Occasional marginal corrections and annotations in French in a 16th-century hand; fairly frequent deletions of single words or phrases in black ink; printed long “s” frequently extended in pen-and-ink; frequent nota marks in the form of a cross fourchée; three four-line stanzas in French in a 16th-century hand on 16/4v (f. 124v); eight lines of unidentified notes in French in a 17th-century hand on 28/8r (f. 222r); initials or code “E A” written in ink in an 18th-century hand on front pastedown; an 18th-century continental(?) price in ink “10-10” on front free endpaper; loosely inserted in the volume is a folded foolscap sheet of notes by William Hunter on the typography and watermarks of this edition. |
| Decoration: | Initials and paragraph marks supplied in red throughout; capitals washed in yellow throughout. |
| Imperfections: | Wanting 7/1 (f. 49) - stub showing; bifolium 26/3.6 (ff. 201 and 204) - the gap noted in French in a 16th-century hand at the foot of 26/2v (f. 200v) and 26/5v (f. 203v); and bifolium 27/3.6 (ff. 209 and 212) - the gap similarly noted at the foot of 27/5v (f. 211v). |
