Homerus: Opera [Greek].

Edited by Demetrius Chalcondylas.

Florence:  [Printer of Vergilius (Copinger 6061)], for Bernardus and Nerius Nerlius and Demetrius Damilas, [not before 13 Jan. 1488/89]
Fol.   ^πA-^πD^{8 π}E¹⁰ A-Z⁸ ET⁸ Ↄ⁸ Ꝝ⁸ AA-ZZ⁸ ETET⁶.  [440] leaves (^πE10 and ETET6 blank).
ISTC ih00300000;  GW 12895;  Goff H300;  BMC VI 678 (IB. 27657a);  Bod-inc H-136;  CIBN H-173;  BSB-Ink H-321.

The place of printing and publishers’ names come from the colophon on ETET5v.  The date derives from the dedicatory letter in Latin from Bernardus Nerlius to Petrus Laurentii de’ Medici on A1r: “Idibus Ianuariis .M.CCCC.LXXXVIII”.  On the press see R. Ridolfi, La stampa in Firenze nel secolo XV (Firenze: 1958), p. 98.  Attributed to the press of the Nerlii in BMC, whereas Proctor assigned to Bartolommeo Di Libri, who Ridolfi argues only printed the dedication.

GIP number:	H31
Shelf-mark:	Sp Coll Hunterian Bf.1.7, 8 (see main library entry for this item)
Note:	Bound in 2 vols:  Vol. I:  Prelims and Ilias;  Vol. II:  Odyssey, Batrachomyomachia, and Hymns.
Provenance:	Edward Harley (1689-1741), Lord Harley;  from 1724 2nd Earl of Oxford:  see Binding. Thomas Osborne (d. 1767), bookseller:  purchased all the Harleian printed books;  top corner of first front flyleaf of vol. I cut off - as in many other Harleian volumes - probably by Osborne to remove his earlier price (cf. J.B. Oldham, Shrewsbury School bindings, p.114);  Osborne’s revised price in pencil “8=8=0” adjacent to excision, which has been scored through in ink and replaced with a new price in ink “2 vol. 10l: 10s” followed by a reference to Maittaire;  no. 909 in Osborne’s Catalogus bibliothecae Harleianae, vol. III (London: 1744) and no. 626 in his Catalogus bibliothecae Harleianae, vol. V (London: 1745). William Hunter (1718-1783), physician and anatomist:  source unknown. University of Glasgow:  Hunterian bequest 1807;  Hunterian Museum bookplate on front pastedown, with former shelfmarks “Ak.3.6, 7”.
Binding:	England, 18th-century gold-tooled blue goatskin, bound for Lord Harley by an unidentified binder.  On the covers of both volumes triple fillets form two concentric frames:  within the outer frame is an ornamental roll composed of arabesques and three ornaments (including a fleur-de-lys and a flower on a stem), and within the inner frame is a different ornamental roll - neither roll is reproduced in Nixon ‘Harleian bindings’.  All covers have a lozenge-shaped centre-piece, made up of several individual tools;  several separate tools decorate the spine compartments, and head and foot of spines are decorated with a roll composed of flower heads within a circle alternating with a fern;  edges and turn-ins decorated with the same roll.  A few of the tools used show similarities with the Chapman, Elliott, and Jane Steel tools illustrated in Nixon, ‘Harleian bindings’, pls 10, 14 & 15, but none appears to be identical.  Marbled endpapers;  gilt-edged leaves.   Size:  333 x 224 mm.
Leaf size:	322 x 215 mm.
Annotations:	Early marginal annotations in Greek in crimson ink (mainly extracting keywords) together with underlining in crimson in quires πB and πD;  very occasional marginal keywords in Greek in black ink in an early hand;  lengthier marginal annotations in Latin in a 17th-century(?) hand - with frequent references to Virgil’s Aeneid - in quires N, P, ET, AA, DD, EE, GG, II, KK, and QQ.
Decoration:	Initials throughout mainly supplied in gold on a square black ground with one, and sometimes two borders in gold.
Imperfections:	None.