Jamblichus: De mysteriis Aegyptiorum, Chaldaeorum, Assyriorum.
Translated by Marsilius Ficinus. Add: Proclus Diadochus: In Platonicum Alcibiadem; De sacrificio et magia. Porphyrius: De divinis et daemonibus. Synesius: De somniis. Michael Psellus: De daemonibus. Priscianus Lydus: In Theophrastum De sensu. Alcinous: De doctrina Platonis (erroneously attributed to Albinus Platonicus). Speusippus: De Platonis definitionibus. [Pseudo-] Pythagoras: Aurea verba et symbola. [Pseudo-(?)] Xenocrates: De morte. Marsilius Ficinus: De voluptate.
Venice: Aldus Manutius, Romanus, Sept. 1497.
Fol. a-i8 K4 L-M6 N-O8 p-q8 R-Z8 &10. [186] leaves (&10 blank).
Woodcut initial on a2r.
ISTC ij00216000; GW M11750; Goff J216; BMC V 557 (IB. 24446); Bod-inc J-093; CIBN J-147; BSB-Ink I-127; Ahmanson-Murphy 15.
| GIP number: | J12 |
| Shelf-mark: | Sp Coll Hunterian By.2.18 (see main library entry for this item) |
| Variants: | a2 incorrectly signed “aiii” as in BMC IB. 24446, not “aii” as in BMC IB. 24445; K2r: final word is mis-spelled “abente” as in BMC IB. 24445, not “absente” as in BMC IB. 24446. |
| Provenance: | Ranconet - possibly Aimar de Ranconet (1498-1559), French humanist scholar: inscription on a1r “S[um] bibliothecae Ranconeti [Ch?]arpentiae”. Louis Jean Gaignat (1697-1768), Secretary to King Louis XV: Gaignat sale, 1769; lot 829 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 38 livres 1 sou; see Dessain-Hunter correspondence (University of Glasgow Library, MS Gen. 36, f. 23r). University of Glasgow: Hunterian bequest, 1807; Hunterian Museum bookplate on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “A.5.20”. |
| Binding: | France, 18th-century blue goatskin; covers decorated with a triple gold-fillet border, a small fleuron at each corner; gold-tooled spine; marbled endpapers; gilt-edged leaves; pink silk bookmark. Size: 308 x 216 mm. |
| Leaf size: | 300 x 206 mm. |
| Annotations: | Fairly frequent marginal annotations and underlining in the same hand that wrote the provenance inscription; foliated in an early hand “1”-“120” from a2-R1; 16th-century shelfmark or inventory number “R.108” in ink on a1r. Imprint details added in manuscript on title-page. |
| Decoration: | The margins of a2r have a decorative border of stylised red and blue trefoils arranged in a chequer pattern; initials throughout supplied in red and blue with reserved white; paragraph marks supplied in alternate red and blue throughout; capitals washed in yellow throughout. |
| Imperfections: | Wanting the blank leaf &10. |
