Petrarca, Francesco: De viris illustribus [Italian]. Libro degli uomini famosi.

Translated by Donato degli Albanzani.

Pojano:  Felix Antiquarius and Innocens Ziletus, 1 Oct. 1476.
Fol.   [*4 a10 b8] c-h8 k8 l-m6 o-p8 /8 ſſ8 S-V8 X-Y6 [rum]6 q-x8 &8 Z10 z10.   [240] leaves.
Woodcut borders.
ISTC ip00415000; GW M31746; Goff P415; BMC VII 1073 (IB. 32902); Bod-inc P-173; CIBN P-171.

GIP number: P18
Shelf-mark: Sp Coll Hunterian Bf.2.7 (see main library entry for this item)
Variant: [a1r] (leaf [5r]) has the same variant setting of type as the second copy described in BMC VII 1073 (IB 32902).
Provenance: Manfredi Maldenti (fl. early 17th century) - see British Library, Database of Italian Academies:  signature on [*1r] (leaf [1r]) “Manfredi Maldenti 1607”.
Louis Jean Gaignat (1697-1768), Secretary to King Louis XV:  Gaignat sale, 1769;  lot 3494 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 70 livres 1 sou;  see 'Dessain-Hunter correspondence' (University of Glasgow Library, MS Gen. 36, f.26r).
University of Glasgow:  Hunterian bequest, 1807;  Hunterian Museum bookplate on front pastedown, with former shelfmark “At.4.4”.
Binding: France, 18th-century red goatskin decorated with triple gold fillets, a small gold fleuron at each corner;  gold-tooled spine;  marbled endpapers;  gilt-edged leaves;  turquoise silk bookmark.   Housed in a green buckram-covered box.   Size:  313 x 229 mm.
Leaf size: 303 x 217 mm.
Annotations: Leaves [5]-[240] foliated in ink in a 17th-century hand “1”-“236”;  the same hand has supplied folio numbers to the list of contents on [*1r] (leaf [1r]);  single marginal annotation on g4r “al’r senegaia” - this is the same note that has been written in the two BMC copies and was “no doubt” added in the printer’s office (see BMC VII 1073).
Decoration: Seven-line initial “R” on [a1r] (leaf [4r]) supplied in red with blue pen-work decoration;  each line of the list of contents on [*1r] (leaf [1r]) supplied with paragraph marks in alternate red and blue;  see Lilian Armstrong, 'Petrarch's famous men in the early Renaissance: the illuminated copies of Felice Feliciano's edition' (London: 2016), p. 172, no. 16, and plate 31b.
Imperfections: None.

 

Ownership inscription and list of contents annotated with folio numbers in Petrarca, Francesco: De viris illustribus [Italian]