Roelans de Mechlinia, Cornelius: Opusculum aegritudinum puerorum.

[Louvain:  Johann Veldener, ca. 1486-87]
4to.   [16 2-158].   [118] leaves, the last blank.   Leaves 1-117 numbered “lxxviii”-“Cxciiii”, with errors.
ISTC ir00241000; GW M38569; Goff R241; BMC IX 163 (IA. 49338).


Almost all copies recorded (including this one) begin with leaf lxxviii - ISTC.

GIP number: R11
Shelf-mark: Sp Coll  Hunterian Bw.3.1 (see main library entry for this item)
Bound with: The second of two incunabula bound together;  bound with:  Matheolus Perusinus, De memoria augenda.  [Louvain:  Johann Veldener, not before 1486].
Provenance: Michiel Onyn (16th century):  “Michiel Onyn” written on 15/8r (f.118r).
Edward Harley (1689-1741), Lord Harley;  from 1724 2nd Earl of Oxford:  see below.
Thomas Osborne (d. 1767), bookseller:  purchased all the Harleian printed books;  top corner of first front flyleaf 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);  revised price in pencil “7=6” adjacent to excision;  no. 7178 “Matheolus de Memoria & de Aegritudinibus Infantum (sine Anno aut Loco)” in Osborne’s 'Catalogus bibliothecae Harleianae', vol. 5 (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 shelfmark “Ay.7.5”.
Binding: England, 18th-century calf, bound for Lord Harley by Thomas Elliott.   On both covers double gold fillets form a frame, within which is an ornamental roll in blind (Nixon, ‘Harleian bindings’, pl. 14, Elliott roll 5).   Rebacked in the 19th/20th century;  original spine covering not preserved;  edges decorated with a gilt roll, which is a smaller version of Nixon ‘Harleian bindings’, Elliott roll 2;  turn-ins are decorated with an unidentified zig-zag roll in blind;  marbled endpapers.   Size:  215 x 145 mm.
Leaf size: 205 x 139 mm.
Annotations: Brief marginal annotation and guide-letter in an early hand on 3/5r (leaf “xcvi” recto).
Decoration: On 15/7v (leaf “Cxciiii” verso) is a full-page 16th-century pen-and-ink drawing of a man wearing a cloak and holding a halberd.
Imperfections: 8/1-5 (ff.55-59) damaged (by rodent?) with loss of text on 8/1.

Pen and ink drawing in Roelans de Mechlinia, Cornelius: Opusculum aegritudinum puerorum