Copy number: A-520(1)

Wanting [E1] and the blank leaves [a1], [b8], and [E10].

Binding: Early eighteenth-century English gold-tooled red morocco, with gilt fore-edges and marbled pastedowns. On both covers an outer frame is formed by double fillets. Triple fillets form an inner frame, with a fleuron at each corner. Inner rectangle formed by double fillets with a decorative border consisting of alternate circlets containing a roll of fleur-de-lis and dolphins, with a crown above, the circlets separated by a flower. Gold-tooled spine.

Size: 405 × 290 × 75 mm.

Size of leaf: 386 × 265 mm.

Early marginal annotations and ‘nota' marks in black ink. The last line of the colophon has been amended to be metrically correct by inserting the word ‘clara' after ‘hadriaca': illustrated in Pollard and Ehrman 15 fig. 6 (as above).

On [c1r] a fourteen-line epigraphic initial ‘I' is supplied in green, with yellow and black outlines, and a nine-line epigraphic initial ‘G' is supplied in maroon and grey. Other epigraphic initials are supplied in red or blue, some with reserved white decoration. Paragraph marks, rubrics, chapter numbers, and chapter headings are supplied in red.

Provenance: Padua, Augustinian Canons Regular of the Lateran, S. Johannes Baptista in Viridario, 1478, as gift from Petrus de Montagnana (fl. 1478); inscription on [E9r], perhaps in the hand of Montagnana: ‘Librum hunc Canonicis Regularibus Lateranensibus in monasterio diui Joannis Baptiste de uiridaria Padue agentibus uir uenerabilis ac deuotus Christi sacerdos et bonarum artium cultor Grece, Latine, Hebraiceque peritissimus dominus Petrus Montagna optima fide pietatis studio proque salute adscripsit atque donauit quem quisque legens proficiat primum deinde sit gratus MCCCCLXXVIII'. Sir John Hayford Thorold (1773-1831); book-plate and label engraved with his initials. Quaritch, Monumenta typographia (1897), no. 223, for £28. 0. 0. Collation note signed ‘Alb[ert] Müller, 17 Dec. 1884' in English. Charles Stephen Ascherson (†1945); book-plate, dated 13 May 1902. Albert Ehrman (1890-1969); book-plate; purchased from Quaritch in 1954 for £210. Presented in 1978.

SHELFMARK: Broxb. 18.10.

Copy number: A-520(2)

Wanting [E1] and the blank leaves [a1], [b8] and [E10].

Binding: Eighteenth-century olive green morocco; on both covers triple fillets form a border; elaborate gold-tooled spine; floral and foliate roll on turn-ins, gilt edges (similar to bindings on books owned by Girardot de Préfond); marbled pastedowns.

Size: 388 × 262 × 60 mm.

Size of leaf: 375 × 229 mm.

Copious early marginal notes, also ‘nota' marks and pointing hands, in black ink. Contemporary manuscript catchwords in black ink.

In rubrics, epigraphic initials are supplied in blue, within red pen-work frames, and with red pen-work decoration. Some chapter numbers and paragraph marks are supplied in black ink. In text, principal epigraphic initials are supplied in gold, within a frame edged in gold, and with reserved white vine-stem scrolling, defined in yellow, on a ground of red, blue, and green, with white dots and pen-work; with these initials small flower heads in gold, yellow, and blue. Other epigraphic initials are supplied in red or blue, and rubrics are supplied in red. In lower margin of [c1r] a roundel, edged in grey, with a border in maroon, with foliate decoration in green, blue, gold, pink, and white, and with an inner circle of blue with white dots; in the inner circle, the coat of arms of Avogaro (see below). Initials decorated in Verona in a contemporary hand: see Pächt and Alexander II, 113 no. pr. 115.

Provenance: Avogaro family, of Venice; coat of arms on [c1r]: within a wreath a shield or, three bends embattled gules. Paul Girardot de Préfond (†after c.1800); not in 1757 sale catalogue, but cf. the binding. This may be the MacCarthy Reagh copy, sale (1815), lot 544, where the binding is described as blue; many blue morocco bindings are now faded to an olive green colour; cf. B‑237(1). Purchased for £8. 8. 0; see Books Purchased (1825), 3; ‘Purch^d 1825' on front endleaf.

Former Bodleian shelfmark: Auct. P 1.17.

SHELFMARK: Auct. 7Q 1.14.