Copy number: A-595(1)

Bound with:
1. Jacobus de Voragine, Sermones Quadragesimales. Brescia: Angelus and Jacobus Britannicus, 20 Aug. [1493] (J‑074);
3. Thomas à Kempis, Imitatio Christi. Johannes Gerson, De meditatione cordis. Venice: [Johannes Leoviler, de Hallis] for Franciscus de Madiis, 1486 (T‑099).

Binding: Late fifteenth/early sixteenth-century Italian (Florence) blind-tooled sheep, over pasteboards. Two pairs of ties wanting. The ties were drawn through holes in the cover and secured by a short piece of leather pasted on at right angles. On both covers are four four-line frames; the corners mitred. Border of diving-dolphin tools between the second and third frame. Sacred Monogram in a circle between two pairs of tools of interlacing. The small dolphin tool and the Sacred Monogram are both characteristic of Florence. Faint marks of other tools suggest that the leather has been re-used. Brown edges. Double crimson and white headbands. Sewn on two double bands. Spine damaged and worn, but the compartments contain unidentified tools in a two-line diaper. Endleaves: parchment pastedown and one free endleaf at the front; paper pastedown and parchment endleaf wrapped round the last gathering at the end. The three books were originally separate (cf. the inscriptions); they may have been bound in the parchment now used as endleaves. A comparable binding: Harvard UL, Inc. 6300.5. Antonius Florentinus, Confessionis summula, Venice 1499, bound with Hieronymus Savonarola, Introduction confessorum, [Florence, c.1495-7].

Size: 154 × 105 × 52 mm.

Size of leaf: 148 × 105 mm.

Some ‘nota' marks in faded black ink.

Partial rubrication: some two- to four-line initials are supplied in red. One four-line initial is supplied in faded black ink.

Provenance: Johannes Gualbertus de Roveriis (sixteenth century). Andreas de Squarcialupis (sixteenth century); inscriptions on title-page of item 1, on endleaf between items 1 and two 2, and on h9^r-v of item 3: ‘Hic liber est fratris Johannis Gualberti de Roveriis quem commodat fratri Andreae de Squarcalupis καὶ τω̂ν φηλον (!)'; ‘Hic liber est mei fratris Iohannis Gualberti de Florentia quam commodo fratri Andree Squarcalupo amicorum precipuo quem ut placet Exigippo Platonis discipulo . . .'; ‘iste liber fratris est Andreae de Squarcalupis de Florentia, nemini auferre licet'. Jacobus de Bibiena (sixteenth century); inscription on h9v of item 3: ‘Quem quidem librum mihi fratri Jacobo de Bibiena ipse frater Andreas altero suo amico donauit sperans effectus Exigippi autoritatis'. Inscription on verso of front parchment endleaf: ‘A uso ligo Maria Electa'; and on a1r: ‘Suor Maria Electa'. Robert Trail (b. 1794); inscription on the value of the text inside the upper cover dated 1817. William Blair (fl. 1817); given by Trail, 1817; inscription on front parchment endleaf: ‘Gulielmum Blair, amicum in vinculis Evangelii suum, hoc libro, vetustatis me[mori]am venerandae attingente, donat Robertus Trail:- sua manu in memoriam scriptum. 1817'. Purchased ‘At Wise's 2nd auction of Thorpe's Books', lot 895, for £0. 2. 6; see Books Purchased (1832), 23, and Financial Statements (1828-32; 1837-40; Library Records b. 4), no. 16, ‘Books purchased by the Librarian', where it is dated to 1483.

SHELFMARK: Auct. 1Q 6.18(2).