Bod-Inc: B-486
Bossius, Donatus
Chronica.
Analysis of Content
a1v ‘Genealogia Vicecomitum Principum Mediolani descendentium de Inuorio Ducatus Mediolani'.
a2r Bossius, Donatus: Chronica. Dedicated to Johannes Galeaz Sforza, Duke of Milan. Incipit: ‘[Q]uamuis infinitus causarum cumulus . . .’
y1r [Series episcoporum et archiepiscoporum Mediolanensium.] ‘Omnes episcopi et archiepiscopi Mediolani'. Incipit: ‘Barnabas apostolus Jesu Christi Cypri ortus . . .’
Imprint
Imprint: Milan: Antonius Zarotus, for the author, 1 Mar. 1492. Folio.
Collation
Collation: a–r8 s10 t6 u8 x y4.
Illustrations: One woodcut diagram; woodcut initials.
References
ISTC: ib01040000
GW: GW 4952;
Hain: HC *3667;
Goff: Goff B‑1040;
BMC: BMC VI 722;
Proctor: Pr 5831;
Others: BSB‑Ink B‑758; CIBN B‑729; Ganda 175; Hillard 472; Rhodes 429; Sander 1238; Sheppard 4878.
LCN: 13911244
Copies
Copy number: B-486(1)
Binding: Eighteenth-century mottled calf, the spine gold-tooled.
Size: 382 × 234 × 32 mm.
Size of leaf: 323 × 221 mm.
Occasional sixteenth-century marginal notes.
Provenance: Dr Francesco Testa (fl. 1800); inscription on the front pastedown: ‘1800. di Francesco Dr Testa Vicentino'. Frederic North, 5th Earl of Guilford (1766-1827); armorial book-plate on front pastedown. Purchased for £1. 10. 0; see Books Purchased (1834), 4.
SHELFMARK: Auct. 2Q 4.28.
Copy number: B-486(2)
Binding: Contemporary Italian thick paper wrappers, sewn on two bands with string laced through the covers and secured inside. Plain edges; title ‘Cronica Bossiana' in ink along the lower edge. Double headbands of green and pale brown thread. Title ‘Chronica Bossiana' in a later hand on the spine. Two endleaves at the front, one at the end, folded round the first and last gatherings; watermark, a bull's head, not in Briquet or Piccard. For a comparable binding see Manfred von Arnim, Europäische Einbandkunst aus sechs Jahrhunderten (Schweinfurt, 1992), no. 17. Inventories suggest that paper wrappers were more common as bindings in Renaissance libraries than surviving examples might suggest.
Size: 325 × 235 × 30 mm.
Size of leaf: 304 × 223 mm.
Early marginal notes in a humanist hand. Copious early additions by the first owner, chiefly in gathering y (the ‘Series episcoporum et archiepiscoporum Mediolanensium'); he has written a chronological calculation on the recto of the rear endleaf: ‘Bellouesus Ingressus Italia[m] anno mundi: 4072 . . .’
Provenance: An early (the first?) owner has written details of his career on the verso of the back endleaf: chaplain of Santa Maria di Vimodrone; chaplain of San Ambrogio d'Aplavo/Aplano; canon of Santa Maria de Gallarate (1508); these appointments were registered by the notaries Leonardus de Ozeno, Lutheus de Fontana, and Jo. Antonius de Vasinis of Gallarate; Aplavo/Aplano is unidentified (possibly Appiano Gentile, Lombardy); the other places are all in Lombardy (‘Ozeno' = Ozzero); this owner was perhaps Io[annes] de Tenplis whose death in 1510 is recorded in another hand immediately below these entries, evidently by a new owner, who succeeded as canon of Gallarate. ‘Meser Aluisi'; inscription on the front endleaf. Albert Ehrman (1890-1969); bought by him from Lathrop Colgate Harper in 1953 for £80; armorial book-plate on the front pastedown and stamp on the back pastedown; accession no. ‘R 1166'. Presented in 1978 by John Ehrman.
SHELFMARK: Broxb. 97.4.
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