Copy number: C-140(1)

Wanting [a1].

Binding: Contemporary, possibly Roman, c.1479, brown goatskin over unbevelled wooden boards. One clasp, hinging on the upper cover and secured by two star nails. Trefoil-shaped catch with pointed head, secured by three nails. Blind-tooled, with four five-line frames and three tools: (1) flower inside a lyre shape, forming the outer border; (2) rosette, impressed three times on each side of the second border; (3) lozenge with concave sides, forming the innermost border and impressed in three groups of four of the centre. Dark brown edges, originally green(?); traces of green pigment remain on the plain single headbands. Sewn on three double bands. A gilt title (England, nineteenth-century) tooled in two compartments of the spine. Pastedown and one original endleaf at each end, no watermark visible. Same border tool on Harvard, University Library, Inc. 3382.5: Ambrosius, De officiis. [Rome: Johannes Philippus de Lignamine, c.1471] (Walsh II 1321), with unidentified arms (azure a cow passant to sinister or, in chief or a spread eagle sable), a scissors watermark on the front endpaper (of the type of Briquet 3687, but not identical).

Size: 210 × 143 × 25 mm.

Size of leaf: 209 × 135 mm.

Early marginal and interlinear notes in various hands. Most notes provide Latin synonyms; some marginal notes provide brief comments. Both pastedowns ruled in black ink; on the lower are verses in a number of early hands: ‘Penelopes prima Didonis prima sequatur' (Poetae Latini minores, ed. A. Baehrens (Leipzig, 1879-81), 1.67.1), ‘Nulla prior pestis ad nocendum quam [familiaris?]', ‘Arma uirumque cano Troie qui primus ab horis Italiam fato' (Verg. A. 1.1-2), ‘Diuitias alius fuluo sibi cogerat auro et teneat culti' (Tib. 1.1.2), ‘Quid datur a diuis felici optacius hora', ‘Diuicias nuptias inducias 3 minas quod', ‘[ ]ho[ ]a naute sali memin[ ] qu[ ]a[ ] munta | Catulli tui no[ti]ficiant ante soli annis | Sum pius Eneas raptos qui et hoste penates' (Verg. A. 1.378). On [e10r] a poem of 7 sapphic strophes, written in a sixteenth-century humanist hand, on the appearance of syphilis in Europe: ‘Quisque pedicet moneo sodales: | Feminȩ vuluas fugiatis oro; | Est viri morbi necis atque causa | Femina semper.’

On [a2r] a four-line epigraphic initial ‘Q' is supplied in gold, edged in red ink with infill in red and black ink and in gold; gold dots in the inner margin. Some other epigraphic initials are supplied in red or black ink, or in gold.

Provenance: Gerardus Bethon (fifteenth/sixteenth century); signature on front pastedown: ‘Gerard[us] bethon', name below a manuscript device. Purchased for £8. 0. 0; see Books Purchased (1840), 7.

SHELFMARK: Auct. Q 5.32.