Copy number: C-470(1)

The first leaf, which in most copies contains the prefatory letter by Crastonus, is here blank; see GW (Anm.); however, the letter is found on a separate leaf bound at the end. Gathering B is erroneously signed C on the first three leaves; corrected by a contemporary hand in brown ink.

Binding: Eighteenth/nineteenth-century French (Paris) gold-tooled red straight-grained morocco by Alexis-Pierre Bradel the elder; his label inside front endleaf; within double gilt fillets a rolled border of foliage palmettes and leafy sprays, a balustrade roll and a roll of six-petalled flowers linked with undulating lines and dots; foliate and floral roll on the turn-ins; zigzag and dots on edges of boards; on the spine intersecting gilt zigzag lines form steps; gilt-edged leaves; dark purple pastedowns.

Size: 330 × 235 × 75 mm.

Size of leaf: 318 × 214 mm.

On A3r an eight-line initial is supplied in gold, with gold foliate extensions, on a blue, green, and magenta background, and with filigree; above the initial, two basilisks in brown ink against a blue wash, with four gold dots; in the inner margin, a strap-work border of blue with white highlighting and reserved white with red highlighting; the compartments magenta or green, each with a gold dot. In the two letters, initials and paragraph marks are supplied in red; red capital strokes and underlining; at the beginning of each new letter of the alphabet, a seven- to eight-line Greek capital in red ink. See Pächt and Alexander II, 111 no. pr. 87.

Provenance: Venice, Benedictines, S. Georgius major; inscription on [ Α1r]: ‘Iste liber est monasterii sancti Georgii maioris Venetis congregationis sancte Justine signatus numero 708'. Purchased for £10. 10. 0; see Books Purchased (1824), 5 (‘sine nota')

SHELFMARK: Auct. O inf. 2.3.