Copy number: D-173(1)

Signatures stamped in; see GW; in this copy most of the signatures are cropped.

Binding: Contemporary Italian blind-tooled sheep over thick wooden boards with a slight outward bevel; two clasps (three star nails, arranged in a triangle) lost, hinged on the upper cover. Brass catches secured under the leather of the lower cover with one star nail. Covers roughly scored with a diaper of double lines inside a nine-line frame. Covers apparently at some time painted white. Plain edges. Leather headbands over cores drawn into diagonal grooves on the outside of the covers. Sewn on five thongs; 1 and 2, and 4 and 5 are drawn into inverted V‑shaped grooves on the inside of the boards and secured with a wooden peg; a short thong 3 is similarly secured in a straight groove. Compartments of the spine undecorated. Coarse parchment pastedowns with conjoint free endleaves (pastedown largely cut away at the end). Parchment guards in the middle of each gathering. Perhaps the work of the foliator, who was apparently also the owner.

Size: 347 × 240 × 56 mm.

Size of leaf: 330 × 234 mm.

On a2r a 12-line initial ‘C' is supplied in red, framed by brown foliate pen-work; the area within the letter is divided into four with symmetrical pen-work palmette decoration. Other initials, some with extensions into the margins, paragraph marks and running numbers are supplied in red. Some manuscript foliation (1-71) is supplied in an early hand in black ink.

Provenance: William Fermor (1771-1828); armorial book-plate; see Howe, Book Plates, 10409. Purchased for £0. 16. 0; see Books Purchased (1831), 5.

SHELFMARK: Auct. 1Q 1.5.