Bod-Inc: H-054
Herodotus
Historiae, et al. (ed. Benedictus Brognolus).
Analysis of Content
[a2r] Herodotus: Historiae. Translated by Laurentius Valla, mentioned in the introductory letter and in the colophon; see also G. B. Alberti, ‘Erodoto nella traduzione latina di Lorenzo Valla', Bollettino del Comitato per la preparazione dell'edizione nazionale dei classici greci e latini, 7 (1959), 65-84. Edited by Benedictus Brognolus. Incipit: ‘[H]erodoti Halicarnasei Historiae explicatio haec est: Vt neque ea quae gesta sunt . . .’
[C6v] [Colophon.]
[D1r] Brognolus, Benedictus: [Letter addressed to] Nicolaus Donatus. Incipit: ‘Cum ab meo docendi munere non nihil interdum ocii . . .’ Citing the invention of printing as a spur to his editorial activity, that 20 men working in a printing shop in one month produce more books than 100 scribes in a year, and referring to the increased affordability of books.
Imprint
Imprint: Venice: Jacobus Rubeus, [before Dec.] 1474. Folio.
Remarks: Printed under Doge Nicolò Marcello, who died on 1 Dec. 1474.
Collation
Collation: [a–z A B10 C6 D4].
References
ISTC: ih00088000
Hain: HC *8469;
Goff: Goff H‑88;
BMC: BMC V 213, XII 14;
Proctor: Pr 4236;
Others: BSB‑Ink H‑120; CIBN H‑54; Sheppard 3410.
LCN: 14509423
Copies
Copy number: H-054(1)
Wanting the blank leaf [a1].
Gathering [D] misbound before gathering [a].
Binding: Eighteenth-century French gold-tooled red morocco, with blue silk pastedowns, gold-tooled spine, and gilt-edged leaves; bound by Nicolas-Denis Derome le jeune (1731-1788) in 1785; Derome's ticket is on the verso of the front endleaf. On both covers are five different rolls, with three used twice, in three panels with spike tools or stars at intersections. The spine panels contain a cresting roll, a six-pointed star stamp, and a flaming torch stamp. See Barber, ‘Baroque to Neoclassicism', no. 35.
Size: 290 × 215 × 50 mm.
Size of leaf: 280 × 196 mm.
Early marginal annotations since washed out, and now hardly visible.
On [a2r] a seven-line initial ‘I' is supplied in blue, edged in red, on a red ground with reserved white decoration; other one- to seven-line initials and paragraph marks are supplied in red or blue; capital strokes in red.
Provenance: Antwerp, Cathedral of Virgin Maria; washed inscription in a fifteenth/sixteenth-century hand on [D4v]: ‘[ ] ecclesie diue virginis Hantwerpiensis capellanus'. Antoine Marie Pâris d'Illins (1746-1809); ‘Bibliotheca Parisiana'; sale, lot 507; purchased for £4. 10. 0, through Peter Elmsley (ex informatione Roger Middleton); see Books Purchased (1791), 2.
SHELFMARK: Auct. K 2.17.
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