Copy number: J-240(1)

Bound with:
2. Justinianus, Novellae constitutiones; Codex (books x–xii); Libri feudorum; Extravagantes. Venice: Baptista de Tortis, 7 May 1489 (J‑278).

Binding: Paduan half binding of c.1490; ‘the Scholastic Binder'; see Anthony Hobson, ‘A German Student in Italy: his Books and Bindings', in Mélanges d'histoire de la reliure offerts à Georges Colin, ed. Claude Sorgeloos (Brussels, 1998), 87-99, p. 91 no. 1. Dark brown goatskin spine, unbevelled wooden boards. Leather extended c.50 mm over the boards and secured at the edge by a strip of leather nailed down. Tooled in blind with a pomegranate tool inside a three-line diaper. The same pomegranate tool is on San Marino, California, HEHL 103161, Cicero, Officia, Venice: Bernardus Benalius, c.1488, bought by Protzer ‘in Italia' in 1490, and on Auct. 2Q inf. 2.56, Franciscus Niger, Grammatica, Venice, 1480 (Bod-inc. N‑104. Four clasps (two nails) hinged on the upper cover, lost. Catches lost. On the fore-edge, but not on the others, these were placed in grooves hollowed out from the boards; on the other edges they were of inverted triangular form with the apex cut away and secured by three nails. Formerly chained: remains of hasp towards the foot of the fore-edge of the lower cover. Upper cover lettered VOLVMEN, and in another hand ‘Novellae, usque ad CXXIV/Constitutionum libri posteriores'. Previously a paper label on the upper cover, now torn away. Institutiones is shorter and is bound first, with plain edges; Novellae is longer and has yellow edges. Headbands: single, plain. Sewn on four double thongs. On the spine is the pomegranate tool around a three-line saltire inside a three-line frame. One original endleaf survives at each end; watermark, ladder in circle (close to Briquet 5920: Venice 1491). Same binding as Auct. 3Q 1.18 (J‑257).

Size: 447 × 285 × 68 mm.

Size of leaf: 425 × 282 mm.

A few marginal notes, mainly extracting key words, and pointing hands in an early hand, probably Protzer's, on both items.

Provenance: Johannes Protzer (†1528); inscription on the front endleaf: ‘Iohannes Protzer I. V. Doctor M.ccccxc. Conperatus in Italia'; see Wagner 85; Protzer bequeathed his books to three libraries in his home town of Nördlingen, the majority, including 101 volumes of Roman law, to the Ratsbibliothek; the hasp mark indicates that the library was a chained one. Johann Conrad Feuerlein (1725-1788); armorial book-plate; see Warnecke 512. Georg Franz Burkhard Kloß (1787-1854); book-label; sale (1835), lot 2259; purchased for £0. 14. 0; see Books Purchased (1835), 16.

SHELFMARK: Auct. 3Q 1.23(1).