Bod-Inc: L-116
Livius, Titus
Historiae Romanae decades.
Analysis of Content
Volume 1:
[a2r] [Bussis, Johannes Andreas de: Letter addressed to Paulus II, Pont. Max.] Bussi 29-34.
[a4r] Florus: [Periochae.] See L‑114.
[b12v] ‘Capita operum.’
[c1r] [Livius, Titus: Historiae Romanae decades.] ‘Ab urbe condita.’ Liv. 1-10.
Volume 2:
[s1r] [Livius, Titus: Historiae Romanae decades.] Liv. 21-32, 34-40. 37. 3. Liv. 33 not included in this edition.
[ss12v] [Verse naming the printer addressed to] Titus Livius. Incipit: ‘Proderat haud multum, Liui, abs te scripta fuisse | Maxima si Rome facta pari eloquio'; 23 elegiac distichs.
Imprint
Imprint: [Venice]: Vindelinus de Spira, 1470. Folio.
Collation
Collation: Vol. 1: [a b12 c–l10 m10+1 n–p10 q r8]; vol. 2: [s–z & aa–kk10 ll mm8 nn–rr10 ss14].
Illustrations: Woodcut borders (see below).
References
ISTC: il00238000
Hain: HC 10130;
Goff: Goff L‑238;
BMC: BMC V 154;
Proctor: Pr 4023;
Others: BSB‑Ink L‑188; CIBN L‑177; Lamberto Donati, ‘I fregi xilografici stampati a mano negli incunabuli italiani', Bibliofilia, 75 (1973), 125-74, at 161; Essling 32; Rhodes 1096; Oates 1608; Sheppard 3193. Microfiche: Unit 10: Printing in Italy before 1472: Part IV.
LCN: 14503780
Copies
Copy number: L-116(1)
For this copy see Continental Shelf, no. 12.
Wanting [m5.6], also the blank leaf [a1].
Some leaves in gatherings [a] and [b] repaired.
Binding: Eighteenth-century olive morocco, with gold-tooled spines and turn-ins, marbled pastedowns, gilt-edged leaves; the gold stamp of the Bodleian Library on both covers.
Size: Vol. 1: 398 × 283 × 47 mm; vol. 2: 399 × 283 × 61 mm.
Size of leaf: 387 × 255 mm.
Occasional marginal annotations.
On [c1r] and [s1r] a woodcut border of vine-stems defined in green, blue, and maroon in the inner, outer, and upper margins, within a frame of green and gold. The frame continues into the lower margin, which is decorated with a hand-drawn image of two centaurs, carrying putti, defined in blue, green, and maroon, as for the woodcut border: this is based on a pattern sheet in the workshop of the ‘Master of the Putti' (see Lilian Armstrong, ‘The Impact of Printing on Miniaturists in Venice after 1469', in Printing the Written Word: The Social History of Books, circa 1450-1520, ed. Sandra Hindman (Ithaca, NY, and London, 1991), 174-202, at 192-6); the headings on [c1r] and on [s1r] are both supplied in gold. Between the two centaurs in each case is the coat of arms of Dolfin of Venice: per pale, azure and gules, over all a dolphin or; see Pächt and Alexander II, 109 no. pr. 59. At the beginning of each book (including the Periochae) similar seven- to nine-line initials are supplied in gold, surrounded by white vine-stems, defined in blue, green, and maroon; and headings are supplied in red; in gatherings [a] and [b] other one- and two-line initials are supplied in blue.
Provenance: Dolfin family; coat of arms (see above), although this is not the same as the one given by Crollalanza I 363. F[ ] O[ ], 1634, 1643; stamps on [a2r] (dated 1643) and on [s1r] (cropped, and dated 1634). Purchased for £38. 17. 0; see Books Purchased (1790), 7.
SHELFMARK: Auct. L 1.8, 9.
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