Copy number: L-126(1)

Part I only.

Wanting gathering [*] containing the letter of the translator, which Polain records between gatherings b and² a.

Polain's collation omits gathering y. Leaf a8 is bound second. The blank leaf a1 has been mutilated. Leaf b1r, l.1: ‘romme [et] ſy parle de la miſerable de | . . .', not as Polain. On b7r the incipit of the register occupies the space of two columns (not as Polain).

Binding: Contemporary English (Oldham, binder ‘D'?) blind-tooled calf laid down over modern paper boards; two clasps and catches lost. On both covers intersecting triple fillets form concentric frames. Inside the outer frame are two different small leur-de-lis stamps (the larger one perhaps Oldham, Blind-stamped Bindings, pl. xxvi, no. 370, the smaller one apparently modern); inside the inner frame is a lozenge-shaped lion rampant stamp (Oldham, Blind-stamped Bindings, pl. xxvi, no. 367(?)), a square crown and fleur-de-lis stamp (Oldham, Blind-stamped Bindings, pl. xxvi, no. 377(?)), and a circular dragon(?) stamp. Triple fillets form the inner rectangle which is divided by further triple fillets into triangular and lozenge-shaped compartments, decorated with the lion, dragon, crown, and larger fleur-de-lis stamps. The name of the author is written on the fore-edge in black ink. See Duke Humfrey's Library, no. 119. Rebacked.

Size: 293 × 217 × 68 mm.

Size of leaf: 282 × 201 mm.

Early marginal annotations in Latin, including comments on the text, and ‘nota' marks. On the first of the two front endleaves in manuscript, dated 1483: ‘Secuntur inuentorium librorum quos ego Thomas Hunt stacionarius Universitatis Oxoniensis recepi de magistro Petro Actore et Johanne de Aquisgrano ad vendendum, cum precio cuiuslibet libri . . .'; edited in F. Madan, ‘The Daily Ledger of John Dorne 1520', Collectanea First Series, ed. C. R. L. Fletcher, Oxford Historical Society Publications, 5 (Oxford, 1885), 71-177, at 141-3; Paul Needham, ‘Continental Printed Books sold in Oxford c.1480-3', in Incunabula, ed. Davies, 243-70, reproduced at 246-7, edited at 248-9, identifications 251-60. A transcription of the list, on two sheets of blue paper, is attached to the recto of the front endleaf. On the second (mutilated) endleaf are the remains of another list of books, identified by Paul Needham as a list of books delivered to Peter Actors by Pierre Levet, c.1480; Needham, ‘Continental printed books', 243-70, reproduced at 266, edited at 265; identifications at 267-9.

On² a1r a six-line initial ‘S' is supplied in interlocked red and blue, with foliate decoration within the body of the letter in green, yellow, and reserved white, and with foliate extensions into the margins in yellow and green; on a2r a three-line initial ‘C' is supplied in blue with similar foliate extensions into the margins in yellow, green, and pink; other two- to seven-line initials supplied in red, blue, or interlocked red and blue, and paragraph marks are supplied in red or blue; some capital strokes in red. On² a1r a woodcut of Livy writing, surrounded by books, coloured in red, blue, green, and yellow.

Provenance: Sir Henry Savile (1549-1622); Catalogue of . . . Books from the Libraries of Sir Henry Savile and Sir John Savile (London: Sotheby's, 19 Dec. 1860), lot 495. Purchased for £12. 0. 0; see Books Purchased (1861), 37, and note on the front pastedown.

Former Bodleian shelfmark: Auct. Q inf. 2.13.

SHELFMARK: Auct. R sup. 1.