Copy number: P-343(1)

Sheets [a4.7] and [a5.6] are bound in reverse order, and, given that the notes in the lower margin recording this fact are written in a fifteenth/sixteenth-century hand, the misbinding clearly took place at an early stage after the book was printed.

Binding: Nineteenth-century blind-tooled calf, bound for the Bodleian Library; gold-tooled spine; the gold stamp of the Library on both covers.

Size: 310 × 216 × 26 mm.

Size of leaf: 302 × 199 mm.

Marginal annotations, including comments on the text, extraction of key words, early notes about the misbinding (see above), ‘nota' marks, pointing hands, also underlining in the text in black ink.

On [a2r] a five-line initial ‘M' is supplied in blue with reserved white decoration, the body of the letter containing reserved white decoration on a green ground, all within a purple pen-work frame, with purple pen-work decoration and extensions into the margins. On [a3r] a 15-line initial ‘N' is supplied in interlocked red and blue, the body of the letter containing reserved white decoration on a green ground, all within a red and purple pen-work frame, with purple and red pen-work decoration and extensions into the margins. Other two- to four-line initials (some with extensions into the margins), paragraph marks, capital strokes, and underlining are supplied in red.

Provenance: Louvain, Brabant, Augustinian Canons, priory of Val-Saint-Martin; inscription on [v8v] in a fifteenth/sixteenth-century hand, with a monogram: ‘Pertinet monasterio vallis beati Martini in Louanio'. E. I. R.(?) Holler; signature on [a1r] in a seventeenth-century hand(?): ‘E. I. R.(?) Holler'. Purchased for £1. 11. 6; see Books Purchased (1825), 21; note on [a1r]: ‘Purchased at Hamburgh 1825'.

SHELFMARK: Auct. Q sup. 2.10.

Copy number: P-343(2)

Sheets [h2.5] and [h3.4] have been transposed in binding, also sheets [p1.6] and [p2.5].

Binding: Eighteenth/nineteenth-century half calf with paper boards; gold-tooled spine; yellow-edged leaves.

Size: 305 × 215 × 26 mm.

Size of leaf: 297 × 197 mm.

Manuscript table of contents on [a1r] in a fifteenth/sixteenth-century hand. Some early marginal annotations, including comments on the text, extraction of key words, and pointing hands, also underlining in the text in black ink. On [v8r] are fifteenth/sixteenth-century notes recording the election of Sixtus IV as Pope in 1471, a great snow-fall in Apr. 1483, which devastated crops, and the election of Innocentius VIII as Pope in 1484. Bibliographical notes by Heber on the recto of the front endleaf.

On [a3r] a 15-line initial ‘N' is supplied in red with reserved white decoration and extensions into the margins; other three- to five-line initials with extensions into the margins, paragraph marks, capital strokes, and underlining are supplied in red. Early manuscript foliation: 1-127; the popes' lives are numbered in the same hand, 1-220, as references from the manuscript table of contents.

Provenance: Johannes Bermating (fl. 1483); inscriptions on [a2v] in black and red ink: ‘Liber Johannis Bermating canonici Furendowensis anno 1483', with monogram ‘I N T' within a shield; and on [v8v] in black ink: ‘Liber est mei ipsius Johannes Bermating', with two shields, one containing the monogram, the other an unidentified object; surname on [a3r] within the initial ‘N'. Charles Alexandre de Calonne (1734-1802); note by Heber on the recto of the front endleaf: ‘Calonne's sale at Christies 1803', although no such sale has been identified. Richard Heber (1773-1833); not identified in his Catalogue. Charles J. Stewart; ticket on the front pastedown. Purchased for £1. 4. 0; see Books Purchased (1848), 33.

SHELFMARK: Auct. 6Q 4.31.