Copy number: P-361(1)

Wanting the blank leaves [a1] and [S8]. Sheet [h4] misbound before [h3].

Leaf [K3r], l. 3: ‘pelli calculos aiunt. Ipsi apro . . .’

Binding: Eighteenth-century gold-tooled red morocco, with gilt-edged leaves, marbled pastedowns, and turquoise silk bookmark.

Size: 399 × 290 × 98 mm.

Size of leaf: 388 × 265 mm.

At the beginning are bound two leaves of preliminary matter in fifteenth-century manuscript (the same hand as the Franciscan inscription), consisting of Pliny the younger's letters to Macro and Tacitus, extracts from Suetonius, Tertullianus, and Eusebius Caesariensis, and a list of contents.

Principal initials are supplied in interlocked red and blue; other initials and paragraph marks are supplied in red or blue; capital strokes in red.

Provenance: ‘M. H. 1485 In Perusio comperatum', inscription on [S7v]. Nuremberg, Franciscans (sixteenth century); inscription on the same leaf: ‘Ad Minores Nuremberge'. Freiburg im Breisgau, Baden-Württemberg, Franciscans (seventeenth century); cancelled inscription on [a2r]: ‘Franciscanorum Friburgi Brisgoiae 1648'. Purchased for £12. 12. 0; see Books Purchased (1841), 31.

SHELFMARK: Auct. Q 1.1.

Copy number: P-361(2)

Binding: Early nineteenth-century gold-tooled green roan with marbled pastedowns, the endleaves with watermark dated 1807.

Size: 412 × 287 × 103 mm.

Size of leaf: 403 × 279 mm.

Marginal notes in brown and red ink of 1490 based on lectures given by Politian; see inscription on [S7v]: 'Recognoui xviii kal. Septembris anno a Christiana salute M.cccclxxx. Turcorum in Apuliam irruptione: insignio: cum maxime Hydrunta [Otranto] oppidum obsiderent. Florentie in Diui Pauli: proprio sacerdotio: imminente publice mee in oratoria arte professionis tirocinio. Ang. Politianus' (cf. signature on [r5v]), 'Anno dein M.cccclxxxx. pridie kalendas Maias: Cum tribus vetustissimis codicibus contuleram Idem Politianus: hoc ipsum exemplar: quorum duo ex Diui Marci Florentina bibliotheca: tertium e regis Ferdinandi: quod et Leonardi quondam Arretini fuerat, accepi, proque instituto meo ne illa quidem qui(?) liquebat esse corrupta de veteribus omisi: Scilicet ut coniecture locus emendaturo superesset. Quin hoc ipso anno [1490] privatim Britannicis quibusdam et Lusitanis qui se Florentiam contulerant literarum studio cuppientibus atque a me petentibus enarravi septimestri spatio [ ].

The notes were first mentioned in A. M. Bandini, Ragionamento storico sopra le collazioni delle fiorentine Pandette fatte da Angelo Poliziano (Livorno, 1762), p. lxvi; see J. Cotton, 'Ex libris Politiani II', Modern Language Review, 32 (1937), 394-9; Catalogo della Mostra del Poliziano della biblioteca Medicea-Politien, ed. A. Perosa (Florence, 1955), 22-3; Ida Maïer, Les Manuscrits d'Ange Politien (Geneva, 1965), 351-2; Richard Hunt and others, The Survival of Ancient Literature. Catalogue of an Exhibition of Greek and Latin Manuscripts mainly from Oxford Libraries displayed on the Occasion of the Triennial Meeting of the Hellenic and Roman Societies 28 July-August 1975 (Oxford, 1975), no. 150. It was established that while the notes come from Politian, the hand is not his; see Lucia Cesarini Martinelli, Commento inedito alle Selve di Stazio (Florence, 1978), no. 18, pp. xvi and xxi; Dennis E. Rhodes, 'The Mystery of PGN', in Dennis E. Rhodes, Studies in Early European Printing and Book Collecting (London, 1983), 236-40, at 240; Vincenzo Fera, 'Un laboratorio filologico di fine quatrocento la Naturalis historia', in Formative Stages of Classical Traditions: Latin Texts from Antiquity to the Renaissance, ed. Oronzo Pecere and Michael Reeve (Spoleto, 1995), 435-66, esp. at 442-3; and idem, 'Poliziano, Ermolao Barbaro e Plinio', in Una famiglia veneziana nella storia: I Barbaro, Atti del Convegno di studi in occasione del quinto centenario della morte dell'umanista Ermolao, Venezia, 4-6 Novembre 1993 (Venice, 1996), 193-234, esp. at 204, 212 note 66, and 216-18.

Provenance: Two circular stamps on verso of front endleaf: ‘F. B.' and ‘M. N.'; in the possession of the Marchese Niccolini of Florence (mid 18th century), as recorded by A. M. Bandini, Ragionamento storico sopra le collazioni delle fiorentine pandette fatte da Angelo Poliziano (Livorno, 1762), p. lxvi, as quoted by Cotton. The same stamps have been found in a copy of Galileo, Sidereus nuncius (1610) in CUL (ex informatione Jill Whitelock). Richard Heber (1773-1833); see Catalogue, 6 (1835), lot 2871; sold for £17. 0. 0. Guglielmo Bruto Icilio Timoleone, Conte Libri Carrucci della Sommaia (1803-1869); sale (19 Feb. 1849), lot 750. Purchased by Rodd at the Libri sale for £21. 0. 0; see Books Purchased (1849), 38.

SHELFMARK: Auct. Q 1.2.