Bonaventura, Legenda maior S. Francisci [Italian], Milan, Zarotus, 1477, later vellum, Hamilton Palace copy

Bonaventura

Legenda maior S. Francisci [Italian]; S. Franciscus: Regula [Italian]. Milan: Antonius Zarotus, 6 February 1477

4to (279 x 198mm.), 120 leaves, [*⁴] a–n⁸ o¹², index bound at back, double column, 37 lines, first paragraph printed in red, first initial supplied in blue with red penwork marginal decoration, other initials in blue (mostly faded), later manuscript foliation, old reused vellum, some deckle edges, first quire repaired at foredge (supplied from another copy?), small area of damage on c7v-d1r, slight staining towards end

A tall copy of Bonaventure's official biography of St Francis, commissioned and written in the mid-thirteenth century; all other biographies of the saint were subsequently not permitted. It was first printed in Rome in 1470.

Antonio Zarotto is generally considered to be the first printer to set up shop in Milan, in 1471.

LITERATURE:

ISTC ib00890000

PROVENANCE:

Hamilton Palace library, sale, Sotheby's, 1 May 1884, lot 313, 3s, "Cash" (i.e. Maitland); manuscript note on flyleaf to that effect, "purchased by me", signed F.K.G. Maitland