Justinianus, Institutiones, Rome, 1473, calf over wooden boards with manuscript endleaves

Justinianus

Institutiones (with the Glossa ordinaria of Accursius). Rome: Ulrich Han (Udalricus Gallus) and Simon Nicolai Chardella, de Lucca, 10 April 1473

Royal folio (406 x 285mm.), 174 leaves, [a-h¹⁰ i⁶; k-r¹⁰ s⁸], 58 lines of commentary, text of Institutiones in gothic type with commentary in roman type, a few headings printed in red, first initial in pink and green on a gold ground (somewhat rubbed), a few 3- and 4-line initials supplied in red, manuscript quire numbers and foliation at lower corner, early annotations in black and red ink, an early manuscript list of contents on verso of colophon leaf, later binding of half calf over thick wooden boards, two vellum manuscript leaves from a thirteenth-century Italian antiphonary (containing part of the feasts of Christmas and Holy Week) bound at front and back, a few small wormholes, occasional light staining, a few small marginal tears, final leaf with register torn and repaired, boards somewhat wormed and scraped

Ulrich Han, from Ingolstadt, produced books in Rome from 1467 to 1478, and he was the first printer in Rome alongside Sweynheym and Pannartz (the priority has not been established). Simon Nicolai Chardella, a merchant from Lucca, provided financial backing in the years 1471 to 1474, while the Rome book trade was in crisis. Han made a decision similar to other Italian printers at this time, in turning to the production of legal texts rather than classical and patristic books, whose overproduction had probably caused the crisis.

The collation of this copy is different from that given in the standard bibliographies; the second part is [k-r^12.8 s^10-1], not [k-r¹⁰ s⁸]. There is a blank leaf between the colophon and the register, as in the Milltown Park copy, and the sewing indicates that there would have been another blank leaf at the end of the final quire, not present in this copy.

RARE. ISTC records seven copies, in the British Library, the John Rylands Library, Florence, Naples, the Vatican, St Gallen, and the Milltown Park copy (sale, Sotheby's, June 2017, lot 205).

The manuscript endleaves are from the same manuscript as those found in the binding of the Italian Confessionale printed in c. 1474 (lot 82), so were presumably added in recent times.

LITERATURE:

ISTC ij00509300