Biblia latina, Venice, Scoto, 1489, part 1 only, modern leather over wooden boards

Bible. Latin

Biblia latina (cum postillis Nicolai de Lyra et expositionibus Guillelmi Britonis in omnes prologos S. Hieronymi et additionibus Pauli Burgensis replicisque Matthiae Doering). Venice: [Bonetus Locatellus for] Octavianus Scotus, 8 August 1489

part one only (of 4), Median folio (355 x 240mm.), 298 leaves (of 299,without initial blank leaf), a¹⁰ b⁸ c–l¹⁰ m¹¹ n–z [et] [con] [rum] Aa–Dd¹⁰, double column, 77-78 lines of commentary, historiated coloured woodcut initial at start of text, small coloured armorial at foot of first page, full-page woodcut plate with letterpress captions inserted between leaves m8 and m9 (and with early manuscript note at foot of verso indicating where it needed to be bound), other woodcut illustrations in the Book of Kings, modern binding of half leather over bevelled wooden boards, retaining original front paper endleaf containing early manuscript notes about the book, a10 misbound after quire b, slight damp-staining and paper repairs to lower corner of numerous leaves, final leaf somewhat stained, a few small wormholes

This is the first volume, comprising Genesis to IV Kings, of one of the first printed bibles to employ a series of woodcut illustrations, attributed to the Master of the Pico Pliny, who had previously illustrated bibles by hand (Lilian Armstrong, "The hand-illumination of Venetian bibles in the incunable period" in Incuabula and their readers, London, 2003, pp.109-113). Before this, printers had left space for hand-illlumination which was not generally supplied.

LITERATURE:

ISTC ib00616000 (all four parts)

PROVENANCE:

arms at foot of first leaf, two birds facing each other on a red ground above quarters of gold and blue; purchased from Libreria Gozzini, Florence