Platina, Vitae pontificum, [Venice], 1479, later calf, Frederick North's copy

Platina, Bartholomaeus

Vitae pontificum. [Venice]: Johannes de Colonia and Johannes Manthen, 11 June 1479

Chancery folio (306 x 210mm.), 240 leaves, a¹⁰ b–o⁸ p⁶ q–y⁸ z¹⁰ & aa–ee⁸ ff⁶, 40 lines, roman type, later initials in gold on blue grounds, a few early annotations, early foliation at lower corner of each recto, some deckle edges, eighteenth-century mottled calf, slight worming towards end

A LARGE COPY OF THE FIRST EDITION of Platina's influential lives of the popes.

LITERATURE:

ISTC ip00768000

PROVENANCE:

Francis North, 5th earl of Guilford (1766-1827), armorial bookplate; William Gordon of Fyvie (1776-1847), armorial bookplate