Cassiodorus, Historia ecclesiastica tripartita, [Cologne, 1478], later calf

Magnus Aurelius Cassiodorus

Historia ecclesiastica tripartita. [Cologne: Conrad Winters, de Homborch, before 6 May 1478]

Chancery folio (265 x 193mm.), 164 leaves (of 170), [a-k⁸ l¹⁰ m-x⁸], double column, 39 lines, gothic type, later calf, first leaf (only) neatly supplied in contemporary manuscript (a close copy of the text setting) with red and blue decorative initial, contemporary manuscript headlines, initials and paraphs supplied in red and blue (in the printshop), lacking [a1-2, l1, p4-5] and final leaf, ink stamp erased from margin of [e3], binding worn and broken

Cassiodorus's sixth-century history of the early Church draws on the main (Greek) sources of Socrates, Sozomen and Theodoret. It was first printed in Augsburg in 1472. The rubrication in this copy can be assigned to the print shop as it is almost identical to that found in other copies.

PROVENANCE

Niccolò Fraggianni (1686-1763), of Naples, armorial bookplate (dating after 1734, when he was made a marchese); D.L. Cumming, signature on verso of flyleaf

LITERATURE

ISTC ic00238000