Livius, Historia Romanae decades, Venice, Vindelinus de Spira, 1470, contemporary morocco

Titus Livius

Historiae Romanae decades [edited by Johannes Andreas, bishop of Aleria]. [Venice]: Vindelinus de Spira, 1470

Royal folio (400 x 280mm.), 416 leaves (of 421), [a-b¹²; c-l¹⁰ m¹⁰⁺¹ n-p¹⁰ q-r⁸; s-z & aa-gg¹⁰; hh-kk¹⁰ ll-mm⁸ nn-rr¹⁰ ss¹⁴], 49 lines, roman type, start of text [c1] with white vine-stem decoration at foot containing a laurel wreath with the arms of the Guicciardini family of Florence, initial at start of third Decade ([s1r], foliated 132 in pencil) in gold with white vine-stem decoration on a pink, blue and green ground, early annotations in red and brown ink, early manuscript foliation in red ink up to fol.210 (and later pencil foliation all the way through), some original manuscript quire signatures, near-contemporary Italian blind-tooled morocco over wooden boards, two clasps with new straps, vellum endleaves, lacking 5 leaves ([cc3-6], foliated 284-287 and [hh1], foliated 312, all supplied in expert printed facsimile on old paper), leaf [c1] damaged and top half replaced in facsimile (the fragments of the original leaf loose in the front of the volume), lower half of this leaf washed with a marginal paper repair, a few wormholes causing slight loss of text (heavier towards end, including in flyleaves), damp-staining towards end, binding rubbed and repaired (lower cover was heavily wormed), rebacked

A TALL COPY with early Florentine provenance. This is one of two editions printed in 1470; the other was produced in Rome by Ulrich Han and edited by Giannantonio Campano. This text is taken from the editio princeps of 1469, edited by Giovanni Andrea Bussi and printed by Sweynheym and Pannartz in Rome. This edition contains the surviving first, third and fourth decades of Livy's monumental history, which had been brought together by Petrarch.

LITERATURE:

ISTC il00238000

PROVENANCE:

Guicciardini family of Florence, arms at foot of first leaf of text