Aurelii Augustini de ciuitate dei primi libri incipiu[n]t rubricae

Description

Signatures: [a-b⁸ c-z¹⁰ A-C¹⁰ D⁸ E¹⁰].


Place of printing and date from colophon.


Colophon in verse following the end of the text on leaf [E9r]: Qui docuit Venetos exscribi posse Ioannes Mense fere trino centena uolumina plini Et totidem magni Ciceronis Spira libellos: Ceperat Aureli: subita sed morte perentus Non potuit ceptum Venetis finire uolumen Vindelinus adest eiusdem frater: & arte Non minor: hadriacaque morabitur urbe.M.CCCC.LXX.


Printers from ISTC.


No foliation, pagination or headlines.


Printed with 50 long lines to a full page.


Table printed in two columns.


Initial spaces with guide-letters.


Ornamental woodcut initials at the beginning of each book.


Leaves 1, 16 and 274 are blank.


Indexed in: ISTC no. ia01233000.


Indexed in: Hain 2048; Goff A1233; BMC V 153.

Features

Very occasional marginal annotations and notabilia in black ink manuscript.


Sections of the text have been numbered in Arabic numerals in black ink manuscript.


The table of contents is annotated in red to give chapter numbers in Arabic numerals.


At the beginning of each chapter is a note supplied in red ink manuscript.


The first page of the text (leaf [17r]) is decorated with a border painted in gold, green and blue. At the head of the page the border contains a grotesque amid stylised foliage in red and green against a blue and gold background. At the foot of the page the border features two centaurs facing one another either side of a blank shield. Two cherubs are sitting on the back of the centaur on the left, with a seated nude female figure and a standing cherub on the back of the centaur on the right. They are surrounded with stylised foliage in red and green against a blue and gold background. The first major initial is supplied in gold against a green background and coiled around it is a grotesque. The woodcut initial is painted in gold with the surrounding ornamentation coloured in blue, green, yellow and red.


The woodcut initials at the beginning of each book are painted in gold with the surrounding ornamentation coloured in blue, green, yellow and red.


Other major initials supplied alternately in red and blue.


There are mends to the outer margins of several leaves, none affecting the text.


This copy is missing the blank leaves.


Bindings


Binding of full calf over pasteboard, probably eighteenth-century. The upper and lower covers are blind-tooled with a border and frame of triple fillets. The frame contains a repeating pattern of stylised foliage and the central panel contains a diamond formed from triple fillets containing two lozenge-shaped ornaments and eight decorated round ornaments in a circle. There is a lozenge-shaped tool at each of the four corners of the frame and the border. Between the border and the frame are further round ornaments. Gold-tooled in the centre of the upper and lower covers is a coat of arms surrounded with stylised foliage with a crown above and the letter A below. The spine has six raised bands with a gold-tooled fillet to either side of each. Gold-tooled in the second panel are the words: D. Augustin De civitate Die [sic]. Gold-tooled at the base of the spine are the place and date: Venetus. 1470. In the sixth panel is the Brotherton Collection stamp in gold. The leaf edges are sprinkled
red and green and the corners and edges of the covers have been repaired. Size: 401 x 293mm. Leaf size: 398 x 280mm.

Provenance

Coloured armorial bookplate of Sir Edward Allen Brotherton on the front pastedown. The book was most likely acquired before 17 June 1929 when Brotherton was created Baron Brotherton of Wakefield.

Access and usage

Access

Access to this material is unrestricted.