The recto of leaf a1 is blank, the text of the prefatory matter beginning on the verso.

Provenance: Signature of “John Webb” in a 17th-century hand twice in margin of k3r.

Uncommon beyond the Continent: ISTC and Goff locate only two copies in the U.S. and ISTC locates only two copies in the U.K. (one incomplete), but there is a third copy at the British Library.

•  ISTC ic00601000; Goff C601; HC 5274*; IGI 2910; Pr 4942; BMC, V 400; GKW 6954.   Full modern walnut calf old style: Spine with raised bands, accented with gilt and blind rules, the latter extending onto covers to terminate in trefoils with blind double fillets beyond. Gilt center devices in the spine compartments. Red leather spine label lettered in gilt, and date in gilt at base of spine. Lacking two leaves (b4–5). Upper corners of leaves in gatherings & and [con] damaged with loss of paper. Lower corner of i1 torn with loss of text of both sides of leaf. Waterstaining and old dampstaining variously, this often faint and never really worse than moderate (worst at beginning/end); some age-toning and dustsoiling. Though an imperfect copy, a rarity; indeed, with its manuscript enhancements, a “uniquum.”  (25766)

•  ESTC T138400.   Contemporary speckled sheep with modest gilt double fillet border on covers; spine with red leather label, gilt, and bands accented with fillets to match covers. Top spine compartment darkened and joints starting but volume sound. Ex–social club library: 19th-century bookplate, call number on endpaper, no other markings. A clean volume with only a little foxing and the very occasional old instance of staining.  (28889)

This is numbered copy 972 of 1500 printed.

•  Bibliography of the Fine Books Published by the Limited Editions Club, 452.   Binding as above, spine with gilt-stamped title, in original glassine dust jacket and original slipcase; volume very clean and fresh, glassine wrapper with spine gently sunned and small chips at foot, slipcase label slightly darkened and slipcase otherwise all but unworn. A very nice copy.  (30114)

The Latin and Greek are printed in roman and italic, with side- and shouldernotes; the Wechel printer's device appears on the title-page and f. Oo8v (before the final quire).

There areno copies of this edition in the U.S., according to WorldCat and NUC Pre-1956.

Evidence of readership: Sparse annotations and marks in early ink.

•  Index Aurel. 141.560; this edition not in VD16 online, and not in Adams, but see nos. C-2140–2157 for others.   Modern half vellum over brown marbled paper-covered boards, with ink title to spine and faded blue edges nearly flush with boards. Faintly to moderately waterstained across most leaves, with occasional other spots; one lower corner torn away, the upper corner of another folded down with a number of others lightly creased, one leaf with a short marginal tear, and just one wormhole, at the outer margin of the final nine leaves (pp. 583 to end). Two stubs visible at the gutter of pp. 578–9 and 590–[91], but nothing lacking.  (29944)

The seven books are printed in Latin with passages in ancient Greek and at least one instance of Hebrew, embellished with woodcut and factotum initials, pretty woodcut ornaments, elegant head- and tailpieces from both woodblocks and engravings, and sidenotes in the final section. The seventh book, Descriptio montis Atho by Joannes Komnenos (Comnene, 1657–1719), is printed mostly double-column with the original Greek text facing the Latin translation and a few openings with Latin and Greek on facing pages, followed by two small engraved views of Mount Athos from east and west. The final section is a treatise on ancient Greek and Latin by Burgundian jurist Jean Bouhier (1673–1746), called De priscis Graecorum ac Latinorum literis dissertatio.

•  Brunet, III, 1863. On the contribution of this book to paleography, see: B. Bischoff, Latin Paleography (1990); B. Manning Metzger, Manuscripts of the Greek Bible: an Introduction to Greek Palaeography (1981).   Contemporary full vellum, early ink title to upper spine, red edges; vellum soiled, nicked at head and foot of spine, shrunken revealing sewing at foot and a little springing the covers. Ex-library with two old pressure-stamps to title-page and a few old ink markings; light foxing to title-page and some others, hole from natural flaw in bottom margin of one leaf and tear in upper margin of another, inkstains on a few leaves, one smudge from press and just a few other spots, very minor offsetting from a few plates. Later pencil marginalia on one leaf. A volume both serviceable and integral to any library with Greek manuscripts or interested in them.  (30435)

Provenance:  Front free endpaper with early inked presentation inscription to New Salem Academy from the Honorable Ethan Allen Greenwood (1779–1856), the Massachusetts lawyer who established the New England Museum.

•  Sabin 64182.   Contemporary quarter sheep and light blue paper–covered sides, spine with gilt-stamped leather title-label and gilt-stamped date; worn and stained, front cover with (child's?) pencilled name, spine head with remnants of paper shelving label, spine leather cracked. Volume refurbished, with leather consolidated, joints repaired, edges reinforced with repair tissue. Lacking one issue, no. 12, apparently never bound in; one stanza of one poem excised. Some leaves creased, with occasional tears into text; varying degrees of age-toning and foxing; scattered small holes. Lower outer portion of one leaf torn away, with loss of several lines. A few pencilled marks of emphasis; a later hand has laid in several sheets of annotations and commentary on various pieces herein. Dried plant matter laid in. Price reduced recognizing absent No. 12; but a volume of interest both simply as a substantial Port Folio and as the one produced in such a significant year for the proprietor.  (29238)

Provenance & Evidence of Readership: Front pastedown with early inked and pencilled inscriptions of Simon Elliot, front free endpaper with early pencilled presentation inscription of Dr. Willard Putnam, first text page with inked inscription of Simon Elliot along upper inner margin. A later hand has laid in several sheets of annotations and commentary on various pieces herein; there are occasional pencilled marks of emphasis and a few annotations. Laid-in letter from a modern bookseller noting that he is sending the present volume and will look for another.

•  Sabin 64182.   Contemporary quarter red sheep; marbled paper all but entirely worn away from sides, spine sunned and scuffed. Some early leaves with lower corners creased or stained along inner margins and starting to separate; scattered light to mild foxing. One leaf with one paragraph excised, affecting a few lines of the biography on the reverse; pp. 29/30 of vol. VI, no. 2 excised; upper portion of pp. 409/10 of vol. VI torn away with loss of a few lines. Some pages printed slightly askew, resulting in occasional shaving of letters or even (infrequently) lines. A slightly battered copy, but still — like all Port Folios, meaty and full of just plain INTERESTING stuff.  (29347)

The translator, W. Kenneth Thompson, selected thirteen episodes from Bassi's text, and illustrations includingone double-page plate and twelve miniatures, reproduced from photographs of the manuscript in five-color facsimiles printed by offset lithography at The Meriden Gravure Company in Meriden, CT. Giovanni Mardersteig designed the text in his own Monotype Dante on Manunzia paper, and oversaw production with his son Martino at the Stamperia Valdonega in Verona, Italy. The edition was limited to 1950 copies, of which this is no. 164, as written in ink below the colophon.

•  Bound as above, spine very lightly sunned with light pencil smudge; case with one side a little soiled and a limited patch of staining. Text very fresh and clean.  (30549)

While one copy of Diodorus bound with Petit's Justinus was found at Harvard, no record of the apparently extremely scarce de Marnef variant could be located.

Provenance: Charles Spencer, Third Earl of Sunderland, lot 3934 in the Sunderland Library sale (1882).

•  Diodorus: Moreau 1508:64; not in Schweiger. Justinus: not in Moreau, not in Schweiger. On Diodorus, see: Oxford Companion to Classical Literature, 146. 17th-century English calf, panelled, with gilt fleurons and elaborate front and back gilt floral center motifs, each worked with a minuteWE.  (You need a magnifying glass, but this is THERE.) Overall, showing wear with some leather chipped from spine, covers abraded, and joints starting. Pages mostly clean, with slight staining to inner margins from binding supports. Gilt cover lozenges still bright and the whole safe to be worked with.

The work was edited by Jacques Goupyl, and is laid out with the Latin translation by Jean Ruel in side-by-side columns with the Greek text.

Provenance: Early title-page inscription, “F.M. ex dono Eduardi Davenant,” possibly the scholar who was older cousin and college tutor of Thomas Fuller, author of the History of the Worthies of England.

•  Adams D656; Durling 1135; Index aureliensis 154.341; Pritzel 2295.   18th-century speckled calf (front cover) and sheep (back cover) rebacked with lighter-colored sheep preserving original gilt-stamped leather title-label; boards scuffed and worn. Title-page with inked inscription as above (and in same hand, “Illuminat mentem Lectio.” First two leaves creased; first and last few leaves with light to moderate waterstaining. A very few marginalia in a tiny, neat, early inked hand. (20639)

Schreiber calls this uncommon work “a volume of major importance to the history of Western thought, which rightly belongs on the same shelf with the first editions of Plato and Aristotle.”

Provenance:  Title-page with early inked inscription in upper margin, “Sum Joannis Forestij,” and additional early inked inscription mostly inked over; first fly-leaf with two early words inked, one also “Forestii.”

•  Adams P1682; Brunet, II, 1080; Renouard 140.8; Schreiber, Estiennes, 187; Schweiger, I, 104.   Contemporary vellum over paste boards, spine with remnants of early paper shelving label; minor dust-soiling. No pastedowns, and front fly-leaves with outer edges slightly ragged, scraped by turn-ins; front turn-in at top with affixed printed numeral (early) on small slip of paper. Title-page with old rubber-stamp; a few leaves with mild waterstaining to lower outer portions, pages otherwise quite clean. All edges sprinkled red. A nice copy of a desirable work.  (29094)

The Explicationes was a serious attack on the Trinity and all its editions, beginning with the first of 1598, were surreptitiously printed and circulated. It was on various lists of banned books.

Click the images for enlargements.

The imprint of this edition is from Johann Fabricius' Historia Bibliothecae Fabricianae, V, 51; the title-page device is particularly lovely.

Evidence of readership: A lengthy note in an 18th-century hand on the front fly-leaf, apparently citing Johann Vogt's 1738 Catalogus historico-criticus librorum rariorum, labels this work “Liber perniciosus” and has much to say about it and its early editions. An earlier hand has recorded a list of books/citations inside the front cover.

•  Szabó, Régi magyar könyvtár, III, 4237.   18th-century English calf in the Cambridge style, leather at joints (but not sewing) starting; call number neatly in white in one lower spine panel. Private library bookplate; 18th-century ownership inscription partially erased from verso of title; handwritten notes as above. Title-page with a bit of dust-soiling and off-setting from binding at edges; otherwise, spotting never dark and mostly marginal.  (27172)