PlutarchusProblemata (trans. Johannes Petrus Lucensis; ed. Johannes Calphurnius).
Analysis of content:
a1r Calphurnius, [Johannes: Letter addressed to] Marcus Aurelius. Incipit: ‘Petieram a te, Marce, per litteras Plutarchi Problemata respondisti . . .’ Explicit: musarum decus For the dedicatee see Monfasani, ‘Calfurnio's Identification', 32-43.
a2r Plutarchus: Problemata. [Edited by Johannes Calphurnius. Translated by Johannes Petrus Lucensis.] Incipit: ‘[Q]uid est quod noua nupta cum in matrimonium datur . . .’ Explicit: nominati sunt Calphurnius records in his letter that he edited the work, and that Johannes Petrus was the translator.
P-389(1)
First copy
Binding: Contemporary Italian long-stitch through full cartonnage cover reinforced with secondary covering in reversed alum tawed skin; four pairs of tawed ties lost; remains of parchment rectangular slips which covered the long stitches; original colour of binding was probably pale salmon pink; an example of a cheap and simple binding used by the book trade to ship books.
Size: 196 × 150 × 21 mm.
Size of leaf: 196 × 143 mm.
Some early marginal annotations in one sixteenth-century humanist hand, consisting mainly of extraction of key words and ‘nota' marks. On the verso of the rear endleaf is a note in the same hand, ‘Non est omnino aspernanda largorum hominum liberalitas [continentia cancelled] lege Xenocratis exemplum apud Domitium in capite de abstinentia et continentia'.
Provenance: Maffeo Pinelli (1735-1785); Morelli (1787), I 1352; note (apparently by Hand) on a1r: ‘Pinelli Cat Vol 1 p 236 & Sale Cat No 6263 Tyson £1. 2'; sale (1789), lot 6263, marked down in the annotated sale catalogue to Tyson, presumably to be identified with Samuel Tyssen (1755-1800); sale, either lot 2044 or 2045.
J. T. Hand (fl. 1834-1837); signature on the front pastedown dated 1834; sale (1837), lot 128, where it is referred to as being the Pinelli copy; ticket at the tail of the spine.
Purchased for £0. 2. 0: see Books Purchased (1837), 30.
SHELFMARK: Auct. O inf. 1.53.
P-389(2)
Second copy
Bound with C‑379(2); see there for details of binding, decoration, and provenance.
Size of leaf: 189 × 137 mm.
Early marginal annotations in a sixteenth-century humanist hand in both red and black ink, including extraction of key words, also underlining in the text in red ink; see C‑379(2) for further details. Early manuscript foliation: 70-1.
SHELFMARK: Auct. 7Q 5.16(2).
P-389(3)
Third copy
Binding: Nineteenth-century half light brown morocco with maroon cloth over paper boards; the spine gold-tooled; the upper edge gilt, the others coloured green.
Size: 208 × 149 × 13 mm.
Size of leaf: 202 × 135 mm.
On a2r a modern(?) five-line initial ‘Q' is supplied in blue within a framework of red, blue, and black pen-work with gold, extending into the margins, and with the body of the letter decorated in gold, red, green, and black, also a paragraph mark in blue, red, and gold, and two paragraph marks on a1r in black ink.
Provenance: Ingram Bywater (1840-1914); Elenchus, no. 2616.
Bequeathed in 1914.
SHELFMARK: Byw. R 6.10.