Ovidius Naso, Opera minora, Venice, Aldo Manuzio, December 1502, eighteenth-century brown polished mottled calf

Ovidius Naso, Publius. Publii Ouidii Nasonis Heroidum epistolae. Auli Sabini. Epistolae tres. P.O.N. Elegiarum. Libri tres. De arte amandi. Libri tres. De remedio amoris. Libri duo. In Ibin. Liber unus. Ad Liuiam epistola de morte Drusi. De nuce. De medicamine faciei. Venice: Aldo Manuzio, December 1502

The Auchinleck-Mahon copy.

According to an inscription in the volume, it belonged to the Scottish judge Alexander Boswell who was the father of the biographer and diarist James Boswell. It evidently is the volume which Margaret Montgomerie Boswell recorded in her 1783-1785 inventory of the Auchinleck Library as “Ovidii Epistolae et amores Aldi 1502” standing in press 5, on shelf 2, book 29 (Beinecke Library, C 437.6, p. 34; digitized).

8vo (163 x 95 mm). Roman and italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: aa-ii⁸ kk⁴ ll-pp⁸ qq⁴ rr-zz⁸ AA-BB⁸ CC¹⁰ (lacking qq4, a blank): 201 (of 202) leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-page, illuminated title and initials, ruled in red. (Title narrower than other leaves, soiling and worming, repaired in first few leaves, repair to lower margin of cc1, repairs to CC10.)

binding: Eighteenth-century brown polished mottled calf (170 x 106 mm), two gilt fillets bordering covers, spine with raised bands in five compartments, gilt-lettered morocco labels in second and third, others with repeat gilt star device, edges gilt and gauffered. (Joints weak, some flaking to calf.)

provenance: Possibly Séraphin Du Tillet, name "Seraphyn du Tillet Berthemont" (?) on gauffered edges — Alexander Boswell, 8^th Laird of Auchinleck (1706-1782), inscription "Alexr. Boswel, Edinb. 1759" on front free endpaper — thence by descent to James Boswell, 9^th Laird of Auchinleck (1740-1795) — probably Sotheby's London, 23 June 1893, lot 15 (part) — probably Bernard Quaritch, London, purchased in previous sale (13s) — Henry Sanford Pakenham-Mahon (1851-1922), ex libris — probably Hodgson & Co., A catalogue of the library of the late H. Pakenham Mahon (removed from 33 Pont Street, S.W.), London, 11-13 April 1922, lot 162 — probably unidentified owner, purchased in previous sale (£1 11s). acquisition: Purchased in England, 1962. references: UCLA 67; Renouard 37/13; Edit16 36132; USTC 845646; Adams O-423