Plinius Caecilius Secundus, Epistolarum libri decem, Venice, Aldo Manuzio, November 1508, Roman brown morocco, 1510s

Plinius Caecilius Secundus, Gaius. C. Plinii Secundi novocomensis Epistolarum libri decem in quibus multae habentur epistolae non ante impressae. Tum graeca correcta, et suis locis restituta, atque reiectis adulterinis, uera reposita. Item fragmentatae epistolae, integrae factae. In medio etiam epistolae libri octaui de Clitumno fonte non solum uertici calx additus, et calci uertex, sed decem quoque epistolae interpositae … Eiusdem Panegyricus Traiano … Eiusdem De viris illustribus in re militari, et in administranda rep. Suetonii Tranquilli De claris grammaticis et rhetorib. Iulii Obsequentis Prodigiorum liber. Epistolae decimi libri ad Traianum probantur esse Plinii in sequenti epistola. Inibi etiam liber de viris illustribus, non Tranquilli, sed Plinii esse… Venice: Aldo Manuzio, November 1508

A third copy. Although this binding features a ginkgo leaf tool belonging to the stationer-bookbinder Paolo di Bernardino Bancheli, who is documented in Rome from about 1505 to about 1524, Anthony Hobson considered the binding (private communication to the owner) to be the product of some other, as yet unidentified Roman shop.

8vo (158 x 95 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: *⁸ **⁴ a-z⁸ aa-kk⁸ (**4 a blank): 275 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on final verso, one or two instances of early marginalia. (Scattered foxing.)

binding: Roman brown morocco (162 x 103 mm), 1510s, gold tooled border of knotwork pattern, EPI.PLINII at head of upper cover, arcs enclosing ginkgo leaves at corners, two concentric circles containing a star radiating twelve beams at center, traces of four pairs of green fabric ties, spine with raised bands in four compartments, paper label with manuscript title to second, blind tooled saltire in others, edges gilt and gauffered. (Gilt oxidized, extremities rubbed, loss to head and tail of spine, label chipped.) Housed in green cloth clamshell case.

provenance: Svend-Fridolf Jacobsen (b. 1898), ex libris dated 1943 — E.K. Schreiber, New York. acquisition: Purchased from E.K. Schreiber, New York, 1985. references: UCLA 100; Renouard 53/3; Edit16 37420; USTC 849906