Thucydides, Historiae, Florence, Bernardo I Giunta, 2 November 1506 [i.e. 1526], Spanish, ca. 1530, polished brown calf

Thucydides. Thucydides cum commentariis antiquis et valde utilibus sine quibus author intellectu est quam difficillimus [Greek and Latin]. Florence: Bernardo I Giunta, 2 November 1506 [i.e. 1526]

The first Giunta edition of Thucydides. The colophon is printed in Greek and Latin, with the year of publication incorrectly printed as 1506 in the latter.

Folio (314 x 196 mm). Greek type, 54 lines plus headline. collation: AA⁶ A-V⁸: 166 leaves. Woodcut devices on title and verso of last leaf, woodcut headpieces and initials, contemporary marginalia. (First and last few leaves lightly soiled, two small wormholes to title, faint marginal dampstaining, a few small paper flaws and dark stains.)

binding: Sixteenth-century Spanish polished brown calf over pasteboards (318 x 198 mm), multiple frames, decorated with a medallion-head roll and a roll of tendrils and pecking birds, central frame with fleuron at inner angle and four fleurons forming cross at center, two clasps (missing) attaching to catches on lower cover, red edges, titled in large Roman letters on fore-edge. (Worn, losses to head, tail and sewing bands of spine, lower joint cracked, upper defective, endpapers stained with a few tears, wormholes, and paper repairs.)

provenance: Unidentified owner(s), obliterated inscription "… Cas. 311 …" on title-page, contemporary marginal commentary, underlinings, and nota marks — Sotheby's London, 1–2 December 1993, lot 264 (realized £1150). acquisition: Purchased at Sotheby's via Marlborough Rare Books. references: Renouard XLIX/87; Edit16 27952; USTC 859005; Decia & Delfiol p. 131 no. 196