De natura deo[rum].

Accession number: 
PML 51562
Author: 
Cicero, Marcus Tullius.
Published: 
[Venice] : Vindelinus de Spira, 1471.
Description: 
[65, 46, 40, 36] leaves ; 29.5 x 20 cm (4to)
Credit Line: 
Purchased in 1961.
Notes: 

Collation: Part I: [1² 2⁸(+8*: deus animans) 3-8⁸ 9⁶]: 65 leaves; Part II: [10-14⁸ 15⁶]: 46 leaves; Part III: [16-20⁸]: 40 leaves, leaves [20]/7-8 blank; Part IV: [21-24⁸ 25⁴]: 36 leaves, leaf [25]/4 blank.
Colophon (leaf [25]/3v): Spyra tuum nomen toto celebrabitur orbe: / Que Vindellini diceris esse Parens. / Ordine qui tanto Ciceronis opuscula magni / Imprimit: ut fabrum palladis esse putes. / tu quoque donate stirpis: Venetique senatus. / Gloria Aluvisi: tu quoque decis idem.
Date (leaf [2]/2r): A. D. M. CCCC. LXXI.
For a note on the make-up of the first quire, see CIBN C-391.
Paper format: Royal quarto
PML copy leaf dimensions: 28.7 x 19.5 cm
PML copy missing 1 leaf: [25]/4 (blank).
Printed in type 1:110R.
The De re militari attributed to Laetus (or more usually to Modestus) is an extract from Vegetius: L. Dalmasso in Rendiconti Istituto Lombardo di scienze e lettere 40 (1907) pp. 805-814.
Title from incipit (leaf [2]/3r): Marci. T. C. de natura deo[rum] ad. M. Brutum liber primus.
With additions by Raphael Zovenzonius.

Binding: 
Modern half blue goatskin with cloth sides with the Signet Library armorial over paper boards (29.5 x 20 cm), sewn on 6 supports; repaired by C.M. Ullman, 1961. Plain paper pastedowns and fly leaves; plain endbands.
Inscriptions/Markings: 

Hand decoration: Illuminated white vine initials with black filigree penwork and laurel wreath with armorial in bottom margin (leaf [2]/2r), Venice/northern Italian; rubricated, alternating red and blue initials with penwork decoration. Annotations: Moderate contempoary marginal notations throughout in at least 2 hands. Several different contemporary alpha-numeric quire signatures, some quires numbered at bottom center of first recto.

Provenance: 
Unidentified Italian armorial, 15th century (leaf [2]/2r); Society of Writers to H.M. Signet, binding; Signet Library sale, part 4, Sotheby's, 11 April 1960, lot 1121 for £240 to Thorp; Thomas Thorp, bookseller, cat. 342, no. 6; Pierpont Morgan Library, purchased from Thorp, March 1961.
Classification: 
Century: 
Department: