Leonardo Aretini De bello Italico aduersus Gothos.

Accession number: 
PML 377
Author: 
Bruni, Leonardo, 1369-1444, author, translator.
Published: 
Impresserunt Fulginei : Emilianus de Orfinis Fulginas & Iohannes Numeister theutunicus, anno domini Millesimoquadringe[n]tesimoseptuagesimo [1470].
Description: 
[74] leaves ; 28 cm (folio and quarto)
Credit Line: 
Purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.
Notes: 

Title from incipit (leaf [1]/2r).
Imprint from colophon (leaf [7]/11r, reads in full): "Hunc libellum Emilianus de Orfinis Fulginas & Ioannes Numeister theutunicus eiusq[ue] sotii feliciter impresserunt Fulginei in domo eiusde[m] Emiliani anno domini Millesimoquadringe[n]tesimoseptuagesimo feliciter."
Printed in Neumeister and Orsinis's type 1:124R.
Collation: [1¹² 2-6¹⁰ 7¹²]: 74 leaves, leaves [1]/1 and [7]/12 blank.
Paper format: Chancery folio and Royal quarto.
An abridged and rearranged translation (GW: "Kurze Bearbeitung") of Procopius, History of the wars, books 5-8, in which Bruni claims full authorship without reference to Procopius. For a detailed account of its composition, see G. Ianziti, "Writing from Procopius: Leonardo Bruni's De bello Italico", in Rinascimento 37 (1 January 1997), pages 3-27.
At least five variants are known of the colophon, one giving the correct name "Orfinis Fulginas". See GW 5600, note 1 (not included in the abridged online version of the entry as of February 2017); the other forms are "Orsinis Fulginas" (given in GW's transcription as if the correct form), "Orfinis Eulginas", "Ursinis Fulginas", and "Ursinis Eulginas".
29 lines, 180 x 120 mm. Capital spaces with guide letters.
First book printed in Foligno.
PML copy leaf dimensions: 28 x 20 cm.

Binding: 
19th-century gilt-tooled red morocco over paper boards (28.5 x 20.5 cm.), sewn on 6 supprots by Belz-Niedree of Paris for Seillière. Marbled paper pastedowns and fly leaves, with plain paper fly leaves; plain endbands; gilt edges.
Variant Title: 

Leonardo Aretini De bello Italico adversus Gothos

Inscriptions/Markings: 

Hand decoration: Rubrication unrealized, red ruling lines and early foliation. Annotations: Contemporary manuscript notations quoting historical sources on the Gothic wars (leaf [1]/1v).

Provenance: 
[The Bennett catalogue states that this copy is "from the collection of Gomez de la Cortina (sold in 1872)" but there is no evidence for this nor was the work in his 1872 sale.] Baron Achille Seillière (1813-1873), Bibliothèque de Mello, armorial binding; his sale, Sotheby's, 28 Feb. 1887, lot 56 to Quaritch for £22.10.0; pencil collation statement, probably for Quaritch, 1887 or 89 (rear fly leaf); bibliographic note, tipped in, identified by Belle Green as the hand of Pickering (front fly leaf); Richard Bennett (1849-1930), armorial bookplate (front pastedown) and bibliographical notes: No. 203, 15/5/96 and price code: lm/-/- +com (front fly leaf verso); Pierpont Morgan (1837-1913), purchased with the Bennett collection, 1902.
Classification: 
Incunable Collection
Catalog Link: 
See more information »
Department: 
Printed Books