Biblia

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Accession number: 
PML 26983-84
Uniform title: 
Bible. Italian. 1471.
Published: 
Venecia : [Vindelinus de Spira], M.CCCC.LXXI. in Kalende. de. Avgvsto [1 August 1471].
Description: 
[325, 316] leaves ; 43 cm (fol.)
Credit Line: 
Purchased in 1929.
Notes: 

Title from ISTC.
Printed in De Spira's type 1:110R.
Collation, part I: [1¹² 2-9¹⁰ 10¹²; 11¹⁰ 12-13⁸; 14-18¹⁰ 19⁸; 20-24¹⁰; 25¹⁰(+1); 26-30¹⁰ 31⁸(+1) 32¹⁰ 33⁶(+1)]: 325 leaves, leaves [1]/12, [19]/8, [27]/10, [28]/1 blank; part II: [34² 35-44¹⁰; 45-48¹⁰ 49⁸(+1) 50¹⁰; 51¹⁰ 52-53⁸; 54-56¹⁰ 57-60¹² 61⁸(+1) 62-63⁸; 64¹⁰ 65-66⁸]: 316 leaves.
Paper format: Royal folio.
Translated by Niccolò Malermi, with additions (including verse in praise of printed work naming printer) by Hieronymus Squarzaficus.
PML copy printed on vellum.
PML copy leaf dimensions: 39.5 x 27.8 cm.
PML copy missing 1 leaf: [19]/8 (blank).

Binding: 
18th/19th-century Italian gilt-tooled brown calf, central panel diced and gilt-sprinkled, over heave paper boards (43 x 31 cm), sewn on 3 supports. Blue-painted paper pastedowns and endleaves, with plain vellum endleaves; decorative stuck-on endbands; gilt edges.
Variant Title: 

Checklist title: Biblia Italica

Inscriptions/Markings: 

Vol. I (PML 26983). Hand decoration: Contemporary Venetian illumination and rubrication, scene depicting the Creation of Eve in architectural framework with putto above holding a scroll: "sola virtute," and foliate bad-de-page decoration with armorial (leaf [2]/1r) and foliate illuminated initials by the Master of the Putti; alternating red and blue initials and paragraph marks, red rubrics, headlines, and Roman numeral foliation. The rubrics, headlines, and foliation are in the same hand in both volumes, although the initials are likely by different artists. Annotations: A few contemporary marginal notations in text, including 2 textual corrections in Psalms. A manuscript quire [*⁴] added between quires [27-28] with a table for the Psalms; in a similar hand and format to the tabula in vol. II, suggesting that both were produced at Camaldolite monastery. Contemporary manuscript alpha-numeric quire signatures.
Vol. II (PML 26984). Hand decoration: Contemporary Venetian illumination and rubrication, border with St. Jerome in the Wilderness (leaf [34]/1v) and scene depicting a judgement of Solomon, The Shooting of a Father's Corpse, set in an Italiate landscape, with a hanging scroll bearing the printed text, surrounded by an architectural border (leaf [35]/1v) and foliate initials by the Master of the Putti; another artist has collaborated on the historiated initials, with floral and penwork borders, in the style of Girolamo da Cremona; minor initials in blue on gold ground and in gold on red/blue/green ground with penwork decoration, alternating blue and gold paragraph marks, red rubrics, headlines, and Roman numeral foliation. The rubrics, headlines, and foliation are in the same hand in both volumes, although the initials are likely by different artists. Annotations: Contemporary manuscript numerical (beginning with 34) and alpha-numerical quire signatures. A manuscript quire [*⁸] added between quires [53-54] with a table for the New Testament, with colophon: "scripta in sancto Mathia de murano" (leaf [*]/8r), which might be a reference to Malermi's translation of the bible in that hermitage; illuminated with foliate border and "yhs" monogram in sunburst roundel (leaf [*]/1r). Manuscript tabula in both volumes are in same hand, suggesting that both were produced at Camaldolite monastery.

Provenance: 
Vol. I (PML 26983): Abbadessa family, of Florence, armorial, painted over Corner family, of Venice (leaf [2]/1r); unidentified (Corsini or Melzi?) shelfmark: HH-I-13 (leaf [1]/1r); Conte Gaetano Melzi (1783-1851), of Milan, owned both volumes by 1820; Pierpont Morgan Library, purchased from Tammaro De Marinis, Nov. 1929.
Classification: 
Department: