Decamerone [German].

Accession number: 
PML 42138
Author: 
Boccaccio, Giovanni, 1313-1375.
Published: 
[Ulm] : [Johann Zainer], [approximately 1476]
Description: 
[9], ix, I-CCCLXXXX (with errors) leaves ; 44.5 cm (fol.)
Credit Line: 
Purchased as the gift of The Fellows, 1951 (1953).
Notes: 

Title from incipit, leaf a2r: Hie hebt sich an das půch vo[n] seinem meister In greckisch genant decameron/ daz ist cento nouelle in welsch Vn[d] hundert histori oder neüe fabel in teutsche/ Die der hoch gelerte poete Iohannes boccacio ze liebe vnd früntschafft schreibet dem fürsten vnd principe galeotto.
Imprint from ISTC.
Dated by BSB-Ink (from Amelung p.44, Type 3). GW and Goff date about 1473. Copies are known with and without colophon (leaf X10r): Geendet seliglichen zů Ulm.
Printed in Johann Zainer's type 3:117G.
Signatures: a-z A-T¹⁰/⁸V X¹⁰: 398 leaves, leaf a1 blank.
Paper format: Median folio.
Translated by Arigo (i.e. Heinrich Schlüsselfelder?). For the translation (also ascribed to Steinhöwel, Leubing or Österreicher) see J.L. Flood in Book Production and Letters in the Western European Renaissance: Essays in Honour of C. Fahy (London, 1986) pp.64-88 and in Hans Sachs and Folk Theatre in the Late Middle Ages (Lewiston, NY, 1995) pp.143-45.
PML copy leaf dimensions: 32.8 x 22.6 cm.
PML copy missing 1 leaf: a1 (blank).

Binding: 
19th-century (German?, but similar style to English/Francis Bedford) full blind-fillet and gilt-tooled brown pigskin over paper boards (44.5 x 24 cm), sewn on 5 supports. Plain paper pastedowns and endleaves; decorative endbands.
Inscriptions/Markings: 

Hand decoration: Contemporary rubrication, red initials and capital strokes. Annotations: No marginal notations in text.

Provenance: 
Hans Meyer (1858-1929), inscripton: Bibliothek Hans Meyer Leipzig (front pastedown); Pierpont Morgan Library, purchased from Lathrop C. Harper, Inc. as the gift of The Fellows, 1951 (1953).
Classification: 
Department: