• Opera (Works)

Uniform title:
  • Works. 1470
Author:
  • Virgil
Publisher:
  • [Venice] : Vindelinus de Spira, 1470.
Printer:
  • Wendelin, of Speier, -1477?
Extent:
  • 161 leaves (the last two blank) ; 33 cm. (fol.)
Format:
Description:
  • New York Times, Sept. 30, 1891, p. 9, records John Pierce, NY bookseller, purchased this lot at Ives auction for $3000 and subsequently sold it to Junius Spencer Morgan.
  • Gathering: [16]
  • No. of lines varies; type 1 (cf. Haebler); printed in black.
  • Leaf 1a: Publii Virgilii maronis bucolicorum Liber incipit: Aegloga prima Tityrus & melibeus: Titye tu pauvlae recubans sub tegmine fagi Siluestrem tenui musam meditaris auena. Ends, leaf 161b, l. 11: .M.CCCC.LXX.
  • First dated edition; printed on parchment.
  • VRG copy has initials and decorations illuminated red, blue, green and gold.
Binding note:
  • VRG copy in later red goatskin with French fillet and outer dentelles in gold; marbled endpapers; in dark blue goatskin pull-off case.
Provenance:
  • VRG copy is from the Sunderland Library.
  • VRG copy has booklabels of Brayton Ives., no. 1028, and Junius Spencer Morgan.
Former owner:
  • Sunderland, Charles Spencer, Earl of, 1674-1722
  • Ives, Brayton, 1840-1914
  • Morgan, Junius Spencer
Edm rights:
  • No Known Copyright
View in catalog:
Curator's notes:

  • Publius Virgilius Maro (70–19 BCE)

    Latin
    Venezia, 1470, parchment

    The codex form remained in use through the transition from manuscript to print, and from parchment to paper, during the Renaissance; as is seen here in a 1470 Virgil from this transitional period, printed by Vindelinus de Spira. Transitional, because the book is actually printed on parchment, not paper, and it has a hand-painted illumination in red, blue, green, and gold as was common in manuscripts. Its later binding is red goatskin, with marbled paper inside.

    Gift of Junius S. Morgan, Class of 1888
    VRG 2945.1470q

    For further reading

    Alexander, Jonathan J.G. The painted book in Renaissance Italy: 1450-1600. New Haven: Yale University Press, 2016.

Exhibit category: