Lactantius, Institutiones Divinae, Venice, Heirs of Aldo & Torresano, 1515, nineteenth-century brown morocco, fine-paper copy

Lactantius, Lucius Caecilius Firmianus. Diuinarum institutionum libri septem. De ira Dei, liber I De opificio Dei, liber I Epitome in libros suos liber acephalos. Phoenix. Carmen de dominica resurrectione. Venice: Heirs of Aldo Manuzio & Andrea Torresano, April 1515

First Aldine edition; the Crawford-Hoe-Clark copy, fine-paper issue.

2 parts in one volume, 8vo (156 x 93 mm) on fine paper. Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: aa-bb⁸ a-z⁸ A-Y⁸: 376 leaves; Tertullianus: *⁴ AA-FF⁸: 52 leaves. Woodcut Aldine device on title-pages and final verso. (Occasional light soiling.)

binding: Nineteenth-century brown morocco (163 x 102 mm), probably by C. Lewis, gilt Aldine device on covers, gilt edges. (Lightly rubbed, covers lightly stained, a few nicks to spine, hinges a bit weak.)

provenance: William Horatio Crawford (1815-1888), armorial bookplate — Sotheby's, London, 12-23 March 1891, lot 1796 ("2 vol. in 1, thick paper, fine copy in olive morocco extra, gilt edges, by C. Lewis, with Aldine anchor in gold on sides … supposed to be unique") — Bernard Quaritch, Catalogue 115: London 1891, item 385 (£6 6s) — Robert Hoe (1839-1909), morocco booklabel, gilt stamp — Carolyn Shipman, (New York 1907), II, p. 10 — Anderson Galleries, 15-19 January 1912, lot 1888 ("apparently printed on thick paper") — Charles W. Clark (1871-1933), The Library of Charles W. Clark, [San Francisco 1914], I, p. 72) — Rosenbach Company, Philadelphia. acquisition: Purchased from John Fleming, New York, 1962. references: UCLA 132; Renouard 70/2; Aldo Manuzio tipografo 133.2; Grolier/Aldus 64; Edit16 45472; USTC 837070