Gellius, Noctes Atticae, Brescia, 1485, later calf, Dysart copy

Aulus Gellius

Noctes Atticae. Brescia: Boninus de Boninis, 3 March 1485

Chancery folio (276 x 186mm.), 192 leaves, AA BB a⁸ b–d⁶ e⁸ f–o⁶ p⁸ q–z [et] [con] [rum] A⁶ B⁸, 37 lines, roman type with some passages in Greek, eighteenth-century English speckled calf, spine gilt in compartments, red edges, first and last leaves slightly soiled, binding somewhat rubbed, spine chipped, joints weak

This is at least the fifth edition of Gellius's miscellany of extracts and snippets of information culled from other writers, many of whom are named, and presented as a series of dialogues.

LITERATURE:

ISTC ig00122000

PROVENANCE:

Joseph Brereton, King's College Cambridge, inscription dated 1738 and his printed booklabel from Helmingham in Suffolk; Dysart, inscription at head of inside front cover, presumably Lionel Tollemache, 4th Earl of Dysart (1707-1770); "1751 bought this in Fleet Street for 0-7s-0 NB it was Ld Oxford's [i.e. Harley] & bought at one of Osborn's sales", note on inside front cover; "Tonson 1-10-6", pencil note on first leaf (perhaps Jacob Tonson the younger, the bookseller)