Curtius Rufus, Venice, Aldus, 1520, contemporary Bolognese morocco for Joannes Puchner

Curtius Rufus, Quintus. Quintus Curtius. (Venice: in the house of Aldo Manuzio and Andrea Torresano, July 1520)

This is the first state, with an additional R stamped on the title-page to correct the misprinting "CUTIUS"; the second state has the lettering reset so that there is now room for the additional R. The final two leaves contain a combination of errata and variant readings, provided by the late arrival in Gian Francesco Torresano's hands of a manuscript from Cipriano Senile of Ancona, in which Torresano uses the capitalisation of some words to emphasise action required from the reader (e.g. "expungendum").

8vo (158 x 98 mm). Italic type, 30 lines plus headline. collation: *⁸ a-x⁸ y⁴: 180 leaves (*8 blank). Woodcut Aldine device on title-page and final verso (otherwise blank).

binding: Contemporary Bolognese blind-tooled morocco (164 x 104 mm), by the German Students' Binder (ca. 1520-1535, group A), arabesque border, central panel with arabesque stamps at top and bottom, lettered in gilt QUINTUS CURTIUS on upper cover, in center of lower cover a blind-stamped arabesque tool (unevenly impressed compared with the other tooling) covering the faint traces of gilt lettering. (Rebacked to style with new endpapers.)

provenance: Joannes Andreas Puchner, traces of name stamped on binding — Charles W. Clark (1871-1933, The Library of Charles W. Clark, San Francisco, 1914, I, p.35). acquisition: Purchased from John Fleming, New York, 1963. references: UCLA 186 (not in collection, but 186.5 is the variant with reset title-page); Cataldi Palau 53; Edit16 13880 (variant A); Renouard 88/1