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Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-75)

De claris mulieribus 1473

28.5 x 2.5 x 20.5 cm (book measurement (conservation)) | RCIN 1057852

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  • Boccaccio's De Claris mulieribus (On famous women) was first written 1361-62, and is the first example of collected biographies of women in Western literature. It was one of the most popular manuscript titles available at the time. This is a copy of the first printed latin edition.

    The image here shows the celebrated affair indulged in by Venus, goddess of Love, with Mars, god of War. Her husband, Vulcan, after a tip-off from Mercury exposes them (right) to the derision of other gods. Her son, Cupid, in some sources the offspring of this liaison, marches ahead of her (left). 

    This volume was presented to George III in 1782 by the antiquary Jacob Bryant. He was educated at Eton and King’s College, Cambridge, later becoming a Fellow of King’s and private tutor to the Marquis of Blandford, later 4th Duke of Marlborough (and George III’s Lord Chamberlain). He received considerable patronage from the Duke, including the run of the library at Blenheim Palace and an annual pension of £1,000. By 1786 Bryant was living in Cippenham near Windsor, and became well acquainted with the court of George III. The novelist Fanny Burney, then Second Keeper of the Robes to Queen Charlotte, mentioned him frequently in her diaries as a highly engaging man of great intelligence and dry humour. In 1782 he listed ninety-two incunables (books from the infancy or cradle of printing, 1450-1500) to be presented to George III; twenty-seven of these finally came to the King and are included in Bryant’s list. (At least thirty-eight of the remainder are in King’s College, Cambridge.) A manuscript catalogue (RCIN 1145267), in Bryant’s own hand, describes the gift and to some extent reveals his selection criteria. His chief concerns were the rarity of the item, the quality of the printing and the edition.
     

    This is an incunable, from the Latin incunabula (swaddling bands). This term is given to books ‘from the cradle of printing’, from 1455 when Johannes Gutenberg completed the Gutenberg Bible, the first handpress book printed with movable type, up to 1500. These books are from the first 45 years of printing.

    Provenance

    Presented to King George III by Jacob Bryant, October 1782

  • Measurements

    28.5 x 2.5 x 20.5 cm (book measurement (conservation))

    28.5 x 2.5 cm (book measurement (inventory))

    28.5 cm (Height) x 2.5 cm (Depth) (book measurement (conservation))

  • Alternative title(s)

    De claris mulieribus / Giovanni Boccaccio.

    Full red (grained goat skin) leather binding, sewn on 5 cords with double worked headbands in pink, cream and green at head and tail, gilt edges.
    This is a re-bind from George III reign. It might have been done by the King's own bindery.

  • Place of Production

    Ulm [Germany]


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