Title: Grammatica Nicolai Perotti, Circa 1500-1515. Profusely Annotated and Doodled In, Nearly Every Page
Author: Nicolaus Perottus
Publisher: Unknown
Condition: Poor
An undated early 16th century edition of the Grammatical works of Nicolaus Perottus, also know as the Rudimenta Grammatices, one of the earliest and most popular Renaissance Latin grammars, which attempted to exclude many words and constructions of medieval, rather than classical, origin. Due to its immense popularity, it went through 117 printings and sold 59,000 copies in Italy, Spain, Germany, France and the Low Countries by the end of the 15th century, with many more editions following into the 16th century
This particular copy has seen extensive usage from several early owners, with numerous inscriptions, doodles, and annotations in the margins, with nearly every single page either bearing some sort of random inscription, note, doodle, or literally random squiggles, though one person very carefully wrote the name LUCANUS in capital letters. A fun study project.
The title page and leaf A2 are lacking, as are the final three leaves including the colophon, and the index, however many leaves it may have been.
As the date of imprint and title page are lacking, this makes it incredibly difficult to identify the exact edition. However, most early 16th century imprints do follow a collation of CXVI leaves for the main text, so it is easy enough to place the dating to the first quarter.
One vellum bound volume in octavo, CXI of CXVI leaves
This volume is in poor shape, with minimal rubbing and wear to the binding. The text block was evidently affected by a storm or something, as it is heavily damp stained, with several wormholes affecting letters of text as well, more to the first quarter of the volume. There are a few general stains throughout, and the first and last leaves and more heavily worn.