Bordone (Benedetto di).- Commentaria in Bibliam. Ed: Bernardinus Gadolus., 3 vol., Venice, Johannes

Bordone (Benedetto di).- Commentaria in Bibliam. Ed: Bernardinus Gadolus, 3 vol., collation: I: A8 < 2-3 >6 < 4-6 >6 a-c8 d10 e8 f6 g-h10 i8 k6 l-u8 x-y6, II: A-R8 S10 T-Z8 AA-BB8 CC6 DD-HH8 DDD-EEE8 FFF-HHH6 DDDD-GGGG6 HHHH4 II8 KK-LL6, III: aa-ff8 ll-ss8 tt10 vv-zz8 &&12-1 a8 b-c6 AA6 aAA8 BBb-NNn8 OOo6 PPp8 QQq6, in all 839ff. (of 854 ff., lacking, as usual, quire BB6), text in 48-61 lines, large woodcut printer's device to PPp8r & QQq6r, ornate white-on-black woodcut candelabra border and fourteen-line initial depicting St. Jerome on fol. aAA2r, woodcut initials throughout, vol. 3 with some ink notes to margins in ?contemporary hand, paper repair top corner A1 (vol. 1), a few scattered instances of soiling or staining, nineteenth century calf-backed boards, a little worn, folio (341x223 mm), Venice, Johannes and Gregorius de Gregoriis, de forlivio, 1497- 25th August 1498.*** This Venetian edition of the Vulgate contains an extremely fine fifteenth century woodcut border by the celebrated miniaturist, cartographer and later printer, Benedetto Bordone (1450/55-1530). The border, originally created in 1494 for another work, along with the numerous figurative woodcut initials here present, demonstrate Bordone's huge skill and inventive imagery. Provenance: Giovanni di Maffio, San Giovanni Valdarno, Arezzo [ink ownership inscriptions, dated 1532]; from the Franciscan library of St. Bonaventura al Bosco, Tuscany (ink ownership inscriptions, partly erased, dated 1545]Literature: BMC V, 350; Goff H-160; GW 12419.