DIOMEDES (fl. 4th century). Ars grammatica, and other texts. [Venice:] Nicolas Jenson [c.1476].

First edition of Diomedes’ Latin grammar, with strictly contemporary ownership by Paduan humanist Pietro da Montagnana. Diomedes produced his Latin grammar towards the end of the 4th century, and while similar projects were completed by his contemporaries, namely Charisius, none but Diomedes’ have survived in complete form. In this edition, Diomedes compiles several grammatical and rhetorical texts which, apart from the included Donatus treatise, appear here in print for the first time. Beautifully set in Roman and some Greek type by Nicolas Jenson, the edition showcases early instances of printed signatures as well as corrections both printed on vellum and paper squares and in manuscript probably executed at Jenson’s press if not by Jenson himself.

The first owner of this copy was the voracious 15th-century collector and polymath Pietro da Montagnana (c.1395–1478). We know from his will granted by Pope Paul II in 1465 that he possessed ‘libros litteris Grecis, Latinis et Hebraicis, in diversis facultatibus scriptos’ (documents in Greek, Latin and Hebrew written from various faculties), and this ‘was evidently an early example of a bibliotheca trilinguis’ (Hunt). He donated several printed and manuscript books to the monastery of San Giovanni Di Verdara in Padua across his lifetime, and the present book must have been among the last that he collected. In the century prior to the monastery’s dissolution in 1783, books and manuscripts were acquired by various collectors such as Thomas Coke who, in 1717, ‘paused for two days on his way from Venice to Germany, and was able to purchase more than forty manuscripts from San Giovanni, most of which are still at Holkham’ (Hunt). Around this time, Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland, acquired the present copy which he had bound c.1720. R.H. Hunt, ‘Pietro da Montagnana: A Donor of Books to San Giovanni di Verdara in Padua’, Bodleian Library Record, IX (1973), pp. 17–22. HC 6214; BMC V 182; BSB-Ink D-161; Bod-inc D-084; CIBN D-141; GW 8399; Goff D-234; ISTC id00234000.

Chancery folio (272 × 191mm). 170 leaves [sheet m4.5 misbound in n]. Greek and Roman types. Illuminated major initials, other initials in red or blue over ms. guide-letter, rubricated with headlines and paragraph marks (a few small repairs/corrections affecting some letters which are supplied in ink facsimile on about 4 leaves, some plain initials a little faded, light fingersoiling). 18th-century English Harleian style dark blue morocco gilt; custom box. Provenance: Pietro da Montagnana (inscription legible with UV light) – Charles Spencer, 3rd Earl of Sunderland (1675–1722; bound for him c.1720, Sunderland shelf-mark at front; bookplate; Sunderland (Blenheim) Library sale, Puttick and Simpson, 1881, lot 3954, bought by Quaritch) – Roper-Curzon family, probably George Henry Roper-Curzon, 16th Baron Teynham (1798–1889; bookplate).