Bible - Latin -- Incunable

Biblia Latina

      Octavianus Scotus, Venice:: Octavianus Scotus,, 1480, May 31st.. Contemp. calf, blind-ruled with small stamps, rebacked in the 18th c. with red morocco, extra gilt and leather titling label, spine cracked and slightly defective with a few wormholes; somewhat later brass clasps present; front paste-downs and free-flys use 15th c. manuscript fragments on vellum; first leaf slightly detached with marinal wormhole (no text affected); contemp. marginalia, old notes on fly-leaves and verso of last leaf. In a slipcase.. Small 4to. 191 x 130mm.. Rubricated throughout in red and yellow, with Lombard initials in red; first initial with pen decoration (13 line); some browning and staining, a few leaves at the end are guarded in the inner margin; Ottaviano Scotto came from Monza, a small town not far from Milan. He presumably went to Venice in the 1470's, to seek his fortune in a new industry, where 'the glitter of gold was more inviting than anywhere in fifteenth-century Europe.'... He set up a shop in the parish of San Samuele, where, in 1479, he printed his earliest surviving book... For the next nineteen years, Ottaviano was active as a printer, underwriter, and bookdealer, producing no fewer than 220 books... Ottaviano made several contributions to the history of printing. He was the first printer to use quarto and octavo formats for liturgical books. These small formats not only made liturgical books more affordable, but also allowed greater portability for the clergy, since the bilk and weight of large folio volumes required them to remain stationary on lecturns." [Jane A. Bernstein, Print, Culture and Music in Sixteenth-Century Venice. Oxford U.P.,2001.]#11;This small format Bible is rare. Goff B570. HC 3080*. Pell 2307. CIBN B-398. Arnoult 277. Frasson-Cochet 46. Hillard 387. Parguez 189. Richard 108. Torchet 154. Neveu 117. Polain(B) 4206. IDL 833. IGI 1663 .Saj!-Solt!sz 632. Mendes 209. Voull(B) 3900. Coll(U) 315. Bod-inc B-279. Sheppard 3630. Pr 4564. BMC V 276. BSB-Ink B-441. GW 4245. ISTC ib00570000.