Moralia in Job [Morali di Santo Gregorio papa sopra il libro di Job], libri I-X; in Italian, illuminated manuscript on paper

MEDIEVAL ILLUMINATED MANUSCRIPT IN ITALIAN ON PAPER, Northeastern Italy, Veneto (Venice?), c. 1474. Dimensions 328-332 x 230 mm., 188 folios, missing at least three leaves, written in brown ink in an Italian cursiva libraria script, EIGHT ILLUMINATED INITIALS of seven lines, one-line paraphs in red or blue, simple two- to four-line in red or blue initials. BINDING: re-cased using original binding materials of brown half leather over bevelled wooden boards with three double bands, remains of four straps present. TEXT: Italian translation of Gregory the Great's Moralia in Job, one of the most important and widely copied texts of the Middle Ages. Though forty copies of this translation survive, this volume is unusual in its incorporation of Venetian dialectal forms. All other copies are in European institutions and have not been on the market for the last century. PROVENANCE: scribal colophon on f. 190v provides a date for this manuscript's completion and helps localize its production within Italy: "Scripto per mi zuane de zane zoielier condam p[er?] simon et chi li lezeranno priegi dio per lo scriptore. MCCCCLXXIIII" (Written by me, Zuane de Zane, jeweler, once for (?) Simon, and may whoever will read it pray to God for the writer. 1474). There is no Zuane de Zane on record elsewhere as a scribe; the name itself is Venetian, and evidence of the manuscript's watermark and decoration also suggest an origin in the region of Veneto and possibly Venice specifically. The manuscript was later acquired by a private European collection. CONDITION: slight tears in the lower margin of f. 25 and upper margin of ff. 37 and 160, from f. 161 to the end there is a slight loss to the upper outer corner, slight water staining visible, parchment reinforcement present, prickings visible. Full description and images available. (TM 796)