Giovanni Boccaccio (1313-1375), De Casibus Illustrium Virorum (‘On the Fates of Illustrious Men’), followed by a brief Life of Boccaccio by Jean Thierry of Beauvais. Printed at Paris by Jean Gormont and Jean Petit, undated (soon after 1500).

A very rare imprint of a popular work in Latin, in a limp vellum binding, possibly contemporary.  An example of rather amateurish printing: cheap paper stock, the lines of type not straight, poor word-spacing, random use of upper- and lower-case letters in names.  There are also an unusual number and variety of abbreviations usually used in manuscripts.  The title page shows an unusual (and not very happy) combination of gothic and roman typefaces.

Cent Rare PQ 4274. D1 1500z.  Acquired by Robert Dunbabin, first Professor of Classics at this University, 1 March 1915, and given by him to the University Library in 1940.