Gaspar of Verona (d. 1474) - photo 1
Gaspar of Verona (d. 1474) - photo 2
Gaspar of Verona (d. 1474) - photo 3
Gaspar of Verona (d. 1474) - photo 4

Gaspar of Verona (d. 1474)

Lot 22
10.12.2025 12:00UTC +00:00
Classic
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CHRISTIE'S
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Event locationUnited Kingdom, London
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ID 1514554
Lot 22 | Gaspar of Verona (d. 1474)
Estimate value
£ 12 000 – 15 000
Gaspar of Verona (d. 1474)
Regulae de constructione, in Latin, decorated manuscript on vellum [Italy, Veneto, possibly Verona], dated 1463
The earliest known copy of the first humanist Latin grammar, signed and dated by the scribe, in its original binding.

c. 180 x 125mm, 55 + i leaves, textually complete, collation: 1–510, 65 (of 10, vi–x cancelled blanks), modern foliation in pencil 1-55, vertical catchwords survive, leaf signatures a1–f5, 24 lines written in a fine Humanistic script signed and dated by the scribe, ruled space: c. 115 x 70 mm; decorated with a large 7-line puzzle initial in red and blue with red penwork ornament extending to form a border, 1-line initials alternately red or blue (minor cockling and stains). Unrestored contemporary binding: sewn on three slit bands laced into wood (beech?) boards covered with pink skin, each cover with five metal bosses in the corners and centre (somewhat battered). In a black leather slip-case, its spine lettered in gilt capitals ‘Gaspar Veronensis 1463 MS. Grammatica’ .

Provenance:
(1) Written a decade before the death of the author, perhaps in his home-town, Verona: signed by the scribe below the end of the text, ‘Finis [added by another hand: Regularum Gaspareis] .I. F. de Arzignano M(anu)P(ropria) de 1463’ (f.55); Arzignano is less than 20 miles / 30km from Verona, and it seems probable that the earliest copies of the text to be disseminated would be written in Verona, or nearby towns such as Vicenza and Mantua.

(2) Jacques Rosenthal, Munich: offered in his Katalog 29, Literarische Seltenheiten aus alten Gebieten (1902), no 799, and again in his Katalog XLII, Bibliotheca Paedagogica, Pars I, 2 (1906), no 1382, priced 120 DM.

(3) Dean P. Lockwood (1883–1965), of Haverford, PA, Classicist, medievalist, book collector, and author of scholarly works including A Survey of Classical Roman Literature (2 vols, Chicago, 1934); bought from him by:

(4) William H. Allen (1918–1997), Philadelphia bookseller: a clipping from one of his catalogues stuck to the inner face of the front cover, in which the book is priced $100; obtained from him in 1947 by:

(5) Howard Lehman Goodhart (1884-1951), stockbroker and bibliophile: his leather book label inside upper cover. By descent to his daughter:

(6) Phyllis Goodhart Gordan (1913-1994): her leather book label inside upper cover, MS 83. On deposit at Bryn Mawr, BMC 49. Published in Faye & Bond, Supplement, p.402, no 83.


Content:
Gaspar of Verona, Regulae de constructione: ‘Activum verbum est quod in o finitum format passiuum in or ut lego legor amo amor […] tam arborem quam fructum significat’, followed by the colophon (see Provenance), ff.1–55; blank, f.55v.

The text has been called ‘the first Latin grammar wholly humanistic in character. It employs illustrative examples only from the classical poets and so departs entirely from the medieval tradition which did not use classical sources.’ There is no modern edition of the text. This copy was unknown to G. L. Bursill-Hall, Census of Medieval Latin Grammatical Manuscripts, Grammatica Speculativa, 4 (Stuttgart-Bad Cannstatt, 1981), who lists ten copies in Italian institutions, to which can be added one at the Beinecke Library (Marston MS 262), and one offered by Les Enluminures a few years ago. The present manuscript is the earliest dated copy.




Literature

Faye & Bond, Supplement to the Census of Medieval and Renaissance Manuscripts in the United States and Canada, 1962, p.402, no 83.

P. O. Kristeller, Iter Italicum: A Finding List of Uncatalogued or Incompletely Catalogued Humanistic Manuscripts, V, 1990, p.351 no 83.
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