Conservation of Aristotle, Aristotelis Stagiritae, Philosophorum Omnium, Ioan Oporini, Basel, 1548.
Three volumes were bound as one. The full parchment binding has blind or carbon tooling overall. Beneath a loose lower pastedown, there is tooling on the turn-ins, indicating that the decoration was done before covering. The binding and edges are very soiled. The binding is water damaged, with stiffening and distortion of the parchment. The spine is split at the tail and the upper joint is split at the center. In both areas, the parchment shrank during drying, resulting in tears that no longer line up. Both headcaps are damaged. Both inner joints are cracked. Openings in the parchment on the fore edges suggest that there originally were ties or clasps which are now missing.
The first leaves are water stained and dog-eared. Several are partially loose. The textblock is sewn on several vellum sewing supports and there are four fake bands. The sewing is intact. There is no evidence of headbands.
The binding is dated “1558” on the front board.
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