Publius Ovidius Naso. Heroides Epistolae. Et auli Sabini Responsiones: Cum Guidonis Morilloni Argumentis ac Scholiis. His accesserunt Ioannis Baptistae Egnatii Observationes. Brixiae [Brescia]: Apud Iacobum Britannicum [Giacomo Britannico], M.D. LXXVI [1576]
Second of three printings after 1564.(150 x 100 mm) Unpaginated [pp. 110]. A-C8, D6 (lacks central bifolium, ie 2 pages) , E-O8. 5 quarter page woodblock illustrations and historiated 6-line initials throughout. Printers device on title page and as colophon. Contemporary mid and late 16th century ownership inscriptions in Italian and Latin on fly leaf recto/verso; doodles and some text marginalia. Wormhole entering from fore edge into margin, not affecting text. Bound in card wrappred in 12th century manuscript leaf with unidentified text regarding Carthage, Macrobius, and Cyprus, with one rubricated Explicit. Script displays early proto-Gothic features, such as double-ducti and thorned I, feet on m, compression of hoc, some angularity, but maintains earlier letterforms such as a curved shaft for t. Use of uncrossed tironian et suggests Southern Europe, likely Italy, as place of production origin.
Overall FAIR condition
EDIT16 CNCE 23237
The likely 16th century use of a 12th century manuscript leaf, contemporary with the printing of the book, is made all the more significant by the medieval leaf's content. Though the text has not been identified, the gist suggests that it deals with Carthage, Cyprus, and Macrobius. The term 'principio epistolae' can be observed as well. These features suggest a conscious selection of the medieveal leaf dealing with Classical history to be used as a wrapper for Ovid's epistolary work dealing with aggrieved heroines of Classical Greco-Roman tradition.
Medieval leaves used in later book production contexts are called binding, or binder's, waste, though examples like this demonstrate that they are far from waste. Examples like this, where the content of the leaf and printed text are intellectually linked are far less common than the reuse of leaves from Bibles and particularly large-format antiphoners and graduals.
The early modern printers would reuse the vellum of medieval mansucripts to strengthen, or serve as, bindings for their printed work. It is estimated that one in five printed books from the 15th-17th centuries incorperated medieval leaves in their bindings-- visible or not.