  The Asiago plate archive has been searched for old plates covering the region
of the sky containing Nova Del 2013 (V339 Del). The brightness of the
progenitor was measured against a deep BVRI photometric sequence that we
calibrated on purpose. The mean brightness of the progenitor on Asiago plates
is <B>=17.27 and <V>=17.6, for a mean color (B-V) = -0.33. The recorded total
amplitude of variation in B band is 0.9 mag. Color and variability are in
agreement with a progenitor dominated by the emission from an accretion disc.
The progenitor was marginally detected also by the APASS all sky survey on
April 2012. We have stacked the CCD images from three individual visits and
measured the progenitor at B=17.33+/-0.09 and V=17.06+/-0.10 mag.
