{"title":"Europe","description":"\u003cp\u003eEuropean history, culture, art, politics, geography, and societies.\u003c\/p\u003e","products":[{"product_id":"francois-i-with-arena-antoine","title":"FRANCOIS I [with] ARENA, Antoine","description":"\u003cp\u003eA rare, handsome and important compilation of laws relating to the administration of justice in the south of France under Francois I, with reforming edicts for particular places, such as Marseilles. They cover all aspects of practice and procedure, the initiation of proceedings, appeals, vacations, relative jurisdictions, rights and duties of all sorts of officers and counsel and the exercise of Royal authority. There is a particular abundance of material on those perennial legal topics of costs, charges and fees. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The court of the Parlement of Aix was established by Louis II of Provence in 1415, but after the union of Provence with the crown in 1498, Louis XII decided to reform its administration of justice, using the Parlement of Paris as model. At first, the Count of Provence s administration remained essentially in place, and the new Parlement remained subject to the Governor of Provence. This intermediary situation provoked some unrest and anxious to better ensure his authority, Francis I introduced these edicts in 1534 (first published in 1535), restricting the powers of the Governor, and bringing the Parlement directly under Royal control, which lasted until the Revolution. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n These edicts cover administration of the Parliament at every level, the election of officials (from the President down), raising and organizing the  Gendarmerie , the organization of the  Legions , and the fining and punishment of criminals. The work finishes with an interesting edict on the running of the justice system in the town of Marseille with its special privileges and exemptions. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n For some reason the Ordonnances are quite often found bound with one or more other works, including Arena's, which lists the remuneration and privileges of lawyers and judges at the Parlement of Aix. A list of the names of all the towns subject to the jurisdiction of the Parlement d Aix is given at the end, introduced in Provençal. A very good copy of a rare work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FRANCOIS I [with] ARENA, Antoine","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816066818383,"sku":"L1262","price":10500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_9008.jpg?v=1781795329"},{"product_id":"magini-giovanni-antonio","title":"MAGINI, Giovanni Antonio","description":"\u003cp\u003eA handsome, very well margined copy of the second edition of the premier early Italian atlas, which dominated Italian cartography for at least the next half century. Most of the main C17 cartographers, including the Dutch compiler-editors, followed, copied, or incorporated Magini's regional maps, even Ortelius (with whom Magini corresponded) as well as Brahe and Kepler's and Blaeu used some of them. Magini (1555-1617) Paduan astronomer, astrologer, cartographer and mathematician studied at Bologna and famously was appointed to the chair of Mathematics there in preference to Galileo. His chef d'oeuvre however was the present atlas, designed to include a detailed map of every region of Italy with exact nomenclature and historical notes. Began in 1594 it soon proved ruinously expensive and Magini assumed the posts of astrologer to Vincenzo Gonzaga, Duke of Mantua, and tutor to his sons to pay for it. The Duke Ferdinando, to whom the atlas is dedicated, provided assistance for the project and allowed for maps of the various Italian states to be brought to Mantua, the governing authorities of Messina and Genoa also financially helped. Magini was not an engraver and had considerable problems from the mid-1590s onwards in keeping the service of those, such as the Dutch Arnold brothers, who were. Eventually he engaged the Englishman Benjamin Wright who completed the series in between his habitual bouts of drunkeness. The process took so long that Magini did not live to see its completion and the atlas was eventually published by his son Fabio, after a good deal of further revision. The result, according to Almagia (cit. inf.) eliminated numerous earlier errors in longitude and latitude, accurately indicated political boundaries and physical features and added numerous topographical names.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MAGINI, Giovanni Antonio","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816067637583,"sku":"L1211","price":22000.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1211-3.jpg?v=1781795327"},{"product_id":"bochius-joannes","title":"BOCHIUS, Joannes","description":"\u003cp\u003eFIRST AND ONLY EDITION of this magnificent festival book celebrating the entry of Archduke Ernst of Austria into Antwerp on 14 June 1594. The condition and detailing of the engravings indicates this must have been one of the earliest copies off the press. They were executed by Pieter van Der Borcht after drawings by Cornelius Floris II and Joos de Momper from the designs of Martin de Vos. The first double-page engraving depicts Ernst's parade approaching the city, images of the city entrance, the columns, stages, and arches erected in the town in honour of the occasion, the city theatre, and a two-page musical score for 6 voices of the song performed to welcome the Archduke. The pageantry continues with an engraving of the 27-foot statue erected in the marketplace of the giant Antigonus who once controlled Antwerp and was known for cutting off the right hands of mariners who did not pay him tribute. The city was liberated by another giant, Brabo, who cut off Antigonus' own hand - the legendary origin of the hands on the city's heraldic arms. The festivities end with nautical displays, fireworks and jousting, each frozen in time by their own splendid double-page engravings. Each is accompanied by descriptions of the festivities, and a commentary on their allegorical significance, by Joannes Bochius (1555-1609), a prominent lawyer and poet from Brussels who was an active official in the local government. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The work provides a vivid depiction of the pageantry of the age and, the exuberant showmanship of a hopeful city: Antwerp had suffered sack, siege and plunder at the hands of Spaniards and Italians throughout the 1570s and 80s, its population halved to 55,000 by 1589. \"What is unmistakable, once the real plight of the city is realized, is the extent to which the various spectacles prepared for 1594 convey the city's desire to put a brave front on its position, asserting, particularly, through the allegories on the arches of the foreign merchant communities, that the golden age which the city had enjoyed under Charles V was not lost beyond recall...\" Whether or not Ernst, a minor member of the Hapsburg family could deliver the town remains to be seen: \"His relative unimportance is emphasized by the fact that Ernst was never invested with the titles of Margrave of Antwerp or Duke of Brabant\" and thus was not entitled to the full ceremonial welcome. (Davidson and Van der Weel, cit. infr.). To add to the misfortune, Ernst died in Brussels 8 months later in February 1595, so the work ends with a funeral oration, a memorial as well as a tribute.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BOCHIUS, Joannes","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816076124495,"sku":"L1502","price":11500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_6829.jpg?v=1781795324"},{"product_id":"briggs-henry","title":"BRIGGS, Henry","description":"\u003cp\u003e1st edn. of the first complete set of trigonometrical tables, \"containing the natural sines, tangents and secants to the one hundredth part of a degree and to 15 places, which have never been superseded by any subsequent calculations\". The work arose out of discussions between Briggs, professor of geometry at Gresham College, and the great Scots mathematician John Napier, the inventor of logarithms, who in 1614 had published his 'Mirifici Logarithmorum Canonis Descriptio'. Napier agreed to suggestions by Briggs for adapting his invention more readily to the construction of tables, and the result, entailing prodigious labour, was Briggs's 'Arithmetica Logarithmica' (1624) and the present work. It is clear that the scale of logarithms now in use, in which 1 is the logarithm of the ratio 10 to 1; 2 that of 100 to 1, etc., is due to Briggs, and that Napier's role consisted simply in advising him to commence at 1 and make the logarithms increase, rather than decrease, with the natural numbers. Briggs is certainly the originator of the principle of logarithms having 10 for their base. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n On his death in 1630 the 'Trigonometria' was still unfinished, but was completed by his friend Henry Gellibrand, professor of astronomy at the same college, who added a preface explaining the application of logarithms to plane and spherical trigonometry. They also proved highly useful in the advance of systematic geography and navigation, and among the pioneers in this field who benefited from Briggs's friendship and special knowledge were Samuel Purchas, Capt. Luke Fox and Edward Wright. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n \"He [Briggs] was a man of the first importance in the intellectual history of his age  He published many books on arithmetic, geometry, and trigonometry, as well as tables for navigation . But, significant though Briggs was as a mathematician in his own right, his greatest importance was as a contact and public relations man\". He was at the center of a group that included William Gilbert, Edward Wright, Thomas Blundeville, Aaron Rathborne, Mark Ridley, Robert Hues, Hackluyt, and John Pell amongst many. \"Briggs seems to have been the first person to appreciate the significance of Napier's invention of logarithms  and from his interview with Napier onwards Briggs used all Gresham College's resources to popularise this discovery  It has recently been claimed that in calculating his logarithms Briggs used results equivalent to the Binomial Expansion, whose discovery is normally attributed to Newton.\" ..\"Gellibrand (1597-1637) another friend and prot ég é of Brigg's, completed his master's work on logarithmic trigonometry tables: wrote on navigation; and demonstrated the secular variation of magnetic declination. His work was known to Mersenne. \" C. Hill. Intellectual Origins of the English Revolution. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A very good copy with excellent provenance; Lord Arundell of Wardour (1606- 1694) commanded gallantly for Charles I in the civil war, was employed by Charles II in arranging the negotiations for the secret Treaty of Dover with Louis XIV, was imprisoned for five years in the Tower during the Titus Oates hysteria, appointed Keeper of the Privy Seal under James II and remarkably died in his bed at the age of 88.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BRIGGS, Henry","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816077599055,"sku":"L1000","price":5750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1000-Briggs-3.jpg?v=1781795323"},{"product_id":"garimberto-girolamo","title":"GARIMBERTO, Girolamo","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of Garimberto  s important treatise on the art of warfare with the splendid and most appropriate provenance of Emanuele Filiberto, Duke of Savoy, and a particularly rare example of a painted binding with the Duke s arms; a few examples are at the Bibliotheque Nationale; none, it appears, in Turin, or elsewhere in Italy. On the death of his brother Louis (1536), Emanuele Filiberto became successor to the throne of Savoy. He inherited in 1553, an almost empty honour, as the vast majority of his hereditary lands had been occupied and administered by the French since 1536. He started a most distinguished military career in 1543 when he entered the service of his uncle Charles V, with the aim of recovering his Duchy, and took part in the imperial victories in Ingolstadt (1546) and Mühlberg (1547). He later joined his cousin Philip II in Spain participating in the defence of Barcelona from French maritime attack in 1551 and he served with Ferrante Gonzaga in the guerrilla war between the Spanish and French in Piedmont. He was also a suitor to the future Queen Elizabeth I. In 1553 he was appointed lieutenant-general and supreme commander of the Spanish army in Flanders, and in 1556 governor of the Netherlands. In 1557 he won a decisive and brilliant victory against the French troops led by Anne de Montmorency and Gaspard de Coligny. In the subsequent Treaty of Cateau-Cambresis (1559) Emanuele Filiberto was rewarded with the return of his estates. The peace was sealed by his marriage to Margaret, daughter of Francis I. A skilled political strategist, he took advantage of various squabbles in Europe to slowly regain territory from both the French and the Spanish, including the city of Turin which he made the capital of his new Kingdom. He is considered one of the chief founders of the state of Savoy. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Garimberto s treatise on warfare and government, based on the work of Machiavelli, would have been most useful to him. When he came to compose his book on warfare it was largely to the  Discoursi  and the  Arte della guerra  that he turned for inspiration, method, and subject matter - although he makes effective use of Fourquevaux s  Instructions  for more up to date information on modern battles... His procedure is to follow a general discussion of a particular issue with ancient examples especially from the Career of Julius Ceasar, and then to add modern and contemporary instances. The plan is not slavishly executed. Individual examples are themselves subjected to further scrutiny; and Garimberto is not unwilling to challenge Machiavelli. ... He comments on how military virtu has enabled men to rise from humble origins to high position; and he devotes a whole chapter to the preparations necessary to bring off a military coup.  Sydney Anglo, David Cressy.  Machiavelli - the First Century. . A most prestigious copy \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Carlo Richa is most probably the distinguished Piemontese professor and physician who published a major work  Morborum vulgarium historia  on the plague, in Turin in 1721, later translated into English.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GARIMBERTO, Girolamo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816080056655,"sku":"L1434b","price":9750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1434b-Garimberto-2.jpg?v=1781795321"},{"product_id":"hayward-sir-john","title":"HAYWARD, Sir John","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of Sir John Hayward s posthumous  Life and Raigne of King Edward VI,  the earliest biography of the last Tudor king, reprinted in 1636, and again in White Kennett s Complete History of England in 1706. Considering the environment in which Hayward wrote, the influence this pioneering work has had on attitudes toward the mid-Tudor period is marked. Although few contemporary scholars would accept Hayward s interpretation of the reign at face value, his work influenced historical thinking for over three centuries. Hayward was imprisoned by Elizabeth I for his controversial book on Henry IV and his involvement in the conspiracy of the Earl of Essex in 1600. Edward VI (1537-53), the only son of Henry VIII, ruled in a period, not only of dramatic religious change, but also of warfare, political intrigue, and popular rebellion. Hayward wrote his biography of Edward at the end of the Jacobean period when major challenges were facing the monarchy. He proclaimed that his narrative was intended to be a  monument  to the  un-perishable fame  of the king and focused his efforts on court politics, foreign policy, and military affairs.  Sir John Hayward s full-scale  Life and Raigne of King Edward the Sixt, .. first circulated in manuscript in the 1620 s before its publication in 1630. As Lisa Richardson has demonstrated in her recent study of Hayward, he was soaked in the writings of Tacitus... Hayward also knew well Foxe s work in  Acts and Monuments , and used him much elsewhere in his historical work, yet here, in account of a reign dominated by violent religious change, his only substantial debt to Foxe is his admiring description of the King himself. ...What interests him most is Foxes anecdote about the king s supposed efforts at clemency for Joan Bocher and George van Parris, contrasting with the more bloodthirsty attitudes of Edward s advisers. ... One of the contemporary sources which Hayward was particularly ready to use was Edward VI s personal chronicle. .. the Chronicle minimizes his preoccupation with religion and gives the impression of a boy-king with primarily secular concerns. Overall, Hayward s distaste for what happened in the Edwardian reformation is clear.  Diarmaid MacCulloch.  The Boy King: Edward VI and the Protestant Reformation . An entirely unsophisticated and untrimmed copy of this important history.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"HAYWARD, Sir John","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816081498447,"sku":"L1488","price":1650.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_9087.jpg?v=1781795320"},{"product_id":"livy-titus-and-sigonius-carolus","title":"LIVY, Titus [and] SIGONIUS, Carolus","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of Sigonius  classic and handsome edition of Livy s monumental history of Rome and the first edition of his Scholia.  Livy s history begins with the landing of Aeneas in Italy and ends with the death of Drusus in 9BC though it was probably intended to continue to the death of Augustus.  Of the original 142 books, only 35 have come down to us and of these two are incomplete; nevertheless Livy remains the first authority for the history of ancient and Republican Rome down to the conquest of Macedonia in 167 BC.  It is a state history, military and political, arranged strictly chronologically, recounting all the major events with accounts of their principal participants.  Inevitably, given the extent of the ground covered there is little philosophical reflection, but the work is saved from being a dry recitation of fact by the author s considerable literary talents.  Livy s elegant Latin, masterly portraits of great men, impressive speeches and skilful depiction of the play of emotion made him a favourite with Roman readers equalled only by Cicero and Virgil.  His history, the greatest narrative history of antiquity, provided the groundwork of almost everything subsequently written on the subject and constituted a textbook for schoolboys from his day to modern times.  Sigonius  edition is the first in which scholarly criticism is applied to the chronology of Roman history was the best and most accurate of the day. Sigonius (1524-1584) was professor of literature at Venice and produced a number of works for the Aldine press   he was then the most significant classical scholar in Italy and probably rivalled only by Scaliger elsewhere.  Doubtless because of its size and consequent cost this edition is rare, and was almost unfindable in good condition, even by the mid C19.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LIVY, Titus [and] SIGONIUS, Carolus","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816082186575,"sku":"L1518","price":3850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_0223.jpg?v=1781795320"},{"product_id":"ainsworth-william-harrison","title":"AINSWORTH, William Harrison","description":"\u003cp\u003eFIRST EDITION in one volume. By 1847 Fraser had moved away from 215 Regent Street, and the premises were taken over by one Nicholson, bookseller (Tallis, Street Views Suppl. 4), which dates the binding within these seven years. The volume includes the frontispiece portrait of the author and the 27 etchings on steel by George Cruikshank. The first edition appeared in 1839 as three consecutive volumes in Bentley s Miscellany. The present second edition was published in 15 numbers, of which most sets were apparently bound in one volume, like the present copy. Unbound sets are of great rarity.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"AINSWORTH, William Harrison","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816092016975,"sku":"X2","price":450.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/X-2-e1385726097873.jpg?v=1781795315"},{"product_id":"dickens-charles","title":"DICKENS, Charles","description":"\u003cp\u003eFIRST EDITION, Third Issue, the  Charles Dickens Issue.  With the 24 etchings on steel by George Cruikshank.  Copies of the Boz-issue (i.e. First Edition, 1st and 2nd issues) are now much more readily available than either the Charles Dickens-issue or the Second Edition (Tillotson p. xlviii).\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DICKENS, Charles","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816092967247,"sku":"X17","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/X-17-III-1.jpg?v=1781795315"},{"product_id":"watts-alaric-a-ed-literary-souvenir-1830","title":"WATTS, Alaric A. (ed.) LITERARY SOUVENIR 1830","description":"","brand":"WATTS, Alaric A. (ed.) LITERARY SOUVENIR 1830","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816098275663,"sku":"X44","price":120.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/X44-Watts-8_burned.jpg?v=1781795312"},{"product_id":"lockhart-j-g","title":"LOCKHART, J. G.","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe first edition was published in 1841 ( The first time of the true  Illuminated Books  [Ruari McLean, Victorian Book Design, p. 154]). A good copy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LOCKHART, J. G.","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816098603343,"sku":"X46","price":450.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Lockhart-2.jpg?v=1781795312"},{"product_id":"ruskin-john","title":"RUSKIN, John","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of this early treatise in defence of the so-called Pre-Raphaelites - in Ruskin's terms surprisingly also including William Turner, his everlasting idol in painting.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RUSKIN, John","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816101585231,"sku":"X59","price":1350.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/X59-Ruskin-1-e1520949151893.jpg?v=1781795311"},{"product_id":"fulbecke-william","title":"FULBECKE, William","description":"\u003cp\u003eFulbecke (1560-1616), dramatist, lawyer, legal writer and historian was educated at Oxford and then Grays Inn where he practised. His legal writings have long been highly regarded but he has been attracting renewed interest as the author of Shakespeare sourcebooks. It is likely that Fulbecke and Shakespeare were acquainted through one of the Inns of Court plays, masques or revels, in which it is believed both were involved and there is evidence that Shakespeare was acquainted with at least two of Fulbecke's works; an acquaintance discernible particularly in King Lear. \u003cbr\u003e\n That apart, Fulbecke was one of the first pioneers in the field of comparative and international law, especially the first English writer to deal with them in English. Most previous works on those topics, from wherever, had been written in Latin, indeed even on the common law which until Fulbecke's influential comparative work had remained sturdily impervious to the influence of other legal systems. But the most significant text here is the 'Pandectes', the earliest substantive original contribution in English to the law of nations, now more commonly known as 'public international law'. \u003cbr\u003e\n \"What Fulbecke appeared to be doing in his introduction of these controversial issues was suggesting a need for compromise. No doubt he realized the issue of authority was a critical problem that would probably escalate further upon the death of the Queen. His arguments were an idealistic attempt to please the various groups concerned. He took political ideas from men of such opposing views as Sir John Fortescue and Jean Bodin and developed them into a theory of authority. He attempted to check the power of the monarch further, not by emphasising parliament's role, but rather by giving the common law an independent status and associated it with the law of reason. Finally he resolved the debate over the origins of the common law by offering a moderate opinion. Overwhelmingly, the mood of compromise created in the introduction was carried over into the dialogues\". Terrill \"The Application of the Comparative Method by English Civilians\", Journal of Legal History 1981 II p 177.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FULBECKE, William","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816108597583,"sku":"L1500","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/2013-12-05-01.13.04.jpg?v=1781795310"},{"product_id":"fitzherbert-sir-anthony","title":"FITZHERBERT, Sir Anthony","description":"\u003cp\u003eFitzherbert (1470-1538) of Gray s Inn, justice of the Court of Common Please, was one of the most notable legal writers of the C16th, producing many of the most authoritative and enduring English law books for practitioners and students alike. The present work was more or less continuously in print between its first appearance in 1534 and 1794 and his Boke of Justice of the Peace enjoyed a similar life. Fitzherbert s knowledge of the law was profound, he had a strong logical faculty and the rarest of legal writers gifts, the power of clear and lucid exposition. His explanations and directions were comprehensible even to those with the most basic knowledge of the law. The Nouvelle Natura Brevium is basically a manual of procedure in which are set out the forms of writ for all the different varieties of action. No less an authority than Coke called it  an exact work exquisitely penned . Getting the right writ, and getting the writ right were the basic essentials of Elizabethan litigation. If either were wrong the litigant was going nowhere - except back to the start to try again. A valuable volume for students and practitioners alike.  The Natura Brevium is esteemed an exact work, excellently well penned and had been much admired by the noted men in the Common law  Ant. √† Wood.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"FITZHERBERT, Sir Anthony","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816111055183,"sku":"SN2616","price":1850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Fitzherbert-L2616-1.jpg?v=1781795309"},{"product_id":"monstrelet-enguerran-de","title":"MONSTRELET, Enguerran de","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of the chronicles of Monstrelet with the continuation up until 1516, beautifully printed in lettre B√¢tard by Regnault with fine woodcut illustration. This fourth edition follows two undated editions by V érard (circa 1500 and 1508) and a 1512 by Jean Petit and Michel le Noir, but is the first to contain the additions from 1498 to 1516 bringing the History up to the reign of Francois I. These additions were mostly taken from the  Mer des Histoires . The work imitates the V érard editions with the use of large grotesque calligraphic initials on the title pages and several large woodcut illustrations. Intended as a supplement to Froissart, the first book begins at about 1400 and goes up to 1422. The second begins with the reign of Charles VII and continues up to 1444. The last probably owes little to Monstrelet and is usually attributed to Mathieu D Esscouchy; so far as 1467. The work recounts, in considerable detail, i.a. the civil war between the houses of Orleans and Burgundy, the occupation of Paris and Normandy by the English (the Agincourt expedition) and their expulsion, the exploits of Joan of Arc and the ending of the Hundred Years War. European events as far away as Poland are also recorded. Monstrelet (c. 1390-1453) was in the service of Jean de Luxembourg throughout much of the period he describes; his work includes, and in some cases comprises the sole surviving source for, large numbers of documents of the period, and much of what he relates he saw either at first hand or heard from an eye-witness. He was at Cambrai when Joan of Arc was captured and was actually present at her subsequent interview with the Duke of Burgundy. With the exception of matters concerning his master (where it would have been foolhardy) Monstrelet is by and large an impartial observer, merely recording what he saw and heard, and recounting it in very considerable detail. His work is the preeminent source book for the history of events in France, and especially of the English in France, in the C15. A lovely copy with excellent provenance: The Chatsworth copy from the library of William Cavendish, 7th Duke of Devonshire. Devonshire was Chancellor of the University of London from 1836 to 1856, and of Cambridge from 1861 to 1891. At Cambridge he endowed the building of the Cavendish Laboratory, named after him.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"MONSTRELET, Enguerran de","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816116691279,"sku":"L1736","price":17500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC0065.jpg?v=1781795307"},{"product_id":"bardi-girolamo","title":"BARDI, Girolamo","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of Girolamo Bardi's important guide to the paintings in the Palazzo Ducale in Venice; the work is very rare, only one copy (Cambridge UL) is recorded in Adams. Little is known of Bardi's life, save that he came from a prominent Florentine family, which produced a number of authors and scholars. The present work is dedicated to Giovanni I Cornaro (1551-1629; Doge from 1625). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n In 1577, a huge fire damaged the Sala dello Scrutinio and the Great Council Chamber in the Palazzo Ducale, causing serious structural damage and destroying numerous important paintings. Architectural reconstruction work was completed by 1579-1580, and a committee was formed to commission new works of art and devise the iconographic programme which they should follow. Bardi was a member of this committee; the present work reveals not only his 'insider knowledge' of the practical implementation of the restoration project, but also his deep appreciation of art and the care with which the new decorative schema was devised. Many of the paintings from this mass commissioning were inevitably workmanlike, never wholly adequate replacements for the lost works by artists such as Gentile da Fabriano, Pisanello, Alvise Vivarini, Carpaccio, Bellini, Pordenone and Titian. But there were also inspired and innovative choices, such as the new works by Tintorretto, Bassano and Paolo Veronese. (The restoration programme lasted many years, and some famous works, such as Tintorretto's Paradise, were produced long after Bardi's preliminary report.) \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n In the present work, Bardi describes the circumstances of the fire, and the reorganisation of the two rooms worst affected, the Sala dello Scrutinio and the Great Council Chamber. His detailed description of the new pictures, recording celebrated Venetian victories, essentially provides a potted version of the key events of Venetian history, as conceived by the rulers of the late sixteenth century. In addition to the historical paintings, Bardi also describes the portraits of the Doges, a permanent record of whose likeness was a consequence of office. The art historical interest of the account is increased by the fact that Bardi explains the physical layout of the rooms, with details of where each painting was hung in relation to its fellows, allowing us to reconstruct the precise appearance and disposition of the galleries at this period.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BARDI, Girolamo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816116920655,"sku":"L641","price":1950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Screenshot2026-06-27at6.12.33PM.png?v=1782580779"},{"product_id":"nolpe-pieter","title":"NOLPE, Pieter","description":"\u003cp\u003eMagnificent fête book attributed to Samuel Coster commemorating the 1642 entry into Amsterdam of Henrietta Maria, superbly illustrated with a series of allegorical engravings celebrating her visit, and a wonderful large engraved view of Amsterdam (quite commonly missing). Henrietta Maria 1609-1669, (Queen Consort of Charles I) arrived in Holland after a stormy crossing in March 1642. Ostensibly her journey was to convey her daughter Princess Mary to her future husband William II Prince of Orange, but she also used the occasion to try to obtain military and financial assistance for the King. She received a less than enthusiastic welcome, since she was both Catholic and a queen, and the Protestant republic was reluctant to help. The Prince of Orange was apprehensive about assisting her for fear of jeopardizing his own position with the States hoping to maintain good relations with both sides. Despite this, the City of Amsterdam agreed to receive the royal guests. For the occasion of her arrival ‘tableau vivants’ of Arion and the Dolphin and Perseus and Andromeda were planned in the Damrak (then still a canal), but were never actually performed. These scenes or fêtes, represented in allegorical engravings by Nolpe, had strong political overtones. “In Dutch literature, the subject of Andromeda stands for the threatened country – the Netherlands – and Perseus for the noble hero who liberates it from tyranny. … in 1642 a tableau vivant (in the waters of the Rokin) was planned for the joyous entry of Henrietta Maria in Amsterdam, with Perseus symbolizing Frederick Henry.” Jan Suijter. Again the figure of Arion rescued by the dolphin in the next plate symbolized the Netherlands saved by William of Orange. The other four scenes represented: ‘The marriage of Peleus and Thetis’ (a prefiguration of the Marriage of William II and Mary Stuart); ‘The Treaty of Adolf van Nassau’; ‘The Marriage of Reinout II of Egmond and Eleonora Plantagenet’ and ‘The Marriage of James II of Scotland and Maria van Egmond’. All were subjects chosen to allude to the importance of the Orange family in the well-being of the Dutch Republic, and to stress the connection between the Stuarts and the House of Orange. The series is very finely engraved by Nolpe after oil sketches by the celebrated artist Peter Potter, one of which survives, in the Rijksmuseum Amsterdam. The other engravings show the stages or triumphal arches designed for the fêtes. The last engraving is a very finely engraved large sea view of Amsterdam showing the salut given by the fleet in welcome of Henrietta Maria. This view is particularly rare. A large copy, with all the plates retaining their full margins, of a rare work, especially complete.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eSarah Sophia Banks was an English collector of antiquities and sister to the celebrated naturalist Joseph Banks. Her important collection of theatrical ephemera containing playbills, broadsides, notices and press-cuttings dealing with private theatrical performances, dating from 1750 to 1808, was presented to the British Museum Library on her death in 1818.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NOLPE, Pieter","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816117150031,"sku":"L1021","price":8500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_0009_fb4ec4ce-3317-4c79-8dd9-3171adba59d0.jpg?v=1781795305"},{"product_id":"puget-de-la-serre-jean","title":"PUGET DE LA SERRE, Jean","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare first edition of La Serre's description of the famous visit of Marie de Medici to the Dutch Republic in 1638, beautifully illustrated with portraits by W. Hollar and with exceptionally fine etched views of the entr ée of the French Queen Mother into various Dutch cities, bound with the extremely rare continuation of her voyage to England, also superbly illustrated with portraits and views. Landwehr and Fairfax Murray ascribe all the engravings to Hollar, but Pennington, Parthey and Hind only the frontispieces, the view of the States General and portraits. Hollar lived at the time at London with the Earl of Arundel, enjoyed the patronage of Charles I and was one of the foremost engravers and illustrators of his day. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Marie de Medici, mother of Louis XIII, exiled in 1630, escaped to Brussels in 1631 (after the failure of her attempted coup against her son), where she lived for seven years, supported by a Spanish pension. She continued intriguing against Richelieu and was forced to flee to Holland, greatly to the indignation of Philip of Spain, who at once stopped her allowance. Her visit to Amsterdam was considered a diplomatic triumph by the Dutch, as it lent official recognition to the newly formed Republic; accordingly she was given an elaborate ceremonial royal entry. Spectacular displays, by Claes Cornelisz Moeyaert, and water pageants took place in the city s harbour. There was a procession led by mounted trumpeters; a large temporary structure erected on an artificial island in the Amstel River was built especially for the festival. The structure was designed to display a series of dramatic tableaux in tribute to her once she set foot on the floating island. She was accompanied by the present author, Puget de La Serre, from Toulouse, librarian of Gaston d'Orl éans and prolific author of novels and histories. His description of Marie s voyage is magnificently illustrated with splendid views of the towns visited and the pageants and ceremonies, including a magnificent double page view of her procession approaching Hertogenbosch where she was met by Prince of Orange. There are further fine etchings showing her disembarking at Gorcum, Dordrecht and at Rotterdam. The whole procession is shown again nearing The Hague, and at Amsterdam a boat-show on the canals is depicted. At Leiden the 'Entr ée  is shown on a quay alongside a canal, and the last plate, shows the Queen Mother's dramatic stormy channel-crossing to England. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Following her travels through the Netherlands, she sought refuge in England which was granted by Charles I. Marie had a grand reception and St. James's Palace was given her as a residence, where she kept a court of her own. However she was mobbed and insulted by the people, even in the palace and forced to leave in 1641. The work is illustrated with superb views of her arrival in Harwich, her entr ée in Colchester, the country houses she stayed at through East Anglia, and her entrance to London. The magnificent double page engraving representing Marie's public entrance into London is particularly interesting; it is one of only two street views extant of the City previous to the great fire. The scene shows the royal cortege in the middle of Cheapside, by the Cheapside Cross, one of the crosses erected by Edward I, to mark the nine resting places of the body of his beloved queen, Eleanor of Castile, on its way from Lincoln to Westminster Abbey. It was destroyed by order of parliament in May 1643. It also depicts the Cheapside Standard, rebuilt in the reign of Henry VI. Stow describes it exactly as represented in this engraving. There are numerous trade signs seen in the illustration; every house had a sign, as shop windows were too small to afford any idea of the trade carried on within. This is followed with scenes of her arrival at St. James Palace, the receptions there, and a view of the Thames, the Tower of London and the firework display that celebrated her arrival. The fine engraved frontispiece and three portraits are among Hollar's finest productions. A superb copy, extremely rare with both parts, of a most interesting and important work. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Henry de la Tremouille 1599-1674, was a celebrated French general, cousin of Cond é and grandson of the prince of Orange, William the Silent, also the grandfather to William III of England. De la Tremouille s last active service was in Italy - where he received the wound that enforced his retirement. A. Walsh, was from a Jacobite ship owning family, resident in St. Malo after 1685, which provided and manned the vessel which took Prince Charles Edward to Scotland in 1745. The family bought the Chateau de Serrant in 1749 and became Comtes de Serrant in 1755. The ch√¢teau passed back to the Tremouille family in 1830 when Valentine Walsh de Serrant married Charles, Duc de La Tremouille.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PUGET DE LA SERRE, Jean","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816117346639,"sku":"L1023","price":13500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_0014_ecc9c73f-d3bf-4c49-92f4-58a5aba70354.jpg?v=1781795305"},{"product_id":"de-lorme-philibert","title":"DE L'ORME, Philibert","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe third edition, using all the woodcuts of the first (1561), of this important and beautifully printed and illustrated treatise. De L Orme (c.1510-1570),was one of the great Renaissance architects of the 16th century, the first French architect to possess the universal outlook of the Italian masters without merely imitating them. Mindful that French architectural requirements differed from the Italian, and respectful of native materials, he founded his designs on sound engineering principles, fusing the orders with a delicacy of invention, restraint, and harmony characteristic of purest French classicism. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  the simple woodcuts are excellent examples of perfectly understood and clearly presented structural details and show De Lorme s system of built up timber roofs, requiring no ties or heavy timbers, which was successfully used as late as the end of the eighteenth century in the Halle-aux-Bles in Paris. Indeed, De Lorme is unique among the early writers on architecture for the emphasis he placed upon construction. ..A copy of the 1576 edition was in the library of Thomas Jefferson (Sowerby, No. 4183).  Fowler (on the first edition). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Of the leading early French architectural writers, De Lorme is the most interesting and original, but is less distinguished an artist than Jean Bullant and is less versatile as a draughtsman than Du Cerceau. De Lorme has been called the first modern architect because of his original contributions to construction and his skill as an organizer, but Blomfield says that  It was by his strong individuality rather than by his art that De Lorme won, and has maintained, his place among the great Frenchmen of the sixteenth century  (Blomfeld French Arch. I Vol. I p. 92)  Fowler. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  First published in 1561 the  Nouvelles inventions (the treatise on roofs) describes ingenious techniques which replace the use of large rectilinear pieces of square section, with small flat and curved elements assembled like keystones. This new invention appears to comply with a rational approach in industrial terms, in that it keeps costs down, standardises construction and means that a relatively unqualified workforce can be employed. These innovative ideas, which were too revolutionary to achieve much success despite the persuasive force of the author, were not put into practice properly until after 1750, the date when the modern science of building properly emerged.  Vaughan Hart  Paper Palaces   The treatise  Le nouvelles inventions  .... is a milestone in the history of wood inventions as it contains different conceptions of how wood can be used. Anyone who wishes to study wooden roofing has to consider the theories of this French architect.  Maria Rita Campa.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DE L'ORME, Philibert","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816117543247,"sku":"L1511","price":6500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/titlepage_fd11f9cf-817b-46f8-b4ec-4ea1f92e5ab8.png?v=1781795304"},{"product_id":"lopez-de-sigura-ruy","title":"LOPEZ DE SIGURA, Ruy","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe first Italian translation, and second edition, of this fundamental treatise on chess by the Spanish Bishop Ruy Lopez de Segura; the very rare first Spanish text was published in Alcala de Henares in 1561. It was the first major chess book since Damiano's of 1512. L√≥pez de Segura was born in Zafra near Badajoz, probably of Marrano Jewish descent, and he studied and lived in Salamanca. Considered by many to be the first world chess champion, as he won the first modern chess tournament in Madrid, he was certainly one of the leading players of his day; there are still moves named after him such as the Ruy Lopez opening. In 1559-60 he went to Rome to attend an ecclesiastical conference and whilst there he defeated all the best players, including Leonardo di Bona. In 1561 he proposed the 50-move rule to claim a draw and introduced the word gambit (specifically, the Damiano Gambit). \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n It was an important time in the development of the game in Europe when Kings, Popes and gentlemen become patrons of chess players and organised matches at court. In 1574-75 King Philip II of Spain organised a tournament and invited all the top Italian players, though this time L√≥pez de Segura lost to Leonardo da Curtie and Paolo Boi, though impressing the King by playing a simultaneous blindfold tournament. Curtie who eventually won the tournament, received the princely prize of a thousand ducats. Ruy L√≥pez de Segura's book starts with a basic description of the game and then gives detailed examples of plays and tactics. It has been object of numerous studies and is considered one of the founding books of chess theory, it is also charmingly illustrated. An interesting copy of an important work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LOPEZ DE SIGURA, Ruy","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816117674319,"sku":"L737","price":4850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L737-5.jpg?v=1781795303"},{"product_id":"wilson-thomas","title":"WILSON, Thomas","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond and last contemporary edition of Thomas Wilson's classic work on all aspects of usury in the form of a dialogue or, more accurately, speeches made between a rich merchant, a zealous preacher and a civil lawyer. This is the first authoritative work on the then vigorously debated subject by an English author and provides considerable insight into the economic life of Elizabethan England as well as a history of usorial prohibitions . Wilson himself was a doctor of civil law and sometime master of the court of Requests, unsurprisingly therefore, the lawyer has the best part. Wilson's professional background does bear fruit however as no common lawyer of the period would have been able to cite so freely the legal writers of ancient Rome, of the mediaeval schools and of modern European jurisprudence. The tone of the work is more practical than academic however, with propositions explained and justified by the use of practical and financial examples. What is particularly interesting to the modern reader are the techniques employed not to contravene the usury laws whilst still financing transactions and earning a good return on one's money. If these rules did nothing else they gave rise to a wide range of very sophisticated commercio-financial arrangements which otherwise would not have seen the light of day for centuries to come. The autograph on the title is almost certainly Richard Crakenthorpe's (1567-1624) Protestant divine and author of three published works, all controversial and anti Catholic, and \"Popish Falsifications\" that has survived in ms. only. See Milward p. 237.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"WILSON, Thomas","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816118427983,"sku":"L987","price":5750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_0001_8c536d80-a43f-45c8-84ca-b7a912c6063c.jpg?v=1781795301"},{"product_id":"nostredame-jean","title":"NOSTREDAME, Jean","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition in Italian. The original French version was published in the same year; it was translated into Italian for this edition by Giovanni Giudici, with many additions and corrections. The second Italian edition was not published until 1722. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Nostredame or Notredame, was the younger brother of the celebrated astrologer Nostradamus, and a 'procureur' to the Parlement of Aix. He was very early drawn to poetry and wrote a large number of songs. He was also a great connoisseur of Provencal poetry and amassed a large collection of books on the subject, from which the present text was compiled. Nostredame gives a short biography (typically a few pages long) of 76 early Provencal poets, with selected examples of their work. The Troubadours had most influence in Italy, and Nostredame mentions a number of them referred to by Dante in the Divine Comedy - Bertran de Born, Arnaut Daniel, Folquet de Marseille and Sordello. The work starts with the 12th-century poets Jaufre Rudel and Marcabru, and goes on to the golden age of the Troubadours, with such figures as Bernart de Ventadorn and Raimbaut d'Orange; making the work a 'who's who of Troubadours' - for whose often ephemeral careers this is both the earliest and the pre-eminent source.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"NOSTREDAME, Jean","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816118755663,"sku":"L605","price":1750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Nostreadame-L605-2.jpg?v=1781795300"},{"product_id":"la-roche-flavin-bernard-de","title":"LA ROCHE-FLAVIN, Bernard de","description":"\u003cp\u003eA lovely copy of the first edition of this important and revealing work on the procedures and duties of the Magistrates and officers of the Parlements of France, beautifully printed by Simon Millanges, Montaigne s printer, a work which lead to the authors immediate ruin, as he wrote directly and openly of the failings, shortcomings, and corruptions of his colleagues who immediately sued him for libel. La Roche Flavin, studied at Rodez, at one of the first colleges founded in France by the Jesuits, then at Toulouse, where he became a lawyer at the Parlement, then Magistrate in the Parlement of Paris and President of the  Chambre de Requets  at Toulouse. His long and honorable career of over over fifty years as a Magistrate came to and abrupt end with the publication of this work. Its deliberate and systematic revelation of  the hidden workings of the judicial system is a precious resource for the historian. In around 550 chapters he details with all the knowledge required for the Magistrate of the ancient and modern parlements of France. The fruit of a life times labour, it is not simply a users manuel for the Magistrate, full of the details of the period, it contains all of La Roche Flavin s 50 years experience at a time when the Magistrature was rapidly changing. Written from 1614-17 but containing material gathered from the 1580 s, it includes the debates which shook the parlements since the civil wars.  The question of the paulette (and judicial corruption more generally) made parlement magistrates sensitive to questions of Propriety during the first half of the seventeenth century. Toulouse magistrate Bernard de la Roche Flavin s treatise about parlement procedure,  Thirteen books of the Parlements of France , first published in 1617, was an important contribution to this debate about the professional role of magistrates and their social status. As a magistrate who had served at the Paris Parlement and more recently at the Parlement of Toulouse, La Roche Flavin urges his colleagues to prove their critics wrong. Much to the dismay of his colleagues, La Roche Flavin airs the dirty laundry of the Judiciary in an effort to reform current practice, acknowledging the faults of his colleagues in the hopes of holding them to higher standards in an age when venality threatens to undermine the authority of the Profession. La Roche Flavin, for whom the magistrates integrity is the very cornerstone of the French judicial system urges that court procedure be regularized and that magistrates maintain their public dignity at all times.  Sara Beam.  Laughing matters: farce and the making of absolutism in France . A very good copy of this important work in excellent contemporary morocco.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LA ROCHE-FLAVIN, Bernard de","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816119116111,"sku":"L1554","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_00242.jpg?v=1781795300"},{"product_id":"reserved-1","title":"RESERVED","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst complete edition, one of four variant issues, of this important history of the Kingdom of Naples by the Poet and lawyer Angelo di Costanzo, written at the suggestion of his friend the poet Sannazzaro. Costanzo lived in the refined literary circles of Naples, and fell in love with the beautiful poetess Vittoria Colonna, to whom he dedicated much poetry. His great work,  Le Istorie del regno di Napoli,  was the fruit of forty years labour. It is one of the best histories of Naples, distinguished by its clearness, simplicity and elegance. His history, in twenty books, details the period from 1250 (the year of the death of Frederick II) to 1486 (the year of the war of Ferdinand I of Naples with the Duchy of Milan). The first eight books were printed in Naples in 1572, and the complete work at Aquila in 1581-2. It is especially renowned for its record of the period of the reign of Joanna I of Naples.  As Costanzo was born little more than a century after the death of Joanna, he might, without any great stretch of probability, have acquired much of his information from the grand-children, if not the children, of those who took part in the events of her reign; and in his introduction he tells us himself, that he wrote his history in part from a journal, kept by the Grandfather of the Duke of Montelone, of the public transactions of the Kingdom of Naples in the time of Joanna, and continued by his successors till the death of Alphonso the first. A similar work had supplied his account of those from the death of Frederic the second of Swabia, to that of Charles the second of the Angevine line. Costanzo commenced his history of Naples, at the suggestion of the celebrated Sannazzaro, and other eminent scholars, who were disgusted by the falsities and absurdities of the fabulous history of Collenuccio.... From Sannazzaro, Costanzo received many ancient documents, and much useful information. .. His style is remarkable for a forcible brevity and simplicity, which seems to convey the undisguised dictates of truth; and his character for fidelity and accuracy has never been questioned. .. His history is rather the recital of exploits and fortunes of individuals, than the chronicle of the vicissitudes of a monarchy; and a chivalrous interest is therefore attached to his personages, resembling that excited by the chronicles of Froissart, or the Florentine Annals of the Villani.   Historical Life of Joanna of Sicily, Queen of Naples.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Count Giuseppe Francesco Ignazio Attems (1686-1721), was Baron of Heiligenkreuz, Imperial Chamberlain at the Austrian Court, and owned considerable estates in northern Italy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RESERVED","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816119181647,"sku":"L1320","price":3450.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_4920-copy.jpg?v=1781795299"},{"product_id":"papa-guido","title":"PAPA, Guido","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of a rare and early collection of the statutes of the Dauphinate compiled by Guidon de la Pape. The work opens with a detailed table of contents to the first part, followed by a section on Royal ordinances, prescripts, articles and replies to petions and requests, particularly those made at the assembly of the Estates held at Tours in 1483. At the end is a two-leaf letter of Louis XIII (often missing) on the addition of the Comte d'Asti to the jurisdiction of the parliament of Grenoble. The text alternates between French and Latin throughout but in the second half French predominates. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n La Pape was a distinguished jurist who died in 1475. He practised as an advocate in Lyon and then Grenoble before being appointed by the Dauphin Louis to take care of his important business in the Dauphinate. Ultimately appointed to the parlement of Grenoble he retired from public life to compose his various legal treatises which acquired a well deserved reputation. This seems to be the rarest of his works. Initially this printing was ascribed to Barth élemy Bertolet and Francois Pichat, booksellers at Grenoble (Voy, Brunet and BM. STC. Fr.) and there is no doubt it was printed for them, as stated on the title page; doubtless, in the modern sense, they published it. However both Maignien in his bibliography of Grenoble presses and Mueller in the Bibl. Aureliana give the printer as Jean Belon - a more probable hypothesis as he was an established printer by 1508 whilst this volume would have constituted Bertholet and Pichard's entire output. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This copy is from the collection of Paul Arbaud, bibliophile and founder of the Mus ée Arbaud in Aix-en-Provence.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"PAPA, Guido","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816119214415,"sku":"L531","price":4250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_00432.jpg?v=1781795299"},{"product_id":"de-billon-francois","title":"DE BILLON, François","description":"\u003cp\u003eFIRST EDITION of the “most enthusiastic and passionate panegyric [on the rights and merits of women] to have been written between 1450 and 1550” (Albistur \u0026amp; Armogathe, Histoire du feminisme du Moyen-Age à nos jours), Billon’s strenuous early defence of the equality of the ‘second sex’. Another edition was apparently published with the same date and different title but without giving the printer’s name – either a shared or pirated issue. Little is known about his life, but Billon was born in Paris, the nephew of Artus Billon, Bishop of Senlis. He was an author ‘in the Italian style’, and accompanied Cardinal Bellay to Rome as his secretary in the mid-1550s, where he wrote the present treatise, dedicated to Catherine de Medici. Billon died around 1566, and was one of the principal theorists of feminism in the 16thC, and the work forms part of the literary canon of the ‘Women’s Quarrel’ (‘La Querelle des Femmes’), which was a Europe-wide literary battle that raged for over 300 years between various authors attacking, and defending women (hence the martial imagery), reflecting the sometimes serious and sometimes jocular nature of scholarly argument from 1500-1800; these texts were often reliant on theological sources. The work appeared again in 1564, with a slightly different title.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eBuilt up as an ‘impregnable fort’ of separate ‘bastions’ (chapters), the work is a robust defence of the role of women, peppered with allegorical references, but arguing strenuously for improvements in female education, encouraging women to abandon home and convent for traditionally male-dominated professions, including politics and the military. Billon also advocates the dissolution of arranged marriages and the ending of a woman’s legal subjugation to her husband. He notes that in Europe, where he says women are held in the greatest subjugation, men are also more subjugated; and argues for the qualities (such as honesty, magnanimity, piety and devotion) and achievements (arguing, i.a., that women make better singers -the ‘angelic sweetness’ of the female voice) of women throughout the ages, even disputing with the Bible. The book also includes the first appearance of the word ‘atheism’ (in the context of a people’s lack of belief) and contains probably the first bio-bibliography of female writers and inventors.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DE BILLON, François","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816119279951,"sku":"L646","price":9500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_00492.jpg?v=1781795298"},{"product_id":"garisendi-antenore-or-vizani-pompeo","title":"GARISENDI, Antenore or VIZANI Pompeo","description":"\u003cp\u003eRare first edition of this fascinating description of a chivalric 'tournament' held in Bologna for the carnival of 1578, containing descriptions of the various scenes enacted for the occasion, including the names of the participants and details of the poems and songs recited. It is a blow by blow account with speeches, poems and songs reported verbatim. The local participants are identified by the stylised names of chivalric romance, 'gli Cavalieri Ardenti, Fideli, placito' and the rest by place of origin eg \"Cavaliero di Scotia, Cavalieri Portoghesi\". The 'knight of Scotland' speech is of particular interest as he may be identified with the semi-mythical James Crichton better known as \"The Admirable Crichton\" who arrived in Italy at around this time having served in the French army. In his speech the 'Scottish Knight' makes many references to Merlin and to the 'Great Queen of Scotland' and his adventures and travels in France. The show was staged in the Piazza delle Scuole (now the Piazza Galvani) on a gigantic platform, which was built up above the heads of the surrounding onlookers. This was the second and last tournament organized by the Accademia della Viola, initially founded in 1561 as the Academy dei Desti, by Ettore Ghisileri, Legnani Vincent and others, with the intention of reviving the ancient traditions of the knightly orders of Europe. The present account was compiled by Pompeo Vizani (1540-1607), also a member of the Academy of Viola, who signed the work under the pseudonym Antenor Garisendi. Vizani, a descendant of an important aristocratic Bolognese family, also helped organize the spectacle. At the end of the volume he recalls, not without some pride, that. \"questi signori Cavalieri per motivo proprio, et senza altra occasione, che del Carnovale, fanno quello, che a' pena fanno altre Citta' a' contemplazione, et con l'aiuto de' loro Principi, et con grandissime occasioni\". A most interesting insight, and first hand account, of popular chivalric entertainment in late Renaissance Italy. This first edition is rare with few copies in libraries outside Italy; we have been able to locate only three copies in the US.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GARISENDI, Antenore or VIZANI Pompeo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816119509327,"sku":"L941","price":3450.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_00133.jpg?v=1781795298"},{"product_id":"athenaeus","title":"ATHENAEUS","description":"\u003cp\u003eProbably the only copy combining the Editio Princeps with the first Latin edition. Written in Rome in the early 2nd century, the work provides a unique insight into the moneyed classes during the Hellenistic literary world of the Roman Empire.  A vast variety of erudition has been preserved by Athenaeus of Naucratis, who lived at Rome under Commodus and his successors. His comprehensive work 'Doctors at Dinner' originally consisted of thirty books. It was abridged into fifteen, and it is this abridgement that has survived in an incomplete form in a single ms. The scene is laid at the house of the Roman pontiff Larentius, and all kinds of accomplishments - grammar, poetry, rhetoric, music, philosophy and medicine - are represented among the many interlocutors. It is an encyclopaedia under the disguise of a dialogue. Food and drink, cups and cookery, stories of famous banquets, scandalous anecdotes, specimens of ancient riddles and drinking songs and disquisitons on instruments of music are only part of the miscellaneous fare which is here provided. We are indebted to the quotations in Athenaeus for our knowledge of passages from about 700 ancient writers who would otherwise be unknown to us, and, in particular, for the preservation of the greater part of the extant remains of the Middle and the New Attic comedy.  Sandys I:337. An important source of Classical Greek recipes, including the original text of the oldest recipe by a named author, Mithaecus, in any language, it also describes in detail different kinds of wine, categorizing them by place and origin and compares their characteristics, properties and effects. Sexual mores constitute another conversational focus, with pederasty discussed without restraint, including details of boy-lovers famed for their beauty and skill. In addition come insights into music, literary gossip and philology, as well as the stories behind the creation of many artworks and amusing stories. An invaluable resource for social historians. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Originating from Naucratis in Egypt, Athenaeus was a Greek rhetorician and grammarian, who flourished at the end of the 2nd and beginning of the 3rd C. Deipnosophistae is his only extant work, though he mentions other works on the history of the Syrian kings and on fish.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ATHENAEUS","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816119869775,"sku":"L674","price":29500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/titlepage2.png?v=1781795298"},{"product_id":"coutumes-de-provence","title":"COUTUMES DE PROVENCE","description":"\u003cp\u003eA rare and early collection of five Provencal arrests, a searing condemnation of corruption in Aix. The first two are indictments of the financial and moral corruption of the clergy of Aix, and its convents, which, instead of administering ‘le service divin…se livre a des actes de paillardise non convenables a la devotion chretienne’. The next denounces the corruption of the merchants of Aix, whose monopolies led to the exploitation of the populace (‘les grands officiers et majeurs mangent de la bonne chair et la populaire est mal servi’), with particular emphasis on the town’s butcher (who sold dirty and diseased meat), and goes on to attack the general corruption and bribery in the region and the bureaucratic indifference which has allowed the corruption to continue (‘le lieutenant general qui a la superintendence n’en tient compte et faict l’endormy’). The arret concludes ‘il faut tout changer’ and threatens heavy fines for future malefactors. The last two attack corruption among notaries and the resale of mortgages in the town. Unlike most legal works the engaging text is of a Rabelasian humour and directness, e.g. “l’avocat et procureur du Roy au siege sont esturdis d’une teste de veau”.\u003c\/p\u003e\n\n\u003cp\u003eWhile a complete work in itself, this arrest may well originally have been bound up with other related works of coutumes, or legal customs of the various towns and regions of France, and indeed Fairfax Murray’s copy was in just such a sammelband. Fairfax-Murray tentatively ascribes the work to Jean de Channey in Lyon, on the basis that in his copy, the present work was bound with that printer’s 1536-1540 ‘Ordonnances’. This however, seems inadequate. De Channey was a printer of long standing in Avignon, but Baudrier, puts his date of death between 1536-8. It is therefore possible that his son, Bernard, who is known to have printed the title pages for the ‘Ordonnances’ in 1540 in order to sell them (cf. Betz, Répertoire bibliographique des livres imprimés en France, vol. 6), may have printed the present ‘Arrest’, often bound with the previous work.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"COUTUMES DE PROVENCE","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816120230223,"sku":"L467","price":1950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_00474.jpg?v=1781795296"},{"product_id":"lyndwood-william-bishop-of-st-davids-with-acton-john","title":"LYNDWOOD, William, Bishop of St. David's [with] ACTON, John","description":"\u003cp\u003e\"The 'Provinciale' is a digest in five books of the synodal constitutions of the province of Canterbury from the time of Stephen Langton to that of Henry Chichele, accompanied by an explanatory gloss in unusually good Latin, and is the principal authority for English canon law\" (DNB). Lyndwood's work collects the most important ecclesiastical legislation from the province of Canterbury between 1222 up to the time of its writing. It is also supplied with Lyndwood's extensive marginal gloss and an authoritative index. It was completed in 1433, and was first published in Oxford c. 1470-80; it was also printed at Westminster in 1496 with Caxton's cipher and de Worde's colophon. That edition marked the first appearance of John Acton's commentary on the ecclesiastical 'constitutions' of Otho and Ottobone, the papal legates in England in the 14th century, followed by a collection of unabridged provincial statutes of Canterbury; the second work here, which is frequently (and erroneously) attributed to Lyndwood. It is the first major treatise on English Canon Law. These works were often bound together, and were both edited by Jodocus Badius Ascensius, the printer.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LYNDWOOD, William, Bishop of St. David's [with] ACTON, John","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816120492367,"sku":"L614","price":4850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_00801.jpg?v=1781795294"},{"product_id":"london","title":"LONDON","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn extremely rare publication of the orders and regulations governing meetings of the high officers of the City of the London on special, public and ceremonial occasions. Most of these were annual events fixed by the liturgical calendar though some, such as a coronation, occurred only very occasionally. The orders do not regulate the conduction of business, or the administration of the meetings, so much as to provide who shall be where and when, fulfilling what role and especially wearing what. It is a sort of secular  ceremonialum  for what was rapidly becoming the grandest and richest corporate government in the world and which often provided a splendid show for the local populace. This was not a mere matter of  panem et circenses  however but had a serious underlying social and political purpose. It is easy to forget today just how significant the symbolism of clothes and gestures was in the C17th (viz Malvolio) and how vitally important were the rules of precedence and procedure. This little work seems to have been designed principally for participants in these ceremonies, by the study of which deeply embarrassing (and perhaps worse) solecisms could be avoided. It opens with a paginated table of the principal ceremonies and closes with a list of the City corporations. Copies would have been discarded when the office holder retired or the regulations changed, and were doubtless few to begin with, almost none now survive. The earliest recorded edition of this sort was printed in 1568 and is known by a single copy at the Huntington; the Guildhall Library has the only recorded copy of an edition of 1604 and the Bodleian the unique 1610 as well as the only surviving quire of  c.1625? . Then follows this title of which two copies are now known (apart from the present), at the BL. and Guildhall respectively; a different issue, partly reset, survives uniquely at Harvard.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LONDON","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816121868623,"sku":"L20","price":4500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_0026.jpg?v=1781795289"},{"product_id":"johnston-john","title":"JOHNSTON, John","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of this rare work by Johnston (?1570-1611) Scottish poet, who styled himself  Aberdonensis  and whose family hailed from Crimond near Aberdeen - where Johnston studied at Kings College, before spending eight years at various continental universities. He became a friend of Justus Lipsius and doubtless of the other scholars whose epigrams preface the present work - among them Joseph Scaliger, Jan Dousa and Daniel Heinsius. He was also closely attached to Andrew Melville, who probably helped him to obtain the professorship of divinity at St. Andrews c1593, when he was  Maister of the new college . The present work is a series of epigrammatic addresses to the Scottish Kings from Fergus I to James VI (to whom it is dedicated) highlighting their characteristics, exhibiting their virtues and referring to the principal events of their reigns. The verses are more interesting for their historical perspective than their poetry. The anonymous portraits - of Robert II, Robert III, James II, James III, James IV, James V, Mary, James VI and Anne are very finely executed and in excellent strong impression. Neither their source nor maker has been identified. In mid C19 hand on inserted fly  A very rare book. The Roxburghe copy sold for ¬£13.13. In addition to the 10 portraits this copy has a plate of the arms of James VI ... which has not been mentioned by Lowndes, + 1 leaf of preliminary matters (beginning with the verses of J.C. Scaliger) seldom found. At a sale in 1854 or 5 (I think at W. Duncan Gardiner s) a copy was sold for ¬£10 to Lord Breadalbane .\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"JOHNSTON, John","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816122655055,"sku":"L119","price":1950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_0001_2fe970be-4bc6-4ee3-841b-5567342b9cf6.jpg?v=1781795285"},{"product_id":"commines-philippe-de-1","title":"COMMINES, Philippe de","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond edition of the first Italian translation of Commines' history, first published in 1544. It is the work of Nicholas Raince, about whom we have discovered nothing, and dedicated to Giovio. It does not appear to have been subsequently reprinted and examples of both editions are scarce. The classical restraint of the severely geometric binding contrasts happily with the richness of the morocco in texture and colour. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A most attractive volume.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"COMMINES, Philippe de","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816122949967,"sku":"SN2102","price":1650.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Commines-SN2102-1.jpg?v=1781795284"},{"product_id":"andrewes-lancelot","title":"ANDREWES, Lancelot","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition, first issue with the errata, of Lancelot Andrews  important refutation of Cardinal Bellarmine s response to the Oath of Allegiance. Andrewes (1555-1626) was one of the leading figures of the Anglican Church, a skilled controversialist, deeply scholarly, and proficient in fifteen languages. Sometime Master of Pembroke, Cambridge, Fellow of St John's, Oxford, and Bishop of Winchester, he narrowly missed being Archbishop of Canterbury. A Privy Councillor, his name appears first in the list of divines appointed to produce the King James Bible, and Fuller says of him that \"the world wanted learning to know how learned this man was\". He was elegised by Milton and frequently consulted by Bacon. He was anti-Papist, and carefully defended the interests of the Church of England. In 1606, after the Gunpowder Plot, Parliament instituted a new Oath of Allegiance, targeted at Catholics. Cardinal Bellarmine issued an attack on the institution of this Oath, prompting an anonymous Royal defence ('Triplici nodo, triplex cuneus') published the following year. Bellarmine replied at the Pope's behest in 1608, under the name of his chaplain, Matteo Torti; prompting James I to commission Andrewes to compose a full reply to supplement the King's 'Apologie for the Oath of Allegiance .  James s desire not to see his sovereignty diminished led him to pursue and even intensify Henry VIII s policy regarding the requirement of loyalty to the crown, and in terms of Ecclesiological consequences, made it all the more urgent to reconsider the notion of the Church. The papacy on the other hand was keen to defend the Roman Catholic tradition, based on the primacy of the Pope s jurisdiction and indirect temporal power. To highlight the king of England s interference in the lives of English Catholics, Bellarmine evoked the creation of harsher penal laws related to the oath (of Allegiance), which betrayed a discriminatory , intolerant attitude. .. At this stage other authors, including Robert Parsons and his adversary William Barlow, Bishop of Lincoln and one of the King s Chaplains, joined the war of words. On the Anglican side, James called on the best known and unquestionably the best read of the pamphleteers, Lancelot Andrewes, to pen a refutation of Bellarmine s work. In 1609, Andrews published in Latin Tortura Torti.  Bernard Bourdin  The Theological-Political Origins of the Modern State . Andrewes' work, punning in his title on the pseudonym Bellarmine had adopted, Tortura Torti was published in 1609. Andrewes was a significant influence on English prose; he greatly infuenced T.S. Eliot, who commends his writing as subtly communicating his philosophical standpoint: \"It is only when we have saturated ourselves in his prose, followed the movement of his thought, that we find his examination of words terminating in the ecstasy of assent\" (from Eliot's essay, 'For Lancelot Andrewes ). A very good entirely unsophisticated copy.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ANDREWES, Lancelot","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816124588367,"sku":"L1789","price":1500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Screenshot-2024-08-06-at-10.41.04.webp?v=1781795281"},{"product_id":"sandys-sir-edwin","title":"SANDYS, Sir Edwin","description":"First unauthorised and complete edition of Sir Edwin Sandys  (1561-1629) seminal, and potentially  inflammatory, work on the state of Christianity in Europe. The result of a three-year tour around the continent, undertaken with Sandys  companion George Cranmer in 1593, the Europae Speculum professes to examine the condition of the Reformed Churches of mainland Europe, possibly with a view to suggesting some form of re-unification; in fact, Sandys never reaches the topic in this work, but dedicates nearly three quarters of the book to detailed description and analysis of Roman Catholicism,  enumerating their beliefs, practices, government, and the means used to increase power, frequently finding merit in their customs and ideas while disapproving of the way in which these were put into practice , Mary Ellen Henley, Sir Edwin Sandy s Europae Speculum: a critical edition. Sandys writes that the French Catholics were most ripe for a reunification with Protestantism; he believed that Italy would first have to abandon its predilection for popery and that Spain, a lost cause, should be left to the Jews and the Moors.  In his book, Sandys avoided polemics, seeking not sectarian victory but a church that could, by transcending sectarianism, reunite Christendom.  Henley.   The work first appeared in 1599, in a number of manuscript copies; it was pirated anonymously in June 1605 without Sandys  consent. The Gunpowder Plot of November that same year created strong anti-Catholic feeling in England; in response, the High Commission ordered that copies of the Europae Speculum be burnt, possibly at Sandys  own request. However, three editions were still produced. The work proved popular in Europe: Paolo Sarpi,  that great Catholic supporter of Protestantism , whom Sandys had met on his tour, translated it into Italian, and Hugo Grotius,  that great Protestant supporter of Catholicism  (Trevor-Roper), read it in the French translation. Sandys died in October 1629, and it is unclear what hand he had in the production of this edition, much expanded from the 1605; his name does not appear on the title page, but does on ¬∂2. The author of its anonymous introduction claims that the 1605 was 'but a spurious stolen Copie,,,throughout most shamefully falsified \u0026amp; false printed', and that the present edition is printed from 'a perfect Copie, verbatim transcribed from the Authours original''. It was certainly some seventy pages longer.   Sir Edwin Sandys, second son of the Archbishop of York of the same name, had a long and successful career in British politics; he became an MP in 1589, holding various seats in parliament until three years before his death. He was knighted in 1603, and became High Sheriff of Kent in 1615. He is, however best remembered for his involvement in the Virginia Company; he was instrumental in the establishment of Jamestown, lent money interest-free to the Pilgrim Fathers and believed passionately in the creation of a permanent British colony in North America. Joseph Mendham (1769-1856) was an English clergyman who studied in great depth controversies between Catholicism and Protestantism, amassing a large theological library.","brand":"SANDYS, Sir Edwin","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816124981583,"sku":"L1811","price":1500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Sandys-4.jpg?v=1781795281"},{"product_id":"sens","title":"[SENS]","description":"Rare first edition of the reformed  Coutumes  of the ancient town of Sens and its region, edited by Christophe de Thou, Christophe Harlay and Barthelemy Faye by order of the King; the third book printed in Sens and the first by this printer. It is particularly rare  The Repertoire bibliographique des livres imprimes en France au Seizieme Siecle  locates two complete copies only, one printed on vellum at the British library and the other at the Bibliotheque Municipal of Sens. (another is now at Berkeley). The work is of great interest for the modernizing and systematizing of the medieval feudal  Coustumes  of Sens. It is divided into three parts; the first the final revision of the  Coutumes  created by the three magistrates. The second is the  Proces Verbal  a detailed, authenticated account of the proceedings in the exercise of the revision of the Coutumes, including a list of all the  Prelats, Abbes, Chapitres, Colleges \u0026amp;Persones Ecclesiastiques, Ducs, Comtes, Barons, Chastelains \u0026amp; Seigneurs Iusticers, Les Officiers du Roy, Advocats, Procureurs, Bourgeois  whom the work would concern, providing a form of census. The third is a printing of the ancient unrevised Coustumes. It is most interesting not only in revealing the changes it makes to the quasi feudal  Coustumes , but for providing a detailed account of why and how those changes were made. Christophe de Thou (1508 1582) was an eminent French advocate, and the First President of the Parliament of Paris in 1554. He served as chancellor to the Duke of Anjou and was an advisor successively to Henry II, Charles IX, and Henry III. His son, Jacques Auguste de Thou was the noted French historian and book collector. An entirely original copy of this rare and attractively printed work.","brand":"[SENS]","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816125079887,"sku":"L1573","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Coustumes-L1573-2.jpg?v=1781795281"},{"product_id":"rabelais-francois","title":"RABELAIS, François","description":"\u003cp\u003eThe 2nd or the 3 (or possibly even 4th) edns.. of the works of Rabelais which purport to have been printed at Antwerp by Jean Fuet. There are doubts, however, as to its true origin. Neither Belgica Typographica nor BM. STC. Dutch nor Peeters-Fontainas records anyone by the name of Fuet based at Antwerp; the BM. Catalogue of Books from the Low Countries 1601-21 suggests the work was printed in France, and Brunet states that the location is believed to have been Rouen. The name of one Rouen printer, Rapha√´l du Petit-Val, is tentatively provided by Rawles and Screech for another edn. published in 1613, and this is perhaps one possibility for ours too. But Rawles and Screech do not themselves suggest a French provenance for this and the other 2 (or 3) edns. said to be printed by Jean Fuet, so the question must remain open. Many early edns. of the various parts of Rabelais' works do not state the printer or place of publication, or in a few cases give false information, owing to the ribald and in places anti-clerical subject-matter, which exposed his works to censorship: they had, for example, been on the papal Index since at least 1559. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  With an immense erudition, representing almost the whole knowledge of his time, with an untiring faculty of invention, with the judgement of a philosopher and the common sense of a man of the world, with an observation which let no characteristic of the time pass unobserved and with a ten-fold portion of the special Gallic gift of good-humoured satire, Rabelais united a height of speculation and depth of insight and vein of poetical imagination rarely found in any writer... his work is the mirror of the C16th. in France, reflecting at once its comeliness and its uncomeliness, its high aspirations, its voluptuous tastes, its political and religious dimensions, its keen criticism, its eager appetite and hasty digestions of learning, its gleans of poetry and its ferocity of manners . - Enc. Brit. 13th. ed. The Pl éiade, Marot, Montaigne and Amadis were all indebted to him. A handsome copy with early British provenance.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RABELAIS, François","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816126128463,"sku":"L1848","price":3750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_0096.jpg?v=1781795278"},{"product_id":"standish-arthur","title":"STANDISH, Arthur","description":"\u003cp\u003eVery rare second edition of this important work, a rare variant published with a folding imprimatur leaf, not found in the British Library.  Arthur Standish reflected the general concern at the increasing shortage of timber in The Commons Complaint which contained two special grievances, as noted in the subtitles:  the first, general destruction and waste of woods in this Kingdom with a remedy for the same: also how to plant wood according to the nature of every soile  The second concerned  the extreme dearth of victuals  and was to be remedied by planting fruit trees, breeding more poultry, and destroying vermin.  Peter McDonald, J. P. Lassoie.  The Literature of Forestry and Agroforestry.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Church s contemporary was Arthur Standish, about whom we know next to nothing. He may have been involved in some way in the Crown surveys, given that in 1611 he wrote that he had been traversing the country investigating the themes on which he would publish for the previous four years. In a series of texts (or more correctly, one gradually expanded text), Standish provided a schema for enhancing the national wood yields such that  the whole Kingdom hereby may be preserved from the ruine that is greatly feared.  His Work differed from Church s in that it provided rather less detail on arboriculture, but a rather grander scheme for increasing output that would benefit the entire economy, freeing up land and resources for alternative uses, and through which the careful setting of pollards and hedgerows could eliminate the need for coppice-woods altogether. Standish claimed some Royal encouragement and won a laudatory preface from poet and engraver Henry Peacham; but his plans, like so many projects of the time, soon lapsed into obscurity. What however marks out Church and Standish is their intent: they did not speak of  improvement  but  profit , but the core of their argument was directed towards the increase of output through better practice. Increased revenue was thus incidental to countering the scarcity of an essential resource. Standish was one of the first to differentiate himself from a slow drip of handbooks for very specific crafts, such as beekeeping, tree-grafting or seed-setting, by projecting a grander project of national renewal.  Richard W. Hoyl  Custom, Improvement and the Landscape in Early Modern Britain . \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n John Stuart, 3rd Earl of Bute (1713   1792), styled Lord Mount Stuart before 1723, was a Scottish nobleman who served as Prime Minister of Great Britain (1762 1763) under George III, and was arguably the last important  favourite  in British politics. a very rare and important work with appropriate provenance.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"STANDISH, Arthur","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816126259535,"sku":"L1872","price":4950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/1872-STANDISH-Arthur-5.jpg?v=1781795277"},{"product_id":"de-medici-lorenzo","title":"DE MEDICI, Lorenzo","description":"\u003cp\u003eFIRST EDITION of the poems and poetic commentary of Lorenzo de'Medici, some of which are were written as early as age 17. The sonnets, sestinas, and songs are almost entirely preoccupied with love for beautiful women, in a style both imaginative and lively that strives toward the lyric of Dante and Petrarch. In his \"Comment\" on the poems, Medici expounds on life, love, his philosophical influences, and even current events that inspired him. For instance, he describes the death of Simonetta Vespucci, \"la bella Simonetta\" after his own nickname for the model for Boticelli's Venus, and its influence over his work: throughout Florence her early death produced sadness and 'a most ardent longing for her. And therefore she was taken uncovered from her house to the burial place, and moved all who crowded around to see her to copious tears'. Poems written later in life are also included in the volume, of a more serious and religious nature: on the virgin Mary, and the Crucifiction and Resurrection of Christ. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Lorenzo de'Medici \"The Magnificent\" (1449 - 1492), scholar, politician, and poet, was the driving force behind the flourishing culture of 15th century Florence through his patronage of the arts. Walter Pater's characterization of Lorenzo's age with that of Pericles is perhaps most apt: \"It is an age productive in personalities, many-sided, centralized, complete. Here, artists and philosophers and those whom the action of the world has elevated and made keen, do not live in isolation, but breathe a common air, and catch light and heat from each other s thoughts. There is a spirit of general elevation and enlightenment, in which all alike communicate.\" \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n George Fortescue (1791-1877) son of the first Earl Fortescue, was member of Parliament for Hindon, who supported many pro-catholic bills in parliament. Although little noticed a a collector, he had a fine library, particularly of Aldines.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"DE MEDICI, Lorenzo","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816126554447,"sku":"L1815","price":8750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L1815-4.jpg?v=1781795275"},{"product_id":"gysius-johannes-and-las-casas-bartolome_","title":"GYSIUS, Johannes and LAS CASAS, Bartolome_","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of the of these two important works published in the Netherlands in 1620, containing French translations of two earlier works detailing Spanish crimes and atrocities in both Europe and the New World. The first part is an abridged version of  Oorsprong en voortgang der Nederlandtscher beroerten  (Origin and progress of the disturbances in the Netherlands) by Johannes Gysius (died 1652), first published anonymously in 1616. The second part is a translation of Brev√≠sima relaci√≥n de la destrucci√≥n de las Indias (A short account of the destruction of the Indies), written by Bartolom é de las Casas (1474 1566) in 1542 and first published in 1552. These histories were published together under a new title by Jan Evertszoon Cloppenburch (1571 1648), an Amsterdam bookbinder and publisher of Bibles and patriotic and religious books and tracts associated with the Dutch Reformed Church. Gysius was a minister, whose book is a history of the Dutch revolt against Spain in 1555 98, containing accounts of such events as the sieges of Haarlem, Leiden, and other cities and the execution by the Spanish of Count Egmont in Brussels in 1568. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  Las Casas was reprinted in 1620 and 1630. The first of these editions appeared in Amsterdam without any prefatory matter not even the author s .. relying largely on copperplates to tell a pictoral story of torture and cruelty on the title page and throughout the text. The publisher, Jan Evertz Cloppenburg, presented a typology of Spanish cruelty. He included two title pages set up in identical ways with the same pictures . The first,..was on the Low countries and the second was about the new World and preceded Las Casas s account. The first title page included writing surrounded by pictures of men, women and children being tortured. Philip of Spain presided at the top and centre above the title, his vassals  Don Jan  and the  Duke of Alva  are shown facing the title: the Spanish cruelty in the Netherlands was mirroring that in the New World. .. This symbolic correspondence was a central typology of the Old World and New. Cloppenburg was asking the readers to see the Old World through the New. .. Here the publisher says that the Spaniards brought war and tyranny to the Low countries under the same religious pretext that they used to tyrannise the Natives in the New World a hundred years before. The heretics and the Lutherans in the Netherlands had taken the place of the pagans an Idolaters of the New World. .. In some of the engravings in Cloppenburg s edition, the inhabitants of the Netherlands are naked like the Natives. The translation, which is from the dutch, sometimes elaborates beyond Las Casas s original to make the Spaniards seem even crueler. The engravings of the Flemmish artist Theodore de Bry, which had been in the Frankfurt Latin edition of Las Casas in 1598, constituted part of this edition, where they reinforced visually the worst atrocities in the text.  Jonathan Hart  Literature, Theory, History.  \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n A good copy of this important reinterpretation both these works.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"GYSIUS, Johannes and LAS CASAS, Bartolome_","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816127144271,"sku":"L1795","price":4850.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/l1795-le-miroir-10.jpg?v=1781795273"},{"product_id":"cicero-marcus-tullius","title":"CICERO, Marcus Tullius","description":"\u003cp\u003eA very rare and most attractive copy of Cicero's letters, beautifully printed in an elegant minuscule Italic by Simon de Colines, in a fine contemporary Parisian gilt tooled binding. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n  First Colines pocket edition of Cicero s  Epistolae familiares', a rare book of which we were unable to locate another copy. [Schreiber s copy is also very incomplete, ending with book VIII] Renouard, whose note for this edition is particularly garbled and incomplete, states that this was the only Colines imprint to bear Henri (sic) Estienne s device. The text was overseen by Claude Chaudière, Regnault s son. In the preface Claude emphasises his position as Colines' grandson on his mothers side, and the care he has taken in establishing the text. After Colines  death, in 1546, Regnault and Claude were to take over the printing house.  Schreiber. Renouard had probably never seen a copy as there is no sign of Estienne s device. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Surprisingly, the work is particularly rare. We have located four copies on worldcat only, at Illinois, North Carolina, Glasgow and the Danish Nat. Lib.; the BNF does not have it and none are recorded in Italian libraries. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The binding is quite sumptuous for a pocket edition, almost certainly from Paris, and is similar in style, though on a miniature scale, to bindings of the same period by Claude De Piques, see British library Catalogue of Bindings shelfmark c20c15 and c48c2. s \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Written over the course of many years from 65 B.C. onwards and compiled by Cicero's personal secretary Tiro, the letters are often written in a subtle code to disguise particular political contents. The work is made up of Cicero s letters to his friends, acquaintances and also their replies, there is one to a conspirator in Caesar s murder,  I congratulate you. I rejoice for myself. I love you. I watch your interests; I wish for your love and to be informed of what you are doing and what is being done,  ( Fam. vi. 15). We know from others that Cicero thought about publishing some of his letters during his lifetime, but it is generally agreed that the Ad Familiares were published by Cicero s friend Tiro, who suppressed his own letters and included those written to him at the end. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n Cicero s letters are among the most valuable sources of information on the period, we learn from him a great deal about daily life in Rome and the provinces, especially the province of Cilicia of which Cicero was sometime governor. There is no other period of antiquity for which we still possess such an immediate and intimate record and in such domestic detail.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"CICERO, Marcus Tullius","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816127340879,"sku":"L1852","price":3950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/frontcover_56b3a2cf-6629-4b3f-8e20-12206ae0e7be.png?v=1781795275"},{"product_id":"rhodiginus-caelius","title":"RHODIGINUS, Caelius","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of these massive and learned commentaries of the Italian Renaissance in sixteen books. Caelius Rhodiginus is the humanist nickname of Ludovico Ricchieri (1469-1525), a respected professor of Latin and Greek in Rovigo. In 1511, Rhodiginus moved to Milan to take over the lectureship of Demetrios Chalcondyles, under the auspices of the city treasurer and renowned book collector Jean Grolier. The Antiquae lectiones are dedicated to Grolier, with a remembrance of Aldus Manutius, recently dead. The work gathers together a considerable number of short essays and notes on Latin and Greek antiquity, ranging from literature, philology and science to philosophy, history, anthropology and morality. Remarkable considerations on ancient music are to be found in book five, chapters XX-XXIX. The somewhat confusing encyclopaedic structure was modelled after Gellio s Noctes Atticae and Erasmus s Adagia. The book was very well received and was frequently reprinted up to 1666. Despite some initials charges of plagiarism, even Erasmus ended up to value Ricchieri s work. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n In his Introduction to the Literature of Europe in the Fifteenth, Sixteenth, and Seventeenth Centuries (London 1869, I, p. 272), Henry Hallam defines it as  by far the best and most extensive collection hitherto made from the stores of antiquity. It is now hardly remembered; but obtained almost universal praise, even from severe critics, for the deep erudition of its author, who, in a somewhat rude style, pours forth explanations of obscure and emendations of corrupted passages, with profuse display of knowledge in the customs and even philosophy of the ancients, but more especially in medicine and botany.  This copy was annotated by a contemporary reader mainly interested in the philosophical passages, while the owner inscribing the head of the title-page commented on two musical essays at pp. 231-233.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"RHODIGINUS, Caelius","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816127537487,"sku":"L1764","price":5750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Last-Import-12_a9eeeffe-642c-4401-8518-6877f99995a2.jpg?v=1781795273"},{"product_id":"baudius-dominicus","title":"BAUDIUS, Dominicus","description":"A very amusing collection of Neo-latin poetry and essays published by the main competitors of the Elzevier press. The first work is the editio princeps (variant B of the imprint) of a sammlung of love writings, mainly by Domenicus Baudius. Baudius (1561-1613), probably a nickname for Dominique Baudier, was a prominent poet, historian and professor at the University of Leiden. Graduate in law in 1585, he received encouragement from Joseph Justus Scaliger and De Thou to engage in Latin poetry and later befriended Philip Sidney, Daniel Heinsius and Hugo Grotius. He started teaching at the University of Leiden in 1602, first as professor of rhetoric and then of history. For this reason, he was entrusted with the composition of a chronicle of the Dutch war between 1609 and 1611. His Amores were edited posthumously by Peter Schrijver (1576-1660), a younger colleague of his in Leiden as well as a Neo-Latin poet and historian in his own right. They gather several of Baudius s letters and verses recounting his erotic often-failing adventures, along with a great number of other pieces related to love and marriage by both his erudite friends (Hensius, Grotius, Schrijver, Scaliger and Salmasius) and earlier humanists such as Erasmus, Lelio Capilupi, Giovanni Carga and even Thomas More with his Qualis uxoria deligenda. Schrijver took the opportunity to include some annotations by himself, Salmasius, Pithou and Lipsius about the famous anonymous poem of late antiquity Pervigilium Veneris. This edition, printed by George Vander Marse, was published jointly in Leiden by Hagerus \u0026amp; Hackius and in Amsterdam by Louis Elzevier.\r \r The other half of the volume is taken up with the second edition of a collection of scholarly divertissements, bearing a new title in respect of the princeps issued in 1623 as Argumentorum ludicrorum scriptores. It comprises short smart essays in praise of swimming, laughing, fleas, elephants, donkeys, ants, cows, lice, flies, blindness, malaria and gout. Among the authors are Melanchton, Willibald Pirckheimer, Celio Calcagnini, Marco Antonio Maioraggio, Jean Passerat and again Lipsius, Hensius and Scaliger.\r \r The voluminous ms binder s waste is a potential feast for scholars.","brand":"BAUDIUS, Dominicus","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816127930703,"sku":"L1941","price":1450.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/Last-Import-12.jpg?v=1781795271"},{"product_id":"brossin-jacques","title":"BROSSIN, Jacques","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of this extremely rare piece of trial evidence, beautifully bound in very fine limp vellum with the arms of Louis XIII, probably made for presentation to the king by the author. The work details the descendants of Andr é de Laval who go back as far as Louis de D ébonaire, the son of Charlemagne. This work was made as evidence gathered in reply to the defamation, by Jean Barbotin, made against Jaques Brossin, that he was not of noble decent. Brossin in reply to these accusations made this impressive genealogy, consulting the Royal historian Duchene, which assembles evidence of his lineage through the descent of his Grandfather, the knight Andre de Laval. Andre de Laval s first son was revealed to be one of the ascendants of the royal family and other major figures of the Aristocracy; related to Henry IV, to Louis XIII, Marie De Bourbon, and Duc of Guise and Mary Stuart. The second son of Andre de Laval, Guy, was the ascendant in the seventh degree to the Cardinal de Richelieu and to Jacques Brossin, the author of this work. Brossin then produces further documentary evidence, which he transcribes in its entirety including; the letter from Catherine de Medicis recommending his father for marriage with one of the descendants of Andre de Laval; the letter of Henry II asking his grandfather to raise arms on his behalf; letters from Kings and Queens recommending the Brossin family, and the Brossin family genealogy. The work terminates with the genealogy of the family of Andre de Laval as far back as Charlemagne.   Jean Barbotin and his accomplices, who had accused Brossin of not being of noble descent, undoubtedly did not realise that he would thus be accusing the Royal family, by proxy, of the same thing, and that the charge of defamation would then be transformed to that of lèse Majest é. Jean Barbotin, on the strength of the evidence gathered in this work, was found guilty of this crime and executed along with his two accomplices. It would have been unusual for such a personal family document to be printed or to be so finely bound, however, Brossin, as a result of the court case for lèse Majest é, probably had a small quantity privately printed of which he had this copy finely bound with the arms of Louis XIII, who may have required a copy as it was a matter that concerned him personally. The quality of the materials used and the gilding of this binding are particularly fine.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"BROSSIN, Jacques","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816128192847,"sku":"L2057","price":7500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/DSC_0455.jpg?v=1781795269"},{"product_id":"egnatius-giovanni-battista","title":"EGNATIUS, Giovanni Battista","description":"\u003cp\u003eSecond edition of this curious collection of exemplary episodes, issued in Paris some months after the princeps of Venice the same year. Giovanni Battista Cipelli (1478-1553), better known by his humanist nickname Egnatius, was a prominent scholar in Renaissance Venice and a trusted collaborator of Aldus Manutius. Very knowledgeable in Latin and Greek, he taught in the School of St Marcus and was appointed official orator of the Venetian Republic. On account of his philological, editorial and teaching skills, he was held in high esteem by Pietro Bembo, Marco Musuro, Marco Antonio Sabellico and even Wilibald Pirckheimer and Erasmus. His most successful work was De Caesaribus, a learned overview of the lives of the Roman, Byzantine, Frankish and German emperors, up to Maximilian I of Augsburg. An extract of the second book circulated independently as an essay on the origins of the Turks. Following the model of Valerius Maximus, Egnatius assembled a vast number of edifying stories from the lives of Venetians and other illustrious personalities of the past and present. It is divided into nine books and each of the numerous chapters is devoted to a topic (either virtue or vice). Book 8 includes a note on the invention of printing (f. 300rv) and a praise of Columbus (f. 301v). Muslims and Ottomans are also frequently mentioned, with several examples drawn especially from the life of Saladin (ff. 172r, 237rv, 242v, 265v, 326r). ). The work was published posthumously by Marco Molin, the son of Egnatius s heir and friend. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n This is a copy of the first of the eighteen books published in Paris by Bernardo Torresano on behalf of the Aldine Press over the 1550s and 1560s. Bernardo was the grandson of Andrea Torresano, father-in-law and business partner of Aldus Manutius. The Aldine enterprise tried several times to set up a branch or at least have a trusted dealer in Paris, but the attempts were all quite short-lasting and little fruitful.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"EGNATIUS, Giovanni Battista","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816128553295,"sku":"L2015","price":2750.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2015-Egnatius-1.jpg?v=1781795268"},{"product_id":"england-1","title":"ENGLAND","description":"\u003cp\u003eIn the Middle Ages the Hundred was a subdivision of a county chiefly important for its local court of justice. It had jurisdiction for trespass, covenant and debt if less than forty shillings and in these civil cases the freeholders of the hundred acted as judges. At the twice yearly full court where the criminal business was transacted the Sheriff or Lord of the hundred was sole judge. These arrangements are credited to Alfred by William of Malmesbury but may well have existed earlier. Certainly from Alfred s time until the C.16 the hundred court was the most important place of redress for the common people. However, the monetary value of its jurisdiction was not enlarged and due to the rampant inflation caused by overspending Tudor governments its practical importance declined rapidly in the later C16, though it lingered on until the legal reforms of the Victorians.  It is significant that this is the last edition of the standard and probably only work on hundred Court procedure; its obsolescence precluded reprinting. The text is in Norman-French notwithstanding the Latin title. Although it ran through a number of editions from the 1520 s onwards, all are now rare, many known only by a single copy. Myddleton succeeded Redman in his house by St. Dunstan s after his widow s remarriage and like Redman produced a significant number of legal texts, of which this is one of the rarest.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ENGLAND","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816128618831,"sku":"SN2618","price":3250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/England-SN2618-1-copy.jpg?v=1781795268"},{"product_id":"lurbe-gabriel-de","title":"LURBE, Gabriel de","description":"\u003cp\u003eVery rare, excellent second edition in French, finely printed by Simon Millanges (Montaigne s printer), of this important description of the history of the statutes of the town of Bordeaux by the historian Gabriel de Lurbe, a native of Bordeaux who published several works on the subject. The first edition was published in Latin in 1589 and then translated and expanded by the author and published in 1594. The work offers a fascinating insight into the every day life of the town as the statutes concern the regulation of its every aspect from the duties of the police and the Judiciary to fishmongers selling fresh fish or fishmongers selling salted fish (as a port town the trade in salt fish for the fleet was important). Naturally many of these statutes concern wine and give a very vivid description of the business with eleven chapters devoted to every aspect of the wine trade from the manufacture of barrels to the prohibition of the purchase of wines from areas outside Bordeaux, such as Armagnac. There is a specific regulation concerning the (very lucrative) trade with the English in wine which prohibits anyone taking an Englishman to buy wine from anyone other than the  bourgeois  of the town, and forbids English merchants from seeking to buy wine directly  sur les champs  unless with express permission from the relevant authorities. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n There are specific statutes concerning the labelling of wine, wine to be drunk in taverns, wines that are forbidden to be brought into the town, at what times wine from specific regions inland (such as the Gaillac) can be brought in town, the use of barrels, regulation of wine merchants, the growing of vines etc. These statutes are especially interesting as they clearly show the protection given to local merchants in their quasi monopoly on the wine trade and demonstrate the particular importance of this trade with the English market. Many also concern food such as butchers, the regulation of the trade in flour, fishmongers etc. Amusingly, the first line of the statute regulating  des tondeurs  or hair cutters states that it is strictly forbidden to cut the hair or wash the sheets of an Englishman if his ship was berthed within twenty leagues of the town. There are also particularly interesting statutes concerning the book trade and paper and parchment makers. A rare work, that gives fascinating insight into a town that was intimately linked, through its trade in wine, with the English.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"LURBE, Gabriel de","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816129601871,"sku":"L2053","price":1950.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2053-Lurbe-1-e1439396196472.jpg?v=1781795267"},{"product_id":"roman-catholic-church","title":"ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH","description":"\u003cp\u003eFirst edition of the official Catechism of the Catholic Church following the decrees of the Council of Trent. It is an instructive guide to either learn or teach the foundations of Catholicism, based on the Apostles' Creed, the Decalogue and the Lord's Prayer. It is not, however, a mere set of questions and responses but a lengthy treatise on most aspects of the Catholic faith for the benefit of the clergy rather than the laity; it is addressed to parish priests, whose religious education was often faulty and poor.  This editio princeps is an important specimen of the Aldine press s output, since it was published by Paolo Manuzio during his stay in Rome as the first official papal printer in history. Pius IV established this pioneering papal press in 1561, but its onerous expenses were soon laid on the Roman Commune. This is why the device on title has the symbols of the city of Rome, the coat of arms of the Commune with the famous motto SPQR and, at foot, the small Aldine dolphin twisted on an anchor with Paolo Manuzio s initials at sides. Renouard, Brunet and Graesse noticed that two different, equally valuable issues were carried out, but their order of appearance has not been established.   This is a copy from the Jesuit College of Rome. Founded in 1551 by St Ignatius of Loyola, such an epoch-making institution contributed significantly to forming the Italian and European Catholic ruling class for centuries. Here, the Jesuits developed their famous forward-looking study plan (Ratio studiorum) centred on Latin and Greek, philosophy, theology and maths; several similar colleges were successfully established by that order throughout the continent. Its massive library, comprising some very important historical bequests, was incorporated into the Italian National Library in Rome following the end of Papal rule over the city in 1870.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ROMAN CATHOLIC CHURCH","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816129798479,"sku":"L2055","price":6250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/L2055-Catechismus-1-e1439553426308.jpg?v=1781795266"},{"product_id":"segusio-da-susa-or-hostiensis-enrico","title":"SEGUSIO da Susa or HOSTIENSIS, Enrico","description":"\u003cp\u003eEarly uncommon edition of a very successful and extremely detailed legal commentary on the Decretals, updated for  modern  use and first printed in Rome in 1473. It is divided by subject matter into sections, which are identified both by sub-headings and running titles. Enrico Segusio (c. 1200-1271) was named after his hometown close to Turin, Susa. Also known as Hostiensis, he was the most prominent jurist of his time. He taught in Bologna and Paris, served Henry VIII of England as ambassador to the pope and was appointed archbishop of Embrun. At the end of his brilliant career, he was made Cardinal of Ostia and Velletri. He is mentioned by Dante in his Comedia (Paradise, XII, 82-85). This work on Roman and canon law was so successful that it was often referred to as Summa aurea, remaining for centuries an invaluable legal tool. \u003cbr\u003e\n  \u003cbr\u003e\n The splendid armorial binding of this copy suggests the property of a wealthy seventeenth-century marquis (from the crown) almost certainly a member of the Spanish nobility, which included at the time also Southern Italian families. The work would have been particularly important to a public figure with administrative and judicial responsibilities, such as a viceroy. The armorial bindings, neither halved nor quartered, suggest such an appointment. A fine copy of a handsome and very substantial book.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"SEGUSIO da Susa or HOSTIENSIS, Enrico","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816129864015,"sku":"L2040","price":12500.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/segusio-L2040-5.jpg?v=1781795265"},{"product_id":"accademici-timidi","title":"ACCADEMICI TIMIDI","description":"\u003cp\u003eAn interesting collection of rhymes written by the members of the Academy of the Shy Men, celebrating the graduation in law of one of their fellows. This important intellectual academy was active in Mantua from the beginning of seventeenth century. In folding box.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"ACCADEMICI TIMIDI","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":57816131076431,"sku":"L954","price":1250.0,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/files\/IMG_6980-scaled.jpg?v=1781795262"}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/1016\/2425\/0703\/collections\/Screenshot_2026-06-13_at_5.43.04_PM.png?v=1781369021","url":"https:\/\/sokol-books-ltd.myshopify.com\/collections\/europe.oembed","provider":"Sokol Books Ltd","version":"1.0","type":"link"}