Description
The historie of Guicciardin… London: Richard Field, 1618. Folio, pp.[x] 821 [ix], woodcut head and tailpieces, decorative initials, printer's device on title page, contemporary calf, spine gilt in compartments, worn at head and tail, rubbed at edges and corners, minor marginal dampstaining
Footnote
Note: STC 12459; Lowndes III 954; Pforzheimer II 442; Huntingdon CL 139; Hazlitt II 261; Graesse III, 178n; Alden 618/55: "In book 6, discoveries of Columbus, Vespucci, & others are discussed." Printing and the Mind of Man 85 (1st edition). Not in Sabin.
First English translation of "the basis of all later works on the beginning of modern history" (Leopold Von Ranke), here revised and part of the fourth book reinstated, absent from the Italian and Latin editions. It covers both the domestic affairs of Italy, and its European encounters from 1494-1532, the internal debate about the governance of Florence, whether it should be popular or aristocratic; alliances of heads of state; the European debut of syphilis; the collision of French and Spanish interests in Italy; the discovery of the New World; the league against the Venetians; the expulsion of the French 'barbarians' from Italy; the threat of invasion from Henry VIII of England; the league of Cognac, and the discoveries of Columbus, Vespucci and others.
Provenance: Earl of Macclesfield, 19th century bookplate; Shirburn castle, blind stamp to the first two pages.