Lot 163
Major, Johannes - Heinsius, Nicolaus
Rare Books, Manuscripts & Photographs
Auction: 16 January 2008 at 11:00 GMT
Description
Historia maioris Britanniae, tam Anglie quam Scotiae. [Paris]: Jodocus Badius Ascencius, 1521, first edition, 4to, large woodcut of a printing shop dated 1520 on title, woodcut coat-of-arms on title verso, criblé initials, occasional early underlining and marginalia, seventeenth century vellum
Footnote
Provenance: From the library of Nicolaus Heinsius (1620-1681), eminent Dutch classical scholar, sold in 1683 [inscription on front free endpaper].
Note: A good clean copy. John Major's Historia "takes the story of Scotland and England as far as the marriages of Henry VII's children. Major's political theory has drawn attention to it... and it was possibly in order to propagate the idea of union between Scotland and England that he undertook the work. ... He holds that the first law of the historian is to write the truth, and this anxiety for truth appears again and again in the course of his book. He applies scholastic technique to the material at his disposal, accepting nothing without examination... not afraid to disagree even with Bede (whom he regards as the chief of English historians), on occasion, freely admitting his inability to offer a definite judgment" - Rev. Anthony Ross: "Some Scottish Catholic Historians", in The Innes Review, I, 1950, p. 6; Adams M228, Renouard III, p. 62