[Petites Républiques]

£950 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

An appealing little collection of eight compact volumes. Uniformly bound and decorated in gilt, they bear the names of the regions they treat in gold on morocco labels, with ‘vol’ on the spines without specific numbers. In the present group are Turciae (Turkey), Persiae (Persia), Sueciae (Sweden), Daniae (treating Denmark and Norway), Scotiae (Scotland), Hiberniae (Ireland), Galliae (France), and Angliae (England). They form part of a series of 35 such pocket-volumes issued by Elzevir between 1625 and 1649, often known as the Republics ( Respublicae ) or Petites Républiques . These accessible volumes from Amsterdam seem perfect for armchair travel. Few complete sets exist in libraries, and there are only a handful of partial sets or single volumes, solely in Europe. They all have fully illustrated title pages relevant to the region discussed, except Hibernae , which seems to go with Scotiae (in whose title page it is mentioned). Three additional full-page illustrations in Persiae are of interest, at least one of which depicts the raiment of ‘maidens’ specifically. Additionally, of particular note are annotations on the last two pages of Sueciae , apparently by a staunch Catholic, who scribbles over phrases celebrating the Lutheran church, crosses out a listed line of Lutheran Archbishops of Uppsala, and adds a word in the margin that is probably pestim , Latin for ‘a plague’, ‘a pestilence’, or ‘a curse’. Provenance: each volume in the set has an armorial ex libris with the L

• Year: 1627

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