LUCK, Johann Jacob.

by Johann Jacob Luck

£9,500 · Offered by Sokol Books

An excellent copy of the first edition of this beautifully illustrated work on numismatics, with the arms of Nicolas Joseph Foucault (1643-1721), one of his age's most celebrated antiquarians. . .Johann Jacob Luck (1574-1653) was a native of Strasbourg who, after completing his legal studies, served as historiographer and genealogist for the Rappoltstein noble family between 1608 and 1623. A passionate numismatist, he owned a collection of several thousand medals and coins. The present treatise is groundbreaking in its use of coins, medals and emblems to illustrate historical events. Beginning in 1500 with Louis XII of France and ending in 1599 with Rudolf II, Holy Roman Emperor, Luck's historical treatise uses the portraits and scenes depicted on the coins and medals that it reproduces (in chronological order) as starting-points for biographical discussions of the century's most important rulers and for historical treatments of its most memorable battles and political events. This fascinating work constitutes a history of sixteenth-century Europe told through coins. "In Luck s text, coins are the driving evidentiary force for a history of Europe in the years 1500 to 1600, serving not as mere material footnotes but as a narrative itinerary for epochal events." (Stielau) . .While many of the coins reproduced in this work were in Luck's collection, others are reproduced from the earlier work .Symbola divina et humana pontificium, imperatorum, regum. by Jacob Typot (1540-1601).

• Printing: first
• Binding: Hardcover

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