GUEVARA, Antonio de.

by Antonio de Guevara

£21,500 · Offered by Sokol Books

.A very good copy, in an attractive contemporary English binding, of the second, enlarged English edition of this most influential Renaissance mirror for princes , first published in Castilian as Relox de Príncipes (1529) by the Franciscan Antonio de Guevara (1481-1545), court historiographer of Charles V. This English edition includes, for the first time, the translation of Guevara s treatise for courtiers, Aviso de privados (1539). This English version by the jurist Thomas North (1535-1604), chiefly based on the French, is listed among Shakespeare s sources for Henry VIII (1613, with John Fletcher) (McCarthy, p.32). It is almost impossible to overestimate the influence of North s vigorous English on contemporary writers, and some critics have called him the first master of English prose (Chrisholm, p.759).. . .. Dial of Princes gathers an array of moral counsels. The protagonist is a fictionalised version of the Philosopher-Emperor Marcus Aurelius, whose autobiographical Meditations provide the main source. North s dedicatory preface contains some interesting information on the processes through which the teachings of Guevara, originally of great use and profit to the Spaniards, can by means of their translation and appropriation be made profitable for English readers . North combines the languages of political and moral philosophy with the lexical fields of financial and commodity exchange to promote his translation and make the work relevant for a wider readership (F

• Binding: Hardcover

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