BOCCACCIO, Giovanni.
£17,500 · Offered by Sokol Books
.Two of the first editions of Giovanni Boccaccio s (1313-1375) Decameron, translated into English and printed by Isaac Jagaard (? 1627), printer of Shakespeare s First Folio. The Decameron was translated into English remarkably late, having previously been read by English readers in the original Italian or via the French translation. The anonymous translator states that the patronage of Sir Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery (1584-1650) supported the publication of the pioneering first English edition as well as the second edition of Volume 1. Herbert was a prominent courtier and nobleman, and formed one half of the incomparable pair of brethren to whom Shakespeare s First Folio was dedicated in 1623. The first edition and Vol 1 of the second edition of The modell of VVit, Mirth, Eloquence, and Consueration are present in this copy; a second edition of Vol 2 was not published. .The 1620 edition follows the Italian source text in its composition (Armstrong, Guyda. Paratexts and Their Functions in Seventeenth-Century English Decamerons , 2007), but some elements are omitted: two tales are replaced for being unsavoury to contemporary English tastes, for example the last tale of the Third day is substituted for the story of the prudent princess Serictha. Both editions are deluxe products in folio format, generously illustrated with decorative title-pages, woodcuts, ornaments, and illuminated capital letters. (Guyda, 2007). The books were marketed as forms of .entertainment, with
- Binding: Hardcover
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