MARTINUS Strepus

£32,500 · Offered by Sokol Books

Magnificent copy of this grand French chronicle and history of the popes in a stunning early 17th-century binding probably from the workshop of Florimond Badier, one volume rubricated in a contemporary hand. The chronicle in its present form was assembled from that of Martin Polonus (d. 1278), which ends in 1277 with the burial of John XXI. It was continued up to Urban V (1362) by Echard Verneron (Canon of Liege), and then in the second volume from the texts of 'plusiers croniqueurs', who include: Jean de Troyes, Gaguin, Jean de Montreuil and Jean Castel. Volume I remains an important source for the history of the Avignonese papacy. The second volume comprises a history of France in the period from 1399 to 1503, including the collapse (c. 1500) of the Parisian bridge where Verard's shop was located, forcing him to move to the address on colophon of vol II and giving a date ante qua non for the production of the work. The second volume is also an important historical document, for the later periods of the Hundred Years War, from the high point of the English conquest up to their expulsion from the whole of France except Calais. Martinus was Martin Strebski, born in Troppau, a Dominican friar, papal chaplain and penitentiary under Clement IV and succeeding popes, and finally archbishop of Gnesen. His 'Chronica Pontiicum et Imperatorum' is a history of the world, and was "the favourite handbook of the later Middle Ages" (Catholic Encyclopaedia). It enjoyed a broad readership and

• Binding: Hardcover

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