Francesco. L’historia d’Italia.

by GUICCIARDINI

£7,500 · Offered by Henry Sotheran Ltd

GUICCIARDINI, Francesco. L’historia d’Italia. Florence: Lorenzo Torrentino . 1561. Two vols, 8vo. Contemporary French brown calf, gilt-fillet border to covers, gilt fleuron to centres, spines blind-ruled in compartments between raised bands, gilt fleurons to centres and 18th-century paper label with titles in ink, shelf-labels at foot, edges gilt and gauffered in floral design , vellum waste guards from two fifteenth-century manuscripts; pp. I: [16], 480; II: 481-1295, [1]; title within architectural woodcut border, woodcut portrait of the author, woodcut initials; spine ends repaired, extremities a little worn, wanting ties; occasional light staining and ink marks, but overall a very good, crisp copy; manuscript index in a neat, early hand to front free endpapers of vol. I; “whose hors” in a 16th-century hand to rear free endpaper of vol. II; ownership signatures “Afletcher” and “Jos: Arrowsmith” to titles ( see below ). First octavo edition, published the same year as the first folio edition, of Guicciardini’s historiographical milestone, preserved in an attractive contemporary French binding, and with an interesting English and Scottish provenance. Arguably the high point of Italian humanist historiography, the Historia d’Italia (History of Italy) is celebrated for both its analytical rigour and breadth of research, being the first history to demonstrate “the synchronistic interdependence of political events all over the [European] continent” ( PMM 85). Francesco Guicciard

• Binding: Hardcover

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