GUICCIARDINI, Francesco.

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La Historia di Italia. First edition of the author's magnum opus, a large-scale political and military history of Italy from the death of Lorenzo de' Medici in 1492 to that of Pope Clement VII in 1534. Described as "the first history of Europe" (PMM), the work situates the Italian Wars within a wider European system of states and traces the connections between political events across the continent.Guicciardini (1483–1540) was a scholar, statesman, and diplomat who served three popes, governed several Italian territories, advised the Medici, and maintained a close intellectual friendship with Machiavelli. Composed during the final three years of his life, the Historia draws upon government records and Guicciardini's first-hand experience, combining documentary evidence with a penetrating analysis of political motive, causation, and contingency. This unprecedented approach provided a new model for political historiography, followed by later thinkers including Jean Bodin, Francis Bacon, and Montaigne.The first edition was published posthumously by Guicciardini's nephew Agnolo and contains 16 of the work's 20 books; the remaining four, left unrevised by the author before his death, appeared in print separately in 1564. The first complete edition was published in 1567. It was translated into Latin, French, Spanish, German, English, and Dutch before the end of the century. This copy is annotated throughout by different Italian hands that can be dated from the mid-17th to the early

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