Beschreibung
Leiden: Chez les Elzeviers. 1648. 12mo. Late 19th-century full vellum with yapp edges, red morocco lettering-piece to spine, all edges gilt; pp. [xxiv], 765, [19], with engraved title-page, woodcut initials, head-, and tailpieces; light spotting to vellum, however an attractive copy. Provenance: Cancelled ownership inscription to title (contemporary?), ownership inscription 'jean paul Fesnim' to title; modern bookplate to front pastedown. First Elzevir edition of the celebrated memoirs of the French humanist chronicler Philippe de Commines (1447-1511). The Mà moires was first published between 1524 and 1528, achieving immediate success with numerous reprints, and earning the unique distinction, among French-language texts, of never having gone out of print. The first part, written in the 1480s, focuses on the reign of Louis XI, particularly his rivalry with Charles the Bold, while the second part, composed in the 1490s, examines Charles VIIIâ s Italian campaign. Commynes, who served in a diplomatic capacity under both French monarchs, devotes particular attention to the rise and fall of the Florentine preacher Savonarola and the ultimate failure of French military and political ambitions in Italy. Commynes' "graphic style â ¦ and above all the keenness of his insight into the motives of his contemporaries, an insight undimmed by undue regard for principles of right and wrong, make this work one of the great classics of history" (Encyclopaedia Britannica, online). Often referred to as the "French Machiavelli", he shares certain superficial affinities with the Italian political thinker, particularly in his pragmatic and unsentimental approach to power. Willems 634; Tchemerzine III, p. 468 ("jolie à dition elzà virienne trà s recherchà e"). Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers 2110837
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