ESPINOSA DE LOS MONTEROS, Tomás de Heroicos hechos, y vidas de varones yllustres, asy griegos, como romanos. Paris Françisco [sic] de Prado 1567
4to. 56ff. Title and imprint within an elaborate historiated woodcut border, text and 52 full-page woodcut portraits within historiated borders, top inner corner of first 16 leaves torn with slight loss of border, a few clumsy and rather unnecessary repairs in K3, top borders of last 2 leaves just shaved, wormhole in last 2 leaves, some browning, in contemporary limp vellum, rather discoloured.
FIRST EDITION of this compendium of Plutarch’s Lives by the Franciscan, Tomás de Espinosa. In his dedication to Diego de Cuñiga, the Spanish ambassador to France, he hopes that the example of these worthy Greeks and Romans may serve as an example to a Europe beset by civil strife and religious wars. The work is prefaced by a poem in four elegiac couplets by Jean Dorat who was ennobled with the title of Royal Poet by Charles IX. A second edition was published in Buenos Aires in 1835. This is one of only very few books printed by François des Prez, the British Library possessing only two books by him, both published in 1567.Palau 82837 ‘Obra curiosa, con las páginas orladas y buenos grabados en madera’; not in Adams; RLIN locates 4 copies.
£900
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