[Genève], par les héritiers d’Eustache Vignon, 1593.
2 volumes 8vo [181 x 111 mm] of: I/ title, (3) ll. including the dedication « A Haut et puissant Seigneur de Harlay… » decorated with a banner and an initial with grotesques decorations, 403 ll., (36) ll. of table, small wormhole in the top margin of fifteen ll. of table; II/ 379 ll., (23) ll. of table.
Citron morocco, covers decorated with fillets, borders and Louvre dentelle, spine ribbed and decorated with small tools with floral designs, arabesques, stars, full and dotted lines, decorated borders, red morocco doublures decorated with gilt borders, marbled gilt edges. Doubled binding attributed to Luc Antoine Boyet in the 17th century.
First French edition 8vo printed with policy annotations from Denys de La Noue.
The masterpiece of Guichardin is one of the most impactful work of all Italian historiography.
Friend of Machiavelli, war theorist like him, Guichardin is today considered one of the very first modern historiographers, adding to the direct testimony the study of diplomatic archives and documents of the studied fact.
Les Guerres d’Italie, of which the author was an active stakeholder from 1493 to 1532, are taken from his monumental Storia d´Italia, that he wrote until his death (20 volumes).
The work is an important source for historians of the practices of modern warfare (les nuovi modi del guerreggiare, that is to say cruelties, lootings, assaults on civilians …). Like all of this writer’s works, it will be printed posthumously, in 1568. It contains the Discours politiques et militaires of the Huguenot Warrior François de La Noue, which offers a valuable analysis of the political situation in France.
“What catches our attention is the sure gaze that Guichardin boldly bears on this vast web of events which range from the descent of Charles VIII (1494) to the looting of Rome (1527), without forgetting the end of Florentine liberty (1530).”
Beautiful copy bound in citron morocco with Louvre borders, doubled with red morocco, decorated by Boyet, sold FF 30 000 (€ 4 500) in May 1988, 32 years ago. The decoration combines with the famous « bordure du Louvre » of the binding workshop of the royal printing press several tools from material specific to the gilder of Luc-Antoine Boyet (king’s bookbinder from 1698 to 1733), such as the border with fleurs-de-lys on the covers, and a palette on the back (border C and palette IV, in I. de Conihout and P. Ract-Madoux, French bindings from the 17th century, masterpieces from the Musée Condé).
Luc-Antoine Boyet was one of the masters who held the position of bookbinder of the King for the longest time. Its activity covers the second half of the reign of Louis XIV. “We find the mark of his talent,” writes Gruel, “on the books from the library of Madame la Marquise de Chamillart, that of Colbert, de la Reynie, Phebypeaux de la Vrillière, de Maurepas, and the Count of Hoym; and these books are precious gems for us today”.
From the Freteau library with handwritten ex-libris on the title.
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