This lot is closed for bidding. Bidding ended on 7/25/2024
[PHILIP DE COMMINES (1447-ca. 1511), subject]. The Historie of Philip de Commines Knight, Lord of Argenton. London: Ar. Hatfield, for I. Norton, 1596. Large 8vo. Engraved title-page, family tree diagrams at rear. [xvi], 1-396, [1, “Faults escaped”] pp. Approximately 11 x 7”. Translated by Thomas Danett. Bound in contemporary full calf, boards paneled in blind, rebacked in nineteenth century brown morocco tooled in gilt in compartments, five raised bands, burgundy gilt morocco lettering label, nineteenth-century endleaves (binding worn, soiled, scuffed, title-page partially faded and trimmed close at the right margin, text somewhat toned and occasionally foxed, leaves with family tree diagrams worn at margins). Good. SCARCE FIRST ENGLISH EDITION, WITH AN EXCELLENT MODERN PROVENANCE. Bookplate of Charles Edmund Merrill, Jr. (1885-1956) on fp. Merrill was a businessman and co-founder (with Edmund C. Lynch), they created the Charles E. Merrill & Co — later known as Merrill Lynch & Company. A valuable and major primary source of 15th century European history and politics. Considered the first modern history and a classic of historical writing. De Commines was a writer and diplomat in the Courts of Burgundy and France. He was considered “the first critical and philosophical historian since classical times” (Oxford Companion to Literature). Commines gives an account of the reign of Louis XI and the Italian expedition of Charles VIII, covering the final 30 years of the 15th century. For the first time since the classical age, Commines produced a critical and philosophical history, with the result that he became known as the “father of modern history.” His writings reveal many of the less savory aspects of the reign of Louis XI, and he relates them without apology, insisting that the late king’s virtues outweighed his vices. Commines had little formal education, and he knew no Latin. Regardless, he was a considerable writer, known for his shrewd and practical insight into the political realities of his day, his psychological insight, and his forthright account of the machinations of the politicians he described.