Item Details
Della Historia d'Italia. Di M. Francesco Guicciardini, gentil'uomo fiorentino. Libri XX. Tra i quali sono aggiunti i libri quattro ultimi, che nell'altre impressioni non erano. Con un discorso di M. Curtio Marinello, nel quale si scrive il modo di studiar l'Historie, per reggere, & governare Stati. Opera molto necessaria & utile ad ogni Gentil'huomo. Con due tavole, l'una delle cose notabili avvenute in Italia, l'altra della materia, che si richiede à chiunque studia Histoire.
Italy: Gio. Antonio Bertano, 1580. Hardcover. Guicciardini was a lawyer and political figure in the service of the Medici pops Leo X and Clement VII. The work, in its entirety, was written between 1537 and 1540, comprising twenty volumes, first published in 1534. The work explores events that occurred between 1492 and 1534 (when Clement VII died). Critically, for *this* volume, he was striving to explore the impossibility of absolute laws and how history might function to help define and predict current and future events, rather in contrast to humanist thought and the approach of Machiavelli. This volume bears the ownership bookplate of Sir Robert Eden, 1st Baronet, of Maryland. Eden was the 23rd Proprietary Governor of Maryland (1741-1784), a British colonial official, and the last Royal Governor of Maryland. He was popular, in his position, and rather supportive of the colonist’s complaints…though he was strong opposed to armed rebellion. When revolution came, he was allowed to return to England and to removed one chest of personal items from his home (before it was burned). It is understood that this volume was among those items he saved. His sympathy for the cause of the colonists is important. On 30 December 1774 Eden wrote: “The spirit of resistance against the Tea Act, or any mode of internal taxation, is as strong and universal here as ever. I firmly believe that they will undergo any hardship sooner than acknowledge a right in the British Parliament in that particular, and will persevere in their non-importation and non-exportation experiments, in spite of every inconvenience that they must consequently be exposed to, and the total loss of their trade.” [Andrews, History of Maryland, (1929), p303]. There is an as yet unverified record that Eden made specific reference to this particular volume in a letter to the Crown arguing *against* the use of armed action in the colonies, the letter currently held by the British Library. The marginalia in this volume does appear to be that of Eden, based on numerous examples of his hand. Good+. Moderate shelf/edge wear, small closed spits at head of both hinges, spine evenly toned, spine label lacking, ownership plate at front pastedown, minor toning at preliminaries, discrete marginalia, else tight and bright. Full brown leather binding, red ink speckling at textblock edges. Small 8vo. 185pp plus preliminaries [approx. 110pp].
Dedicate to Cosimo de Medici by the nephew of Francesco Guicciardini, Agnolo Guicciardini. Item #10907
Price: $3,500.00