[GUEVARA, Antonio de].

T' Gulden Boeck, van het Leve(n) ende Seynd-Brieven van den Welsprekenden Orateur en(de) Keyser Marcus Aurelius, ... Eerst gedruct t' Hantwerpen by Ameet Tavernier.Amsterdam, Jacob Pietersz Paets [printed by Herman van Borculo, Utrecht], 1612. 8vo. Title-page with an arabesque frame built up from cast fleurons and with a woodcut scrollwork decoration, 3 woodcut head- and tailpieces (including a repeat of the title decoration), 3 woodcut decorated initial letters. With the main text set in textura type, long quotations in roman, the translator's dedication in civilité and a Latin dedicatory ...

226, (2) ll. OCLC WorldCat (3 copies); Picarta (same 3 copies); STCN (2 copies); cf. Carter & Vervliet 92 & add. 7 (other eds., but the present uses their type A4); not in Simoni; for the owners, see: NNWB VI, cols. 680-681; NBG XII, col. 925.Rare edition of Guevara's extremely popular and partly fictional biography of the Roman Emperor Marcus Aurelius (AD 121-180), which made the emperor a paragon of virtue and a popular subject in art and literature. Guevara claimed to have discovered an ancient manuscript containing twenty letters written by Marcus Aurelius, publishing them in the second half of his book (leaves 121-226), but in fact he invented them and used them as a didactic and literary device. This imaginative fictional basis for his biography no doubt resulted in a much more popular book than any true story could have, for it spoke to his contemporaries and provided a model for a wise ruler. First published in Spanish in 1529, it went through dozens of editions in French (1531), English (1535) and Italian (1542). One of Guevara's fictitious anechdotes even inspired a La Fontaine fable. Cornelis van Beresteyn made the present first Dutch translation in 1562 and the Antwerp printer, punchcutter and typefounder Ameet Tavernier was granted a six-year privilege for it in 1563, publishing the first edition in 1565. Paets not only acknowledges Tavernier's first edition, he reproduces its privilege and copies its style with the arabesque frame and the use of civilité type. We have located only six other copies of the present edition, the only one outside the Netherlands being a different issue, with the imprint of the Utrecht printer Herman van Borculo.Besides the Danès bookplate, which dates from the period 1717-1732, the present copy has owners' inscriptions by the unidentified Joannes Augustinus de Langh (probably the earliest) and by P. vander Haghen, probably the Amsterdam preacher and ambassador Petrus van der Hagen (1641-1671). A good copy, with only a marginal worm hole in the last 5 leaves, not approaching the text, and some slight browning. Extremely popular, influential and partly imaginary biography of Marcus Aurelius.

• EUR 2,950.00 > Andere Währungen
• Bestellnummer: 95NDC001U79O

• Antiquariat: Asher Rare Books (Since 1830) (NETHERLANDS)