Descrizione

With woodcut device on title (repeated). 4 leaves, 383, (1) pp., 16 leaves. 8vo. Contemp. brown morocco, both sides with the gilt-stamped supralibros of Jacques-Auguste de Thou, spine in 7 compartments, with gilt lettering and with his gilt monograms, outer edges gilt (discreet repairs to hinges). Hanau, Wilhelm Anton, 1598-99. A typical "Fürstenspiegel", a collection of the rights of rulers and princes, published by the first printer at Hanau. The author, Hippolyt von Colli (1561-1612), jurist and envoy to various European courts and countries, was born in Zurich to a Protestant Italian family. He was chancellor to Prince Christian I of Anhalt-Bernburg, to whom the first part of the work is dedicated, with the preface dated 1592. Befittingly, the present copy comes from the library of the greatest French book collector since Jean Grolier, Jacques- Auguste de Thou (1553-1617), famous historian and politician. He owned one of the most splendid libraries of his time. The supralibros show his coat of arms combined with the one of his second wife Gasparde de la Chastre, the first President of the Parliament of Paris, and their interlaced monograms, which are repeated on the spine. - Slight browning, more pronounced toward the end, otherwise fine. - VD 16 C 4585 (with date MDXCIX); on the binding cf. Olivier 216, 8 and 9 (illus.); not in STC or Adams or BN. LAW ; BINDINGS ;