Boccaccio | The tragedies, [ca. 1554- 1555], nineteenth-century armorial red morocco gilt for John W. de Kay

Giovanni Boccaccio

The tragedies, gathered by Ihon Bochas, of all such princes as fell from theyr estates throughe the mutability of fortune since the creacion of Adam, vntil his time wherin may be seen what vices bring menne to destruccion, wyth notable warninges howe the like may be auoyded. Translated into Englysh by Iohn Lidgate, monke of Burye. London: John Wayland, [ca. 1554-5]

Folio (299 x 201 mm), title-page with woodcut border, title-page for suppressed continuation ("a memorial of suche princes...", repeating woodcut border) bound after first (bound as GG4 in most copies), nineteenth-century red morocco gilt by F.P. Hathaway, Boston for John W. de Kay, with his arms to upper cover, gilt edges, marbled endpapers, inner dentelles, title-page detached and slightly chipped at margins, title-page for suppressed continuation remounted and restored at inner margin (with some loss of woodcut border), a couple of further marginal repairs with minor loss of text

This is the third or fourth edition in English of Boccaccio's De Casibus Virorum Illustrium. Following his earlier printings in 1494 and 1527 Richard Totell issued the work again in 1554, and it has never been clearly established whether his print run, or Wayland's, was completed first.

Present in this copy is the rare title for A Memorial of Such Princes, as since the Tyme of King Richard the Seconde, Haue Been Unfortunate in the Realme of England. This title was apparently intended for a work to be issued with De Casibus. STC accepts this as the title for the true first edition of Mirrour for Magistrates, suppressed for religious and political reasons in Mary's reign and published in abridged form in 1559.

PROVENANCE:

John Wesley De Kay (1872-1938), American self-made entrepreneur, playwright, author, and socialite: gilt armorial stamps to binding and armorial bookplate; Bernard Quaritch, Ltd.: pencil collation note to endleaf

LITERATURE:

USTC 504939; ESTC S107087; STC 3178