[Rarebooks] fa: THE HEROYK LIFE AND DEPLORABLE DEATH OF KING HENRY THE FOURTH - 1612

[ArCh]

Listed now, auction ending Sunday, March 21. Images and more details can be found at the URL below or by searching for the seller name arch_in_la. 

https://tinyurl.com/yeola2dw

Thanks,
Ardwight Chamberlain
Ann Arbor, MI, USA


Pierre Matthieu; Edward Grimeston, trans.: The Heroyk Life and Deplorable Death of the most Christian King Henry the fourth. Addressed to his Immortall Memory; by P: Mathieu, Counceller and Historiographer of France. Translated by Ed: Grimeston. London: Printed by George Eld, 1612. First English edition. Small 4to (17.5 cm) in modern three-quarter calf and marbled boards with gilt-lettered spine label; [8], 135, 139-190 [i.e., 199], [1], 170, [30] pp. (pagination is erratic, but the register and text are continuous); woodcut portrait, decorations and initials. STC 17661; ESTC S112465.

Lacking four leaves (C2, C3 and G1, G2) and with one other leaf (D1) loose but present. Spine a bit sunned; some browning to the title-page and final leaf, wormhole to the first four leaves affecting two letters of the title, a few fore-edges shaved a little close, contents with occasional mild toning and offsetting, a few light spots, early owner's signature to the the title-page; otherwise complete and quite clean and sound.

First edition in English of Matthieu's life of Henry IV of France (1553-1610), published only two years after the king's assassination. In addition, the work includes "A Panegyre: Containing the Life and Heroyck deeds of the most Christian King Henry the fourth," a translation by Josuah Sylvester from an unknown source, and "The Tropheis of the Life and Tragædie of the Death of.. Henry the Great," dedicated by Sylvester to William, Lord Viscount Cranborn. Pierre Matthieu (1563-1621), historiographer of the court of Henry IV, enjoyed special access to the king and later accompanied his young heir, Louis XIII, to the siege of Montaubon, where he took ill and died.