LES MEMOIRES

Leyden: Chez les Elzeviers, 1648. First Elzevier Edition. 135 x 75 mm. (5 1/4 x 3"). 12 p.l., 765, [19] pp.
ATTRACTIVE DARK BLUE MOROCCO, GILT, BY NIÉDRÉE (stamp-signed on front turn-in), covers with French fillet border, raised bands, spine compartments with sea lion crest of Sir Richard Tufton at center, curling tendrils at corners, gilt lettering, densely gilt turn-ins, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt. With engraved title page featuring four tondo portraits and the French royal arms. Verso of front free endpaper with ink monogram of Edwin Wolf II; front pastedown and front flyleaf with tipped-on old dealer descriptions. Willems 634 (citing this copy among the handsomest offered at auction); Rahir 630. ◆A little browning, mostly to edges, of leaves in the first and last couple of quires, one leaf with corner replaced (away from the text and probably before printing), other trivial signs of use internally, but A VERY APPEALING COPY, the text quite clean and fresh, and in a lustrous binding with few signs of wear.

This is a distinguished copy of the famous "Memoirs" that comprise the first critical and philosophical history to be written after antiquity; they deservedly earned for Commines (ca. 1445 - ca. 1511) the appellation of "father of modern history." In this work, Commines chronicles the reign of Louis XI and the Italian expedition of Charles VIII, covering most of the three decades beginning in 1464. Britannica says that "the graphic style of his narrative and above all the keenness of his insight into the motives of his contemporaries, an insight undimmed by undue regard for principles of right and wrong, make this work one of the great classics of history." Willems describes this Elzevier edition as "admirably executed," and notes that "well-preserved copies" fetch high prices, citing our copy from the Tufton sale as one such example. Sir Richard Tufton (1813-71) was the natural son of Henry Tufton, Earl of Thanet, and succeeded to the earl's estates on his father's death in 1849. The "sea lion"--literally the head and forelegs of a lion with a fish-like lower body--stamp on our binding is the crest from his coat of arms. The handsome binding is the work of Parisian artisan Jean-Edouard Niédrée (d. 1864), who was known for his skillful work and for the great care he took to preserve margins in the books he bound..