El cavallero determinado, Traduzido de lengua Francesa en Castellana. Por Don Hernando da Acuna.
En Anveres [Antwerp]: En l’Oficina Plantiniana, Cerca la Biuda, Iuan Moreto [widow of Plantin and Jan Moretus], M. D. XC I. [1591]. Illustrated with an engraved title vignette of a knight on horseback with background and 20 full-page etchings, attributed to Pieter van der Borcht. First Plantin edition. In contemporary limp vellum. Title on spine lettered in ink. Edges tinted in red. Roman type. 20 verse lines, and headline. Large floriated and historiated woodcut initials, ornamental tailpieces, printer's device at the end. 8º: *–**8, A–N8, O4 [O4 blank, its residual part mounted to pastedown]; (32), 208, (8) p. A few stains on the binding, rear panel rubbed at lower left corner. Title page artistically restored at the lower margin, with no effect on the text. Last leaf (O4) cut, the residual part mounted on pastedown. Inside clean, illustrations are sharp, the margins wide. An attractive copy, in fine condition.
Scarce, illustrated Spanish edition, the first by Plantin, of La Marche’s allegorical work Le chevalier délibéré.
A beautiful 16th-century edition of this popular allegory with the suite of twenty-one splendid etchings, attributed to Pieter van der Borcht. Translated into Spanish by Hernando de Acuna (c.1520–1580) the much-esteemed poet and translator of the Spanish Golden Age.
Le chevalier délibéré is the most important poetic work of Olivier de La Marche (1422–1502), the Burgundian courtier, poet and chronicler, “a didactic poem describing a knight's search for salvation through the vehicle of a quest. At first, he is impulsive, leaving his house par une soudaine achoison, on the spur of the moment. He is started along the way by Thought, who brings him to a realization of his soul's unprepared state and who acquaints him with the encounters he must face with the henchmen of Atropos, Goddess of Death: Accident and Debility. The knight as Author is befriended by the hermit Understanding and eventually arrives at the house of Study where Fresh Memory begins his real instruction.” (Caroll, 1999.)
USTC 440151; Imhof M-5; Brunei 111:782; Hollstein Dutch 111:106, 473–493; Palau VII 130356.
Bibliography: Caroll, C. W. (ed.): Olivier de La Marche. Le Chevalier delibere (The Resolute Knight). (Medieval & Renaissance Texts & Studies. Volume 199). Tempe: Arizona Center for Medieval and Renaissance Studies, 1999. p. 4. Imhof, D.: Jan Moretus and the Continuation of the Plantin Press. A Bibliography of the Works published and printed by Jan Moretus I in Antwerp (1589–1610). Vol. I. (A–M). Leiden: Brill, 2014. pp. 437–438.
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Price: €12,000.00