Monsieur de Thou's History of His Own Time. Translated from the Geneva Edition of 1620. In two volumes. by Jacques Auguste de Thou, Bernard Wilson (translator) - 1729

London and Newark: Printed by E Say, and sold by W Meadows, B Motte and T Worral, J Stagg, T Jackson - London; and B Farnsworth at Newark, 1729 An extremely rare copy of the English translation of Jacques Auguste de Thou's major historical work, the first books of which appeared in Latin in 1604. M de Thou served both Henri III and Henri IV as a Counsellor of State, and was involved in negotiating the Edict of Nantes. His position was not continued by Marie de Medici, but he did serve in her court. He was determined that his History should be as impartial as possible - a forensic and unbiased approach (exceptional for that time) - so he wrote it in Latin as the then still universal language. It covered the period 1545 - 1608 and was issued in 4 parts. He was uniquely placed to write it and it is still considered to be an important work. The first collected edition was put together in 1620, 3 years after his death in 1617. After that, there were translations into German and then into French. Bernard Wilson, the English translator, was the Vicar of Newark between 1719 and 1772. He had a reasonably wealthy living due to his long term association with Thomas Holles, Duke of Newcastle, and he dedicated Vol I of the translation to him. The second volume is dedicated to John, Duke of Rutland, who offered him further advancement. The 2 volumes cover the period up to 1560, and include M de Thou's Last Will and Testament, a short section on 'The Author's Life' and an account of de Thou's life from his Memoirs, in 6 books. The volumes are in a modern half morocco and buckram binding, with gilt-decorated raised bands and title and volume labels to spine. The bindings show very little wear. Internally there are new endpapers and initial and end blanks. The book was in a library, and there is some evidence of removed stickers to the front endpapers and blanks but this is not obtrusive. There are small circular library stamps to title and end pages and repeated in the top gutter of every 100 pages - not affecting text but sometimes crossing the header. There are some ink library notes to the verso of both title pages. To finish the job, there are stamps only visible on the page edge when the book is closed to the top and bottom page edges. Contents: Vol I - title page 1729; author's last will and testament 2pp; dedication 4pp; de Thou's dedication to Henri IV pp i-xxviii; the author's life pp xxix-xxxii; M Lingelsheim's preface to the Geneva Edition 2pp; translator to reader 2pp; History Books I - XIV pp 1 - 699; errata (with lib stamp); Index 4pp. Vol II - title page 1730; dedication 4pp; The Life of M de Thou from his own memoirs pp i-cxli; History Books XV - XXVI pp 1 - 558; appendix pp 559 - 564; Index pp 565 - 568. Sections have decorative head and tailpieces and initial capitals. The contents are bright with some light speckling at times to the top margin (soot) and occasional marking - sometimes individual small marks, sometimes wider yellowed areas. The paper varies in thickness. Vol I :a number of edge and gutter tears: 4 have old repairs with a tape which has darkened; the remainder have been repaired using acid-free archive tape. There is occasional loss to corners or edges - and one loss including a section of text in the gutter of pp293-4. One ink annotation. Vol II: very few tears; some loss in gutter pp cix-cxi; small burn hole appearing at p227 and affecting pages to 232; mispagination 117 for p 217; couple small ink notes. Please enquire if you would like to see additional images to better assess condition.