Details
BANDELLO, Matteo (1480?-1562). Certaine Tragical Discourses written out of Frenche and Latin ... no lesse profitable then pleasaunte.... Translated by Sir Geoffrey Fenton (1539?-1608). London: Thomas Marshe, 1567.
4° in 8's (184 x 130mm). Woodcut architectural border within single line rule, with arms of the Stationers' Company at top and initials of Thomas Marshe at foot [McKerrow and Ferguson 125]. Woodcut historiated and criblé initials. (Title inlaid, first three leaves of the dedicatory epistle soiled and repaired at corners, some later marginal soiling, occasionally heavy.) Modern brown morocco gilt. Provenance: Opening of dedication copied out in pen at upper margin of the same page; contemporary inscription on E6v; some pen trials at margins.
FIRST EDITION. Felton's translation, dedicated to Lady Mary Sydney, was taken from Boaisteau and Belleforest's Histoires tragiques, extraictes des oeuvres italiennes de Bandel (1559), and contains 13 of the novella. It was the first collection in English exclusively devoted to Bandello's tales, although William Painter's Palace of Pleasure, first published in 1566, contains 25 of the tales besides stories from Boccaccio, Marguerite of Navarre and others. Bandello's novella were the source of plots for many English plays including Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado about Nothing, Twelfth Night and The Duchess of Malfi. STC 1356.1.
4° in 8's (184 x 130mm). Woodcut architectural border within single line rule, with arms of the Stationers' Company at top and initials of Thomas Marshe at foot [McKerrow and Ferguson 125]. Woodcut historiated and criblé initials. (Title inlaid, first three leaves of the dedicatory epistle soiled and repaired at corners, some later marginal soiling, occasionally heavy.) Modern brown morocco gilt. Provenance: Opening of dedication copied out in pen at upper margin of the same page; contemporary inscription on E6v; some pen trials at margins.
FIRST EDITION. Felton's translation, dedicated to Lady Mary Sydney, was taken from Boaisteau and Belleforest's Histoires tragiques, extraictes des oeuvres italiennes de Bandel (1559), and contains 13 of the novella. It was the first collection in English exclusively devoted to Bandello's tales, although William Painter's Palace of Pleasure, first published in 1566, contains 25 of the tales besides stories from Boccaccio, Marguerite of Navarre and others. Bandello's novella were the source of plots for many English plays including Romeo and Juliet, Much Ado about Nothing, Twelfth Night and The Duchess of Malfi. STC 1356.1.
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Sale room notice
The last 3 leaves are in facsimile, and the estimate has therefore been reduced to £400-600.