GEOFFREY of Monmouth. Britannie vtriusq[ue] regu[m] et principum origo & gesta insignia ex antiquissimis Britannici sermonis monumentis in Latinum traducta. [Paris]: Jodocus Badius Ascensius, [1517]. 4° (194 x 130mm), woodcut device on title, arms on AA8v, woodcut initials (without final blank, light waterstaining at beginning and end). Blue straight-grained morocco by H. Faulkner with his ticket, gilt spine, blindstamped and double gilt line borders round sides (hinges and corners rubbed). Provenance: faded near-contemporary English inscription on title -- John Hacket, possibly Bishop of Coventry and Lichfield (1592-1670), royalist divine and author (signature on title) -- Thomas Edward Watson (bookplate; by descent to the present owners). Second edition of Geoffrey of Monmouth's history of Britain from Brutus to the Anglo-Saxon hegemony with several chapters devoted to the Arthurian legend. Henry Faulkner was binding at Adelphi and the Strand between 1790 and 1812. He is quoted by Timperley as being 'an honest, industrious and excellent bookbinder ... scrupulously particular in the preservation of that important part of a volume, the margin ...' Adams G-445.