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Details
CASTIGLIONE, Baldassare (1478-1529). The Courtier ... Verie necessarie and profitable for young Gentlemen and Gentlewomen abiding in Court, Pallace, or Place, done into English by Thomas Hobby. London: John Wolfe, 1588.
The first polyglot edition of this monument to Elizabethan prose, epitomizing the highest ideals of the Italian Renaissance, with English, Italian, and French text in parallel columns. Castiglione's guide to gentlemanly perfection had a wide influence throughout Europe, but nowhere more so than in England. Hoby's translation, first published 1561, was one of the most popular books of the Elizabethan age; it "left a profound mark on Elizabethan literary and stylistic practice, and Hoby's elegantly sober style was to influence Royal Society prose" (DNB). Its lasting influence is evident in Shakespeare, Robert Burton, Philip Sidney, Ben Jonson, and Spenser. ESTC S122049; see PMM 59; STC 4781.
Octavo (188 x 140mm). Woodcut borders on title-page and contents leaf, woodcut headpieces and initials (first 2 leaves sized and remargined; some light browning and staining, blank upper right corner of A1 chipped, repair to margin of L5). Early 20th-century dark diced russia (front cover detached, rear joint loose; rebacked with old spine laid down, light wear to edges). Provenance: Thomas Hutton (1565/6–1639, clergyman and religious controversialist; signature on title) – Rosenbach Collection (ID card laid in).
The first polyglot edition of this monument to Elizabethan prose, epitomizing the highest ideals of the Italian Renaissance, with English, Italian, and French text in parallel columns. Castiglione's guide to gentlemanly perfection had a wide influence throughout Europe, but nowhere more so than in England. Hoby's translation, first published 1561, was one of the most popular books of the Elizabethan age; it "left a profound mark on Elizabethan literary and stylistic practice, and Hoby's elegantly sober style was to influence Royal Society prose" (DNB). Its lasting influence is evident in Shakespeare, Robert Burton, Philip Sidney, Ben Jonson, and Spenser. ESTC S122049; see PMM 59; STC 4781.
Octavo (188 x 140mm). Woodcut borders on title-page and contents leaf, woodcut headpieces and initials (first 2 leaves sized and remargined; some light browning and staining, blank upper right corner of A1 chipped, repair to margin of L5). Early 20th-century dark diced russia (front cover detached, rear joint loose; rebacked with old spine laid down, light wear to edges). Provenance: Thomas Hutton (1565/6–1639, clergyman and religious controversialist; signature on title) – Rosenbach Collection (ID card laid in).
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