CHURCHILL, Sir Winston (1620-1688). Divi Britannici: Being a Remark Upon the Lives of all the Kings of this Isle, from the year of the World 2855 unto the year of Grace 1660. London: Tho. Roycroft, 1675.

CHURCHILL, Sir Winston (1620-1688). Divi Britannici: Being a Remark Upon the Lives of all the Kings of this Isle, from the year of the World 2855 unto the year of Grace 1660. London: Tho. Roycroft, 1675.
2o (362 x 222 mm). Engraved title vignette and numerous engraved heraldic devices. (Some light staining.) Contemporary red morocco, covers with gilt panels surrounding the ARMS OF CHARLES II, spine with black morocco lettering piece, edges gilt (repair to spine ends, light wear to edges). Provenance: William Legge (1672-1750), 1st Earl of Dartmouth (signed "Dartmouth" on verso of the title); Major J.R. Abbey (bookplate).

FIRST EDITION WITH THE ARMS OF CHARLES II of this famous history of England through Charles II. "Churchill's extreme royalist sentiments led him to devote his learning and leisure to the composition of a kind of apotheosis of the kings of England, which he dedicated to Charles II, and published in 1675..." (DNB). Churchill, father of John Churchill, 1st Duke of Marlborough, was an ancestor of his 20th-century namesake. Wing C-4275.