1623 THE HISTORIE OF GREAT BRITAINE UNDER THE CONQUESTS OF THE ROMANS, SAXONS, DANES AND NORMANS JOHN SPEED 2ND EDITION FOLIO LEATHER ILLUSTRATED de John Speed - 1623

THE HISTORIE OF GREAT BRITAINE

UNDER THE CONQUESTS OF THE ROMANS, SAXONS, DANES AND NORMANS...

1623; John Speed; 2nd Edition; London, John Beale for George Humble; Full Folio Rebound Leather, Norwich, Peartree Bindery; XX/1,262/74 Pages; w9"xh13.9"; Very Rare!

ATTRIBUTES:
•Brilliant Folio full leather cover design, Fine marble detail,
•Outer/inner borders/binding in a lighter brown, Stamped borders,
•Stamped Flower centerpieces, Red morocco label/gold labeling to spine,
•Pretty woodcut headings/endings/initials throughout,
•Numerous lovely coin style illustrations, Numerous Royal Coat of Arms/Seals,
•Four lovely larger figures of Men/Women, Genealogy Trees,
•Black lined borders to pages, And a Great Read,
•Fine Display Book!

BACKGROUND:
•John Speed (1551 or 1552 – 28 July 1629) was an English cartographer and historian. He is the best known English mapmaker of the Stuart period.

•In creating this exceptional work—"incomparably more complete than all the histories of his predecessors put together" (Lowndes, 2471)—Speed was responding to "the need of the country to fix its place in the world, to contemplate, simultaneously, its past and present" (Schama II:10). Speed's Historie vividly tells of such monarchs as William the Conqueror, Edward the Confessor, Henry II ("the founder of the English common law"), Richard the Lionhearted, Edward I ("the greatest of the Plantagenets"), Henry V (who against great odds, "conquered an empire") and the monarch whose rule "came to embody a truly national consciousness," Elizabeth I (Kings & Queens, 52, 79, 120, 198). "The first of English historians as distinguished from chroniclers and annalists," Speed also offers dramatic "accounts of the important naval engagements of early England, a mention of the discovery of America by Columbus, passages on the voyages of Drake and Frobischer, and detailed descriptions of the defeat of the Spanish Armada and the expedition to Lisbon" (Rosenbach 19:728).

CONDITION:
•Condition is Good+/Very Good. New rebinding/end pages, lacking initial blank, repair to upper corners of title page/dedication page/no loss of text, faint intermittent damp staining to upper corners of some pages in beginning/middle, most pages are very good, insect tract/hole to bottom margin near gutter of last 100 pages or so, few errors in pagination/publisher's error/complete, hinges/text block are very good/excellent!
•The Historie being the second work and the contents listing refers to the first four books which were part of the Theatre, although this work (books 5 - 10) is complete in itself.