Annales rerum anglicarum et hibernicarum regnant Elizabetha… [Bound with:] Britannia SiveFlorentissimorum Regnorum Angliae, Scotiae, Hiberniae…

Frankfurt: J. Bringer, 1616. Hardcover. Very Good. 2 works in one volume, separately titled, 8vo (190 x 120mm). 523pp., [xxv, index]; 762pp. [xxi, index]. Signatures: A-Ll (8); Mm (2), x (4), B-Ddd (8). Bringer’s woodcut printer’s device to each title of female muse holding dove with motto, “Et simplices, sicut estote prudentes, sicut serpents.” Printed marginalia. Period pigskin, elaborately tooled in blind with central lozenge of unidentified armorial device: two rosettes in chief a stork, raised right leg, surmounted by crest and helm; (Annales title lightly dampstained at gutter, Britannia title with lower right corner repaired, occasional spot at front or rear; lacking clasps, corners bumped). Early reference in Latin to front-free endpaper. The Annales is a Frankfurt reprint of the London edition of 1615; the Britannia, is the second printing in Frankfurt of the Third Edition (London: 1590). Camden’s intention with the Annales was to provide a biography of Elizabeth and a chronicle history of the Elizabethan state, with a special emphasis on foreign affairs. The Annales are coupled with here Camden’s famed work on Britain, aptly Britannia, intended principally to describe Britain as a province of the Roman Empire (hence the simple classical title). It was aimed at a classically educated international audience and until 1610 circulated only in Latin. Camden’s work on the Annales first begun in the 1580’s until he put the work aside after Elizabeth’s death in hopes that someone else better suited to the job would take it on, “…by 1608 [when he began the work again] the task seemed inescapable. [James I] was personally interested in how Camden would represent his mother, Mary, Queen of Scots [and] pressed Camden to proceed. ” (Oxford DNB). Afraid that a pirated edition was going to be printed at the King’s request, Camden completed the first three books and hastened it into print in 1615. He continued to work on the Annales for the next two years, completing it in 1617. Camden’s significant contribution to English history made him a respected member of that loose confederation of northern scholars whose zeal for learning overrode national boundaries. He is credited with stirring up heightened interest in the distinctive character of his country and establishing greater enthusiasm for national identity. This inherently English pairing of Camden’s famous life-long works the Annales and Britannia, both of the Bringer press in Frankfurt, are joined here in a fine armorial binding.