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‎Historiarum sui temporis. 2 vols. - [THE 'ARISTOCRATIC' FOLIO-EDITION]‎

‎Paris, Ambrose & Drouart, 1606. Folio (350 x 240 mm). 2 volumes uniformly bound in contemporary full vellum with tome-number in contemporary hand to spines. Bindings lightly soiled. Vol. 1 with oblong spot to upper two compartments of spine. Front free end-paper in vol. 1 closely annotated in contemporary hand. A few occassional marginal annotation in contemporary hand throughout. A fine wide-margined copy. (16) including the engraved title-page, 739, (37) pp. (4), 670, (38) pp.‎

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‎Rare second folio edition, third overall, of Thou’s famous ‘History’ – a work that, uncommon for the period, was universal rather than national in scope and famously impartial in judgement. It kept being read intensively studied throughout the 17th and 18th century. “De Thou’s pride in the appearance of his library (…) extended, naturally enough, to his own works. Since the second edition of 1604 had been hurriedly printed in octavo, de Thou now brought out the first part of his ‘History’ in the properly elegant folio form again. He always had some copies printed on especially fine paper, partly for royal gifts. Thus, the almost silmultaneous appearance of the second and third edition editions, along with the reprint of the first part in folio form, may be due not so much to commercial demand as to the fact that the two editions were destined to different readers, the second to assiduous but penurious scholars, the third [the present] to that of aristocracy which prided itself on a show of learning” (Kinser, The Works of Jacques-Auguste de Thou). Kinser 3-I, 3-II‎