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| [THE HECTOR BOECE HISTORY OF SCOTLAND]
BOETHIUS DEIDONANUS [BOECE], Hector First complete edition (second edition overall). Folio (the pages 32 x 20.5 cm). Contemporary vellum, the spine lettered in large brown gothic script. Collates [1 l.], 6 ll. (title, preliminaries), 22 ll. (introductory matter and index), ll. 1-402, [1 l.]. Woodcut device on title, woodcut headpiece at Liber I, seven-line woodcut initials at chapter heads. Spine split in two places, with loss of two letters, professionally repaired, remnant of small shelf label on spine, edgewear to ends of spine and corners, crinkling and minor staining on covers, traces of old ties, gutters of endpapers and title repaired, engraved armorial bookplate of Duque de Medinaceli y Santisteban and probably his small shelf label on front pastedown, repaired small wormhole on first 39 leaves not affecting legibility, occasional light browning to pages, the text block tight, strong and generally bright. The first edition, comprising 17 books, had been published in 1526;
books 18 and 19 thus appear here in first edition. In Holinshed’s
Chronicles of England, Scotlande and Irlande, 1577, the
greater part dealing with Scotland is taken from Boece’s History
(Cambridge History of English and American Literature (1907–21),
vol. 3, Renascence and Reformation). Thus, Boece provided, through
Holinshed's second edition of 1587, a great deal of the Scottish
flavor in Macbeth (see Liber XII for Duncanus,
Maccabeus, Banquho and Magduffus) and other Shakespearian plays.
The History was also translated into French by Nicholas
Nicolay d’Arfeville, cosmographer to Henri II, and obtained
wide currency on the Continent. Adams B-2309; Brunet I, 1031; Graesse
I, 467. |