Les mémoires de messire Philippe de Commines, S.r d'Argenton. Dernière édition.

18mo: [24]-765-[19] pp. (sm. stain on the title, occ. spotting).

19th-c. midnight blue straight-grain morocco, sign. Simier, boards decorated with a gilt roll grimped with a gilt fillet and a blind chain, gilt central coat of arms, gilt decorated spine with five thin raised bands, gilt wavy roll on the cuts, gilt hacks on the turn-ins, sky blue doublures framed with a gilt roll and bordered with a blind roll, a.e.g. (sl. rubbing on the boards, corners sl. bumped). Nice copy.

First Elzevier ed. of Commines' widely read chronicle history of the reigns of Louis XI and Charles VIII of France, covering the years 1461-1498. "Admirablement exécutée" (Willems); "le Commines compte parmi les plus beaux livres imprimés par les Elzevier" (BB). Engr. title with the coat of arms of France and medallion portraits of Louis XI, Charles VIII, Charles the Bold and Emperor Frederick III.
Ref. Willems 634. - BB I:660.
Prov. Charles Stuart, 1st Baron Stuart de Rothesay (1779-1845), British ambassador to France and Russia (gilt coat of arms and ms. mention). - Christopher Sykes (1831-1898), English politician, Conservative Member of Parliament from 1865 to 1892 (armorial bookpl. and ms. mention dated London, 1855). - Archibald Primrose, 5th Earl of Rosebery (1847-1929), British Prime Minister from 1894 to 1895 and author of biographical works (gilt armorial bookpl. on leather label and ms. mention dated June 1894). Ref. "Oxford Dictionary of National Biography" (online ed.).