Antonio de Guevara's Diall of Princes, translated by Thomas North and printed by Richard Tottill and Thomas Marshe
First published in 1557, this is the second edition of Thomas North's translation of Antonio de Guevara's, Reloj de Principes or Libro áureo. It was printed by Richard Tottill and Thomas Marshe in 1568 in London.
Antonio de Guevara was a Spanish bishop and royal chronicler to Emperor Charles V. His first work, initially known as Libro áureo, was later expanded and retitled Reloj de Principes. The work was widely popular and translated into nearly every language of Europe.
The book is a pseudo-historical account of incidents and letters from the life of Marcus Aurelius, in the form of a 'mirror for princes', an educational literary genre popular in the Middle Ages and Renaissance.
As a didactic novel, it is meant to portray the life and character of the ancient leader, Marcus Aurelius, in an idealized manner for modern sovereigns to learn from. While massively popular, the book's pseudo-historical nature drew contemporary criticism for the liberties Guevara often took with his sources, or lack thereof, as he sometimes cited false sources.
An interesting aspect to note about the work is the Catholic elements that surround it. This second edition contains the original preface penned by North to Queen Mary I. The translation was published a year before her death and in it, North offers Guevara's work as something which "may profit all and can hurte none."
The prefaces to books were often utilized by authors, editors, translators, and printers to appeal to both the readers of the book and influential nobles or royals. North's characterization of the work as both profitable and not harmful is interesting within the context of Mary's reign as a Catholic monarch and her efforts to censor Protestant works.
This second edition was published 10 years after the death of Queen Mary I and the reinstatement of Protestantism as the religion of the Church of England. The inclusion of the preface may have been solely for the sake of continuity between editions, yet when considered alongside the religious unrest within England at the time, its inclusion appears significant.
The book is bound in polished calf and features gold tooling along the edges and a botanical motif in the corners. The fore-edges are speckled with red splotches and the title and date are included on the spine. Inside the cover, the remnants of two bookplates remain, seemingly removed by another owner.
The title page bears the inscription of a previous owner which appears to read, 'Michael Prad'. Within the text block, portions of the marginalia have been cut off, indicating the book has been rebound at least once.
A previous owner and/or reader has left multiple manicules throughout the text. These figurative marks were used by readers when making handwritten marginal notes and sometimes by printers to draw the reader's attention to a specific passage.
This reader's stylistic, yet detailed, rendition of a manicule features ruffled cuffs and even includes a small part of the thumb peaking above the index finger.