Beschreibung:

HIGDEN, Ranulph (d. 1364, O.S.B.). Polycronicon . Translated from Latin into English by John Trevisa (1326-1412). Edited, with continuation, by William Caxton (ca. 1420-1491). [Westminster:] William Caxton [between 2nd July and 20th November, 1482] Chancery 2° (261 x 192 mm). Collation: a-b 8 c 4 (a1 blank, a2 r Caxton's preface Prohemye , incipit: Grete thankynges lawde and honoure we merytoryously ben bounde to yelde and offre unto wryters of hystoryes , a4 r The Table , incipit: Abraham bo. 2 ch. 10 , c4 v blank); 1-28 8 ξ 2 (1/1 blank, 1/2 r Trevisa's dyalogue between a clerk and his lord on the use of English translation and relative merits of prose and verse, incipit: Syth the tyme that the grete and high tonr of babilone was bylded men have spoken with dyverse tongues , 1/4 r The Epystle of sir Johan Trevisa chapelayn unto lord Thomas of Barkley upon the translacion , 1/5 blank, 1/6 r book 1 chapter 1, incipit: After solempne and wyse wryters of Arte and of scyence that had swetenes , 2/2 v blank, ξ1 v Explicit liber quartus , ξ2 blank); 29-48 8 49 4 (29/1 r book 5 chapter 1, incipit: Marcianus wedded theodocius suster and was Emperour seven yere, 49/3 v translator's colophon: This translacion is ended on a thursdaye the eyghtenthe daye of Apryll the yere of our lord a thousand thre honderd and lvii , 49/4 r Caxton's prologue to the continuation, incipit: Thus endeth the book named Proloconycon made and compiled by Ranulph monk of chestre ... Therfore I William Caxton a symple persone have endevoyred me to wryte , 49/4 v blank); 50 52-55 8 (50/1 r final book, incipit: Thenne folowyng this fore wreton booke of Prolicronycon , chapter 1, incipit: In the yere of oure lord a Thousand thre honderd eyght and fyfty in October Robert kuolles a Capytayne , 55/7 r Caxton's colophon: And here I make an ende of this lytel werke as nygh as I can fynde ... prayenge all them that shall see this symple werke to pardone me of my symple, and rude wrytynge. Ended the second day of Juyll the xxii yere of the regne of kynge Edward the fourth and of the Incarnacion of our lord a thousand four honderd foure score and tweyne. Fynysshed per Caxton , 55/7 v and 55/8 blank). 444 leaves (of 450; lacking sheet 55/4.5 and fo. 55/7, supplied in facsimile, and the three blanks a1, 1/1 and 55/8). Bastarda type 4:95. 40 lines and headline, signatures. Initial-spaces with guide-letters. Contemporary manuscript rubrication: initials, paragraph-marks, and two sets of year reckonings in the margins (dates reckoned from Abraham onwards, restarting with King David and again with the Christian era, as well as years within reigns). (13 leaves supplied from three other copies: a3 or a6, a4 or a5, 47/2-7, 53/2, 54/1, 54/6-7 and 55/3; remargining of a2-8, b1, 54/1, 54/6-8, 55/1-3 and 55/6 in a few cases affecting signatures or just shaving the text; manuscript marginalia occasionally cut into; one or two tears mended, a few tiny holes, upper outer blank corner of fo. 14/1 replaced, some insignificant stains.) Mid-19th-century English brown morocco over thick pasteboard, tooled in gilt and blind, edges gilt. Provenance : mid-17th-century English antiquary in the circle of Sir Simonds D'Ewes (1602-1650, his collection now in the Harleian Library, B.L.) and Christopher, 1st Baron Hatton (his early manuscripts at Bodley), whose Latin manuscripts of Higden's Polycronicon he compared to two other "Latine coppyes in the publique Library at Oxford" as well as to this copy of Caxton's edition of Trevisa's version (marginal notes on pp. 38/4 v , 44/1 v and 49/3 v ); Beriah Botfield, bought from Pickering not after 1861 (De Ricci, Census 49.71). FIRST EDITION OF THE CORNERSTONE OF EARLY ENGLISH HISTORICAL PROSE. Higden's Polycronicon , a world history from the Creation to 1360 A.D., was translated by Trevisa at the command of Thomas, Earl of Berkeley (d. 1361). For his edition Caxton modernised the translation - and somwhat have chaunged the rude and old englyssh, that