$2,700
Estimate: $1,500 - $2,500
The Collection of Victor Niederhoffer part II
Auction: September 19, 2019 11:00:00 AM EDT
London: Richard Field For Thomas Wright, 1595. Translated by Thomas North. Second North edition. Folio. Leaf size 12 1/2 x 7 7/8 inches; 31.8 x 20.5cm., [14], 865, 862-889, 900-1173, [29]pp. Illustrated with woodcut portraits and other woodcut decorations throughout. Bound in 18th-century blind-paneled brown calf and morocco spine label, with rubbing to joints and extremities, some chipping to spine ends; bound with mid 17th-century waste-paper paste-downs, 18th-century binder’s blanks at front and back, lacking integral preliminary blank, paper repairs to title page and leaf *ii, a few gatherings with moderate toning, with some foxing scattered throughout, leaves 3E6-3F4 with moderate staining, a few chips to margins. Early ownership signature, dated 1691, to title page in ink. STC 20067.5; ESTC S115991.
North’s translation from the French of Plutarch’s Parallel Lives is notable as a source for several of Shakespeare’s plays: Julius Caesar, Cornelius, Anthony and Cleopatra. And as the 11th edition of the Encyclopedia Brittanica has it, “It is almost impossible to overestimate the influence of North’s vigorous English on contemporary writers, and some critics have called him the first master of English prose.”
Thomas North, 1535-1604, English justice of the peace, military officer, and translator.