LIVY, Titus; Philemon HOLLAND ( translator ). The Romane Historie … Also, the Breviaries of L. Florus: with a Chronologie to the whole Historie: and the Topographie of Rome in old time. Translated out of Latine into English, by Philemon Holland, Doctor i…

LIVY, Titus; Philemon HOLLAND ( translator ). The Romane Historie … Also, the Breviaries of L. Florus: with a Chronologie to the whole Historie: and the Topographie of Rome in old time. Translated out of Latine into English, by Philemon Holland, Doctor i…The First Complete English Livy LIVY, Titus; Philemon HOLLAND (translator). The Romane Historie Also, the Breviaries of L. Florus: with a Chronologie to the whole Historie: and the Topographie of Rome in old time. Translated out of Latine into English, by Philemon Holland, Doctor in Physicke. London: Adam Islip. 1600. Folio. Contemporary English calf, covers gilt and ruled in blind to a panel design, with gilt arabesque centrepieces, cornerpieces

The First Complete English Livy

LIVY, Titus; Philemon HOLLAND (translator). The Romane Historie … Also, the Breviaries of L. Florus: with a Chronologie to the whole Historie: and the Topographie of Rome in old time. Translated out of Latine into English, by Philemon Holland, Doctor in Physicke. London: Adam Islip. 1600.

Folio. Contemporary English calf, covers gilt and ruled in blind to a panel design, with gilt arabesque-centrepieces, cornerpieces incorporating fleurs-de-lys and crowns (see below), ties and endpapers renewed, corners skilfully restored, sometime sympathetically rebacked, spine gilt in compartments, raised bands ruled in gilt, gilt black morocco lettering-piece; pp. [x], 804, 809–1351, 1354–1403, [43], large woodcut printer’s device to title-page, woodcut portraits of Elizabeth I to verso of title-page, and of Livy to A4v, woodcut decorated and factotum initials, woodcut head- and tailpieces; contemporary ink marginalia and underlining to 8 pp.; extremities and boards slightly rubbed; bound without first blank, final blank partly torn away, a little browning (mainly to margins), occasional stains, outer corners of first 3 ff. skilfully restored (not affecting text), outer corners and lower margin of final 3 ff. reinforced; overall a very good copy.

First edition of the first complete translation of Livy into English, and the earliest major publication of Philemon Holland (1552–1637), in a handsome contemporary binding possibly from the circle of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (1594–1612).

Holland’s Livy, his first published translation, was the first in a series of unabridged translations of canonical Latin authors that established his reputation as the ‘translator generall in his age’ (Pforzheimer 495). The present work gave English readers their first complete Livy and quickly became one of the most influential classical histories available in the vernacular. ‘Holland claimed to have written the whole manuscript with the same pen: “a monumental pen” says Fuller, which “he solemnly kept”, and which ultimately was enclosed in silver by a lady of his acquaintance’ (DNB), commemorating the scale and ambition of the undertaking.

The translation is frequently cited among the intellectual sources of Shakespeare’s Coriolanus.

While Thomas North’s Plutarch supplied the narrative framework, Holland’s Livy appears to have contributed a broader political temper to the play, one sceptical of purely martial heroism and more attentive to negotiation, compromise, and civic pragmatism. The work’s influence continued well into the seventeenth century; during the English Civil War it was read across ideological divisions – by constitutional theorists such as Sir Francis Nethersole, by Leveller writers, and by Royalist pamphleteers – for its complex treatment of Rome’s transition from monarchy to republican government.

Provenance: Possibly from the circle of Henry Frederick, Prince of Wales (1594–1612), eldest son and heir apparent of James I, widely admired by contemporaries for his learning and intellectual seriousness, and the founder of a substantial and carefully assembled library said to have contained more than a thousand volumes. Bindings associated with the prince’s collection are known to employ crowned fleur-de-lys badge tools of the same decorative type as those found on the present volume (see British Armorial Bindings Online, stamps 14, 15, 23, and 29). The large strapwork centrepiece belongs to a recognised group of high-quality London ‘centrepiece’ bindings produced for patrons at the upper end of the trade. The workshop responsible appears to have had connections with the printing house of John Bill, later King’s Printer from 1617 (Pearson, ‘English centrepiece bindings, ca. 1560–1640, in Manchester libraries’, no. 008(g)).

Pforzheimer 495; ESTC S114001.

SKU: 2114463