More, Sir Thomas

Estimate

10,000 - 15,000 USD

bidding is closed

Description

More, Sir Thomas
The Vvorkes of Sir Thomas More Knyght, sometyme Lorde Chauncellour of England, wrytten by him in the Englysh tonge. London: Iohn Cawod, Iohn Waly, and Richarde Tottell, 1557
Paper, Ink

Folio (10 7/8 x 7 1/4 in.; 278 x 185 mm). Title with engraved architectural border, engraved initials, with the leaf inserted between ÇC5 & 6, but without the two blanks; paper repairs on title-page and last leaf, some tears on a few pages not affecting text within woodcut architectural border. Seventeenth-century French red morocco, gilt spine, triple gilt fillet round sides, with the Arms of Jean-Baptiste Colbert [Olivier 1296 fer 4] and his interlacing monogram in the compartments of the spine; antique repairs on the joints and inner cover.

Provenance

Jean-Baptiste Colbert (armorial binding and manuscript note "Bibliotheca Colbertina" on the title page); Mark Dineley (bookplate); acquisition: Sotheby’s London, 15 December 1982, lot 17.

Literature

STC 18076; Olivier 1296 fer 4; Pforzheimer 743

Catalogue Note

First collected edition of Thomas More works, edited by his nephew William Rastell.

Jean-Baptiste Colbert’s copy, bound in seventeenth-century French red morocco with his arms on the front cover and his ciphers on the spine.

A very beautiful copy, linking the defender of Catholicism in England during Henry VIII's reign and King Louis the XIV’s most influential minister, responsible for the “Edit de Fontainebleau” (1685), which put an end to the freedom of religion in France, ordered by Henry IV's Edit de Nantes (1598), and made Catholicism the one and only religion in France.