Lipsius, Justus

4to (9 1/2 x 6 3/4 in.; 240 x 170 mm). Text in Latin with some Greek type. Printer's device on title page and woodcut initials. Autograph inscription, in Latin, by Justus Lipsius on title-page. Manuscript annotations on first blank (recto) by at least four different hands, on second and penultimate blank (same hand); dampstain slightly affecting the inscription that remains readable. Contemporary vellum. 

Cont. vellum presentation copy to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester. Extensively annotated.

Robert Dudley, 1st Earl of Leicester (inscription on title-page) — Francis Thornhill Baring, 1st Baron Northbrook (bookplate) — Viscount Mersey (Bignor Park bookplate) — Hartung & Hartung, 2005, lot 201. acquisition: Purchased at the foregoing sale through Bernard Quaritch

Brunet III, 1093; Graesse IV, 220. 

Historic association copy of the great Dutch humanist's monograph on the soul and its relation to reason, with a presentation inscription by him to Robert Dudley. 1st Earl of Leicester, Queen Elizabeth's favorite. 

Illustrissime Heros
Leicestriae Comes
Munus a me cape: cuiuc inscription
te digna
Inter taedia mille, pericula, amgages,
Constantia te firmet.
Ille vocavit, ille ducat, perducat
ad Gloria suae, tuae,
ad Salutis nostrae metam. 
Vovet serio Iustu Lipsius celsitudinis t[uae] cliens

In 1585 the Netherlands signed a cooperation treaty with England and troops were dispatched to Flushing under the Earl of Leicester, who arrived on 19 December, to an enthusiastic welcome. In their enthusiasm, the States General conferred on him the title of Governor‑General with almost absolute authority, but in less than a year he had alienated his newfound supporters, and left for England in late 1586, only to return in July of 1587. In his inscription, Lipsius urges "constancy" on Leicester who seems to have taken this advice but without the proper admixture of "diplomacy."

Lipsius first published this Stoic essay in 1584. The work discusses the constancy of the soul which is acquired by reason to ward off the temptations due to calamity. Misfortune is sent by Providence and must be borne as a necessity, but we must still strive against evils that our country suffers. The work was extremely popular, went through fifty editions, and was translated into Dutch, German, Polish, Spanish and French. Its popularity notwithstanding, portions on Fate were placed on the Index in 1667.