Elder, John

Estimate

2,500 - 3,500 USD

bidding is closed

Description

The Copie of a Letter Sent in to Scotlande, of the Arivall and Landynge, and Moste Noble Marryage of the Moste Illustre Prynce Philippe, Prynce of Spaine, to the Most Excellente Princes Marye Quene of England... London: John Wayland, [1555]
paper, ink, leather

8vo (5 1/4 x 3 1/4 in.; 133 x 83 mm). Black letter, Latin verses and titles in italics, metal and woodcut initials, contemporary marginalia; some light discoloration and marginal staining, small hole along inside margin of title-page, top margin of last three leaves shaved close. Nineteenth-century crimson straight-grain morocco paneled in blind and gilt, spine in six compartments tooled in gilt and blind with raised bands, brown endpapers, edges gilt; spine slightly rubbed.

Provenance

Sir Gilbert Eliott of Stow and Wells, Roxburghshire (armorial bookplate) — Jacob P.R. Lyell (morocco gilt ticket)

Literature

STC 7552; ESTC S105462

Catalogue Note

First and only edition. The letter was originally addressed to Robert Stuart, Bishop of Caithness, and included "verses and adages written" by his nephew Henry Stuart, Lord Darnley, who was eight years old at the time. This work not only provides a vivid account of the marriage of Philip of Spain to Mary Tudor at Winchester, but also interesting details about Darnley, who later became the notoriously feckless first husband of Mary Queen of Scots.