[Marcin Kromer's Polish Chronicle] Kromer Marcin - Polonia: Sive De Origine Et Rebus Gestis Polonorum Libri XXX, [Kolonia] 1589

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Due to the fact that we have been operating on the antique market for many years, we have extensive experience in acquiring valuable objects. We will help you obtain the most sought-after works in Poland.

Today, an exceptionally rare item, an outstanding polonicum:

KROMER Marcin

POLONIA: SIVE DE ORIGINE ET REBUS GESTIS POLONORUM LIBRI XXX

Oratio funebris Sigismundi Primi Regis, deque situ, populis, moribus, magistratibus et Republica regni Poloniae, libri duo. His accesserunt recens ad historiae continuationem, quae sequens pagina demonstrat et chartae geographicae cum Poloniae, Prussiae, Masoviae, Russiae etc. tum etiam Lithuaniae, Livoniae et Moscoviae, aeneis formis expressae.

Coloniae Agrippinae [Kolonia] 1589. In Officina Birkmannica, sumptibus Arnoldi Mylij, folio, k. [10], pp. 846, k. [27], maps 2 (map of Poland by Wacław Grodecki and map of Lithuania by Maciej Strubicz, labels, initials (woodcuts)

E. XX, 281-282. The first collective edition of the works of Marcin Kromer (1512-1589), bishop of Warmia and historian, secretary of Prince Sigismund Augustus and advocate of Polish affairs at the Reich Diets and the Council of Trent. "Polonia" contains the most important historical and political works of Marcin Kromer, and is a comprehensive edition of Kromer's encyclopedia of knowledge about the past and present of Poland" (H. Barycz, PSB, vol. XV, p. 324).

Kromer's Chronicle is a book intended for foreigners, which showed the power of the Polish state. It enjoyed enormous popularity, and by the end of the 16th century, as many as five Latin editions and a German translation were published. It was not until 1611 that a Polish translation was published.

Kromer's work is divided into 30 books, each of which is devoted to a specific era, limited by the reign of one or several rulers. Book I is of a different nature, having the style of a polemical treatise, in which the author tries to solve the problem of the origin of the Slavs and individual Slavic nations" (Wikipedia).

The work is dedicated to King Stefan Batory. It contains a map of the Grand Duchy of Lithuania made by the great Polish cartographer Maciej Strubicz (d. 1605), considered one of the earliest maps of Lithuania in the literature, because compared to Mercator's maps it shows almost twice as much city and a detailed image of the river network. After the map of Lithuania, there was a map of Poland prepared by the great cartographer Wacław Grodecki. Until page 530, Kromer's works were printed with a funeral speech in honor of King Sigismund I.

Then there are works by outstanding Polish writers and historians of the 16th century: Bernard Wapowski, Filip Kallimach, Stanisław Karnkowski, Jan Dymitr Solikowski, Reinhold Heidenstein, Krzysztof Warszewicki. Kromer's works played a significant role in the development of Polish science and historiography; all comprehensive syntheses of our history until Naruszewicz were based on him.

Very rare!

FULL LEATHER BINDING  [MODERN] WITH GOLDING AND EMBOSSING, STYLISHED FOR THE ERA, HAND-SEWED CAPITAL

GOOD CONDITION / both maps and pages 1-22, 265-266, 839-840 and 11k. index in the copy, also a few discolorations or ink annotations in the period

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