The History of the Valiant Knight Arthur of Little Britain
- London: White, Cochrane, and Co, 1814
London: White, Cochrane, and Co, 1814. First edition. Near Fine. Quarto (9 3/16 x 7 3/8 inches; 233 x 188 mm.). [xii], [i-iii], iv-xxvii, [1, blank], iv, 544 pp. Twenty-five hand-colored plates engraved by Charles Heath, one woodcut. Title-page printed in black and red. Edited by Edward Vernon Utterson (1776-1856) and reprinted from the edition published by Robert Redborne c. 1555. With a reproduction of original title-page: "Arthur of Brytayn [on scroll]. The hystory of the moost noble and valyaunt knyght of lytell brytayne ... [woodcut]." Contemporary full ochre straight-grained morocco with fillets in blind and gilt, small corner-pieces featuring gilt ornaments. Spine with five shallow double bands, richly decorated and lettered in gilt in compartments, gilt board edges and turn-ins, brown liners and endleaves, all edges gilt. Minimal rubbing to corners and extremities—still a wonderful copy of a very scarce book.
John Bourchier, Lord Berners (1467-1553) "is best known for his English translations of various European worlds of history and literature, especially the fourteenth century Chronicles of Jean Froissart. Because of their literary merit many of Berner's translations influenced the work of later Elizabethan writers and chroniclers" (Enclyclopedia of Tudor England). For example, Bourchier's Arthur of Lytell Brytayne is said to have inspired Spenser. Arthur of Lytell Brytayne is Bourchier's translation of Artus de la Petite Bretagne, a fourteenth-century prose chivalric romance which was first printed in Lyons in 1493; Bourchier appears to have used the second version of 1496. Scholars trace the origins of the Arthur cycle legends to Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th century Historia Regum Britanniae; the legend spread through Europe, particularly in France and Germany.
Delightful illustrations by Charles Heath accompany this edition of Bourchier's translation. "Landscape and figure engraver Charles Heath (1785-1848) was one of the most active and influential figures in British book production over the first half of the nineteenth-century" (Walter Scott Digital Archive).
Cf. Esdaile, p. 13 (1st & 2d Redborne editions). Near Fine.
John Bourchier, Lord Berners (1467-1553) "is best known for his English translations of various European worlds of history and literature, especially the fourteenth century Chronicles of Jean Froissart. Because of their literary merit many of Berner's translations influenced the work of later Elizabethan writers and chroniclers" (Enclyclopedia of Tudor England). For example, Bourchier's Arthur of Lytell Brytayne is said to have inspired Spenser. Arthur of Lytell Brytayne is Bourchier's translation of Artus de la Petite Bretagne, a fourteenth-century prose chivalric romance which was first printed in Lyons in 1493; Bourchier appears to have used the second version of 1496. Scholars trace the origins of the Arthur cycle legends to Geoffrey of Monmouth's 12th century Historia Regum Britanniae; the legend spread through Europe, particularly in France and Germany.
Delightful illustrations by Charles Heath accompany this edition of Bourchier's translation. "Landscape and figure engraver Charles Heath (1785-1848) was one of the most active and influential figures in British book production over the first half of the nineteenth-century" (Walter Scott Digital Archive).
Cf. Esdaile, p. 13 (1st & 2d Redborne editions). Near Fine.