Author: POLEMON. JOHN. ; PUBLISHED ANONYMOUSLY.
Title: THE SECOND PART OF THE BOOKE OF BATTAILES. Fought in our age: Taken out of the best authors and writers in sundrie languages. Published for the profit of those that practice armes, and for the pleasure of such as love to be harmlesse hearers of bloudie broiles.
Description: At London Printed for Gabriell Cawood. 1587. FIRST EDITION. Small 4to. (7.2 x 5.3 inches). viii, 95pp. Text pages complete but two final blank pages lacking. Page edges trimmed with loss to running page titles and numbers on several leaves but the main body of the text not affected. Neat early notes in the margins and underlining to a few leaves. Light stain to the top half of most leaves. Overall a very good copy in nineteenth century binding of full brown calf. Spine with raised bands, gilt. Twin brown labels, The bottom one stating "vol. II". Blind stamped decorations to panels. Blind ruled borders on boards. Marbled endpapers. Neat previous owners stamp to the last preface leaf, dated 1883, presumably when the book was last rebound. ------------- A scarce work, complete in it's own right, but a continuation of Polemon's All the famous Battels that have been fought in our ages, published in 1578, a work beset with printing errors. In his preface, Ploeman refers to the earlier book "Loo heere I present unto thee (gentle Reader) a continuation of the booke of all the famous battailes,fought in our age, and i doe hope with better hap than the first came forth, if the Printer have done his dutie in reforming the faults noted and corrected in his proes, for as for the first part it was so maimed, mangled and marred by the Printer, I will not saie on purpose, but certes of pride and negligence, that i like a passionate mother, that had her faire child foulie deformed through the negligence of malice of a lewde Nurse". ----------- This second work was a source book for George Peele when writing his "Battle of Alcazar" (published in 1594), a work notable for having the first significant Black Moor character in English Literature. Polemon includes a detailed account of the war between Sebastian, King of Portugal, and Abdelmelec, King of Morocco.

Keywords: