Author: GUEVARA (Antonio de):
Title: Libro Llamado Menosprecio de Corte y alabanza de aldea, Compuesto por el illustre senor don Antonio de Gueuara, Oblispo de Mondonedo, predicador, chronista, y del confejo de su Magestad. De nouueau mis en françois par L.T.L. auqel auons adiousté l'italien ... ; Pour plus grand enrichissement de cest oeuure, y ont esté adioustés les vers françois de Euesques de Meaux & de Cambray, & les latins de N. de Clemeges Docteuren Theologique, sur la grande disparité de la vie rustique auec celle de cour.
Description: [Geneva] Par Jean de Tovrnes..., [1591] Small 8vo/16mo, 114 x 71 mms., pp. [viii], 551 [552 colophon], Regency calf, gilt rules across spine, black leather label, with the armorial bookplate of (probably) John Wodehouse (1826 - 1902), first Earl of Kimberley, dated "Kimberley 1838)" on the front paste-down end-paper. A very good copy, and a good example of the use of the "civililte" typeface. The popular and prolific Spanish author Antonio de Guevara (1480 - 1545) was one of Spain's most important Renaissance writers. The work is published in three languages, Spanish, French, and Italian as a sort of courtesy book, disapproving of court life and preferring village life, as the title suggests. The argument seems to be that the importance of money in courtly life and behaviour leads to wickedness and debauchery, while the life of the common labouring man leads to moral certitude and stability. Just another romanticizing of the happy peasant. The work was first published in 1539 and many times reprinted. Ernest Gray: Guevera: A Forgotten Renaissance Author (2012). For the typeface, see Carter (Harry) and Vervkuet (H.D.L.): "Civilite types" (Oxford Bibliographical Society, 1966), no, 265*. As every schoolboy knows, the civilite typeface, imitating French cursive letters of the Renaissance, was invented in 1557 by the French engraver Robert Granjon, Jean de Tournes (1504 – 1564) was a French printer, book publisher and bookseller, and the founder of a long-lasting family printing business.

Keywords: fantasy courtesy prose


See more books from our catalog: Fantasy