Massime, regole, et precetti, di Stato, & di Guerra...
Venetia.
Evangelista Deuchino, 1614.
First edition.
382pp. Without terminal blank leaf. Title within engraved ornamental border. Later calf-backed marbled paper boards, contrasting black calf lettering-piece. Lightly rubbed and marked. Marginal worm-tracks, very occasional early manuscript annotations.
The first edition of a collection of maxims and aphorisms on the politics of warfare - including extracts from Tacitus, Trajan, and Pliny - compiled by Neapolitan Fabio Frezza, with the intention to illuminate the arguments of his mentor, philosopher Girolamo Frachetta (1558- 1619), against new Humanist theories of governance, and the 'reason of state', typified by Machiavelli. Frachetta's propagation of a more conservative definition of Machiavellian philosophy greatly appealed to Phillip III of Spain, to whom Frezza duly dedicated his book.
Not in Adams.
£ 500.00
Antiquates Ref: 22742