AN ALLEGORY ON EARLY 17TH CENTURY EUROPEAN POLITICS
HOWELL, JAMES.
Dendrologia. Dodona's grove, or, the vocall forrest.
(London), T.B. (Thomas Badger), 1640.
Folio. In contemporary full calf with five raised bands and double ruled fillets to boards. Small paper-label pasted on to top of spine. Wear and soiling to extremities, large scratches with loss of leather to boards. Corner with wear and some loss of leather. Inner hinges split. Previous owner's name in contemporary hand to title-page and last leaf. Dampstain to lower outer margin. Small repair to both plates. (10), 32, 39-135, 166-219 pp. + t plates. Wanting the frontispiece.
The uncommon first edition the author's first work, being an allegory based on European politics between 1603 and 1640 where the various characters are described as talking trees. The story touches upon the fiasco resulting from James I’s scheme for a Spanish marriage of Prince Charles, and touched upon the Gunpowder Plot, the Overbury murder, the assassination of Buckingham and other recent events. “In this curious work the prominent personalities of the age are represented by the names of plants. How ell's familiarity with fables, particularly with the fable of "borrowed feathers," is shown by the following passage, in which the Ivie is the Pope, Ampelona is France, the Poet Laureat is Petrarch, Petropolis is Rome or the Papal Court, the Vine is the French King (so Howell himself tells us in a key)” (Mckenzie, Some Remarks on a Fable Collection).
It was published in English in several editions and was translated into both French and Latin.
Order-nr.: 61151
DKK 10.000,00