THE MOST FAMOUS, DELECTABLE AND PLEASANT HISTORY OF PARISMUS, THE MOST RENOWNED PRINCE OF BOHEMIA. THE FIRST PART CONTAINING THE ADVENTUROUS TRAVELS AND NOBLE CHIVALRY OF PARISMENOS, THE KNIGHT OF FAME (BOUND TOGETHER WITH ) THE MOST FAMOUS, DELECTABLE, AND PLEASANT HISTORY OF PARISMUS, THE MOST RENOWNED PRINCE OF BOHEMIA, CONTAINING THE ADVENTUROUS TRAVELS, AND NOBLE CHIVALRY OF PARISMENOS, THE KNIGHT OF FAME: WITH HIS LOVE TO THE BEAUTIFUL AND FAIR PRINCESS ANGELICA, THE LADY OF THE GOLDEN TOWER
London, England: W. Wilde, [1598] 1696. Fourteenth Edition. Leather-bound. Halfbound leather with stunnng marbled paper boards. Rebacked in deep red leather.Two volumes in one binding. Hand-Inked first title page. A few pages mounted, patches of which are, extraordinarily, painstakingly filled in by hand as well as the last leaf, bearing manuscript in elegant cursive, on both pages -- about eighty lines of handwritten text. Engraving of Parismus & Laurana. Printed in black letter in English. First published in 1598. Appears to be Missing a full title page. Collation: [6], 180, [2] p. : ill. (woodcuts), ports. ; 4 .
(ESTC Citation No. R3061)
The First Part. Containing the Adventurous Travels and Noble Chivalry of Parismenos, The Knight of Fame, to p. 180, at the conclusion of which is handwritten 12-lines of verse (7 lines, a dividing line, then 5 lines, signed "W B 1703". Best "decoding" by this cataloguer would be:
"Here comes a critical close thy page
from art no subject for this age
and censure oftentimes yet know
will thrive(?) the dove and hate the crow
But hold my guilt does not require
That thou should lurk or yet retire
Be open as the eye of moon
-----------------------------------------------
and let dogs bark against the moon
thou hast no luster of thy own
but what is derived of heaven alone
fear not my heaven instructed page
will either please or reach the Age"
The second part is the stated "Fourteenth Impression, Corrected and Amended". Dual woodcut portraits, side by side, of Parismus and Laurana, opposite title page.
[6], 76, 69-140, 181-248 p. : ill. 4 . (ESTC Citation No. R469095)
(See ESTC S116412: General Note ("Another edition of both parts...."). Very Good. Item #81369
Emanuel Ford(e) was a romance writer who flourished from about 1585 to around 1599. "The matter of the book imitates the Spanish romances then popular in England (most of them translated by Munday), and its style is euphuistic - "characterized by elaborate allliteration, antitheses, and similes...affected elegance"-- (A second part was licensed on 25 October 1598 and published in 1599 under the title Parismenos: the second part of the most famous, delectable, and pleasant historie of Parismenos, the renowned prince of Bohemia. It was dedicated to the countess of Essex. The works were often reprinted. Over twenty further editions appeared in the seventeenth century, and eight in the eighteenth century..." (ODNB).
Price: $650.00