The Lives of the Popes. From the time of our Saviour Jesus Christ to the Reign of Sixtus IV. Written Originally in Latin by Baptista Platina, and Translated into English by Sir Paul Rycaut. The Second Edition, Corrected. London: C. Wilkinson, 1688, folio.
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The second edition of Sir Paul Rycaut's translation of Platina's Lives of the Popes into English. The present copy has some interesting early English marginalia seemingly from a Catholic perspective, noting, among other things, "this author [was] long before Luther - so not a protestant forgery" alongside the section on John VIII.
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Size: 205 x 325 mm (approx.)
Condition:
Contemporary full calf, rubbed and worn, leather peeling in places, front board detached along with the preliminary blanks, title leaf, and 'To the Reader' leaf, rear board attached. 'To the Reader' leaf creased with some losses at edges not affecting the text. Title leaf and front blank torn; this copy is without the frontispiece. Bookplate to front pastedown. A few leaves dog-eared, text block mildly toned, but eminently readable. Sporadic contemporary marginalia in an English (plausibly Catholic) hand.
