Aragon - Lot 413

Aragon ZURITA (Jeronimo) Indices Rerum ab Aragonia Regibus gestarum ab initiis Regni ad annum MCDX [Index of the deeds of the kings of Aragon from the beginning of the kingdom to the year MCDX]. Caesaraugustae [Saragossa], Dominicis a Portonariis de Ursinis, 1578. In-4: 4f, 407pp, 3pp, 1f (large printer's mark; Dominicus Portonariis) - 155pp, (1). Pastiche marbled brown basane, ornate smooth spine, gilt fillet with fleurons in spandrels framing the boards, central antique arms of Léonor d'Estampes de Valençay repositioned, First edition. A rare and highly esteemed volume divided into two parts. The first contains an abridgement of Zurita's annals, translated by himself into Latin; the second gives the history of the conquest of Sicily by the Norman princes (Brunet II, 445). Jerome Zurita was a famous Spanish historian born in Saragossa, who traveled to Germany on various diplomatic missions. On his return to Spain in 1549, he was appointed official historian of the province of Aragon, and retired at the end of his life to the convent of the Hieronymites in Saragossa. Provenance: Fer abbatial de Léonor d'Estampes de Valençay, pupil to the episcopal see of Chartres then archbishop of Reims (1641) repositioned in a fully restored binding or for decorative purposes!