ID 470246
Lot 203 | Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo (d1412)
Estimate value
£ 3 000 – 5 000
Historia del Gran Tamorlan. 1582
GONZALEZ DE CLAVIJO, Ruy (d.1412). Historia del Gran Tamorlan e Itinerario y Enarracion del Viage. Sevilla: Andrea Pescioni, 1582.
First edition of a first-hand account of the embassy of Henry III of Castile to the Court of Tamerlane. A splendid copy from the library of William Beckford. Gonzalez de Clavijo chronicles his three-year journey to and from Samarkand, via Constantinople, Trebizond, and Tehran, and ‘describes travels which are equal in interest to those of Marco Polo and of Sir John Mandeville’ (Markham). It is the most authoritative account we have of Tamerlane and his court, and ‘the oldest Spanish narrative of travels of any value’. Markham, Narrative of the Embassy of Ruy Gonzalez de Clavijo (Hakluyt Society, 1859); Palau 105218.
Folio (272 x 188mm). Printed in double columns, ruled in red throughout, printer’s device at end (light browning, 30 leaves with margins strengthened or extended, in 4 cases with running headlines completed in manuscript facsimile, small rust hole in E5 affecting a few letters). 18th-century French red morocco, broad gilt foliate border, gilt panelled spine with floral stamp in compartments, green morocco lettering pieces, all edges gilt, green silk marker. Provenance: a few later marginal annotations — Girardot de Préfond (d. c. 1800; gilt stamp on inner turn-in; sale Paris, 1757, lot 1065) — William Beckford (1759-1844; Hamilton Palace sale, 30 June, 1882, lot 376, £29-10-0, to Nutt).
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