Shakespeare's Library from The Alta Collection
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Les Vies des Hommes Illustres Grecs et Romains
by PLUTARCH (45-120); AMYOT, Jacques (1513-1593, Translator)
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- 1578
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Plutarch, Les Vies des Hommes Illustres Grecs et Romains. Translated by Jacques Amyot. Lyon: Etienne Michel, 1578.
Amyot's Plutarch is widely regarded as one of the all-time masterpieces of French prose. It was the source text for Sir Thomas North's translation of Plurarch into English, which, in turn, served as the source for Shakespeare's Greek and Roman plays: Julius Caesar, Antony… Read more about this item Item Price
$3,500.00
![Troisiesme tome de l'academie Françoise [The French Academy]](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/863/356/1577356863.0.m.jpg)
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Troisiesme tome de l'academie Françoise [The French Academy]
by LA PRIMAUDAYE, Pierre de (1546-1619)
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- 1594
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Alta, California, USA
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Pierre de la Primaudaye, Troisiesme tome de l'academie Françoise. Geneva: Jacques Chouet, 1594.
The primary source for the central theme of Love's Labor's Lost in which four courtiers retreat from political engagement in order to engage in academic reflection and philosophical discussion. See Geoffrey Bullough, Narrative and Dramatic Sources of Shakespeare, Vol. 2 (London, 1958).
Octavo, pp. [16] 712 [16]. Disbound.
The Universal… Read more about this item Item Price
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Gesta Romanorum
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- 1485
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$15,000.00
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Gesta Rhomano(rum): Cu(m) Applicationibus Moralisatis ac Misticis. Strasbourg: Johann Grüninger, 18 February 1488
The Gesta Romanorum is an anonymous collection of moral tales and anecdotes compiled in the late thirteenth century. It was immensely popular in its own time and later served as a source for Chaucer, Boccaccio, and for the story of the three caskets in Shakespeare's The Merchant of… Read more about this item Item Price
$15,000.00
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Seneca his tenne tragedies, translated into Englysh, 1581
by SENECA, Lucius Annaeus (c. 4 BCE-65 CE)
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- 1581
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Alta, California, USA
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$8,500.00
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Seneca his tenne tragedies, translated into Englysh. Imprinted at London in Fleetstreete neere vnto Saincte Dunstans church by Thomas Marsh, 1581.
The Elizabethan translation of Seneca's Ten Tragedies was Shakespeare's source for the famous lines "When the hurley-burley's done" and "Tomorrow and tomorrow . . . the way to dusty death" in Macbeth, and influenced Titus Andronicus and Richard II as… Read more about this item Item Price
$8,500.00
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Apophthegmes
by ERASMUS, Desiderius (1466-1536); UDALL, Nicholas (1504-1556, Translator)
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- 1542
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Alta, California, USA
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$6,500.00
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Erasmus, Apophthegmes. translated by Nicolas Udall. London: Richard Grafton, 1542.
FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH, black letter, lacks title (supplied in facsimile) and final 2 blanks, a few side-notes and headlines shaved, colophon mounted on stub, paper flaw touching one catch-word, modern calf antique.
Erasmus's Apophthegmatum opus is a collection of adages and anecdotes from classical antiquity, modeled on Plutarch's apophthegms in… Read more about this item Item Price
$6,500.00
![Historia Danica [History of the Danes]](https://d3525k1ryd2155.cloudfront.net/h/062/356/1577356062.0.m.0.jpg)
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Historia Danica [History of the Danes]
by SAXO GRAMMATICUS (c. 1150-1220)
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- 1575
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$5,000.00
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First Danish edition of the Latin Historia Danica [History of the Danes]. Copenhagen: Hans Stockelmann, 1575.
Den Danske Krønicke som Saxo Grammaticus screff, hallfierde hundrede Aar forleden: Nu først aff Latinen udsæt, flittelige offuerseet oc forbedret, Aff Anders Søffrinssøn Vedel.
The ultimate source of Shakespeare's Hamlet, Saxo's twelfth-century history narrates the legend of Amleth whose father is murdered by his uncle; the… Read more about this item Item Price
$5,000.00
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Pliny the Second’s History of the World
by PLINIUS Secundus [Pliny the Second], Gaius (c. 23-79)
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- 1553
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Alta, California, USA
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C. Plinii Secundi Historiae mundi libri XXXVII majore quam hactenus unquam, studio, fide, religione emedati, adjectis ad marginem succinctis . . . una cum indice totius operis copiosissimo. Lugduni, Apvd Ioannem Frellonivm. M.D.L.III.
Pliny's Natural History is Shakespeare's source for the famous description in Othello of "men whose heads grow beneath their shoulders." See Kenneth Muir, Shakespeare's Sources (London, 1957), p.… Read more about this item Item Price
$5,000.00
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Omnia Latin Opera
by MORE, Sir Thomas (1478-1535)
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- 1565
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$4,500.00
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Sir Thomas More, Omnia Latin Opera. Leuvun: Petrus Zangrius, 1565.
First Edition of More's works in Latin and the first Latin edition of More's History of Richard III, the source for Shakespeare's portrayal of Richard as a hunchback villain in King Richard III. See Elizabeth Story Donno, "Thomas More and Richard III," Renaissance Quarterly 35 (1982): 401-47.
Stuart Gillespie observes that the… Read more about this item Item Price
$4,500.00
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The Romane Historie Written by T. Livius of Padua. Translated out of Latine into English, by Philemon Holland
by LIVIUS, Titus (c. 64 BCE - 12 CE); HOLLAND, Philemon (1552-1637, Translator)
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- 1600
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Alta, California, USA
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$12,500.00
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Livy, The Romane Historie Written by T. Livius of Padua. Translated out of Latine into English, by Philemon Holland. London : Printed by Adam Islip, 1600.
Philemon Holland was famously described by Thomas Fuller as "the Translator General in his age." His translation of Livy's Roman History was a primary source for Shakespeare's Coriolanus and there are specific echoes of Holland… Read more about this item Item Price
$12,500.00
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Premier et Second Thome des Histoires Tragiques
by BELLEFOREST, François de (1530-1583) Translator; BANDELLO, Matteo (1485-1561)
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- 1568
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Alta, California, USA
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$7,500.00
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Matteo Bandello, Premier et Second Thome des Histoires Tragiques. Translated by François de Belleforest. Paris: Jacques Macé, 1568.
Shakespeare, Webster, Massinger, and Beaumont and Fletcher drew on Belleforest's work for various plays. In particular, Shakespeare used Belleforest for Much Ado About Nothing, Romeo and Juliet, Hamlet, and Twelfth Night.
These two volumes contain a selection of 36 stories from Matteo Bandello's collection… Read more about this item Item Price
$7,500.00
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Primera Diana de George de Monte Mayor … la historia de piramo y Tysbe
by MONTEMAYOR, Jorge de (c. 1521-1561)
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- 1564
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Primera Diana de George de Monte Mayor … la historia de piramo y Tysbe. Grenada: Rene Rebut, 1564.
Jorge de Montemayor's famous romance novel, written in Castilian, influenced Cervantes, Sidney, Spenser, and Shakespeare, who based the cross-dressing love-triangle plot of The Two Gentlemen of Verona on Book 2 of Diana. The magic love-juice in A Midsummer Night's Dream was suggested by… Read more about this item Item Price
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The Spanish Mandeville of Miracles. Or ,The Garden of Curious Flowers
by DE TORQUEMADA, Antoinio (1507-1569); LEWEKNOR, Sir Lewes (1560-1627, Translator)
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- 1600
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Alta, California, USA
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$4,000.00
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Antoinio de Torquemada, The Spanish Mandeville of Miracles. Or ,The Garden of Curious Flowers. Translated by Lewes Leweknor. London: James Roberts for Edmund Matts, 1600.
Shakespeare's source for the name of the mischievous fairy Robin Goodfellow, also known as Puck, in A Midsummer Night's Dream. The source text reads:
Luduvico: I pray you let me somewhat understand your opinion as concerning Robingoodfellowes… Read more about this item Item Price
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A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues
by COTGRAVE, Randall (c. 1570-1634)
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- 1611
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Alta, California, USA
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$1,700.00
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Randall Cotgrave, A Dictionarie of the French and English Tongues. London: Adam Islip, 1611.
First Edition. Folio. Collation: title-page, Dedication to Lord Cecil, To the reader, Complete A-Z, "Briefe Directions for such as desire to learne the French Tongue" (10 pages). Early vellum with raised bands and blue morroco label, slightly chipped. Minor spotting. Small fold in the second plate.
Cotgrave's dictionary… Read more about this item Item Price
$1,700.00
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Matthaei Paris, Monachi Albanensis, Angli, historia maior, a Guilielmo Conquaestore, ad Ultimum Annum Henrici tertii
by PARIS, MATTHEW (c. 1200-1259)
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- 1589
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Matthaei Paris, Monachi Albanensis, Angli, historia maior, a Guilielmo Conquaestore, ad Ultimum Annum Henrici tertii. Zurich, 1589.
Folio. Contemporary calf. Gilt title. Cloth ties still attached.
A primary source for Shakespeare's King John. See E. A. J. Honigmann, King John (Arden Shakespeare, 1954), pp. xv-xvii.
Matthew of Paris was an English Benedictine monk who was a chronicler, an artist known for illuminated manuscripts,… Read more about this item Item Price
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The Boke Named the Governour
by ELYOT, Sir Thomas (c. 1496-1546)
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- 1557
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Alta, California, USA
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$6,500.00
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Sir Thomas Elyot, The Boke Named the Governour. London: Thomas Marsh, 1557.
Shakespeare's source for the main plot of The Two Gentlemen of Verona. There are also echoes of The Governour in Henry IV and Troilus & Cressida. (See Ralph M. Sargent, "Sir Thomas Elyot and the Integrity of The Two Gentlemen of Verona," PMLA 65 [1950]: 1166-80.)
Elyot was a lawyer… Read more about this item Item Price
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Generall Historie of the Turkes, from the first beginning of that Nation to the rising of the Ottoman Family
by KNOLLES, Richard (c. 1545-1610)
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- 1610
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Alta, California, USA
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Richard Knolles, Generall Historie of the Turkes, from the first beginning of that Nation to the rising of the Ottoman Family. London: Adam Islip, 1610.
The first English history of the Ottoman Empire, Knolles's work was the primary source for Shakespeare's descriptions of war-torn Cyprus in Othello.
Folio. Second Edition. Numerous engraved portraits throughout text, contemporary ownership inscription to front blank, lacking… Read more about this item Item Price
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The Chronicle of Fabyan
by FABYAN, Robert (1470-1512)
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- 1559
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Alta, California, USA
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Robert Fabyan, The Chronicle of Fabyan. London: John Kingston, 1559.
Fabyan was Sheriff of London at the end of the 15th century. He was an amateur historian who expanded his personal diary into a full history of England, which he claimed to have completed in 1504, and it was published posthumously in 1516. A second edition in 1533 brought the narrative… Read more about this item Item Price
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The Second Part of the Mirror for Magistrates
by BLENERHASSET, Thomas (c. 1555-1624)
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- 1578
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Alta, California, USA
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$8,000.00
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Thomas Blenerhasset, The Second Part of the Mirror for Magistrates: From the Conquest of Caesar vnto the comyng of the Duke William the Conqueror. London: Richard Webster, 1578
Thomas Blenerhasset expanded the original Mirror for Magistrates (1559), which had focused on English monarchs from Richard II onwards, by supplying twelve new tragedies from the earlier periods of the Roman Empire to… Read more about this item Item Price
$8,000.00
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Terentius cum quinque commentis
by TERENCE (c. 195-159 BCE)
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- 1508
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Alta, California, USA
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Terentius cum quinque commentis. Venice: Lazzaro Soardi, 1508.
Folio. 304 x 210 mm. Full-page woodcut on the verso of the title-page of Terence seated on a chair surrounded by his commentators in a large room with arches and an apse. Another magnificent full-page woodcut on sig. B3v of a theatre with the audience seen from the perspective of the actor on… Read more about this item Item Price
$7,000.00
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The Annales or a General Chronicle of England
by STOWE, John (c. 1525-1605)
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- [1600]
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Alta, California, USA
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$2,500.00
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John Stowe, The Annales or a General Chronicle of England. London: Eliot's Court Press and F. Kingston for Ralph Newberry [n.d.1600].
Stowe's Annales were advertised as a Chronicle of England from Brute until the Present Year of Christ, recording "wise handling of weightie affaires, diligently to be marked and aptly to be applied."
Stowe's work served as a primary source for William… Read more about this item Item Price
$2,500.00
