Cleasias (1 results)

Folio. ):(4, A-3G6, 3H4, 3I-3K6, 3L4. Pagination: [8], 644, [32] pp. Wechel's Pegasus device on title page and verso of last printed leaf, head-piece, historiated and decorated initials. Contemporary mottled calf, spine gilt in compartments with floral and acorn design, raised bands, gilt title on dark red leather label, edges marbled in blue, marbled endpapers; small hole in lower compartment, some light wear, some light paper toning, a very pleasing copy. Second expanded edition. The 1601 edition is an expanded version of the work. It begins with Bizzari's treatise on the Persian people, their institutions, foreign policy, costumes, etc. It is followed by an excerpt from Photius' summary of Clesias' history of Persia (pp. 349-360); Henricus Porsius' history of the war between Murad III and Mehemetem; an oration to Pope Innocent III by Philippus Callimachus (15th century) on the Turkish war and Venice (pp.371-399; 400-431); and other materials (p. 433+) which take the history of the Persian war to 1588. / "Pietro Bizzarri [Bizari], (born 1525/30?, died in or after 1586), historian and spy. . . Bizzarri became associated with the court of Mary Stuart, and in the hope of acquiring the patronage of the Scottish queen as well he presented to her a Latin treatise, De bello et pace. . . Bizzarri began his lifelong career as an intelligencer, passing political and diplomatic information to Cecil. Although there is no clear evidence, it is possible that Bizzarri had been [employed] at the Scottish court as an agent, and that it was Cecil who encouraged him to settle in Venice to collect and transmit information at a time when no Venetian ambassador was resident in England. . . Bizzarri travelled widely in Germany, but by January 1578 he was established in Antwerp, where he frequented the circle of the printer Christopher Plantin. . . In 1583 appeared his Persian history, Rerum Persicarum historia, dedicated to August of Saxony, although two presentation copies were also sent to England: one for the queen and one for Walsingham . . ." [Oxford DNB]. / Much of Barbaro's information about the Kipchak Khanate, Persia, and Georgia is not found in any other sources. -- Biographie universelle, ancienne et moderne, J Fr Michaud; Louis Gabriel Michaud, Paris, Michaud, 1811-28, p. 327. REFERENCES: VD17 23:231248Y; BL (German) 17th. c. B1503; Graesse I, 433; Brunet I, 955. TITLE: Rerum Persicarum Historia, Initia Gentis, Mores, instituta, resque gestas ad haec usque tempora complectens. . . Cui accessit Brevis ac vera Henrici Porsii de bello inter Murathem III. .Philippi Callimachi Experientis de bello Turcis. . . Et Appendix. . . Jacobus Geuderus. . . In ea Josephii Barbari Et Ambrosii Contareni Legatorum Reipub. Venetae Itineraria Persica: Johannes Thomae Minado I belli Turco-Persici historia. . .