Chronicles of the House of Borgia.

First edition, first impression, of Corvo's monumental account of one of history's greatest and most notorious families. One of 1,250 printed, this copy has appealing provenance: from the library of Augustus Theodore Bartholomew (1882-1933), librarian at Cambridge University Library, with his bookplate to the front pastedown. Bartholomew gathered material for a projected biography of Corvo, though he never saw it in print. After Bartholomew's death, A. J. A. Symons borrowed his papers, and used them as the basis for his 1934 biography of Rolfe. Woolf A5. Large octavo. Frontispiece and 9 plates with tissue-guards. Original red cloth, titles to spine in gilt, armorial stamp to front board gilt, top edge gilt, others untrimmed. Contemporary bookplate of T. A. D. Godinton to front pastedown. Spine browned, covers a little faded, contents slightly foxed. An excellent copy.