Author: Chytraeus David, 1530 - 1600
Title: Chronicon Saxoniae & vicinarum aliquot Gentium: ab anno 1500 usque ad M.D.XCIII.
Title in English: Chronicle of Saxony and its Neighbouring Tribes: From 1500 up to 1593, Leipzig.
Lipsiae [Leipzig]: impensis Henningi Grosii, imprimebat Michael Lantzenberger, 1593; 2°.
Format: folio, pp. [ii] XVIII [xxvii].
Binding: bound in turn-of-the-seventeenth century English calf, fine large blindstamped italianate lozenges at centre of covers, seventeenth-century red morocco gilt label, a bit rubbed.
Ex libris: from the library of John Evelyn (1620-1706), diarist, landscape gardener and founder-member of the Royal Society.
Seventeenth-century MS shelfmarks, modern bookplate indicating the book to come from the auctions of John Evelyn's library (Christie's, 1977/8). First complete Latin edition of Chytraeus's continuation of the Saxon Chronicle of Albert Krantz, covering German and world history from 1500 to 1593. The present book is only superseded in time-scale by a German-language edition (up to 1597). Parts of the work had been published from 1586 onwards, initially taking the narrative from 1500 to 1524 and then covering subsequent periods. Outside present-day Germany, Chytraeus refers to places including the Hanseatic ports, Belgium, Bohemia, Cyprus, Denmark, England, France, Poland, Russia, Sweden, Rome, Scotland, Venice and Italy.
With blank leaf between text and index, and final colophon leaf incorporating large woodcut printer's vignette (found also on title-page). Woodcut head- and tailpieces and initials. Some leaves browned, a slight bit of worming to bottom margin (blank) in a few pages, occasional waterstains, one short clean tear in upper margin (no loss), Final endpapers taken from the index of a contemporary lawbook. Edges mottled red.
Reference: Adams C 1575. Ind. Aurel. *137.068. VD 16 C 2554.
Chronicle of Saxony and its Neighbouring Tribes: From 1500 up to 1593 by German historian and Lutheran theologian David Chytraeus (1530–1600) is a commentary on and addition to Albert Krantz’s (1448–1517) historiographical works Vandalia and Saxony (Wandalia, Coloniae Agrippinae [Cologne], 1519; Saxonia, Coloniae Agrippinae, 1520). The book provides historical facts on Lithuania as well.
Reference: "The Collection of Lawyer Jaunius Gumbis: the Past Preserved in Books". Museum and Collector - 7. Vilnius: National Museum of Lithuania, 2018, p. 429.
Published: "The Collection of Lawyer Jaunius Gumbis: the Past Preserved in Books". Museum and Collector - 7. Vilnius: National Museum of Lithuania, 2018, p. 428-429.