La Vie de Laurent de Medicis, surnommé le Grand, et le Père des Lettres, Chef de la Republique de Florence; Adressée au Pape Léon X: Traduite du Latin de Nicolas Valori, son Contemporain. Avec des Notes, & quelques Piéces anciennes qui ont rapport au même sujet. Paris, Nyon, 1761.
First Edition in French. 12mo, pp. xxiv, 346, [2], small marginal hole on p. 65, in contemporary northern European mottled calf, flat spine gilt in continuous diced pattern, orange morocco label lettered in gilt, brightly patterned black and white endpapers, all edges red, from the Starhenberg library at Schloss Eferding, though not so designated.
The first French translation of the first biography of Lorenzo 'The Magnificent' (circa 1449-1492), great patron of the arts, poet, collector and founder of the great Laurentian Library. This biography, originally written in Latin by Nicolas Valori, is addressed to Pope Leo X, the son of Lorenzo de Medici. It was Leo X who, after the family's expulsion from Florence, later bought the Laurentian Library back from the monks of S. Marco and continued to enlarge it in Rome.
Provenance: Prince Starhenberg, Austrian Ambassador to Versailles 1756-1766. During his stay in France he amassed a considerable library, mostly bound in this distinctive style and surviving in very good condition today. He married a Princess de Salm, a german cousin of the Princesse de Soubisme, wife of the great book collector and friend of Louis XV.
Cioranescu 31682.