Bidspirit auction | BRITO. (Frei Bernardo de) and

BRITO. (Frei Bernardo de) and Others. MONARCHIA LVSYTANA COMPOSTA - Extremely rare copy of the complete Monarchia Lusytana in its eight volumes, in uniform contemporary full leather bindings, with raised bands and gilt tooling on the spines. Printed in two columns and illustrated with vignettes of the arms of Portugal on the title pages of each volume. The work constitutes the principal reference for the History of Portugal up to the beginning of the Second Dynasty, that is, up to the accession to power of King João I in 1383. A monumental work written over the course of one hundred and thirty years by the Alcobaça historians, all of them cronistas-mor of the Kingdom, in the great Benedictine abbey of the Monastery of Alcobaça. Friar Bernardo de Brito (Almeida, 1569–1617), founder of Alcobaça historiography, studied in Rome and Florence, professed in the Cistercian Order at Alcobaça in 1585, earned a doctorate in Theology from the University of Coimbra in 1606, and was appointed cronista-mor of the Kingdom in 1614 by King Philip II. The first two parts, which he authored, are regarded as a high paradigm of Portuguese prose and as classics of the language. His successors continued the work: Friar António Brandão (Alcobaça, 1584–1637), Doctor of Theology and abbot of the Convent of Desterro in Lisbon, cronista-mor by royal charter of 1630; Friar Francisco Brandão (Alcobaça, 1601–1680), nephew of the former, also Doctor of Theology and cronista-mor; Friar Rafael de Jesus (Guimarães, 1614–1693), the only author not from Alcobaça, a Benedictine monk and cronista-mor by royal decree of 1681; and finally Friar Manuel dos Santos (Cantanhede, 1672–1740), who completed the work with the eighth part. In addition, Santos also wrote a ninth and a tenth part, which were never printed. There also existed an alternative third part, suppressed and prohibited by the Alcobaça monks themselves. The chroniclers had access to the most important body of historical information from the Royal Library of Alcobaça, which was also the Royal Palace during the First Dynasty. Collation volume by volume: vol. 1 (Part I, Bernardo de Brito) — 1690, 2nd edition, [30], 570 (actually 568) pp.; vol. 2 (Part II, Bernardo de Brito) — 1690, 2nd edition, [8], 558, [30] pp.; vol. 3 (Part III, António Brandão) — 1690, 2nd edition, [10], 420, [39] pp.; vol. 4 (Part IV, António Brandão, expanded by José Pereira Bayão) — 1725, 2nd edition, [22], 569, [1] pp.; vol. 5 (Part V, Francisco Brandão) — 1650, 2nd edition, [8], 332, [18] fols.; vol. 6 (Part VI, Francisco Brandão) — 1672, 1st edition, [12], 622 pp.; vol. 7 (Part VII, Rafael de Jesus) — 1683, 1st and only edition, [17], 601 pp.; vol. 8 (Part VIII, Manuel dos Santos) — 1727, 1st and only edition, [29], 790 pp. Provenance: armorial chromolithographed bookplates and handwritten and inscribed ownership titles of Manuel Gomes Costa Pacheco and Nuno Freire Corte Real throughout the volumes, with additional presence of António do Nascimento Carneiro (vol. 3) and José Pedro Corte Real (vol. 7). Inocêncio I, 372; I, 98; II, 360; VII, 48; VI, 102 and 260.