Bidspirit auction | CORREIA DA SERRA. (José Francisco)

CORREIA DA SERRA. (José Francisco) COLLECÇAÕ DE LIVROS INEDITOS DE HISTORIA PORTUGUEZA 1790 - Five volumes. The first critical edition of the principal Portuguese medieval chronicles, published by order of the Royal Academy of Sciences of Lisbon, of which José Corrêa da Serra was Secretary and co-founder, together with the Duke of Lafões. The first three volumes were published by Serra himself, who also authored the preliminary Discourse and the introductions to each of the works included therein; the fourth and fifth volumes were published by the Academy's History Commission, with an extensive study by Francisco Manuel Trigoso de Aragão Morato on the Chronicles of Fernão Lopes. Among the texts included, notable are the Livro da Guerra de Ceuta, by Mestre Mateus de Pisano (in Latin), the Chronicles of Kings D. Duarte and D. Afonso V, by Rui de Pina, and the Chronicle of Count D. Pedro de Menezes, by Gomes Eanes de Azurara. Innocêncio, the ”patron saint of Portuguese-language antiquarian booksellers”, in referring to this publication in his Biblioteca Portuguesa, described it as a ”Collection worthy of the highest esteem.” The preliminary pages of the fourth volume contain the Royal Warrant of 22 March 1781, issued by Queen D. Maria I, granting a ten-year privilege to all publications of the Academy. Ex-libris of Fernando de Abreu in all volumes. Period bindings, half-leather, with gilt labels and tooling on the spines. The page edges of the first volume are carmined; in the remaining four, painted yellow and lightly carmined. Library labels at the foot of the spines. Ex-libris partially torn out in the first volume. Revenue stamp impressions at the foot of nearly all leaves of the fourth volume.