Chronica Polonoru[m]. LM-85
Chronica Polonoru[m]. LM-85
Chronica Polonoru[m]. LM-85
Chronica Polonoru[m]. LM-85
Chronica Polonoru[m]. LM-85
Chronica Polonoru[m]. LM-85
Chronica Polonoru[m]. LM-85
Chronica Polonoru[m]. LM-85
Chronica Polonoru[m]. LM-85
Chronica Polonoru[m]. LM-85
Chronica Polonoru[m]. LM-85
Chronica Polonoru[m]. LM-85
Chronica Polonoru[m]. LM-85
Chronica Polonoru[m]. LM-85
Chronica Polonoru[m]. LM-85
Chronica Polonoru[m]. LM-85
Chronica Polonoru[m]. LM-85
Chronica Polonoru[m]. LM-85
Chronica Polonoru[m]. LM-85

Chronica Polonoru[m]. LM-85

Author: Miechowa Maciej, 1457 - 1523

Title: Chronica Polonoru[m].

Title in English: Polish Chronicle.

Bound with Ioducus Ludovicus Decius (J. L. Dietz, 1485–1545): Contenta de vetustatibus Polonorum. Liber I-III.

Published: Hieron. Vietor, Cracow, December 1521.

Format: Folio in six (32 x 22 cm).

Binding: Contemporary calf richly tooled in blind, spine with four raised bands, manuscript title to top of vertical edge; lacking ties, skillful repairs including reback preserving original spine.

First work: [XXIV], CCCLXXIX pp. including woodcut title page and many woodcuts in text, woodcut initials; second work: [III], CXIX, [I] pp. including woodcut title page and many wooduct initials in text; occasional marginal wormholes, rare spotting or browning, few skillful repairs to title. Fine copy, in rich contemporary binding, of the rare first edition of the first printed study and history of Poland, printed in Cracow two years before Miechow’s death. One of the finest production of early 16th-century Poland, with many woodcut portraits and rich woodcut titles.

Provenance: Gdansk Senate Library (17th c. engraved armorial bookplate to upper pastedown), Nikolay Vladimirovich Myatlev (his armorial booklabel to upper pastedown), Nikolay Nikolaevich Birukov (his pictorial booklabel with motto ‘Ex libris lux’ and date 1899 to upper pastedown).

Reference: Brunet III, 1710: “il s’y trouve ordinairement reuni un ouvrage  de Decius ‘de vetustatibus polonorum’, this one in Brunet II, 557.

The Polish Chronicle by Polish chronicler and geographer Maciej Miechowa (1457–1523) is an important work to Lithuanian history. One of its chapters discusses the Battle of Grunwald (Battle of Žalgiris). The book is illustrated with portraits of the rulers of Poland and Lithuania and dedicated to the King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania Sigismund the Old. The author of the dedication is the King’s secretary and historian Justus Ludwik Decjusz (~1485–1545). Miechowa’s work is bound with Decjusz’s three part work On the history of Poland, On the Jagiellonian dynasty, On the Reign of King Sigismund (Contenta: De vetustatibus Polonorum liber I; De Iagellonum familia liber II; De Sigismundi regis temporibus liber III).

Reference: "The Collection of Lawyer Jaunius Gumbis: the Past Preserved in Books". Museum and Collector - 7. Vilnius: National Museum of Lithuania, 2018, p. 43.

Published: "The Collection of Lawyer Jaunius Gumbis: the Past Preserved in Books". Museum and Collector - 7. Vilnius: National Museum of Lithuania, 2018, p. 42-45.

Exhibitions: "The Collection of Lawyer Jaunius Gumbis: the Past Preserved in Books", September 3, 2018 – October 21, 2018.

Photographs: 

2nd: King of Poland and Grand Duke of Lithuania (1506–1548) Sigismund the Old. From Justus Ludwik Decjusz’s De Sigismundi regis temporibus liber III, Krakow, 1521. Verses by the poet Philipp Gundelius Pattaviensis (1493–1576) are included next to the picture of Sigismund the Old.