Beschreibung:

ORTUEZ de Calahorra, Diego, and Pedro de la SIERRA]. Espejo de Principes y Caualleros, en el qual, ... se cuentan los immortales hechos del Cauallero del Febo, y de su hermano Rosicler, hijos del grande Emperador Trebacio. En Medina del Campo, por Francisco del Canto M.D.LXXXIII . [Valladolid: Diego Fernandez de Cordoua, 1585-86]. 2 parts in one volume, 2 (278 x 197mm). Title printed in red and black with large woodcut and 4-part decorative border, title to part two with large woodcut, decorative and historiated initials. (Some light browning, very occasional small spots, a few discreet marginal repairs, without final ?blank.) Red straight-grained morocco, blindstamped corner and spine decoration, gilt arms of E.V. Utterson [Davenport, English Heraldic Book Stamps p.378] on sides, gilt edges, by Charles Lewis (stamped on front turn-in). Provenance : Robert Stapylton (d.1669, title inscription), dramatic poet; Edward Vernon Utterson (1776?-1856, binding, sale Sotheby's 19 April 1852, lot 727, 24 to G. Smith ; Sir Thomas Phillipps (1792-1872, sale Sotheby's, 25 Nov. 1946, lot 113, 140 to Girondo). First edition uniting the first two parts of this Spanish romance. The first part, by Ortuez, was first published in 1555, the second part, by Pedro de la Sierra, in 1580, and parts 3 and 4 by Marcos Martinez, in 1587/8. The story revolves around the Emperor Trebacio, reigning in Epirus, Greece, who falls in love with Princess Briana, daughter of Tiberio, King of the Hungarians, with whom Trebacio is waging war. In the guise of Prince Theoduardo, he woos and wins Briana. Their twin sons, Cavallero del Febo and Rosicler (so-called because one was born with a shining sun on his cheek, and the other with the mark of a rose on his chest) later become the main protagonists; Rosicler's adventures take him to England. The Espejo de Principes y Cavalleros was translated into English as The Mirrour of Knighthood , and influenced works such as Spenser's Faerie Queene and Shakespeare's The Tempest . Given its strong role in English romance and earlier literature, the early English literary associations of this copy are particularly meaningful. An early owner was Robert Stapylton, presumably the dramatic poet and translator. He wrote at least four plays, one of which, The Slighted Maid , Pepys saw performed at the Duke's House, Lincoln's Inn Fields in 1603. The book was owned in the next century by E.V. Utterson, a literary antiquary and original member of the Roxburgh Club, who established a private press, the Beldornie Press, at his residence Beldornie Tower on the Isle of Wight. Utterson was particularly interested in English and Spanish romances, and it is primarily editions of English romances which he printed. Sir Thomas Phillipps, of course, was the most voracious collector of rare books and manuscripts of all. Palau 82343; Brunet IV:246; D. Eisenberg, Castilian Romances of Chivalry in the Sixteenth Century , London: 1979, pp.63-67.