4 - 1598.

1598. BOOK. (LITERATURE—GOLDEN AGE). VEGA CARPIO, LOPE DE:. ARCADIA, PROSE, AND VERSE BY... Madrid: Luis Sanchez, sold at the shop of Iuan de Montoya, 1598. Small 8vo. 8 pp. + 312 folios + 24 pp. (of 32 pp.) Architectural title page, woodcut portrait of the author on the verso of p. 8. Folios 169 (sign. Y1) and 193 (sign. Aa'1) are missing, as well as the last two leaves of the Ss quire (7 and 8) and the last 6 of the Tt quire (3 through 8). Fol. 100 is missing its support and text. All the quires consist of 8 sheets, so we believe that, although Palau indicates 31 sheets at the end, there should be 32 (with the last one possibly blank). Some sheets are torn or have minor isolated defects. Fine gilt decoration on the first three leaves; some old water stains. Bound in period parchment, warped. FIRST EDITION. CCPB 27448-8; only three copies in Spain, and we have located only four more abroad. Palau 356290; he handled a copy without the licenses, which are present here. The bookseller states: “Edition discovered in 1930 (...) Lope asserts that *La Arcadia* is a true story. He wrote it to please his patron, the young Duke Antonio de Alba, who appears as the hero Anfriso...”