THE MEDICI

New York: E.P. Dutton and Company, 1926. 2 volumes. An early printing, with the December 1926 imprint, using the original English sheets. With over 100 illustrations from numerous sources on finely produced black and white plates, and with 2 folding genealogical charts. Tall, thick 8vos, very handsomely bound in contemporary three-quarter crushed dark-green morocco over marbled boards by Sangorski and Sutcliffe, with gilt ruled trim to the corner-pieces and backings , the spines with gilt tooled raised bands separating compartments, four of which contain central gilt decorative tools and two of which are gilt lettered, additional gilt lettering at the foot of the spine panels, marbled endpapers, t.e.g. xxix, 538; xii, 576 pp. A very handsome and attractive set, the text quite clean and fresh with only minor evidence of age or use, the Sangorski and Sutcliffe bindings are stately and reserved, well preserved and showing only light age evidence. AN IMPORTANT TEXT IN EXCELLENT SIGNED BINDINGS BY SANGORSKI & SUTCLIFFE, one of the most important bookbinding companies of the 19th and 20th centuries, famous for their materials and tooling used in binding. The stateliness of the bindings is especially fitting to the subject.
This is considered the foremost biography of the Medicis, and is the first history of the whole family, rather than one dealing with only the very famous or infamous members. Leaders of the city-states of Italy, they were merchants, warriors and patrons of some of the most famous and influential artists of all time. The powerful Medici family shaped not only the history of Italy, but the history of the world. They lie at the very center of all cause to the flowering of the Renaissance.