Historia Ecclesiastica del Scisma del Reyno de Inglaterra.: The First Work in Spanish on the English Schism.

Ribadeneyra, Padre Pedro de; Historia Ecclesiastica del Scisma del Reyno de Inglaterra. Recogida de diversos y graves Autores, por el Padre Pedro de Ribadeneyra, de la Compania de Jesus. Lo que se trata en esta Historia, se vera en la hoja siguiente. En Emberes [Antwerp], en casa de Christoual Plantino, Imprimidor del Rey. 1588.

8vo., ⴕ8, A-Z8 , a8, b7, a8-b7; 8 un-numbered leaves, pages numbered 1-386, 6 un-numbered leaves, Tabla de los capitulos desta historia, Aprobacion de el Doctor Pedro Lopez de Montoya, Approbation Siluester Pardo (Censor), Sumario del privilegio I. de Witte.

(OCLC nos. 780155501 / 270805429 ; only 5 copies worldwide).

Full calf sprinkled binding with 5 raised bands with gilt tooling to spine and boards. Unidentified coat of arms embossed on both boards. Binding rubbed and marked. Corners rounded with slight loss of leather. Fore-edges to front and rear end-papers strengthened with archival tape. Neat repair to lower fore-edge of title page, not effecting the printed matter, and repair to final blank end-paper - both using vintage hand-made paper. Traces of humidity to page fore edges. Text clean and unmarked except for ink underlining of 7 lines of text on page 115 and very occasional words on a few other pages. Overall condition good.

First Spanish edition of what is largely a translation of Nicolas Sander's writings in "De origene ac progressu schismatis anglicani", describing the English schism with the Catholic church begun by King Henry VIII. Sander's work was the first book to offer up a detailed narrative of the schism under Henry and his successors from an English Catholic perspective.

Ribadeneyra did not however produce a straight translation, his publication is recognised as a work of his own due to his editing and textual additions. He himself cites the work of Sanders in his prologue but also adds that he has changed the structure and content. His textual additions were intended to influence Spanish readers by exalting the Catholic faith and its defendants and attacking the Anglican Reformation and its supporters. (see An Analysis of Pedro de Ribadeneyra's Historia ecclesiastica del scisma de Inglaterra, 1588, by Fátima Cid Morgade, 2014).

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