[Historiographic handbook] Ion. Bodini, Methodus ad facilem historiarum cognitionem

Accurate denuo recuses. Subiecto rerum indice. No pl. (Heidelberg), apud Ioann. Mareschallum Lugdunesem, 1583, (16),396,(11) p., with woodcut title vignette, early 18th-century calf, gilt and ribbed back with morocco letterpiece, small 8vo.

Waterstaining at the front; library stamp of the College de la Grandmaison in Potiers on the title page; several leaves with marginal thin worm tunnel. Binding with minor dam. to spine ends and corners of boards. Jean Bodin (1530-1596), celebrated historian and political author. Hollier, A New History of French Literature, p. 228-230: "[it] marks the beginning of a new genre, the treatise on historical method and criticism (...). Bodin's book shifted emphasis from the writing to the reading of history, in effect from an aesthetic to a utilitarian view, and implicitly from narrative to analytical (problem oriented) form." The first edition appeared in 1566.