This is a single illustrated leaf from the 1577 1st Edition of Holinshed's Chronicles of England by Raphael Holinshed.
This is an original 16th century page from one of the most significant works in English literary history.
The work was a primary reference source for several 16th century giants of literature, such as Christopher Marlowe, Edmund Spenser, and William Shakespeare. Shakespeare used the 1587 2nd edition work as inspiration for some of his most famous plays, such as King Lear and Macbeth.
This is a single leaf, small folio size, and will be shipped in a plastic sleeve rolled in a mailing tube.
UK shipping only. Text from this leaf can be searched in the Oxford University Holinshed Project online.
This is an illustrated leaf with woodcuts depicting the narrative on the page.
It is leaf 49/50 and is taken from the Historie of Englande part of the work.
The subject matter of this leaf is the Roman Conquest of Britain in the time of the British ruler Togodumnus.
Taken from Wikipedia:
Togodumnus (died AD 43) was king of the British Catuvellauni tribe, whose capital was at St. Albans, at the time of the Roman conquest. He can probably be identified with the legendary British king Guiderius.[1] He is usually thought to have led the fight against the Romans alongside his brother, but to have been killed early in the campaign. However, some authorities now argue that he sided with the Romans and is one and the same person as the client-king Tiberius Claudius Cogidubnus, whose original name may have been Togidubnus or Togodumnus.
Text from this leaf, taken from the Kindle Edition:
(Note - the brackets in the text below are where it has not been translated by the OCR. The text is fully present on the leaf)
The Britaynes after this Battell, withdrew to the Riuer of Thames, nere to the place where it falleth into the Sea, and knowing the [...]llowes and firme places thereof, easily passed ouer to the further side, whome the Romanes following through lacke of knowledge in the nature of the places, they fel into ye mar [...]e groūds, 40 and so came to lose many of their men, namely of the Germaynes, which were the first that passed ouer the Riuer to follow the Britaines, partly by a bridge whiche lay within the countrey ouer the sayde Riuer, and partly by swimming, and other such shift as they presently made.
The Britaynes hauing lost one of theyr Rulers,Togodu [...] [...]us. that is to witte, Togodumnus, of whome yet haue hearde before, were nothing discoraged, but rather the more egrely set on reuenge. Plautius 50 perceyuing their fiercenesse, went no further, but stayed and placed garrisons in steedes, where neede required, to keepe those places whiche hee had gotten, and with al speede sent aduertisemēt vnto Claudius, accordingly to that he hadde in commaundement, if any vrgent necessitie should so moue him. Claudius therefore hauing all things before hand in a readinesse, streightwayes vpon the receyuing of the aduertisement, departed from Rome, and came by [...] vnto Ostia, and from thence vnto Massilia, & so through Fraunce, sped his iourneys till hee came to ye side of the Ocean sea, and then emb [...]uing hymselfe with his people passed ouer into Brit [...]ine, & came to his army which abode [...] neere to ye Thames [...], where being ioined, they passed the Riuer agayne, fought wh [...]he Britaines in a p [...]ght [...], and getting the [...], t [...]ke the towne of Cam [...]lodunum, [...] the chiefest Citie apperteyning vnto [...]. Hee reduced also many other people into his [...]iection, some by force, and some by [...], wherof he was called [...] by the [...] Emperour, which was against the [...] Romanes: for it was not lawfull to any to take ye name vppon him, oftner than [...] in any one voyage. Moreouer, Claudius tooke from the Britaynes their armor and weapons, and committed the gouernement of them vnto Plautius, cō maunding him to endeuor himselfe to subdue the residue.
Thus hauing broughte vnder a parte of Britayne,Dion Cassius. and hauing made his abode therein not past a sixteene dayes, he departed, and came backe agayne to Rome with victory in ye sixth moneth after his setting foorth from thence,Suetonius. gyuing after his returne, to his son, the surname of Britannicus.
Holinshed, Raphael. Holinshed's Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland [1577] (pp. 886-887). University of Oxford Text Archive. Kindle Edition.
A rare original page from a scare and historical 16th work.