About this Item
London: Printed For Baldwin, Cradock, and Joy, 1824, First Edition. Two volume set, full leather binding, gilt titles on twin red labels, gilt borders to both upper and lower boards, frontispiece in both volumes. Historical life of Joanna of Sicily, Queen of Naples and Countess of Provence with correlative details of the Literature and Manners of Italy and Provence in the thirteenth and fourteenth centuries. Vol. I xv, 401pp including the appendix. Vol. II vi, 313pp. Joanna I, also known as Johanna I (Italian: Giovanna I; December 1325 27 July 1382), was Queen of Naples, and Countess of Provence and Forcalquier from 1343 to 1382; she was also Princess of Achaea from 1373 to 1381. Joanna was the eldest daughter of Charles, Duke of Calabria and Marie of Valois to survive infancy. Her father was the son of Robert the Wise, King of Naples, but he died before his father in 1328. Three years later, King Robert appointed Joanna as his heir and ordered his vassals to swear fealty to her. To strengthen Joanna's position, he concluded an agreement with his nephew, King Charles I of Hungary, about the marriage of Charles's younger son, Andrew, and Joanna. Charles I also wanted to secure his uncle's inheritance to Andrew, but King Robert named Joanna as his sole heir on his deathbed in 1343. He also appointed a regency council to govern his realms until Joanna's 21st birthday, but the regents could not actually take control of state administration after the King's death. Joanna's personal life crucially affected the political stability of the Kingdom of Naples (murder of her first husband Andrew in 1345, the invasions of King Louis I of Hungary as justification to avenge the death of his brother, and Joanna's three later marriages, with Louis of Taranto, James IV, titular King of Majorca and Otto, Duke of Brunswick-Grubenhagen) and undermined her position with the Holy See, moreover after, during the Western Schism, she chose to support the Avignon Papacy against Pope Urban VI, who in retaliation declared her a heretic and dethroned her on 11 May 1380. Having all her children predecease her, Joanna's heirs were the descendants of her only surviving sister Maria, whose first marriage with their cousin Charles, Duke of Durazzo was performed without her permission, becoming both spouses in the heads of the political faction against Joanna. Trying to reconcile with the Durazzo branch and with the purpose to secure her succession, Joanna arranged the marriage of her niece Margaret of Durazzo with her first-cousin (and Joanna's second cousin) Charles of Durazzo, who eventually captured and imprisoned Joanna, and finally ordered her assassination on 27 July 1382. Provenance: bookplate for Thomas Gaisford to the front paste downs. Approximately 8 ¼ inches tall. Condition Report Externally Spine good condition gilt titles on twin brown labels, 5 raised gilt bands, gilt edged compartments, small nick in the leather on the 5th compartment of Vol. I, sun faded. Joints good condition. Corners good condition. Boards good condition full maroon leather boards with gilt borders. Page edges good condition top edges slightly darkened, all red. See above and photos. Internally Hinges good condition sound. Paste downs good condition plain with blind stamped dentelles, front paste downs with the bookplate of Thos. Gaisford to them, lightly tanned and foxed. End papers good condition plain with some offsetting from the bookplate, lightly tanned and foxed as are the subsequent end papers. Title good condition both title pages are heavily tanned with offsetting from the frontispieces. Pages good condition Vol. I has a portrait frontispiece of Joanna The First, Vol. II frontispiece is The Tomb of Joanna , tanned and foxed throughout both volumes. Binding good condition. See photos. Publisher: see above. Publication Date: 1824 Binding: Hardback. Seller Inventory # ABE-1644950464810
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