HENRI AND JACQUES PIRENNE’S RICHLY ILLUSTRATED HISTORY OF EUROPE—ONE OF ONLY 26 FOLIO SETS

(EUROPE) PIRENNE, Henri. Histoire de l’Europe. Brussels: La Renaissance du Livre, (1958-62). Four volumes. Folio (10 by 13 inches), publisher’s original full green pebbled morocco, marbled endpapers, uncut and largely unopened. $1500.

Lavishly illustrated limited edition of Pirenne’s renowned history of Europe, letter “M” of only 26 lettered copies printed on Vergé d’Arches paper. Illustrated with hundreds of in-text and full-page heliogravures, and 20 mounted photographic plates printed in color.

Belgian historian Henri Pirenne’s renowned European history extends from the early medieval barbarian invasions of Rome to the 16th century. He composed this remarkable work while a prisoner of the Germans during World War I—having participated in acts of non-violent resistance—a feat made even more remarkable considering that he wrote entirely from memory. Only upon his death in 1935 did his son Jacques discover the manuscript and decide to publish it and continue the work his father began. Henri Pirenne’s history constitutes the first volume of this four-volume folio set; Jacques added three more volumes to bring the history to the end of World War II and the beginning of NATO. First published in 1936. Text in French. Gift inscription on half title of Volume I dated 1969.

One leaf of text in Volume IV (pp. 491-92) torn, with loss. Fine condition.