De Republica seu Magistratibus Atheniensium

Contemporary vellum with yapp edges and external bands along the hinges of the book. Ownership signature on the first flyleaf of ‘Wm Alex. Aytoun 1872’. On the verso of the title page an earlier ownership signature of ‘R J Shadwell’. The text is preceded by the engraved frontispiece; slight soiling to title page. Author's dedicatory epistle to Guillaume Poyet, chancellor of France: p. 5-12. Signatures: A-P8 (leaves A3, N5, P3, P4 missigned A2, M5, P2, P3 respectively) final leaf blank. Slight loss near foreedge of three index leaves, not affecting text. A very good copy.

Last seen at auction in 1910, Postel was a French linguist, astronomer and cabbalist. William Alexander Aytoun was a translator of John Dee and thought to have been a member of the shadowy Society of Eight, founded in 1883 who certainly joined the successor organisation the Order of the Golden Dawn.