CISNER, NIKOLAUS. De Otthone Tertio Imp. Eiusque Instituto Conciliorum Imperatoriorum, & Septemviris Electoribus oratio Nicolai Cisneri Ic. Et Camerae Imperialis Assessoris. Eiusdem De Friderico II. Imp. Nec Non De Conrado Ultimo Sueviae gentis Principe, quem Itali Conradinum vocant, Orationes elegantissimae. Argentorati (Strasbourg), sumptibus Lazari Zetzneri bibliopol., 1608.

Three works bound in 8vo (155 x 96), 19th century half calf, pp. 82, [2], 83-223, [3], 224-263 i.e. 272, [1].

Uncommon historical accounts of the famous German lawyer of the Renaissance on three famous sovereigns of the Holy Roman Empire and their reforms.
The first work is devoted to the Emperor Otto III and his utopian dream to renovate the ancient Imperial authority of the Roman Empire (Renovatio Imperii) through the new Christian thought. The other two works are devoted to Frederick II and to his nephew Conradin, the last of Hohenstaufen, beheaded in Naples in 1268.

Nikolaus Cisner or Kistner (1529 Mosbach - 1583 Heidelberg ) was a Palatine scholar of the Renaissance. He was rector of the University of Heidelberg, humanist, lawyer and poet.
br> Otto III (980 - 1002) was Holy Roman Emperor from 996 until his early death in 1002. A member of the Ottonian dynasty, Otto III was the only son of the Emperor Otto II and his wife Theophanu. Otto III was crowned as King of Germany in 983 at the age of three, shortly after his father's death in southern Italy while campaigning against the Byzantine Empire and the Emirate of Sicily. In 996, Otto III marched to Italy to claim the titles King of Italy and Holy Roman Emperor, which had been left unclaimed since the death of Otto II in 983. Crowned as Emperor, Otto III put down the Roman rebellion and installed his cousin as Pope Gregory V, the first Pope of German descent.

Frederick II (1194 – 1250), was one of the most powerful Holy Roman Emperors of the Middle Ages and head of the House of Hohenstaufen. His political and cultural ambitions, based in Sicily and stretching through Italy to Germany, and even to Jerusalem, were enormous. However, his enemies, especially the popes, prevailed, and his dynasty collapsed soon after his death. Historians have searched for superlatives to describe him, as in the case of Donald Detwiler, who wrote: «A man of extraordinary culture, energy, and ability – called by a contemporary chronicler stupor mundi (the wonder of the world), by Nietzsche the first European, and by many historians the first modern ruler – Frederick established in Sicily and southern Italy something very much like a modern, centrally governed kingdom with an efficient bureaucracy».

Conrad (1252 – 1268), called the Younger or the Boy, but usually known by the diminutive Conradin (German: Konradin, Italian: Corradino), was the Duke of Swabia (1254–1268, as Conrad IV), King of Jerusalem (1254–1268, as Conrad III), and King of Sicily (1254–1258, de jure until 1268, as Conrad II).

Provenance: 19th century monogrammed stamp (G.S.) of a not identified owner.

References: OCLC 311976440.

A good copy.