Chandler Rathfon Post
Mediaeval Spanish Allegory.
Harvard University Press, 1915. First edition. xii/331 pages.
Volume, measuring approximtely 6" x 8.75", is bound in blind-stamped burgundy cloth, with stamped gilt lettering to spine. Book is in near fine condition, with very minor abrasions at corners. Binding is firm. Ink stamp reading "Rezensionsexemplar des Romanischen Jahresberichts" appears at the bottom of front flyleaf. Pages are otherwise clean and bright.  This work is illustrated with a tissue-guarded photograph frontispiece showing the tomb of Alfonso Tostado de Madrigal in the cathedral of Avila. 
"It is my purpose in this volume to trace the development of Castilian allegory from its first appearance in the vernacular during the thirteenth to its culmination in the fifteenth century; but the history of the type may be better followed by some reference to precedents in the Latin literature of the peninsula. The Middle Ages, to which I have restricted myself, may be regarded as extending in Spain to the accession of Isabella the Catholic in 1474, although forewarnings of the Renaissance begin to intrude themselves somewhat before that date. Since, however, allegory does not suddenly cease with the death of Isabella's predecessor, Henry IV, I have added a brief examination of its subsequent vicissitudes, during the late fifteenth and early sixteenth centuries. I do not pretend to have included every example that falls within the period, inasmuch as a mediaeval writer was so to the manner born that he could seldom complete an otherwise unadorned production without lapsing here and there into allegory; but I trust that I have excluded no integral part of Spanish allegorical history." (From author's preface)