Maximilian I. - Treitzsaurwein, Marx. The White King. A narrative of the deeds of Emperor Maximilian the First. With 237 woodcut plates by Hans Burgkmair, Hans Schäufelein, Hans Springinklee and Leonhard Beck. Vienna, Kurzböck, 1775. folio (35.5 × 24.5 cm). [4] vols, 307 p., [4] vols. Beautiful blind- and gilt-stamped leather binding on 6 bands, on front cover small gilt-stamped elephant head holding a crown with its trunk (somewhat rubbed and bumped, spine somewhat damaged at foot). Goedeke I, 336, 2 - Lipperheide Dd 10 - Fairfax-Murray 416 - Muther 854 - Geissler (Burgkmair) 202 - Oldenbourg (Schäufelein) L 246 - First edition. - The unfinished allegorical autobiography of Emperor Maximilian I, the "white king". The work is a mixture of heroic epic, chronicle and princely mirror and reports in 3 parts on the courtship and coronation of Frederick III, the old Weisskunig, on the birth, childhood and youth of the young Weisskunig and finally on his reign and war deeds. The manuscript breaks off with the Battle of Vicenza in 1513. It fell into oblivion after Maximilian's death in 1519, as did the woodblocks for the illustrations, which were created between 1514 and 1516. They were rediscovered in the 18th century so that the work could be published for the first time in its unfinished form in Vienna in 1775. - Copy of the deluxe edition on strong paper and with the plates bound into the text, therefore also without the leaf with the bookbinding instructions at the end. - The plates somewhat browned throughout.