1894 "Author's Revised Edition" "From the MSS. of Fray Antonio Agapida" stated; David McKay Publisher, Philadelphia; hardbound in hooker's green boards with gilt stamp lettering on spine; good condition with clean pages and tight binding; original owner's signature and date (Christmas 1894) cursive inside page; small stamped "ADELE" inside page; no dust jacket.
 
Description -
First published in 1850, this acclaimed classic describes the struggle of Castilian sovereigns Ferdinand and Isabella against the Moors of the Kingdom of Granada, leading to the Conquest in 1492. The story is based on the fragmentary remains of Fray Antonio Agapida's contemporary chronicles and other historical documents.
 
CHAPTER 1 EXCERPT -
"The history of those bloody and disastrous wars which have caused the downfall of mighty empires (observes Fray Antonio Agapida) has ever been considered a study highly delectable and full of precious edification.  What, then, must be the history of a pious crusade waged by the most Catholic of sovereigns to rescue from the power of the infidels one of the most beautiful but denighted regions of the globe?  Listen, then, while from the solitude of my cell I relate the events of the conquest of Granada, where Christian knight and turbaned infidel disputed, inch by inch, the fair land of Andalusia, until the Crescent, that symbol of heathnish abomination, was cast down, and the blessed Cross, the tree of our redemption, erected in its stead...