THE POLITICKE AND MILITARIE DISCOURSES OF THE LORD DE LA NOUE. Whereunto are adioyned certaine obseruations of the same Author, of things happened during the three late civill warres of France.
With a true declaration of manie particulars touching the same. All faithfully translated out of the French by E. A. [Edward Aggas]. Pp. [xiv]+458 (some mispagination), partly black letter, title within decorative typographic border, decorative head & tailpieces and initials; small 4to, in eights; contemporary limp vellum with 4 thongs, the spine with early manuscript titling (faded), signs (stubs only) of 2 side fastenings, the vellum slightly creased and faintly soiled; book label of David Levine, Sydney above the earlier armorial bookplate of Lionel Talmash [Tollemache], Earl of Dysart on upper pastedown, the upper hinge starting, tiny hole affecting one word of marginal gloss p. 334 (sig. Y8v); printed for T. C. [Thomas Cadman] and E. [Edward Aggas] A. by Thomas Orwin, London, 1587[1588]. \lang2057 STC 15215; Cockle 37. *Complete with the outer blanks. Twenty-six discourses on topics including cavalry, the need for a standing army, rewards of soliders. 'A standard work of the time. It was published without the knowledge or permission of the author, being collected and digested into one volume, out of a heap of waste paper, by his friend, M. de Fresnes, who the troubles in France had enforced to keep company, for eight or nine months, as a banished man, with de La Noue, during his captivity' [Cockle page 32]. Francois de la Noue (1531-1591) was a soldier in the French Wars of Religion (1562-98). After he was wounded at Fontenay in 1570, one of his arms was replaced by an iron device, after which he was nicknamed 'Bras-de-Fer' [Iron Arm]. From 1574 to 1578 he acted as Huguenot general of La Rochelle. In 1580 he fought against the Spanish in the Netherlands. Captured and imprisoned for five years, he wrote his Discours politiques et militaries 'a series of moral and military reflections together with a commentary on the state of France and an account of the early years of the Wars of Religion. After his release he eventually returned to France and served King Heny IV, dying of a wound received at the siege of Lamballe' [Encyclopaedia Britannica]. The translator and publishers' names are from the colophon, which is dated 1588. Edward Aggas was a stationer who translated several French publications. The bookplate is probably that of the 4th Earl of Dysart (1708-1770), who added to the already considerable family library with purchases from the Harleian Library sales and other sources. Item #173577
Price: $6,000.00