Grenoble, Provensal, 1683.
8vo. Two parts in one contemporary full calf binding with five raised bands and gilt lettering and ornamentation to spine (mostly worn off). Light wear to extremities. Head of spine with small loss of leather, showing headbands. Small paper-label pasted on to top of spine. Previous owner's name in contemporary hand to front free end-paper: "Charles Rudolf / 1685". Internally nice and clean. (24), 274, 288 pp.
The rare first edition of Chorier's biography of Charles de Créquy (1578–1638), a famous French soldier and diplomat, who had a rather adventurous and gripping life: "Charles I. de Blanchefort, marquis de Créquy, prince de Poix, duc de Lesdiguières (1578–1638), marshal of France, son of the last-named, saw his first fighting before Laon in 1594, and was wounded at the capture of Saint Jean d’Angély in 1621. In the next year he became a marshal of France. He served through the Piedmontese campaign in aid of Savoy in 1624 as second in command to the constable, François de Bonne, duc de Lesdiguières, whose daughter Madeleine he had married in 1595. He inherited in 1626 the estates and title of his father-in-law, who had induced him, after the death of his first wife, to marry her half-sister Françoise. He was also lieutenant-general of Dauphiné. In 1633 he was ambassador to Rome, and in 1636 to Venice. He fought in the Italian campaigns of 1630, 1635, 1636 and 1637, when he helped to defeat the Spaniards at Monte Baldo. He was killed on the 17th of March 1638 in an attempt to raise the siege of Crema, a fortress in the Milanese. He had a quarrel extending over years with Philip, the bastard of Savoy, which ended in a duel fatal to Philip in 1599; and in 1620 he defended Saint-Aignan, who was his prisoner of war, against a prosecution threatened by Louis XIII. Some of his letters are preserved in the Bibliothèque Nationale in Paris, and his life was written by N. Chorier [the present work]". (Encyclopedia Britannica). Barbier II, 712.
Order-nr.: 61315