Lot 80
Wishart, George
Auction: 10 June 2009 at 12:00 BST
Description
I. G. [i.e. Jacobus, Graemus, Marquis of Montrose] De rebus auspiciis serenissimi, et potentissimi Caroli... Paris: Joannis Bessin, 1648. 8vo, pp [24], 563, [1] (pp.66-81 repeated because sheet F is bound in twice), contemporary French red morocco, lavishly gilt, covers panelled with broad borders surrounding a blank central oval medallion, spine gilt in compartments, gilt edges, one small scrape on the front cover
Footnote
Note: A sumptuous copy of the first Paris edition. This is a narrative based on eye-witness accounts of the campaigns of the royalist Scots army in 1644-46, under the command of the Marquis of Montrose, to whom Wishart was chaplain. Montrose won an impressive series of victories against the Covenanters but following defeat in Philiphaugh in September 1646 he fled to the continent where Wishart shared his exile and wrote his book, which spread the fame of Montrose across Europe as a dauntless hero. When, however, Montrose unwisely returned to Scotland to confront the Covenanters again, he was captured and executed with Wishart's book hung around his neck.
Provenance: Library of Pierre-Antoine Bolongaro-Crevenna of Amsterdam, one of the finest libraries in Europe, with charactereistic lot label (6506), auctioned in 1790. "Out of its more then 8000 lots, the incunables alone numbered well over a thousand... one of the largest buyers was the London bookseller Payne." (David Rogers, The Book Collector III, 1954, p.148-149).
Robert Maxtone-Graham, bookplate.