Giovanni Capriata - Wars of Italy - 1663

FIRST AND VERY RARE ENGLISH TRANSLATION OF THE CHRONICLES OF WAR BY PIETRO CAPRIATA Embellished with 13 copper engraved illustrations depicting maps of Malta, Naples, Pozzuoli, Loreto and Lucca, as well as views of St. Peter's Basilica, Basilica of San Sebastiano fuori le mura, Basilica of San Lorenzo. Capriata was a controversial historian, accused of being partial and in the pay of the Spaniards, so much so that Mazarin wrote "this sort of people who do the job of writing histories but not the truth, they need gifts, . . . good is that if the Spaniards with six hundred scudi have changed six sheets, we will still have time to make them change six others with our money "(Letters of Card. G Mazzarino to G. Giustiniani, edited by V Ricci, IV, Turin 1863 , p. 116) . CONTENTS The work spread rapidly and, although introduced in Turin with great caution by a few booksellers, a specimen arrived at the Duke's court on 24 February. 1626. The reaction was immediate: all the copies existing in Piedmont were requisitioned. The Capriata, to escape the Genoese inquisitors, who were preparing to punish in an exemplary way those responsible for the plot, took refuge in Spain and then continued to write his Historia. In 1638 he published in Genoa (Turin had refused the services of his pen) at the typographers G. Calenzano and G. M. Farroni the first part of the Historia . . . from MDXIII to MDCXXXIV, dedicated to Ottavio Raggi, auditor of the Chamber of Urban VIII. While the first part of the Historia continued to be strictly prohibited, C. obtained the license to publish the second, comprising the years from 1634 to 1644, which began to be printed in Genoa on 15 February. 1648. In the meantime, in those years, through Giannettino Giustiniani, C. had begun a correspondence with Cardinal Mazarin to offer him the services of his pen. CONDITION REPORT In full leather with handwritten titles, bands in relief and gilded friezes on the nails; Pp. (2b) + (12) + 797 + (5b) ; very slight traces of use to the binding, good example on very fresh and crunchy papers. Small woodcut vignette on the title page, beautiful double-page copper plate with a central view of the city of Rome with the papal coat of arms and 12 other minor views on the sides (St. Peter's Basilica, St. Paul's Basilica, St. John Lateran Basilica , Basilica of Santa Maria Maggiore, Basilica of Santa Croce in Gerusalemme, Basilica of San Sebastiano fuori le mura, Basilica of San Lorenzo, Loreto, Naples, Pozzuoli, Malta and Lucca) , ex libris Sir John Dashwood King. FULL TITLES & AUTHORS The History of the Wars of Italy from the year MDCXIII to the Year MDCXLIV. In XVIII Books. Written originally in Italian, by Pietro Giovanni Capriata, Dr at Law. And rendred in English by Henry Earl of Monmouth 1663. London, printed by J. Macock. Pietro Giovanni Capriata