COELLO de BARBUDA, Luis Empresas Militares de Lusitanos. Lisbon Pedro Craesbeeck 1624
8vo. (6), 334 ff. (f. 161 misnumbered 145). Recent vellum. Title p. slightly soiled, with shelfmark in ink at head, tip of lower corner of f. 25 torn off, corner of f. 195 torn due to paper fault, f. 161 misnumbered 145, occasional faint staining, near contemporary scribbles on front & back end-papers (mounted).
“The author, a Portuguese member of the royal household, was born in Lisbon in the sixteenth century; and, though forced to accept the sovereignty of the Spanish King, he very evidently retained his love of his native country and its national heroes. He explained in his preface to the archbishop of Braga, to whom the book is dedicated, that his work is intended to be a more lasting monument to the heroes of his nation than the statues with which the Greeks formerly honoured their great; and to this end, he has written his work in Spanish, so that it might find a wider field of appreciation than if he had written it in Portuguese. Though written with a touch of pride for the exploits of the Lusitanians, the writer’s attitude towards Portugal’s enemies is fair and unprejudiced. Antonio de Sousa de Macedo describes it in his Excellencias de Portugal as an ‘excellent book’” (Maggs, Spanish Books, 245). Palau 56169. Innocêncio V, 280 & XVI, 9. Palha 2767. Welsh 1552. Borba de Moraes I, 76. Ávila-Perez 1816, “raríssima.” Garcia Perez 41, “libro estimable y que es poco vulgar.” Bernstein, Pedro Craesbeeck & sons, 17th century publishers to Portugal & Brazil, 244.
£750
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