I Carichi militari
First edition of the military strategy book by Brancaccio printed in Antwerp in 1610, bound in contemporary olive morocco with the arms of Jacques Auguste de Thou and his second wife Gasparde de la Chastre.
Small folio, olive morocco, triple gilt fillet around the covers, spine with raised bands decorated with gilt cipher, gilt fillet on the edges, gilt edges over marbling. Contemporary binding.
261 x 176 mm.
Brancaccio, Fra Lelio. The Military Charges of Fra Lelio Brancaccio, Knight of the Order of St. John…
Antwerp, 1610.
First edition of this treatise by Lelio Brancaccio (1560-1637), an Italian strategic writer who lived in the second half of the sixteenth century.
Cockle 609; Jähns 579; Lipperheide Qb27 (war costume); Piantanida, 1416; Olschki, Choix, 10032; Brunet I, 1201; Graesse I, 519
"In Naples, Brancaccio began writing a treatise on military art, entitled Carichi militari or Fucina di Marte, in which he addressed the duties assigned to each military rank, from the common soldier up to the field marshal, concluding with an exposition of the prince's obligations to his army. The work, dedicated to Archduke Albert of Austria, holds no greater interest than many other similar treatises of its time, even if Brancaccio's long and intense military experience can be felt throughout; some of Brancaccio’s remarks on 'entrenched camps' are important. The treatise was quite successful, with three editions published within thirty years: in Antwerp in 1610, Milan in 1620, and Venice in 1641" ((Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani, volume XIII, entry by Gaspare De Caro).
In this significant work, the author—who was a Knight of St. John of Jerusalem, a field commander, and war advisor in the States of Flanders—describes the roles and responsibilities of different military ranks, from simple soldier to general. The work was very well received and saw four Italian reprints and a Spanish translation by Scavino in 1693, all listed by Cockle.
Magnificent copy, decorated with a military allegorical frontispiece and five double-page copper engravings of military strategy, bound in contemporary olive morocco forJacques Auguste De Thou (1553-1617) and his second wifeGasparde de la Chastre.
“Jacques-Auguste de Thou first became a canon of Notre-Dame de Paris and took part in various diplomatic missions; after his father’s death led him to leave the ecclesiastical state in 1583, he entered the magistracy and was appointed maître des requêtes of the royal household in 1584, state councillor in 1588, grand master of the royal library in 1593, and president à mortier at the Paris parliament in 1595; the principal work of his career was negotiating the Edict of Nantes.
Beyond all these glorious titles, President de Thou holds a prominent place in the history of book collecting and ranks among the most celebrated bibliophiles; he assembled the finest book collection of his time, more remarkable for the selection of works than their number. Upon the death of his first wife, Marie Barbançon, the arms of his second wife then replaced those of the first in the shield, and the monogram AG combines the letters I. A. G. (Jacq. Aug., Gasparde), in which the intersection with the crossbar of the A reproduces the theta.” (Olivier, 216).
