VERSTEGAN (Richard). Lot n° 36

Theatre des cruautez des hereticques de nostre temps. Antwerp, Adrien Hubert, 1588. 2 parts in one small volume in-4, fawn calf, gilt fillet bordered by a cold roulette, smooth spine decorated, mosaic red maroon spine bands, gilt inner greek, gilt edges (Binding of the end of the 18th century). First French edition of this famous breviary of the cruelties suffered by Catholics during the Wars of Religion, a work of anti-protestant propaganda by Richard Rowlands alias Verstegan, an English Catholic exiled in Antwerp. This French version, published a year after the Latin original by the same publisher, offers a more complete text, with a copious commentary on the figures. A striking engraved illustration, composed of a title vignette and 29 mid-page figures, attributed to Johannes Wierix, detailing all the massacres, tortures, sacrileges and depredations of which, according to the author, the English, Irish, French and Flemish Catholics were victims. The copperplates are the same as in the Latin edition. A very fine copy in fine antique binding. Marginal break on p. 21; repaired tear on folio F2 of the second part. Brunet, V, 773 - Cockx-Indestege, 9316.