CAPILUPI Camillo Le Stratageme, ou la ruse de Charles IX, Roy de France, contre les Huguenots rebelles à Dieu & à luy. Escrit par le Seigneur Camille Capilupi, & envoyé de Rome au Seigneur Alphonse Capilupi.

Brunet I, 1562; Fairfax-Murray, 75; Adams, C-591 (only the Italian text).

First edition of the French translation and second edition of the Italian text. This famous contemporary apology for Saint Bartholomew’s Day was written by an Italian. It was written in Rome in 1572 at the instigation of the Cardinal of Lorraine, who then sought to stop its circulation, fearing that news of the massacre would endanger the candidacy of the Duke of Anjou, the future Henry III, as elected King of Poland. The work tends to prove that Saint Bartholomew’s Day had been carefully prepared, with the King merely stopping a conspiracy uncovered by Admiral de Coligny.

USTC locates 6 institutional copies in the Unnited States (Folger Shakespeare Library, Houghton Library, Iowa City, New York Public Library, Virgina University, Yale/Beinecke).

Fine copy.

Provenance: Robert de Crewe (book plate) – unidentified book plate with interlaced ‘CC’.