CEVALLOS Pedro Confédération des royaumes et provinces d’Espagne contre Buonaparte, ou, Recueil des pièces officielles publiées relativement aux affaires d’Espagne depuis l’usurpation de Buonaparte, auquel on a ajouté l’exposition des faits, &c. &c. &c., publiée par Don Pedro Cevallos.

First edition of this extremely rare work.

Handwritten inscription at the end of the foreword : “Comte d’Antraigues”. The signature is that of Louis-Alexandre de Launay, Count of Antraigues (https://www.traces-ecrites.com/document/louis-dantraigues-ecrit-a-saint-huberti/).

In 1805 he published Traduction d’un fragment du XVIII. Livre de Polybe trouvé dans le monastère Sainte Laure au Mont Athos, which was in fact a violent pamphlet aimed at Napoleon and the First Empire.

The foreword praises the patient and determined Spanish people, who can only defeat the Corsican tyrant: “Savoir mourir, et savoir haïr ; voilà les gages de la Victoire pour les Espagnols […] L’œuvre qu’ils ont entreprise [sic] seroit elle la plus héroïque de toutes les gloires, si les succès constans étoient le partage de tous ceux qui résistent à la tyrannie.”

The official documents presented afterwards look back at the politics and events of 1808. This was a decisive year for Spain, marking the start of the War of Independence.

Provenance: Canning family (coat of arms on boards), possibly George Canning (1770-1827), Prime Minister of the United Kingdom and Foreign Secretary; or Charles Canning (1812-1862) Governor General of India from 1856 to 1862 then 1st Viceroy of India. Lord of Rosebery (bookplate of his estate, the Durdans, on the upper flyleaf and stamps on the spine and title pages). Probably Archibald Philip Primrose (1847 -1929), 5th Earl of Rosebery, also British Prime Minister from 1894 to 1895.