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Paris, 1689
The last three Habsburgs of Spain, portrayed while the last of them was still on the throne
Abrege Nouveau de l\'Histoire Generale d\'Espagne, contenant ce qui s\'est passe dans les Pais dependans de cette Monarchie, depuis son origine jusqu\'a present. Tome Troisieme. A Paris, au Palais, Chez Charles Osmont, dans la Grande Salle, du cote de la Cour des Aydes, a l\'Ecu de France. M.DC.LXXXIX. Avec Privilege du Roi.
Three engraved portrait plates carry the volume, one for each king it covers: Philippe III, Philippe IV and Charles II, each a bust in an oval frame set on a plinth with the name cut into the base, and the Habsburg jaw quite unmistakable in all three. The last of them shows Charles as a young man in armour. The title page names no author; the work is Claude Vanel\'s, one of a series of abreges nouveaux he wrote on Spain, Italy and the Turks. The final leaf gives the printer, De l\'Imprimerie de Claude Mazuel, and the date 1688, a year before the title page.
On the title page an early owner has signed in brown ink across the ornament: a given name that reads as Ignatio, then Conte di Passerano. Passerano is a county in Piedmont, so the book went south into Italy at some point and stayed in a titled library there.
Bound in contemporary calf, the spine gilt in the compartments, marbled endpapers, red edges. The volume is complete in itself, ending Fin du troisieme Tome with its table of contents. This is Tome III alone. About 6.5 x 4 x 1.5 inches.
Good, with one defect stated plainly: the three leaves carrying the portrait plates have come away from the text block. All three are present and intact, and they are loose rather than damaged, but they are no longer attached. Beyond that the text block is sound, the paper firm with age browning in places and some damp marking at the edges, and the printing clear. The calf is heavily worn and darkened with loss to the surface of both boards and to the corners, and the joints are rubbed, but the boards are holding and the spine gilt survives.
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