Justin Croft Antiquarian Books : [COURTILZ DE SANDRAS, Gatien de.] - Histoire du maréchal de Fabert, lieutenant général des armées du roy, gouverneur des ville & château de Sedan &c.

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[COURTILZ DE SANDRAS, Gatien de.] Histoire du maréchal de Fabert, lieutenant général des armées du roy, gouverneur des ville & château de Sedan &c. Amsterdam: Henri Desbordes, 1697.

12mo (155 × 85 mm), pp. [iv], 186, includes fine engraved portrait. Title printed in red and black with ornaments. Contemporary sprinkled calf, spine with 5 raised bands, gilt in compartments. Spine chipped at head with minor loss. A very good copy.

First edition of this biography of one of France’s greatest seventeenth-century military leaders. Born at Metz in 1599, the son of a printer, Fabert commanded the garrison at Metz and became it’s governor in 1638. He was made ‘maréchal de camp’ by Louis XII at the siege of Donchery, and became governor of Sedan in 1642. His success lay as much in his diplomatic skills as his undoubted military prowess. The author was prolific, being known also for his popular fiction, often based on historical figures. In his early life he had seen service with the Musketeers, experience which he used as the basis for his Mémoires de M. d’Artagnan (1700) which in turn was the inspiration for Dumas’s Les Trois Mousquetaires.

£300.00 (equal to approx. US$474.50* or €371.84* for 19 May 2012)

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