Jornada y muerte del Rey Don Sebastian de Portugal, sacada de las obras del Franchi, ciudadano de Genoua, y de otros muchos papeles autenticos, ...
[false imprint:] "Valladolid" [= unidentified place in Iberia], heirs of Juan Íñiguez de Lequerica [= unknown printer & publisher], “1603” [= ca. 1670?]. Small 4to (19 x 14 cm). With the woodcut coat of arms of the dedicatee Juan Fernández de Velasco, Duke of Frías, on the title-page. Mottled tanned sheepskin (ca. 1800?), gold-tooled spine.
Rare reprint (rarely distinguished from the more common first edition of 1603) of an important Spanish account of King Sebastião I of Portugal's ill-fated 1578 invasion of Moroccan and his death in battle, copying the 1603 edition's imprint, date, woodcut arms on the title-page and even the typesetting errors and list of errata. King Sebastião I of Portugal (1554-1578) inherited the crown at age three after the death of his grandfather João III.
Educated by Jesuits, he combined religious fanaticism with an unbounded admiration for the military, presenting himself as a Christian knight who would fight the "misguided" Muslims in Africa and rescue them from their faith. He got his chance when the deposed Moroccan Sultan Abu Abdallah Mohammed II asked for his help. In 1578 Sebastião invaded Morocco with a large and expensive force, joined by Abu Abdallah's army of Moors and other Muslim opponents of the Sultan Ahmad al-Mansur. Although Ahmad died during the invasion, Sebastião's inexperience and rash attack in the bloody and disastrous Battle of the Three Kings at Alcazarquivir in the north of Morocco led to his own death, that of 8000 Portuguese troops, including much of the Portuguese nobility, and the capture of 15,000 more. Sebastião's body was never found and many supporters refused to believe had died and awaited his return for decades. San Román indicates on the title-page that he made use of Girolami Franchi Conestaggio's 1585 history of the union of Spain and Portugal, but also many other authentic documents. Sebastião's death without issue set off a struggle for the succession to the Portuguese crown and after the brief reign of his great uncle as Henrique I, King Phillip II of Spain managed to unite the Spanish and Portuguese crowns in 1580. The present reprint dates after ca. 1660, probably from Pedro II's regency, when it would have served to bolster the legitimacy of the troubled monarchy.
With an old library shelf-mark on an endleaf. With tears into the text of the last 2 leaves, one crudely repaired with tape, somewhat browned throughout, water stains in the foot margin of several leaves, and an occasional small hole, spot or stain, but with generous margins and most leaves in good condition. The binding with minor damage to the head of the spine and some corners, but otherwise very good. A close copy of the first edition (much rarer than the original) of an important record of the disastrous Portuguese invasion of Morocco in 1578.
Goldsmith, BMC Spanish & Portuguese S225; USTC 5018554 (mixed with 2? other eds.); cf. Palau 293612.
