[Catholic League of France / Holy League / La Ligue catholique].

Responce [i.e. response] d'un notable serviteur du roy a un sien amy, sur le discours de deux lettres [...] l'une souz le nom des pretenduz Estats du Royaume et l'autre du Cardinal de Plaisance

Tours: Chez Jamet Mettayer, Imprimeur ordinaire du Roy, 1594. First Edition. Hardcover. 12mo. 33 pp. Mettayer's wodcut device on title-page with motto: "Omni praestantior arte." Sympathetically bound in the antique style: recent quarter calf over speckled boards, red morocco label; small blemish on title; four leaves (including title) with blind-stamp of the Theological Institute of Connecticut (now known as the Hartford Seminary). NB: in 1976 a collection of more than 200,000 books from the Hartford Seminary Library were sold to Emory University, including this one --> deaccessioned from Pitts Theology Library. Very good. Item #864

A rare item on the Catholic League printed in Tours by the itinerant printer Jamet Mettayer, who is known to have been active in Paris (1573-1588), Blois (1589), Tours (1589-1594 where he fled during the troubles of the League), and again in Paris until ca. 1605. The text of this rare work concerns Cardinal Filippo Sega (1537-1596) and is dated 18 February 1594. ¶ Worldcat lists only the copies at the BnF and the Mazarine, to which we can add Durham University and Bibl. Municipale de Tours. ¶ REFERENCES: "La Typographie in Touraine (1467-1830)" no. 140 (in: Bulletin du bibliophile et du bibliothecaire, 1878, p. 49). See also the sales of Victor Luzarche (1891) no. 3981 and Jules Tachereau (1875) no. 531. Struve, Bibliotheca historica (1795), vol. VIII part I, p. 190. Bibliotheque historique de la France (1775) Supplement du Tom. II, p. 404, no. 19529.

Price: $720.00