DE MONCADA (Don Francisco).

Expedicion de los Catalanes Y Aragoneses Contra Turcos Y Griegos.

THE RARE FIRST EDITION

First edition. Engraved title page. 8vo. Modern dark mottled quarter calf with spine elaborately decorated gilt with a ship design in each of 5 panels. Modern calf-backed boards, gilt, some paper repairs here and there but a clean copy with a bookplate featuring a map of the Mediterranean area, decorated with various vessels in the name of Francisco Condeminas. x, 185, 8[contents]pp. Barcelona, 1623.

£3,200.00

This first edition describing the exploits of the Catalan mercenaries under Roger de Flor in the Eastern Mediterranean during the first few years of the fourteenth century. A tumultuous account of sieges, massacres, murders, double dealing and treachery in Byzantium. At a loose end after the War of the Sicilian Vespers the Catalan horde, numbering about 4000 men was engaged, in 1303, by the Byzantine Emperor Andronikos II Palaiologos to strengthen his forces against the Turks.

The mercenaries served faithfully but eventually became too unruly and their employers turned against their hirelings. Numerous battles were fought, the Catalans generally maintaining the whip hand, before their eventual retreat in 1310 into what is now central Greece.

Stock No.
191765