Lepanto Battle. CONTARINI. Historiae de bello nuper Venetis a Selimo II turcarum imperatore illato.

In 4to; mm 195x140; full vellum binding painted in red, spine with 4 nervs and gilt sections. Covers with gilt embroidery frame and little central rules. Gilt edges with blind tooling. Pp (12), 147, (1) with double page folded map, ancient watercolor. Woodcut printer’s device on titlepage partially colored. Collation of other works inside:

CHARPENTIER P. Epistola ad Franciscum Portum Cretensem. (Geneve?), 1573: pp. 32, (1); 

VELASCO J.F. Hispanarum Vindiciae tutelarum. Lovanio, Riv, 1608: pp. (14), 66; 

GALLUS J.B. In Jacobi Augusti Thuani hitoriarum libros notationes. Ingolstadt, Eder, 1614: pp. (4), 81, (1);

KITSCH H. De anulorum aureorum origine, varietate…Lipsia, Gross, 1614: pp. (36); 

KASIMIR JOHANN, MORITZ CH. & F. De officio principis orationes tres…, Lipsia, 1610: pp. 44, (4); 

GRUNING W. Quaestio perpulchra utrum dignitas. Spira, 1610: pp. (99), (1 blank).

Remarkably attractive specimen, lacking initial endpaper, brownings only in second half of tome, which contains the other works. Small restored tear to plate. Hole at title page due to ink oxidation. Slight traces of wear to binding (edges and corners).

First and only Latin edition, complete with the fascinating often-missing map, here with German text, representing the theater of the Battle of Lepanto with wind rose in the center, between Patras, Lefkada, Ithaca, Cephalonia and Zakynthos. Contarini's Cronaca constitutes one of the earliest and most authoritative sources on the famous battle, which at dawn on October 7, 1571, pitted the Muslim fleet commanded by Admiral Ali against the Christian fleet of the Holy League in the Gulf of Lepanto. Composed in the aftermath of the confrontation, the work describes the causes of the conflict including the 1570 Turkish attack on Cyprus and the steps that led Don John of Austria's galleys to victory. The original in Italian had been published the previous year.