La République des Suisses. Comprinse en deux livre ... Descrite en Latin ... et nouvellement mise en François.

Geneva or Lausanne, Antoine Chupin & François le Preux, 1577. Woodcut medallion on title with the coat of arms of the 13 cantons and 7 cities, second medallion on leaf 16 verso, showing the oath of the first three confederates (repeated on last leaf verso), and 5 engraved plates by Virgil Solis showing standard-bearers from Lucerne, Berne, Fribourg, Unterwalden and St. Gallen. 16 leaves, 562 pp., 12 leaves. Small 8vo. 19th-century light brown morocco, title on spine in gilt, gilt-stamped monogram on front cover, marbled endpapers, all edges gilt (by Gruel). From the library of Edmund Engelmann, Mulhouse, with his colored illustrated exlibris on front pastedown. Geneva or Lausanne, (Antoine Chupin & François le Preux), 1577. First French edition of Josias Simler's (1530-1576) main work, his "Republica Helvetiorum". Until the end of the old Confederation, it was the most popular book on Swiss constitutional law, published one year after the first Latin edition in Zurich in 1576. It is assumed that it was translated by the jurist Innocent Gentillet (died in Geneva around 1595). It deals with public, political, and social order. In the first part, Simler offers a history of the confederacies, similar to the chronicles of Stumpf and Tschudi. The second part is a complete and lively presentation of the Swiss Confederation during his own times. Extra illustrated copy with five etchings by Virgil Solis, from his series "Vierzehn Landsknechte mit den Bannern der Schweizer Kantone". These are in fact inverted copies after the cuts by Urs Graf (1521). - Slightly cropped at head, discreetly cleaned as is often the case with French books in de-luxe-bindings from the 19th century. Remarkable provenance. - Wyss 21; Lökkös, Le Livre à Genève, 53; Adams S-1168; Barth 23680; Haller IV, 409; cf. O'Dell-Franke (1977) f 41-54; Feller/Bonjour 160f. Not in STC (French). HELVETICA: ALLGEMEIN ;