Cruso, Militarie instructions for the cavallrie, Cambridge, 1632, calf gilt, Ashburnham-Carlton House copy

[CRUSO, JOHN]

Militarie instructions for the cavallrie: or Rules and directions for the service of horse, collected out of divers forrain authors ancient and modern, and rectified and supplied, according to the present practise of the Low-Countrey warres. Cambridge: Printers to the Universitie, 1632

FIRST EDITION, folio (320 x 226mm.), 14 engraved plates (of 16) of which 7 double-page, with additional engraved title-page (variant lacking imprint and engraver's signature), contemporary calf with arabesque centre-piece gilt, flat spine gilt with morocco lettering-pieces, lacking 2 plates, extremities rubbed, spine chipped at head and foot, lacking 2 pairs of ties

The first manual in English dedicated to the cavalry. It is thought to be an academic work rather than one based on personal experience, though Cruso did serve with the Norwich trained bands in the 1630s. He probably used works by Basta, Wallhausen, Melzo and Lipsius, as well as classical texts of Vegetius and Frontinus, and Pluvinel's work on horses (David Lawrence, The complete soldier, 2009, p. 292).

LITERATURE:

Cockle 124; ESTC S121933; STC 6099

PROVENANCE:

Carleton [sic] House Library, armorial bookplate, i.e. the Prince Regent (later George IV); Henry G. Bohn, bookseller's catalogue, 1847, p. 463, price 14s; Bertram, 4th Earl of Ashburnham (1797-1878), his shelfmark in red ink on inside front cover, 28.G (crossed through and replaced with) I, not found in his sale catalogues of 1897-1898 though it does appear in the 1864 catalogue of the library at Ashburnham Place (see also Errard, lot 156); Thomas Francis Fremantle, armorial bookplate