First Latin edition of an eyewitness account of the Schmalkaldic war (1546-1547), complete with all of the woodcuts, and bound in a beautiful armorial binding. It provides detailed accounts of the battles fought by Emperor Charles V against the Lutheran Schmalkaldic League, which was founded by the anti-Habsburg German Protestant Princes, including Elector John Fredrick I of Saxony (1503-1554), at the city of Schmalkalden in 1531. The work is written in a very clear and vivid style. The beautiful woodcuts show the battle near Ingolstad in 1546, a map of Germania (north-western Europe), dated 1550, a view of the battle between the victorious Charles V and John Frederick in April 1547, resulting in the collapse of the Protestant Schmalkaldic League, and a view of Wittenberg on the river Elbe.
The Spanish historian Luis de Avila y Zúñinga (1490-ca. 1560) was an ambassador at Rome and later secretary and confidant of Charles V. He accompanied the emperor to Africa in 1541 and Germany in 1546-1547. His work was originally published in Spanish in 1548 in Madrid and Venice with the title Comentario de la Guerra de Alemanis hecha por Carlos V en 1546 y 1547. It gained immediate success and many editions followed, as well as translations in Latin in 1550 (our copy), French (also Antwerp 1550; followed in 1551 and 1552 by two other French translations), German (Wolfenbüttel 1552) and English (London 1555). The Latin translation was made by Willem van Male (Gulielmus Malinaeus) from Bruges (ca. 1500-1560), a Flemish nobleman, humanist and secretary of Charles V, who dedicated his translation to Cosimo de Medici. Three different issues of the 1550 Latin edition were published by Steelsius in the same year, but the present is considered the most complete.
The binding shows the coat of arms of Christopher Popel the elder of Lobcowicz (1513-1590), or Krystof starsi Popel z Lobkowicz, who was part of the Bílina branch of the Popel lords from Lobkowics, a courtier of the Archduke Arnosta (1553-1595), and a member of the war council. The initials on the boards are an abbreviation of his typical signature: Christophorus Baro a Lobcowicz anno aetati. Five other volumes with the same coat of arms, initials and date as our copy are known, all identified to have belonged to the same owner. Some of the bindings, including NUSK 3509 and 3514, have been attributed to the "Bookbinder with German tools XVII" (NUSK 95), working in Northwestern Bohemia around 1553 to 1584.
With crossed out ownership annotations and a library stamp on the title page, possibly from the Benedictine monastery of St. Wencelaus at Braunau, Bohemia. The boards and spine have been rubbed, with some loss of material, the original gilding is mostly gone, the corners are bumped, lacking most of the lower two closing ties. The leaves are lightly browned, a small tear in one of the double-page views. Otherwise in good condition. Belgica typographica 7827; BL STN Dutch, p. 16; Brunet, I, col. 588; Graesse, I, p. 264; STCV 12916566; USTC 408616 (9 copies); cf. Adams, A-2341 (other issue); for the binding: database NUSK, databáse slepotiskové výzdoby knizních vazeb; including NUSK exx. 3509, 3510, 3514, and 1316