An historical collection, of the most memorable accidents, and tragicall massacres of France, under the raignes of Henry. 2. Francis. 2. Charles. 9. Henry. 3. Henry. 4. now living. Conteining all the troubles therein happened, during the said kings times, until this present yeare, 1598. por SERRES, Jean de, [or Simon Goulart] and MATTHIEU, Pierre - 1598

London: Thomas Creede, 1598. First English language edition. . Hardcover. See Description. Small folio. Lacking preliminary blank leaf, thus pp. [10], 310, 292, [4]. Page numbering is erratic. Leaf Ee3 is mis-signed as F3, but all leaves are present and in order. The title page contains a woodcut vignette/device. Each chapter begins with a woodcut decorative head piece and an initial. Bound in full dark brown modern calf with blind tooled borders and stamps after an early period style. The upper part of the title page is age-toned / tanned; a professionally sealed 7 cm. tear runs from the gutter part way across the upper portion of the title and is difficult to detect on first sight; a couple of tiny chips on the top edge are restored. Interior pages are generally attractive but with occasional mild age-toning and periodic faint marginal damp staining. A small repair patch is present on the inner margins of leaves A6 and V6. A tear on leaf V6 (also carefully sealed) extends vertically about 8.5 cm from the lower gutter and part way into the text (but causing almost no obscuration). Printed by Thomas Creede, who is best known for issuing dramatic works including some of Shakespeare’s plays. The book is divided into two parts. The first part is a translation of "Recueil des choses mémorables avenues en France sous le règne de Henri II, François II, Charles IX, Henri III, et Henri IV." This work is generally attributed to either Simon Goulart or Jean de Serres, and was first printed in French (no place or publisher) in 1595 and again in 1598 – expanded to include the reign of Henri IV up to the year 1597. [See Brunet IV, 1161-1162]. The second part (with new pagination) provides translated selections from Pierre Matthieu’s, 4 part "Histoire des derniers troubles de France" (first published in Lyons 1594-95). A section at the end is titled "a brief recitall of the most memorable things which came to passé in Fraunce, under the raigne of Henry the fourth, …until the middle of the Yeare, 1598" which, if written by Matthieu, may possibly represent the first printing of some amendments which Matthieu later added to the second edition of his "Histoire" printed in 1600. This collection provides interesting testaments to the wars of religion in France during the 16th century. A separate 4 page tract at the end is titled: "A true discourse concerning the deliverie of Brittaine, in the yeare 1598." [ESTC S121331; USTC 513796; Lowndes, p. 831; Hazlitt, Biblio. Collections 2nd Series, p. 231].