MAY, Beat Emanuel von.

Inquire · Offered by Peter Harrington

Histoire Militaire de la Suisse, et Celle des Suisses dans les Différens Services de l'Europe. Second edition, extensively enlarged, in an attractive period binding. This history of Swiss officers engaged in foreign service was written by one of the earliest Bernese military authors. It spans from the Roman Empire through to the time of writing, with due attention paid to the Renaissance period when Swiss mercenaries were sought all over Europe.Beat Emanuel von May (1734-1802) was born into a patrician family in Bern, his father holding the rank of lieutenant colonel in the Dutch military. He was educated in Germany and then entered the French army, where he "is said to have lived a rather reckless life until he lost his fortune and was forced to return home" (ADB). He lived through the French Revolution and spent his later life writing the present work, conceived as an expansion on Beat Fidel Zurlauben's earlier work, Histoire Militaire des Suisses au Service de la France (1751-53). May's first edition was released in 1772 in two volumes.

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