HEXHAM, Henry

by Henry Hexham

£29,500 · Offered by Sokol Books

Extremely rare first edition of this important military work, printed in Holland, one of two variants; this with the cancel title in English. This copy has the plates in fine contemporary hand colouring. Both editions are extremely rare. This variant is recorded in ESTC in three copies only, two at the Huntington Library and one at Harvard. The variant with the Dutch title page in recorded a unique copy, also at the Huntington. There is no copy of either in UK libraries. The work was reprinted in 1642 in England. Hexham s long military career began when he was fifteen or sixteen. He was born in the Netherlands to English parents in circa 1585 and first served with Vere at Ostend and remained with him until his departure for England in 1604. His three instruction manuals were a tour de force of English military literature and a veritable catalogue of the Dutch contributions to the transformation of warfare in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. .. Hexham was one of the most prolific soldier-authors of the early Stuart period and his contributions to English military literature are quite significant. His ties to Horace Vere and to many of the soldiers in the Vere circle is one more instance of the strong conections between Englands military writers and the countries leading military figures. David R. Lawrence The Complete Soldier: Military Books and Military Culture in Early Stuart England. A number of British writers were influenced by this Dutch-drill . Most n

• Binding: Hardcover

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