Basta, Giorgio. Le gouvernement de la cavallerie legere.

€ 2.000,00

Third French edition, first published in Italian 1612.

Basta enjoyed major success as commander of the cavalry under Alessandro Farnese, Duke of Parma; after the Duke's death he entered the service of Rudolf II. This was his most important treatise, in which he described how to free the cavalry from its historically close operational ties with the infantry so that it might be able to act as "la pupilla degli eserciti".

Provenance: bote of purchase by Hugo Montgomery in 1617 to title-page. Bookplate of Sir John Cope, Baronet, to front pastedown. Later in the collection of Thomas Fremantle, 3rd Baron Cottesloe (1862-1956), commander of the Territorial Army and president of the Society for Army History Research. A good copy.