89 - [HISTORY - MILITARIA] - DU BUISSON [pen name of Gatien de COURTILZ DE SANDRAS]

[HISTORY - MILITARIA] - DU BUISSON [pen name of Gatien de COURTILZ DE SANDRAS] The Life of the Viscount de Turenne, Marshal General of the King’s Camps and Armies, Colonel General of the Light Cavalry of France, and Governor of Upper and Lower Limousin Cologne, Published by Jean de Clou [false address / Elzevier], 1685 In-12°. Full period vellum. Slight water stains on the first few folios. First edition and first printing of this famous military biography, published only ten years after the tragic death of Henri de La Tour d’Auvergne, Viscount de Turenne (1611–1675), who was struck down by a cannonball at the Battle of Salzbach. The work is officially attributed to a certain Monsieur Du Buisson, referred to in the title as “first captain and major of the Verdelin regiment.” In reality, bibliographic research has shown that this is the pseudonym of Gatien de Courtilz de Sandras (1644–1712), a famous polymath, memoirist, and musketeer, who is remembered for having written the *Memoirs of Monsieur d’Artagnan*. The text offers an immersive and strategic account of the greatest campaigns of the Grand Siècle, meticulously describing the battles of the Thirty Years’ War, the Fronde, and the War of the Dutch Succession. Courtilz de Sandras does not merely extol the glory of Louis XIV’s great general; true to his incisive style, he freely explores the political backstage, the rivalries with Cardinal Mazarin, as well as the marshal’s strengths and weaknesses. The book opens with a frontispiece title page engraved in intaglio, found in copies of the first printing. The address “Cologne, Jean de Clou” is notoriously fictitious. This is a clandestine printing, likely produced on Dutch presses (within the Elzevier circle), intended to circumvent French royal censorship. References: Willems, *Les Elzevier*, no. 2134; Brunet, II, 861; Quérard, *Les supercheries littéraires dévoilées*, I, 1146.