Monte Chiaro, Jean Baptiste Vero, 1671.

Written on one of the blank leaves at the rear of the book, in brown ink is;- ‘Ye 15 day of June my father Layd that Londondery was taken’.

12mo. (13.5x7cm), 495pages+11 blank pages at the back. Collates A-X 12 (including the blank leaves). Generally a very clean crisp copy, with very little browning, a few pages creased in the margins without loss and a light brown stain, like a water stain, in the bottom margin of some pages which never touches the text. One leaf (M11) marked at the bottom on the recto, obscuring one letter of the text and the catchword; the mark also on the facing page obscuring four letters. The end papers stained by the leather of the binding and a stub between each pair of end papers, part of the structure of the binding. A library stamp at the top of the front free end paper and a label ‘Parham, Sussex’ inside the front cover.

Written on one of the blank leaves at the rear of the book, in brown ink is;- ‘Ye 15 day of June my father Layd that Londondery was taken’. Given the date of the book this must refer to the siege of Londonderry by James II (April to July 1689). At that date Sir Cecil Bysshopp held Parham, although there is nothing to prove the book was at Parham at that date.

There is also a few more words written inside the back cover in a similar hand.

The book was probably printed in Amsterdam, however there are a number of towns called Monte Chiaro, or Montechiaro, in Italy.

Bound in full leather (polished calf), probably contemporary with the book, with a little decoration in blind. The corners somewhat bumped, the hinges split with a little loss of leather, although the boards firmly attached. The spine, which is in the flat backed style, is worn with a strip of leather missing at the top.