PBA Galleries

[8], 272, 173-175,178, [1] pp. With folding frontispiece. Title page printed in red and black. (16mo) 16x10 cm (6½x4") period half calf and marbled boards, gilt spine.

With folding frontispiece of Charles kneeling. Beneath the illustration are 2 columns of The Explanation of the Emblem, one in Latin, one in English, signed G.D. for Gulielmus Dugard. With a copy of a letter from Prince Charles at the rear. . This extraordinary book was supposedly written by King Charles I in his death cell. It was published a few days after Charles was beheaded. According to many authorities, no book had ever had such tremendous effect on the people of England. The wave of revulsion against the beheading  almost swamped Cromwell and doomed the Commonwealth before it began.