Lot 3755: [Saul, Arthur (d. ?1617)] , The famous game of chesse-play. Being a princely exercise; wherin the learner may profit more by reading of this small book, then by playing of a thousand mates. Now augmented... by Jo. Barbier [i.e. Isaac Habrecht?].

Rohan, Henri (1579-1638), duc de. A treatise of the interest of the princes and states of Christendome... Englished by H[enry] H[unt]. London: Ric[hard] Hodgkinsonne, 1641 , [24], 59, [7], 146, [4]pp., illustration : woodcut initials, woodcut and typographic headpieces, [Wing R1868] 2 works in one volume ( The famous game of chesse-play bound second), 12mo (131 x 72mm.), binding : eighteenth-century half calf, spine gilt in compartments, lacking lettering-piece

Although nothing is known for certain about the life of the writer of the first book in English on chess, it seems possible that Arthur Saul shared a secret career with his later fictional chessplayer, SMERSH agent Kronsteen in Ian Fleming's From Russia with Love. There was a spy called Arthur Saul active between 1600 and 1617, when he died in Newgate following his arrest on the charge of rape. The date of his death occurs within the same period as that of the chess master. He perished between the publication of the first and second editions of his opus (in 1614 and 1618 respectively).