Lot 1446: WRIGHT, JOHN MICHAEL. c.1617-c.1694.- An account of His Excellence, Roger Earl of Castlemaine's embassy from His Sacred Majesty James IId ... to His Holiness Innocent XI. Published formerly in the Italian Tongue. London: printed by Thomas Snowdon

An account of His Excellence, Roger Earl of Castlemaine's embassy from His Sacred Majesty James IId ... to His Holiness Innocent XI. Published formerly in the Italian Tongue. London: printed by Thomas Snowdon for the author, 1688. Folio (355 x 226 mm). [4], 116 pp. Engraved allegorical frontispiece, engraved portrait of Queen Mary, large allegorical headpiece and engraved initial at dedication, and 15 engraved plates (1 folding) by Arnold van Westerhout after Giovanni Battista Lenardi and Philip Michael Camers. Period mottled calf, gilt, rebacked. Short tears to margins of folding plate, some wrinkling to same and browning where sheets are joined, faint spot to portrait and a few old stains in margins, a few period manuscript corrections in text, overall clean. Provenance: Bridget Harrison (period ownership signature in margin of frontispiece); Charles B. Sperling, Dynes Hall (armorial bookplate); property of a California educational institution. FIRST ENGLISH EDITION. An illustrated account of the festivities held in Rome for the English Ambassador Extraordinary in 1687, sent by James II in a failed attempt to restore the Catholic church to power in England. Includes six plates illustrating the luxurious coaches in which Castlemaine's entourage entered the city, a large double-folding plate of the banquet table prepared for the festivities, and plates depicting the table's centerpieces, among others. The text is translated, corrected and augmented from the original Italian edition of the year before, and the portrait of Queen Mary appears here for the first time. Wing W3702.