The Historie of the Troubles of Hungarie:

First edition in English. The first edition in English of Fumée's Histoire des troubles de Hongrie (1594). In his address to the reader, the translator Rooke Churche notes that he himself 'had been a travailer in this countrie of Hungarie', commenting that having 'translated some few notes out of this excellent Historie, I was requested by some of my good friends to take further paines in the whole'.

Fumée's chronicle charts the history of Hungary from the death of Louis II in 1526 to a fragile truce concluded between the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolph II and the Ottoman sultan Murad III. His account includes the 150-year Turkish occupation of Hungarian lands which began with the fall of Buda Castle in 1541, with Habsburg rule in the north and west, and the independence of Transylvania following the Treaty of Speyer in 1570.

'Martin Fumée, squire of Mary le Chastel, a high-ranking French aristocrat, based his desciption of the battle of Mohács on the work of István Brodarics (1470-1539), De conflictu Hungarorum cum Turcis ad Mohacz, Cracow, 1527, who in the company of the ill-fated Louis II (1506-1526) was eye-witness to the destruction of the Hungarian army by the Ottoman forces in 1526. Fumée's main source for events following the battle was probably Ascanio degli Hortensii' (Horvath p.26).

A very good copy of an uncommon book, and one of the most substantial early works on Hungary to be printed in English.

First edition in English; small folio (26.8 x 18.2 cm); armorial bookplate to front pastedown, ownership inscriptions in pen to title page, woodcut device, lacking first blank leaf, minor stain to top margin throughout; contemporary mottled calf, speckled edges, minor staining, upper joint repaired, starting to split to lower joint, edges of binding slightly worn, gilt spine with title-piece label, covers ruled in gilt; [10], 356, [28]pp.

Cf. Atabey 467; ESTC S121249; Horvath 18; STC 11487.