[MANUSCRIT]. [FLORIDA]. GOURGUE (Dominique de)]. La Reprise - Lot 83

[MANUSCRIT]. [FLORIDA]. GOURGUE (Dominique de)]. La Reprise de la Floride par le capitaine de Gourgue In French, manuscript on paper France, 18th century. 60 ff, preceded and followed by 3 ff. of paper, complete, cursive writing in brown ink, title handwritten in gilt, blue and red ink within an ornamental gilt and blue frame. Bound in full brown granite calf, spine with 5 nerves partitioned and decorated with flowers, red morocco title, gilt lettering, scrollwork on the edges, gilt edges, marbled paper endpapers (Spellings, dull corners, a few stains on the paper but good general condition) Dimensions : 185 x 245 mm. This account was first contained in Histoire notable de la Floride, située ès Indes occidentales (Paris, 1586) and was reprinted several times, including an edition published in 1851 in Mont-de-Marsan, the author's home town. The work was last reprinted by Paul Gaffarel, Histoire de la Floride française (1875), pp. 483-515: on the manuscripts and editions of this text, see Paul Gaffarel, Ibid, pp. 340-341. Other manuscript copies of this account exist, for example Paris, BnF, French 2145; Paris, BnF, French 6124 or Paris, BnF, French 19899. Dominique de Gourgues (Mont-de-Marsan, 1530-Tours, 1593), a gentleman from Gascony, led a punitive expedition in 1567 on his own money against the Spaniards who had perpetrated a massacre of French Huguenots on 20 September 1565 at Fort Caroline. Brief and incredibly violent (all the Spanish prisoners were hanged and de Gourgue had more than 200 Spaniards massacred), the operation was a complete success and allowed the recovery of this remote colony, from which all traces of Spanish presence were erased. Returning to France in 1568, Gourgues was celebrated in La Rochelle, but shunned at Court under the influence of the Guise, and had to go into hiding until 1573. Provenance: Ex-libris inscription on the verso of the first endpaper: "De Hansy". This must be a member of the De Hansy family of booksellers, of which several members are known in the 18th century. Let us mention Claude III Dehansy (1696-1742), bookseller and his brother Théodore de Hansy (1700?-1771), bookseller in Paris on the Pont au Change or Louis-Guillaume de Hansy (or Dehansy), who died in 1774, second son of Théodore de Hansy.