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Edinburgh tells how his growing interest in bird watching made him aware of the great need for wildlife conservation. The account is illustrated with Philip’s own photographs, many never published before. A regular trade edition was published by Hamish Hamilton the previous year. Quarto. Original blue morocco by Zaehnsdorf, spine lettered in gilt direct and on orange circular morocco label, front cover with multi-coloured onlay in gilt frame depicting the world, marbled endpapers, gilt edges. Housed in the original grey cloth solander box. Illustrated with colour and black and white photographs throughout. Box very lightly rubbed and bowed, spot to signature page; a very good copy. £1,500 [157670] 133 PHILIP IV of Spain. El Rey Instruccion y orden, que se ha de guardar en hazer y formar las matriculas, que he mãdado se hagan generalmente en estos Reynos, para saber de ordinario la gente que usa en ellos la profesion de la marineria (“The King. Instruction and order for the registrations that I have commanded to be followed in my Kingdoms by the people who are professional mariners”). Madrid: last day of October 1625 Signed royal ordinance for the registration of seamen
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An important printed state paper signed by Philip IV (1605–1665), setting out instructions for a large scale registration of sailors in the Spanish royal navy, addressing impressment, and also signed by one of the king’s leading military advisers. Philip was notably progressive in his handling of the navy, to which he applied a “sensible, pragmatic approach” (Goodman, p. 32). His reign saw no “weakening of the importance attached to naval forces” (ibid., p. 156), and the Junta de Armadas was the only such committee to survive the eventual fall of Olivares untouched. The present ordinance created regional administrative officials to initiate a registry of mariners and issue of certificates to ancillary naval tradesmen, who were to provide detailed personal information. A copy of this data was to be sent to the War Council and regularly updated. Failure to comply could result in a severe fine and two years of exile. The directives were to be implemented “generalmente en estos Reynos” (in all the territories of the Spanish Empire), thus including Spanish possessions in America and Asia. The creation of this matricula is one of the distinctive features of early 17th-century
Spanish naval organization. “Nothing like them would appear anywhere else in Europe until Colbert’s famous classes maritimes of the 1660s . . . Madrid’s compulsion would arouse resistance on the coast” (ibid., pp. 192–3). The countersignatory, Bartolomé Aguilar y Anaya ( c .1563– c .1630), was an influential military administrator under both Philip IV and his father. In 1600 he was granted the formal title of royal secretary, and in 1606 became secretary of war. During the 1620s he was secretary of the board of galleys, directing the supply of ammunition for the expedition to Brazil in 1625, at which time he had assumed one of the prized seats on the council of war, and in the 1630s he was a member of the highly influential Junta de Armadas. Folio. 3 pp. on a single bifolium. Printed order with the king’s signature, countersigned by his secretary of war Bartolomé Aguilar y Anaya, manuscript docketing on the first page. In modern marbled paper wrappers. Light toning, some marginal fox spots, but overall very good. ¶ David Goodman, Spanish Naval Power, 1589–1665 : Reconstruction and Defeat , 1997. £3,750 [154780]
All items are fully described and photographed at peterharrington.co.uk
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