Live auction - Lot 1285
[England - Tyrannicide]
Traicté politique [...] où il est prouvé par l’exemple de Moyse [...] que tuer un tyran [...] n’est pas un meurtre [trsl. from the English].
Lyon [Netherlands ?], [s.n.], 1658
€ 550 / 700
Live bidding (Drouot*) Live bidding (Invaluable*)Bidding is closed
Lot description
12mo: [2]-94 pp.
Contemp. gold-tooled red morocco (recasing ?), covers with triple gilt ruled frames and gilt corner pcs, gilt spine with 4 raised bands, gilt sides, gilt inside dentelles (sl. rubbed). Nice copy.
First French ed., trsl. by Jacques Carpentier de Marigny from the 1st English ed. (1657) of "Killing No Murder". This work was published to instigate the assassination of Oliver Cromwell, it is one of the most shocking and well-known works to be written during the Protectorate. The 3 questions treated in this pamphlet are: 1. "Whether my Lord Protector be a Tyrant of not?". 2. "If he be, whether it is Lawful to do Justice upon him without solemnity, that is, to kill him?". 3. "If it be lawful, whether it is likely to prove profitable or noxious to the commonwealth?". It is addressed to Oliver Cromwell and the Army. William Allen (= Colonel Silvius Titus, 1623-1704) was a member of Parliament from 1680 to 1681, and a royalist. Cromwell was Lord Protector from 1653 to 1658. "In fact by Silvius Titus and Edward Sexby" (ESTC).
Ref. BL (2). - Not in STCN.