Susanne Schulz-Falster Rare Books Archives

El Embaxador. por Don Juan Antonio de Verga y Zuniger. Comendador de la Barra en la orden de Santiago, Señor de la Villas de Sierra Brava, y San Lorenco. A Don Phelipe Tercero nuestro Señor, glorioso Monarca de España, Emperador de la Indias.

4to, ll. [3], 151; 131, 20; some light foxing to foremargins, else very clean and crisp; contemporary full flexible vellum, ties; spine lettered in ink, with some dilettante decoration; a very good copy. Second edition (same year as the first edition) very rare, of this remarkable study of diplomacy, a Vade mecum for diplomats. El Embaxador, Antonio de Vera, first Count of La Roca's blueprint of the perfect ambassador, was widely known and used in Europe until at least the beginning of the eighteenth century, and preceded writers such as Wicquefort. De Vera gives general precepts of the profession, but also outlines the ultimate conflict between the honour of the ambassador and the good of the state, or between the welfare of the state and the higher purpose of the welfare of Christendom. In catchy asides he describes the role of the ambassador as 'to hear much, see much, consider everything and believe nothing'. The ideal archetype of the 'perfect ambassador' was expected to have some legal expertise, but his role and personality could not be reduced to that of a jurist. The diplomat transcended the restrictions of a legal education. The perfect ambassador was to bridge the ideal of an international community ruled by international laws and the 'Realpolitik' of international relations. During this time the increasing importance of ambassadors or diplomats was recognized in the creation of a new diplomatic office, the 'conducteur des Ambassadores', someone to mediate diplomatic protocol and with direct access to the king (see Albert J. Loomie, 'The Conducteur des Ambassadeurs of Seventeenth Century France and Spain', Revue belge de Philologie et d'Histoire, Year 1975, 53-2, pp. 333-356.). De Vera was a diplomat himself, his diplomatic experience spanning the period from 1610 to 1642. In 1610 he was part of the diplomatic service of Gómez Suárez de Figueroa y Córdoba, III. Duke of Feria (extraordinary Ambassador in Paris). After this, he was on a mission for his own embassies to Savoy and Venice, ending in 1642. There are two editions of El Embaxador, both published in 1620. The first one includes an engraved frontispiece, whereas this one has a reset title page. Both are rare, but the present one is apparently the rarer of the two. Palau 358982; OCLC: Seville, National Library of Chile, National Library of Mexico, see: Peter N. Miller, Defining the Common Good: Empire, Religion and Philosophy in Eighteenth Century, 2004, pp. 48ff; see: Tracey A. Sowerby and Joanna Craigwood, Cultures of Diplomacy and Literary Writing in the Early Modern World, 2019.