De rebus getis [sic] pro restitutione Francisci II. Mediolanensium ducis. Colophon: Mediolani typis excussum anno a partu virginis M.D.xxxi. mense Februario

4to (177x130 mm). CIIII leaves. Collation: A-N8. Errata at l. N7. Colophon at l. N8r. Woodcut decorative initials. 18th-century stiff vellum, red sprinkled edges. Title page soiled and stained with a small loss of paper to the lower margin, some occasional pale staining and browning, upper margin cut short.
Rare first edition of this important history of the events and wars between the French and the imperial forces that shook the Duchy of Milan between 1521 and 1530. The book was reprinted several times either under the original title De rebus gestis pro restitutione Francisci II. Mediolanensium ducis or under the more “international” title De rebus nuper in Italia gestis libri octo: Nurenberg 1532, Antwerp 1533, Hagenau and Venice 1535, Paris 1537 and 1538, Strasbourg 1538. It was also translated into Spanish (Valencia 1536), in German with a preface by M. Luther (Wittenberg 1538) and Italian (Venice 1539). The work is often quoted by F. Guicciardini in his Storia d'Italia.
The work is divided into eight books. Despite the author's professed loyalty to the duke, the work aims for maximum objectivity. However, it does not conceal the difficulty of ascertaining facts that took place simultaneously in different locations, for which the testimony of the opponents was also necessary. The influence of Thucydides is evident in both the division into books and the frequent use of direct speech. The narration of events is enriched by detailed descriptions of dramatic episodes, such as the Sack of Rome in 1527.
Galeazzo (Galeatius Flavius) Capra (also known as Capella or Cappella) was born in Milan on 7 March 1487, the son of Giovanni Pietro of Verona. His family's good financial resources allowed him to receive a thorough literary and humanistic education. We do not know in which year, but certainly in his youth, he took a wife; the last chapter (XIV) of his pamphlet Della Eccellenza et Dignità delle Donne, written in his youth and first printed in Rome in 1525, is dedicated to her. Esteemed for his writing skills and his upright manners, he was first appointed secretary to the chancellor and ducal legate Girolamo Morone (after 1522), and later won the confidence of Duke Francesco II to the extent that he was sent as his ambassador to the Republic of Venice (probably after 1530). On the death of Francesco II (1535), Capra was reappointed secretary and ambassador by Emperor Charles V, heir to the dukedom. In addition to Benedetto Giovio, Capra was on friendly terms with others distinguished humanists, jurists and physicians of his time, in particular with Andrea Alciato, Gaudenzio Merula and Girolamo Cardano, who describes Capra's tragic death after a fall from a horse on 23 February 1537 in Milan.
The year after his death, as an appendix to the De rebus gestis pro restitutione, his Historia Belli Mussiani was also published in Strasbourg, a short monograph recounting the exploits of a famous adventurer of the time, Gian Giacomo Medici (1495-1555), who had created for himself a small dominion in the town of Musso, near Milan, often in conflict with the Spanish and the Sforza (cf. R. Ricciardi, Capra, Galeazzo, in: “Dizionario Biografico degli Italiani”, vol. 19, Rome, 1976, s.v.).
Edit 16, CNCE9088; USTC, 818464; E. Sandal, L'arte della stampa a Milano nell'età di Carlo V, Baden-Baden, 1988, p. 41; G. Bologna, ed., Le cinquecentine della Biblioteca Trivulziana I. Le edizioni milanesi, Milan, 1965, pp. 41-42, no. 106.