12mo. [2], 155pp, [1]. Without initial blank leaf. Handsomely bound in eighteenth-century gilt-tooled red morocco, contrasting black morocco lettering-piece, A.E.G., marbled endpapers. Very slightly rubbed, spine a little marked; else a fine copy.

A choice copy in red morocco of one of three separate issues, all appearing in 1650 but only one of which set, as here, in duodecimo, of this scarce French account of the trial and execution of King Charles I printed in London by royalist John Grismond (fl.1639-1666).

Grismond was well known for his illicit printing; he had first appeared on the list of printers bound over not to print seditious books in 1649; he later issued an unauthorized edition of the poems of Katherine Philips (London, 1664), and was arrested at the insistence of the Company of Stationers for illegal printing of law books. Given his commitments, and the political situation of the day, Grismond was surely flying somewhat close to the wind with the production of an account of the execution of the King; perhaps explaining its translation into and publication in French.