The Siege of Breda - Herman Hugo Trans: Captain Henry Gage

•Author: Reverend Father Herman Hugo of the Society of Jesus Translator: CHG (Captain Henry Gage)

•Edition: First published 1627 (claimed likely Ghent)

•Publisher: not given

•Format: POTT Folio, 30cm x 20.5cm single Volume

•Collation: [6], 152 p., [15] plates (9 folded) | Title enclosed in allegorical engraved frontispiece

•Binding: Contemporary full leather; expertly re-backed, with original boards retained. Board edges bumped.

•Condition Text: Very good. Minor annotations and peripheral marks. An earlier ownership signature was removed from the title page, causing slight thinning but no loss. Some page creases have been flattened.

•Condition of plates: All 15 plates are untorn and unrepaired; they are coloured it is unclear whether this was contemporaneous or later. The plates are copied from the Latin edition printed at Antwerp, 1626 the plates face pages 5, 10, 13, 25, 28, 30, 41, 43, 61, 75, 89, 115, 120, 152.

•Bibliographic index: STC 13926, Cockle 110 (see notes on variant).

Description:

The Siege of Breda (Obsidio Bredana), originally published in Latin in 1626 and translated into English shortly after by Thomas Gage, is a richly detailed eyewitness account of the 1624–25 siege during the Eighty Years’ War. Written by Jesuit priest and military chaplain Herman Hugo, this narrative captures the strategic brilliance of Ambrogio Spinola and the discipline of the Spanish forces. Gage’s English translation preserves Hugo’s clarity and military insight while adapting it for accessibility to a contemporary English-speaking audienc.

The text offers rare first-hand insight into the siege’s tactics, logistics, and the human cost on both sides. Its contemporary reception among military theorists and readers makes it a foundational work in early modern military literature. The plates—copied from the Antwerp edition—are integral to the work, illustrating entrenchments, fortifications, and troop movements in a format designed to instruct as well as inform. Hugo’s goal was to reach both “soldiers, and professors of the Art military” — a mission that has stood the test of centuries delivering a “cracking good” read 400 years later.

Additional Notes:

•This copy corresponds closely with the one held at the Huntington Library (digitally verified), except for the placement of the first entrenchment plate (opposite p. 25 vs. p. 29).

•Cockle records 14 plates, but this copy contains 15 (including all known siege diagrams). The portrait of Bernard de Foix noted by Cockle is not present, though this is likely correct, as Bernard de Foix had no documented involvement in this siege.