GÓIS, Damião de (1502-1574). De bello Cambaico ultimo commentarii tres. Leuven: Servaes van Sassen, 1549.

First edition, recounting the second siege of Diu. The fort at Diu is on the doorstep to India and was of crucial importance to the Portuguese spice trade. The sultans of Gujarat had had uneasy alliances with both the Turks and the Portuguese by turns for decades. After a few years of relative quiet in the 1540s, the soldier Khadjar Safar besieged Diu in an attempt to recapture the island for his adopted home of Gujarat (originally an Albanian Christian, he converted to Islam in Egypt). The siege lasted seven months from 20 April 1546 to 10 November 1546, and would be joined Turkish allies under Suleiman the Magnificent. However, Portuguese reinforcements arrived and were triumphant. Rare. Not in STC-Flanders or Adams.

Quarto (197 x 130mm). Woodcut printer’s device on title and repeated on verso of last leaf. Modern vellum to style, green morocco lettering piece.