JOHN III, King of Portugal (1521-1557). Serenissimi atque invictissimi portugalliae & Algarbiorum Regis Literae, ad S.D.N. Paulum III Pont. Max. Super insigni victoria, rebusque foeliciter in Oriente gestis. [Strasbourg: Kraft Müller, 1536.]

John the Pious reports on Portuguese activities in Gujarat and Ethiopia to Alexander Farnese, Pope Paul III. The Portuguese were eager to remind the Pope of their anti-Islamic and Inquisitorial efforts. Specifically, John reports on Diu, a hotly contested harbor town in present-day Gujarat. In 1531, a combined force of Ottoman Turks and Gujaratis had defeated the Portuguese there, but by 1535 the Portuguese had established a fort in Diu. This letter is dated from Évora on 20 July 1536. It is extremely rare, undescribed by Brunet and not in the Bibliotheca Grenvilliana. The printer's device at the end is nearly identical to the one used (once) by Kraft Müller in Strasbourg in 1536, but in reverse and with other variations. VD16 P 4380.

Quarto (185 x 135mm). Eight leaves. Decorative initial, full-page printer's device depicting Ceres and motto "Ni purges & molas, non comedes". Red morocco gilt by Bedford (upper cover detached). Provenance: Henry Huth, 1815-1878 (morocco bookplate, his catalogue, 1880, p.774; his sale, Sotheby, Wilkinson & Hodge, part 4, July 1914, lot 4030) – with Maggs Bros., A Royal Catalogue issued to commemorate the Silver Jubilee of H.M. King George V, 1935, item 586.