"I GO FROM A CORRUPTIBLE TO AN INCORRUPTIBLE CROWN": ROYSTON'S INFLUENTIAL LIFE AND WORKS OF KING CHARLES I, WITH AN EARLY 1650 PRINTING OF THE

(CHARLES I). Reliquiae Sacrae Carolinae: Or the Works of that Great Monarch and Glorious Martyr King Charls the I. BOUND WITH: Eikon Basilike. Hague [i.e., London]: Printed by Samuel Browne [i.e., by R. Norton for R. Royston], 1650. Small thick octavo, contemporary full black morocco, elaborately gilt-decorated covers and spine, all edges gilt.

First edition of Richard Royston's politically influential compilation of the Life and Writings of King Charles I, with an early printing of the Eikon Basilike and with frontispiece portrait and two engraved plates, one folding, in a lovely richly gilt contemporary morocco binding with the cipher and crown of King Charles on the covers. From the library of renowned bibliophile Robert S. Pirie, with his bookplate.

Royston is famous as the clandestine publisher of the first edition of the Eikon Basilike, which purports to be the deposed King Charles I's own account of his sufferings at the hands of the revolutionary Parliamentarians prior to his execution. In the following decade, Royston continued to make his case for the innocence of Charles: "The survival of the Eikon as an active political force, during the next ten years [1650-60], was due almost entirely to Royston. During the year 1650 there appeared an obscure-looking duodecimo volume, containing, with the Eikon as an integral part, the first edition of the Reliquiae Sacrae Carolinae or Works of King Charles, covering over six hundred closely printed pages… it was followed by three other editions, also with false Hague imprints, dated 1651, 1657 and 1658" (Madan, 165-67). To the Eikon Basilike the Reliquiae adds the prayers composed by Charles in his imprisonment and the King's private papers, including his rejection of the legality of the court that tried him, which he intended (but was not allowed) to deliver in public at his trial. This volume also includes the engraved frontispiece portrait of Charles by William Marshall, a biography of the King, an account of the proceedings at his trial, and an account of his execution—at which he uttered the famous words, "I go from a corruptible to an incorruptible Crown; where no disturbance can be, no disturbance in the world." Madan 61. Almack 31. Wing C2072. ESTC R24811. Bookplates, including that of renowned lawyer, banker, and bibliophile Robert S. Pirie (1934-2015): "His main interest was the vast library he himself built, stuffed with pre-1700 English literature… Pirie considered the post-Shakespeare world of Francis Bacon, Thomas Hobbes, John Locke and John Dryden the richest in all literature" (Financial Times). Pirie was one of a very few American bibliophiles to have gained membership in the exclusive English club the Roxburghe.

Leather ties at fore-edge not present. Fine condition, a lovely volume with a distinguished provenance.