Bidspirit auction | Chagas Franco

Chagas Franco - Na Guerra e na Paz, 1ª Edição - Chagas Franco, 1920. Published in 1920 by the prestigious National Press of Lisbon, this scarce first edition of ”In War and Peace: Manual for the Schools of the National Republican Guard, ” authored by Chagas Franco (then a highly regarded Professor at the Military College), constitutes a relevant and unusual historical-pedagogical document intended for the training of GNR personnel during the turbulent period of the First Portuguese Republic. The 280-page work is bound in a sober and robust contemporary brown half-leather binding, displaying a richly decorated ribbed spine with floral motifs and elegant gilded fillets, gold-embossed titles, and marbled paper covers with transitional gilded fillets, preserving the red painted page edges and the two-tone capital. The text block is in very good overall condition, preserving its perfectly firm structure and maintaining the magnificent original paperback cover illustrated with an elaborate Manueline border, although it exhibits natural oxidation and acidity peaks typical of the type of paper used at the time; this copy is also of great documentary interest as it bears ownership marks and historical pedigree on the title page, namely the handwritten ink signature of ”Valdemar Cordeiro”, dated ”14-8-923”, in addition to old library numbering (”217” and ”3162 X”). Being a school and technical book, subject to eminently intensive use at the time and which never benefited from any subsequent reprint, it is a piece of remarkable rarity and collectibility in this state of preservation, ideal for libraries specializing in Portuguese military and institutional history.