[SPANISH ARMADA]. [part 1:] LEIGH, RICHARD. The Copie of a Letter sent out of England to Don Bernardin Mendoza Ambassador in France for the King of Spaine, declaring the State of England, contrary to the opinion of Don Bernardin, and of all his partizans Spaniardes and others...Whereunto are adioyned certaine late Aduertisements concerning the losses and distresses happened to the Spanish Nauie... [part 2:] Certaine Advertisements out of Ireland, concerning the losses and distresses happened to the Spanish Nauie, upon the West coastes of Ireland, in their voyage intended from the Northerne Isles beyond Scotland, towards Spaine; both London: Imprinted by I. Vautrollier for Richard Field 1588. 2 parts in 1 vol., small 4to, cream imitation vellum boards gilt, g.e., by Lloyd, title-page of part 1 soiled with a few marginal repairs to penultimate leaf of part 2 and marginal repairs to last leaf, a few leaves of part 2 with light marginal staining. FIRST EDITION IN ENGLISH, mostly black letter, woodcut device on titles. Part 1 (with collation A-E F ) has the following readings: last line of A2 recto ends "and"; line 2 of C1 recto has "infamie"; C3 verso line 12 from the bottom begins "niards, &"; E3, 4 have no marginal notes; F2 recto has "The [space] of Octob. 1588." Part 2 (with collation A-B [-] ) is in the first setting. STC 15412 ("Pt. 2 is lacking in some copies...found separately in at least setting 4 [at Bodleian]...or found with various combination of pt. 1 sheets...The French trans[lation of both parts], 15414.3, was probably printed before the English text"). "...a contemporary account of the defeat of the Spanish Armada... The letter was sent to Mendoza, but copies of it were found in the room of Richard Leigh, a priest, who was executed for high treason committed while the Armada was on the high seas. In the letter Leigh writes of the utter defeat of the...Armada, contrary to the reports circulated on the Continent by the Spanish. He describes the preparations that had been made by the English, the actual battle, and the subsequent flight of the remnants of the Armada and their shipwreck off the coasts of Ireland. The second part of the work relates almost solely to the storm off the Irish coast..." -- John F. Fleming, English Books...Printed before 1640 (a catalogue issued in 1958), item 329.