A first edition, with paperback covers, of the acclaimed history of the Portuguese Revolution of 1640 written by the French historian and monk René Aubert de Vertot. Published at the suggestion of the playwright Bernard de Fontenelle and the Abbot of Saint-Pierre, this is a contemporary account of the conflicts that led to the Restoration of Portugal's Independence and brought King John IV to the throne after sixty years of Spanish domination under the Philip Dynasty (1580-1640). This work, more literary than historical in nature, gained widespread recognition and appreciation, which led to successive re-editions, revisions and additions in the decades that followed.