FLATMAN, Thomas. A Pindarique Ode on the death of the Right. Honourable Thomas Earl of Ossory.

London, Printed by J.G. for Benjamin Tooke at the Ship in St. Paul’s Church-yard, 1681. Folio. pp. [ii], 5. Modern black buckram. Some traces of old worming. A good copy. Exceedingly rare.
COPAC with 7 locations only. Wing F 1150. Sweeney 1950, lists the Dublin edition. Thomas Butler, Earl of Ossory, second son of the ‘Great Duke’ was born in Kilkenny Castle in 1634. He left Ireland with his father in 1647, eventually settling in France. He was imprisoned in the Tower of London in March, 1655 but was released shortly afterwards on the grounds of ill health and retired to the Continent. After the restoration Butler had various army appointments, and in 1665 he was made Lieutenant-General in Ireland. The following year he was sworn in on the English Privy Council, and took his seat in parliament as Lord Butler of Moor-Park. In 1678 he commanded the British troops in the service of the Prince of Orange and at the battle of Mons played a major part in the defeat of Marshal Luxemburg. Thomas was appointed Governor of Tangier in 1680, but died in the same year aged 46, “to the universal regret of this nation and the general grief of a great part of Europe”. The Great Duke stated that: “he would not exchange his dead son for any living son in Christendom”. “The Noble Ossory is now No more! The Mighty Man is Fall’n From Glory’s lofty Pinnacle Meanly like one of Us He fell”

Thomas Flatman (1635-1688) English poet and miniature painter. There were several editions of his Poems and Songs. One of his self-portraits is in the Victoria and Albert Museum. A portrait of Charles II is in the Wallace Collection, London. His miniatures are noted for their vitality. He was the son of a clerk in Chancery and was born in Aldersgate Street and educated at Winchester College. He went on to study at New College, Oxford. He was later called to the bar in 1662 although he seems never to have practiced as a lawyer. He was a staunch Royalist and one of his poems was to celebrate the return of Charles II in 1660 after the collapse of the Cromwellian Commonwealth. Among his earliest verses are lines prefixed to Graphice by Sir William Sanderson, a work containing a description of the art of miniature painting, based on Edward Norgate’s writings. Flatman divided his career between writing poetry and painting portraits in miniature. A versatile man, he was made a Fellow of the newly founded Royal Society in 1668. A number of his friends were leading clergymen, and many of his sitters were drawn from the Church and other intellectual circles

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