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OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS OF AMSTERDAM & OTHER NORTH HOLLAND CITIES
[AMSTERDAM & NORTH HOLLAND CITIES - OFFICIAL DOCUMENTS]. Hand-vesten, Privilegien, Handelingen, Costuymen, ende Willekeuren der Stadt Aemstelredam. Mitsagders: Hoorn, Enchuysen, Edam, Monickedam, Water-landt, Wesop, Muyden ende Naerden, metten aencleven van dien: als mede zee ende scheeps-rechten van Wisbuy, ende de oude Hanse-steden, etc. Hier achter is by-gevought een repertorium van alle placcaten, octroyen, ordonantien, &c. geregistreert inde memoriael-boecken 's Hofs van Hollandt.
[Amsterdam], [the city of Amsterdam, possibly printed by Willem Jansz. Blaeu], 1624. Folio. 4 parts in 1 volume. With a letterpress general title-page, a full-page armorial engraving serving as a part-title to the main part covering Amsterdam, 4 letterpress part-titles (1 with a woodcut ship and each of the others with the same large woodcut tailpiece), several decorated woodcut initials (5 series) and cast interlaced initials, 2 woodcut headpieces (plus 1 repeat) and decorative bands built-up from arabesque fleurons. Set in textura types in 2 columns, with extensive roman and italic. Contemporary vellum, with a blind panel-stamped allegorical figure (the same on each board), probably Hope, with an anchor and staring into the distance.
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The third of five pre-1700 editions, greatly expanded and updated, of the standard book of charters, privileges, common law, regulations, proclamations, patents, ordinances, etc. for the city of Amsterdam (380 pages), with two additional parts (38 and 48 pages) covering other North Holland cities, namely Monnickendam, Waterland, Weesp, Muiden, Naarden, Hoorn, Enkuizen, Edam and others. It covers the period from 1275 to the year of publication. Due to the importance of Amsterdam's shipping, especially its trade in the Baltic, the first part includes a separate section with its own title-page devoted to Maritime law, based on the ancient law of the Hanseatic town of Visby on the Baltic island Gotland (pp. 147-202). Finally, a 112-page appendix gives a calendar of proclamations, patents, ordinances and other official documents issued by the Court of Holland. Each of the five sections has its own index or contents list, and the preliminaries of the Amsterdam part include a 51-page list of the Burgomasters and numerous other officials from about 1400 to 1624. The present edition is especially interesting because it appeared just after the Twelve Years' Truce (1609-1621) allowed Holland in general and Amsterdam in particular to establish their positions as leading centres of trade, culture and industry, inaugurating the Dutch golden age and Amsterdam's status as one of the world's leading cities. This is reflected in the growth of the book from the first edition in 1597 (224-page quarto) and second in 1613 (390-page folio) to the present 667-page folio (the 1639 edition grew only slightly, to 725 pages).
The book does not name its printer, but the head- and tail-pieces and one series of "woodcut" initials are well-known as castings made from woodcuts used by several printers (most famously in books published by William Brewster at Leiden) beginning around 1615 (R. Breugelmans, ed., The Pilgrim Press, figs. 33, 39-41 and 43, including ornaments I, II & III together and Vd). The Amsterdam printer Broer Jansz., who printed and published related Amsterdam regulations in 1650, was one of the earliest Amsteram printers to use at least some of these (from 1616), but at least the large tailpiece (Pilgrim Press II & III) and some of the woodcut initials in the book (including some from the Brewster series) were used by Willem Jansz. Blaeu and at least one by Paulus van Ravesteyn. Several of the roman types were quite new at this date, they and probably the slightly older texturas cut by Nicolaes Briot. Blaeu was one of the earliest to use the romans. The printing may have been shared.
A good copy, with occasional water stains and small marginal worm holes. Front hinge split and cloth ties gone, but the binding is otherwise good, with the panel stamp well-preserved. An essential source for Amsterdam and other North Holland cities as they rose to prominence in the early decades of the Dutch golden age.
