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WITH ETCHED WAR ATROCITIES BY ROMEYN DE HOOGHE
[WICQUEFORT, Abraham van]. Advis Fidelle aux Veritables Hollandois. Touchant ce qui s'est passé dans les villages de Bodegrave & Swammerdam, & les cruautés inoüies, que les François y ont exercées. Avec un memoire de la derniere marche de l'armée du Roy de France en Brabant & en Flandre.
[The Hague], [Jan & Daniel Steucker], 1673. Large 4to (23 x 19 cm). With a woodcut publisher's device on the title-page, 10 etched scenes by Romeyn DE HOOGHE on 8 double-page plates, and a woodcut tailpiece. Contemporary vellum.
| Orders and Information | € 3850 |
Large-paper copy of the first edition of Abraham van Wicquefort's account of the war with the French, illustrated with etched plates by Romeyn de Hooghe. The plates show the horrors of the war carried on by Louis XIV against the Netherlands from 1671 to 1679, mostly with French troops committing atrocities against civilians, including women and children. Five plates are signed "Romeyn de Hooghe" and dated 1673. The book appeared without the names of the author or publisher, but bears Steucker's copy of the Elzeviers' publisher's device (Rahir M. 49).
Van Wicquefort (1598-1682) was a diplomat who had studied political science in Paris. In 1626 he was given his first position at the French court as a resident for the sovereign of Brandenburg. He worked for him 32 years, until Mazarin accused him of sending clandestine messages to Holland about King Louis XIV's love life. Despite his arranged transfer, he was incarcerated in La Bastille, and escorted out of the country one year later. Three months later he was called back by the cardinal, and given a yearly pension until the war between Louis XIV and Holland started. Van Wicquefort was appointed historian of Holland by Johan de Wit, and in the end he supported France because of his hatred for the Prince of Orange. In 1675 he was incarcerated in The Hague, but he escaped in 1676. He was appointed council to the Duke of Braunschweig and Lüneburg, and after two years returned briefly to The Hague. The paper is watermarked: Strasbourg coat of arms = --, in the general style of Heawood 1734.
With nineteenth-century inscriptions and twentieth-century bookplates. A very good copy and nearly untrimmed, with a small tear running 1 cm into the image of one plate, 2 plates with unobtrusive water stains near the head, and a couple minor spots or small marginal tears. First edition of an anti-French account of Louis XIV's campaigns in Holland, with atrocity etchings by Romeyn de Hooghe.
