Early Printing & Manuscripts / Low Countries

GUICCIARDINI, Lodovico. Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi, altrimenti detti Germania inferiore. Con tutte le carte di geographia del paese, & col ritratto al naturale di molte terre principali; rineduta di nuovo , & ampliata per tutto la terz a volta dal medesimo autore. Al gran're Cattolico don Filippo d'Austria. Con amplissimo indice di tutte le cose piu memorabili.
Antwerp, Christopher Plantin, 1588. Folio. With an engraved allegorical frontispiece of the Low Countries (Belgia), an engraved architectural title in its first state with printed text, an engraved plate with a border of the coat of arms of the 16 Provinces and that of Brabant together with the coat of arms of Philip II in the centre pasted in, an engraved plate with an allegorical depiction of the Arts and Sciences and an architectural border with the portrait of Philip II in the centre, a large woodcut coat of arms of Guicciardini, 64 double-page engraved maps and views, 6 full-page engraved maps and views, 4 single pages with on each 2 engraved maps, woodcut headpieces and initials.
Contemporary gold-tooled vellum, with an oval centrepiece on both boards within a decorative frame, gilt edges, remnants of ties. [24], 432, [18] pp. Full description

KRETZ, Matthias. Missae sacratissimae brevis & plana elucidatio.
Antwerp, Joannes Grapheus for Joannes Steelsius, 1535-1537. Small 8vo. With a woodcut title border, 2 decorated woodcut initials, and a woodcut printer's device on the final page. Modern green calf. [24] ll. Full description

LOYAERTS, Samuel. Den wech der deuchden, bedeylt in acht boecxkens. Ghemaect op Canticum canticorum ...
Antwerp, Jan van Keerberghen, (colophon:) printed by Hendrik Swingen, 1599. 8vo. With a full-page woodcut illustration on the recto of the last leaf, and some woodcut decorated initials throughout.
Contemporary richly blind-tooled calf over wooden boards. [311], [1 blank] ll. Full description

MAURITS, Prince of Orange. [Declaration for Jan de Roo].
[The Hague], 4 December 1589. 1mo (41 x 31.5). Document written in brown ink on one side of a whole sheet of paper in an upright gothic cursive hand, with the autograph signature "Maurice de Nassau" and with his armorial seal (3 x 2.5 cm) stamped on a slip of paper over red sealing wax. With (separately added) Maurits's signature clipped out of another document and mounted on a paper slip. [1] leaf, written on one side. Full description

METEREN, Emanuel van. Historia Belgica nostri potissimum temporis Belgii sub quatuor Burgundis & totidem Austriacis principibus coniunctionem & gubernationem breviter. Turbas autem, bella et mutationes tempore regis Philippi, Carli V. Caesaris filii, ad annum usque 1598. plenius complectens, conscripta.
[Cologne, A. Mylius, 1598]. Folio. With letterpress title-page in engraved border with scenes of trade and war (Verduyn, pl. XIV), additional engraved medallion portrait of the author mounted on blank back of title-page, by Hendrik Hondius the Elder, double-page engraved map of the Netherlands, by Frans Hogenberg and 22 engraved portraits on 19 plates. Contemporary vellum. [8], "623" [= 643], [1] pp. Full description

MEYERE, Jacobus de. Flandricarum rerum tomi X ... Cum Hymno de sanctissimo nomine Iesu. Chronica Flandriae.
Antwerp, Willem Vorsterman, 1531. 8vo. With several woodcut decorated initials, and a woodcut illustration incorporating Vorsterman's device at the end. 17th-century mottled calf, with a gold-tooled spine, and the title lettered in gold, sewn on 5 supports with the corresponding raised bands on the spine. 67, [5] ll. Full description

MEYER, Jacques de. Compendium chronicorum Flandriae, per Iacobum Meyerum Balliolanum. Opus nunc recens aeditum, anno M.D.XXXVIII. Norimbergae apud Io. Petrium.
Neurenberg, Johannus Petreius, 1538. 2 works in 1 volume. 4to. With a woodcut printers device on the title page of each work, and 33 decorated woodcut initials (2 in ad 1, 31 in ad 2). With: PANORMITA, Antonius (Antonio BECCADELLI). De dictis et factis Alphonsi Regis Aragonum libri quattuor. Commentarium in eosdem Aeneae Sylvii quo capitatim cum Alphonsinis contendit. Adiecta sunt singulis libris Scholia per Iacobum Spiegelium.
Basel, Ex officina Hervagiana (Joannes Hervagius & Joannes Erasmus Froben), 1538.
Contemporary panel-stamped calf, sewn on 4 supports with the corresponding raised bands on the spine, blind-tooled diagonal cross-hatching in the top and bottom compartment, a central panel on both boards (measuring 156 x 93 mm) with acorns on branches, surrounded by a floral border with acorns and wyverns, and an escutcheon at the bottom, the titles written in a humanistic hand at the top of the front board and on the fore edge, remnants of closing ties. [14], 134 ll; [8], 1-125, 226-299, 100-108, 209-212, 203, 213-214, 214-216, 117, 218-230, 221-278 [=282], [2] pp. Full description

[MISSAL - LATIN]. Missale Romanum, ex decreto Sacrosancti Consilii Tridentini restitutum Pii V. Pont. Max. iussu editum. Additis aliquot SS. Officiis, ex praecepto S.D.N. Sixti Papae Quinti.
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1587. 8vo. With a woodcut vignette with Peter and Paul by Peeter van der Borcht on the title page, 6 full-page woodcuts (ca. 112 x 75 mm) by Antoon van Leest after Peeter van der Borcht, 6 half-page square woodcuts (55 x 55 mm) in border, one signed by Antoon van Leest, one woodcut (90 x 76 mm) by Antoon van Leest after Peeter van der Borcht, and 2 smaller oval woodcuts. The work is printed in red and black.
Contemporary elaborately blind-tooled pigskin over bevelled wooden boards, sewn on 4 double supports with the corresponding raised bands on the spine, the manuscript title in the first compartment and the original manuscript shelf mark label ("H.36") of the Monastery of Buxheim in the fifth compartment, both boards with an ornamental roll and a roll with the portraits of Salvater (sic!), Maria, S. Bruno, and S. Johannes in a panel design, two original brass clasps and catches, ornamented with a small star, leather tabs, and six original bookmarkers plaited into a big knot. XLV, [19], 528, CX, [2] pp. Full description

[MODERN DEVOTION]. [VLIEDERHOVEN, Gerardus de]. Quattuor novissima cum multis exemplis pulcherrimis & de terroribus mortis cum eterne beatitudis gloria.
Deventer, Jacobus de Breda, 1502. 4to. With a woodcut illustration (9.5 x 8.5 cm) on title-page with the symbols of the four Evangelists.19th-century blind-tooled calf, title in gold on spine, preserving some contemporary endpapers but also with later ones. [47], [1 blank] ll. Full description

NOOT, Jan van der. Cort begryp der XII. boeken Olympiados. ... Abregé des douze livres Olympiades.
Antwerp, Gillis van den Rade, 1579. With 1 engraved plate (portrait of the author), 17 full-page engravings (ca. 16 x 11.5 cm.) by Dirk Volkertsz. Coornhert after designs of the monogrammist CVSK and a full-page woodcut of an obelisk at the end, signed with the monogram "HE".
With:
(2) NOOT, Jan van der. Lofsang van Braband. ... Hymne de Braband.
Antwerp, Gillis van den Rade, 1580. With 4 full-page woodcuts (portrait of the author, allegorical illustration, arms of Brabant and the other 16 provinces, and an obelisk).
(3) NOOT, Jan van der. Verscheyden poeticsche werken. ... Divers oeuvres poetiques.
Antwerp, Gillis van den Rade, 1581. With full-page woodcut portrait of the author, and a full-page woodcut obelisk at the end. 3 works in 1 volume. Folio. All 3 works with text in Dutch and French. Early 18th-century gold-tooled mottled calf. [14], 87, [1]; [8], 33, [4]; [40] pp. plus 1 plate. Full description