Low Countries / Early Printing (15th & 16th Century)

[INCUNABLE - GOUDA]. Historia septem sapientiu[m] Rom[a]e.
[Gouda, Gheraert Leeu, before 3 June 1480]. 4to (20.5 x 14 cm). With 4 full-page woodcuts plus 14 repeats. The first initial is supplied in manuscript, in a rich ornamental uncial style in red and blue with brown penwork. All other initials are supplied by hand in simple red uncials. The text is rubricated throughout. Most of the plates are lightly highlighted in yellow and red, by a contemporary hand. Contemporary limp sheepskin parchment without a spine, so that the sewing is completely visible. Kept in a modern brown half morocco clamshell box. [79], [1 blank] ll. 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

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

OTTO VON PASSAU. Boec des gulden throe[n]s of der xxiiij. ouden en[de] hoemen elke[n] vinden mach en[de] va[n] hoerre leringhen die si leren om te comen totten ewighen leven.
(colophon: Haarlem, [Jacob Bellaert], 25 October 1484). Folio (29 x 21.5 cm). With large woodcut printer's device (142 x 82 mm) on verso of last leaf (with the arms of the city of Haarlem above an eagle holding a larger blank shield, here filled in by a contemporary owner); 4 woodcut illustrations and 20 repeats, representing the 24 elders, each showing one of the male elders, standing, teaching a female novice kneeling before him. Further with spaces left for initials, all filled in with uncials by hand, about 25 with penwork decoration in 1 or 2 additional colours: 1 blue 6-line initial with decorations in red and violate extending far into the margin, about 24 red 3 to 9-line (mostly 7-line) initials with lavendar penwork (1 with 2 green dots), some extending into the margin, and more than 70 2-line red initials without penwork decoration; a few spaces left for ¶-marks, also filled in in red; capitals rubricated throughout. Set entirely in Baellart's textura (99 or 100 mm/20 lines or about 14.5 point). Lacking leaf 137 (the second to last text leaf) and the final blank. Modern sheepskin. [1 blank, 3], "136" [= 135 (of 136)], [1] ll. Full description

[MANUSCRIPT]. PHILIP (FELIPE) II, King of Spain. [Mortgage agreement, granting Jan Hanneman, Steward General of North Holland, the rights to the tithes of the King's lands of Voorburg and Voorschoten].
The Hague and Brussels, 1557 (with additions to 1565). Folio (36 x 25.5 cm). Manuscript mortgage agreement, signed by King Philip's representatives, written in brown ink on parchment in a nearly upright cursive gothic hand. With a typescript transcription of the main text and an interlinear translation in Spanish. [2 blank], 9, [1 blank] pp. Full description

[PHILIP II, King of Spain]. Ordinancie, statuyt ende policie gemaect byden coninck onsen aldernadichsten Heere, op tfeyt vande contracten vande asseurancien ende versekeringen in dese Nederlanden.
Antwerp, Christoffel Plantin, 1571. 4to. With armorial woodcut on title-page. Modern vellum. 15, [1 blank] pp. Full description

[RHETORICIANS]. Spelen va[n] sinne byde[n] .xix. gheconfirmeerden cameren van rhetorijcken binnen der stede van Ghendt comparerende, verthoont, volghende den octroye vander K. Maiesteyt, Grave va[n] Vlaendren, onsen gheduchte[n] Heere, schepenen der selver stede, en[de] camere van rhetorijcke vander heylige drievuldicheyt, gheseyt de fonteynisten, verleent, en[de] der charte uutghesonde[n] op de questie, welck den mensche stervende, meesten troost is: die selve spele[n] beghinnende by ordre, so hier na volcht, de[n] .xii. junij, int jaer m.ccccc.xxxix. En[de] werde[n] volspeelt en[de] gheeyndt, den .xxiii. vanden jare en[de] maent voorsz.
(Colophon: Antwerp, [Matthias Crom], 25 October 1539). 8vo. 18th-century half vellum. [220] ll. Full description

[SERVASANCTUS DE FAENZA and others] (spuriously attributed to Saint BONAVENTURA). [Sermones de tempore et de sanctis].
(Colophon: Zwolle, [Johannes de Vollenhoe], 1479). Small (Chancery) folio (27.5 x 20.5 cm). With one 5-line and hundreds of 2- and 3-line spaces left for initials, filled in with manuscript "Lombardic" capitals in red; manuscript paragraph marks in red; and capitals rubricated throughout. Set entirely in a single textura gothic type (103 mm/20 lines) in 2 columns of 39 lines to the page. Early 18th-century tanned sheepskin. [1 blank], [340] ll. Full description

[UTRECHT - LAW]. Costumen, usantien pollitien ende stijl van procederen der stadt jurisdictie, en[de] vrijheyt va[n] Utrecht gheapprobeert en[de] ghedecreteert, . . .
[Colophon:] Amsterdam, printed by Willem Jacobsz. and sold at Utrecht by Jan van Gelre, 1550. 4to. With the title and the arms of the city of Utrecht in red and black in a 4-piece woodcut frame with figures and decoration, the arms repeated below the red and black colophon with the publisher's authenticating signature in dark brown ink; 3 different woodcut coats of arms for the Habsburg Holy Roman Emperor Charles V, each with a different bearing: 2 small in the text, with his motto "plus oultre", and a full-page one on the verso of the last leaf. Late 18th-century boards, marbled paper sides. [16], LVIII, [2] ll. Full description