First (and only 16th-century) edition, in the original Latin, of Placentius's history of the bishops and general history of the dioceses Tongres (Tongeren), Maastricht and Liège (Luik), in the eastern central Low Countries, up to 1506.
What appears to be the book's first owner signed his name in red at the foot of the title-page and (with further information) at the foot of the first page of his manuscript index: "Pro Thoma. v. Ven[n]e, p[res]b[yte]ro in Oirschot convi[vio]rum" (For Thomas vande Venne, priest of the monastery in Oirschot [Brabant]). He came from a leading Oirschot family. His index has three parts, listing the 84 bishops by location and alphabetically, and indexing the most important subjects. These and his notes are written on a quire of 4 leaves. He probably also wrote the occasional annotations in the margins. Also with later owners inscriptions, including the Antwerp Jesuit Jean P. Clé (1722-1800) and the Comte d'Oultremont (Charles-Ignace (1753-1803) or Émile (1787-1851)?), the Antwerp city librarian and archivist Frederic Verachter (1797-1870) and the Belgian politician and nobleman Gustave van Havre (1817-1892).
Slightly trimmed, shaving many of the manuscript leaf numbers, but in very good condition. With a few tears in the front paste-down and its conjugate, and a small hole in the vellum, but the binding is still very good. An essential early source for the history of what is now the southeastern Netherlands and northeastern Belgium, especially its religious history. NK 1726; Machiels 931; Nijhoff, L'art typografique XII, 35-38 & XXVIII, 176; USTC 404768, 407352 & 430366.