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Pictorial record of the Dutch War of Independence

BAUDARTIUS, Willem (Guilaume BAUDAERT).
Les guerres de Nassau. [Engraved title:] Pourtraits en taille douce, et descriptions des sieges, batailles, rencontres & autres choses advenues durant les guerres des Pays Bas, sous le commandement des hauts & puissants Seigneurs les Estats Generaux des Provinces Unies, & la conduite des tresillustres Princes Guillaume Prince d'Orange & Maurice de Nassau son fils.

With engraved allegorical title with the title printed in cartouche, woodcut printer's device on second title, full-page engraved map of the 17 Provinces, 22 full-page engraved portraits, full-page engraved double-portrait, 257 full-page engraved plates, views and plans of battles and sieges, incl. one double-page bird's eye's view of the fighting region along the Meuse and the Rhine.

Amsterdam, Michiel Colijn, 1616. 2 parts in 1 volume Oblong 4to (19 x 23 cm). Contemporary gilt vellum, with gilt coat of arms of Baron de Konigsegg (?) in centre on front cover, and gilt medallion vignette with motto: "Quae infra nos nihil ad nos " in centre on back cover (see below). With engraved allegorical title with the title printed in cartouche, woodcut printer's device on second title, full-page engraved map of the 17 Provinces, 22 full-page engraved portraits, full-page engraved double-portrait, 257 full-page engraved plates, views and plans of battles and sieges, incl. one double-page bird's eye's view of the fighting region along the Meuse and the Rhine. [8], 466; [4], 493, [15] pp.

First French edition of the Afbeeldinghe, ende beschrijvinghe van alle de veld-slagen, belegeringen ende and're notable geschiedenissen ghevallen in de Nederlanden, gedurende d'oorloghe teghens den Coningh van Spaengien (Pictures and descriptions of the battles, sieges and other notable things, which happened in the Netherlands during the Spanish War), also known under the title De Nassausche Oorloghen, first published by the same publisher a year earlier, in 1615. Our copy is another issue than the issue described in the Bibl. Belg.: the text on the printed title 'A Amsterdam, Chez Michel Colin Marchant libraire sur l'Eau , au livredomestique 1616. On les vend a Parischez Melchior Tavernier au Pont Marchant' is lacking.
Willem Baudartius from Deinse in Flanders (1565-1640) had already fled the Inquisition for England in 1565, together with his family. Returning in 1577 to Ghent, Baudartius had to flee again in 1585, now to the Northern Netherlands, first he went to Leyden and then to Franeker, where he studied Hebrew with Drusius. Baudartius became a minister of the Dutch Reformed Church, at Kampen, Lisse, and Zutphen. In 1619, Baudart was invited by the Synode at Dordrecht to help translate the Bible into Dutch, and he settled in Leyden, where he devoted his life to translating and writing. He also was the author of the famous Morgenwecker, a book on the cruelties perpetrated by the Spaniards during the Eighty-Year's War, which, adapted as Spieghel der Jeucht became the classic historical schoolbook for generations of Dutch children.
The present history of the war with Spain, especially during the time that Maurice and Frederick Henry were stadtholders, is still of eminent importance, exactly describing and depicting in all detail the battles, sieges, political facts and events of his days. Many of the plates were based on the news-prints made by Frans Hogenberg from Cologne of the wars in Europe between 1558 and 1610. Baudartius took only the plates relating to the war in the Netherlands and provided also many new plates.
During the printing process apparently there were made many mistakes in placing the plates rightly in the quires. No copy is the same. In our copy plates 5 and 205 are cancels (pasted on another plate which was erroneously printed there).

Provenance: On top of the title-page there is an ownership's entry of 'Jean Guillaume Baron de Konigsegg. 1625', undoubtedly Johann Wilhelm von Konigsegg (1595-1663) who in 1618 married Walpurga Eusebia von Waldburg (1600-73). Probably the coat-of-arms stamped in the centre of the front cover is his. The vignette stamped in the centre of the back cover is almost identical with the printer's device of Guillielmus Leimaire (and Pierre Rouière) which they used in Geneva between ca. 1585 and 1610: see Paul Heitz, Genfer Buchdrucker- und Verlegerzeichen im XV., XVI. und XVII. Jahrhundert (1908), pp. 36-7, nr. 117).

Binding slightly rubbed, remnants of ties; some ll. half loosening, some slight staining and thumbing. Good complete copy, with the ms. ownership's entry of Jean Guillaume Baron de Konigsegg, dated 1625 on top of engraved title.

Bibl. Belg. B 113; De Buck 5030 (Dutch ed.); Muller, Historieplaten I, no. 413, especially pp. 41-2; NNBW III, cols. 71-3.

Related Subjects: Armorial Bindings Bindings French History Militaria Spain

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