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The first French edition of a famous account of the siege of Ostend (1601-1604).

HAESTENS, Henrick Lodewijksz van.
La nouvelle Troye ou memorable histoire du siege d'Ostende le plus signalé qu'on ait veu en L'Europe. En laquelle sont descripts & naïfvement representés en diverses figures, les assauts, deffenses, inventions de guerre, mines, contremines, retranchemens, combats par terre & par mer & autres choses remarcables, advenues de part & d'autre, avec ce qui s'est passé par chascun jour durant le-dit siege depuis le 5 Iuing 1601 iusqu'au 20 Septemb. 1604 qu'elle fut renduë. Recoeuillie des plus asseurés memoires.

Engraved frontispiece with portrait of Prince Maurits of Nassau, engraved vignette with two fighting lions symbolizing the Southern (attacking) and the Northern Netherlands (defending the city of Ostend)) on the title, engraved coat-of-arms of Maurits on verso of title, 12 folding engraved plates (out of 14).

Engraved frontispiece with portrait of Prince Maurits of Nassau, engraved vignette with two fighting lions symbolizing the Southern (attacking) and the Northern Netherlands (defending the city of Ostend)) on the title, engraved coat-of-arms of Maurits on verso of title, 12 folding engraved plates (out of 14).

Engraved frontispiece with portrait of Prince Maurits of Nassau, engraved vignette with two fighting lions symbolizing the Southern (attacking) and the Northern Netherlands (defending the city of Ostend)) on the title, engraved coat-of-arms of Maurits on verso of title, 12 folding engraved plates (out of 14).

Engraved frontispiece with portrait of Prince Maurits of Nassau, engraved vignette with two fighting lions symbolizing the Southern (attacking) and the Northern Netherlands (defending the city of Ostend)) on the title, engraved coat-of-arms of Maurits on verso of title, 12 folding engraved plates (out of 14).

Engraved frontispiece with portrait of Prince Maurits of Nassau, engraved vignette with two fighting lions symbolizing the Southern (attacking) and the Northern Netherlands (defending the city of Ostend)) on the title, engraved coat-of-arms of Maurits on verso of title, 12 folding engraved plates (out of 14).



Leyden, Hendrick van Haestens for Louis Elsevier, 1615. 4to. Nineteenth-century red morocco, triple gilt ruling along the edges, spine richly gilt in compartments, inner dentelles, marbled endpapers, g.e. (RIVIERE & son). Engraved frontispiece with portrait of Prince Maurits of Nassau, engraved vignette with two fighting lions symbolizing the Southern (attacking) and the Northern Netherlands (defending the city of Ostend)) on the title, engraved coat-of-arms of Maurits on verso of title, 12 folding engraved plates (out of 14). (10), 293 (= 295), (1) pp.

First French edition of one of the earliest accounts of the as famous as bloody siege of the city of Ostend in Flanders by the Spanish army, written by Henrick van Haestens. Van Haestens was a publisher and printer at Leyden in the years 1596 -1621. After 1621, being converted to Catholicism, he moved to Louvain were he printed from 1622 till his death in 1629.
The first Dutch edition was published by Henrick van Haestens himself in Leyden in 1613 under the title De Bloedige ende strenge belegeringhe der stadt Oostende, in Vlaenderen. The Dutch edition was translated into French by Jean de la Haye and published by Louis Elzevier with the same plates as in the first edition. At the end there is a "Sonet sur l'Ostende assigée" by Richard Jean de Nerée.
Ostend was one of the most important Flemish coastal towns and one of the few towns in the Southern Netherlands that was not yet re-conquered by the commander of the Spanish army, Alessandro Farnese, Prince of Parma. In the year 1600 the army of the States General under the command of Prince Maurits, had invaded Flanders in a attempt to conquer the town of Dunkirk. During this attempt, Ostend had been an important base for the invasion army. After the battle near Nieuwpoort (1600), the States' army returned home in spite of the fact that they had won the battle. For the archdukes Ferdinand and Isabella it was clear that it was very important for them to have Ostend in their hands, at all cost. During three long years (1601-1604) the Royal Army laid siege to the town and finally conquered it. The siege took so long because the town could get it's supplies from the Republic by sea. When Ostend surrendered, the town was no more then a ruin due to all the acts of war that had taken place: a real pyrrhic victory.
The reference to ancient Troy was apt: the siege was generally felt to be of similar proportions and of the same importance for the Dutch as Troy was for the Troyans, including Aeneas as the founder of ancient Rome (i.e. Maurits) of course.
At the end of the account a list of the interesting plates (p.193) is given with notes for the binder: the sea battle near Sluys, plans of the siege and the fortifications, truce negotiations, a sea battle, and above all the intriguing and famous siege engines, among which the 'Pompee's Chariot' is the most well-known.
In 2003 Anna Simoni has devoted an interesting monograph on the subject, giving full descriptions of the early editions and their affiliation.

The first five leaves are bound in wrongly: the first leaf "Au Roy … De France et de Navarre. Loys XIII" with the portrait of Maurits on it's verso, should be bound after the title with the portrait on it's recto and the half title for the dedication to Louis XIII on it's verso. The following leaf (now the third leaf), containing a laudatory poem on Maurits by De Neree, should be bound between p. 10 and 11, as is indicated on it's verso, so that the dedication itself (now f. 4 and 5) becomes f. 3 and 4.

Good copy with ownership's entries of "V. Cromwell" (title), "L. Cromwell 1688" (sonnet for Maurits, f. (3)r); Robertus Leftwitch (back of plate 6), Guilielmus Dowdall (title and back of plate 6), manuscript annotations by Dowdall.- (First few lvs, including title, stained).
Willems 99; Muller, Historieplaten IV, 1215A; NNBW VII, col. 516; cf. Anna E.C. Simoni, The Ostend story. Early tales of the great siege and the mediating role of Hendrick van Haestens ('t Goy-Houten, HES & De Graaf Publishers, 2003).

Related Subjects: Belgicana  History  Low Countries  Militaria 

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