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One of the most important sources of Dutch mediaeval history: first edition of the second text version

MELIS STOKE.
Hollandse Jaar-boeken of Rijm-kronijk, behelsende de geschiedenissen des Lands, onder de Princen van het  eerste Huis, tot den Jare 1305.
Met de afbeeldingen van alle de Hollandse graven, geschetst naar de aloude schilderyen der Karmeliten te Haarlem. Nevens verscheide egte bylagen, betreffende de ware toestand der geschillen, tussen Graaf Floris de V, en de Hollandse edelen. Mitsgaders de beeldenisse van Heer Gerard van Velsen; en andre oude frayigheden, noit te voren in 't ligt gebragt. Alles met noodige uitleggingen opgehelderd, door Cornelis van Alkemade.



With fine engraved series of 33 full-lenght portraits of the Counts of Holland, on full-page plates (verso blank), including one double-portrait on double-page plate, all engraved after the wall-paintings in the Carmelite Monastery at Haarlem, the series is preceded by a full-page engraved plate of a herald with a blank name-panel, and closed by a full-page engraved allegorical picture of Death, a full-page engraved portrait of Gerard van Velsen, and an engraved plate with the tomb of Floris V.

With fine engraved series of 33 full-lenght portraits of the Counts of Holland, on full-page plates (verso blank), including one double-portrait on double-page plate, all engraved after the wall-paintings in the Carmelite Monastery at Haarlem, the series is preceded by a full-page engraved plate of a herald with a blank name-panel, and closed by a full-page engraved allegorical picture of Death, a full-page engraved portrait of Gerard van Velsen, and an engraved plate with the tomb of Floris V.

With fine engraved series of 33 full-lenght portraits of the Counts of Holland, on full-page plates (verso blank), including one double-portrait on double-page plate, all engraved after the wall-paintings in the Carmelite Monastery at Haarlem, the series is preceded by a full-page engraved plate of a herald with a blank name-panel, and closed by a full-page engraved allegorical picture of Death, a full-page engraved portrait of Gerard van Velsen, and an engraved plate with the tomb of Floris V.

With fine engraved series of 33 full-lenght portraits of the Counts of Holland, on full-page plates (verso blank), including one double-portrait on double-page plate, all engraved after the wall-paintings in the Carmelite Monastery at Haarlem, the series is preceded by a full-page engraved plate of a herald with a blank name-panel, and closed by a full-page engraved allegorical picture of Death, a full-page engraved portrait of Gerard van Velsen, and an engraved plate with the tomb of Floris V.

With fine engraved series of 33 full-lenght portraits of the Counts of Holland, on full-page plates (verso blank), including one double-portrait on double-page plate, all engraved after the wall-paintings in the Carmelite Monastery at Haarlem, the series is preceded by a full-page engraved plate of a herald with a blank name-panel, and closed by a full-page engraved allegorical picture of Death, a full-page engraved portrait of Gerard van Velsen, and an engraved plate with the tomb of Floris V.



Leiden Johannes du Vivie & Isaak Severinus, 1699. Folio. Contemporary calf, ribbed spine gilt in compartments with red title-label lettered in gold, gilt binding edges. With fine engraved series of 33 full-lenght portraits of the Counts of Holland, on full-page plates (verso blank), including one double-portrait on double-page plate, all engraved after the wall-paintings in the Carmelite Monastery at Haarlem, the series is preceded by a full-page engraved plate of a herald with a blank name-panel, and closed by a full-page engraved allegorical picture of Death, a full-page engraved portrait of Gerard van Velsen, and an engraved plate with the tomb of Floris V. (6), 23, (3), 263, (63) pp.

Rare first edition of the text of one of the most important sources of Dutch mediaeval history: the Rijm-kroniek (Chronicle in verses) of Melis Stoke as edited by Cornelis van Alkemade (1654-1737), a Dutch historian and collector of manuscripts and antiquities. An earlier edition with the text edited by Janus Douza in cooperation with Hendrik Laurensz. Spiegel had appeared in 1591 (very rare as mosr copies were destroyed in a fire at the publisher's house; re-edition 1620). Later editions: 1772 by Baltasar Huydecoper in 3 vols.; 1885 by W.G. Brill in 2 vols, before the modern edition of 1999 (also online, see below).

Melis Stoke (ca. 1235-after 1305) was a clerk in the service of Floris V. The first editor, Janus Douza, didn't know this name as author of the Chronicle. It was the famous philologist Petrus Scriverius who, working on an edition of the Chronicle in the years 1629-30 (which edition was never published), discovered that Melis Stoke probably was the author, who made himself known in a manuscript Douza didn't know yet. The question of the authorship of the entire Chronicle is not completely undisputed, especially for the first part treating the history of the counts of Holland from 689 and 1205, written ca. 1289-91. The second part which runs to 1305 is written by Melis Stoke on the basis of a number of older texts as well as eye-witnesses and Stoke's own observations.
Our Chronicle is the most used source for the history of the counties of Holland and Zeeland till 1305, treating at length the famous murder of Floris V in 1296 and the transition from the House of Holland to the House of Hainault a few years later. Therefore the Chronicle is also a very important source for the history of the Dutch language.  

The portraits of the Counts of Holland were probably originally published as a separate print series (Van Someren 84) and were first included in Melis Stoke's work. In 1725 they were also bound in another historical work: Fr. Halma's Tooneel der Vereenigde Nederlanden (1725). The series consists of 33 full-length portraits of the Counts of Holland, on full-page plates (verso blank), including one double-portrait on a double-page plate (of Mary of Burgundy and Maximilian of Austria), all with a Dutch poem of 4-12 lines printed underneath, and engraved after the wall-paintings in the Carmelite Monastery at Haarlem, the series is preceded by a title-plate: a full-page engraved plate of a herald with a blank name-panel, and closed by a full-page engraved allegorical picture of Death, a full-page engraved portrait of Gerard van Velsen, and an engraved plate with the tomb of Floris V.

According to the editor of the present work Philip of Austria, the Emperor Charles V, and Philip II of Spain were omitted as they were not present in the series of paintings at Haarlem, and Jan III. was never put on the copperplate for unknown reasons. As Melis Stoke's chronicle ends with the year 1305, the portraits of the later Counts (beginning with Willem IV and ending with Mary of Burgundy and Emperor Maximilian) are added together at the end of his work, before the addenda by the editor. Cornelis van Alkemade added a number of interesting historical treatises, partly based on his own historical research, on the difficulties and conspiracy of the Dutch nobility, including Gerard van Velsen, and Count Floris V leading to the latter's murder in 1296, including the account by Jacob van Mierop, the text of a treaty of Herman van Woerden and Floris V of 1287, the texts on this subject in an anonymous manuscript 'Spiegel-Historiael of Rijm-Spiegel', Het oude Goudse kronijkje, Jan Gerrbrandsz. van Leiden in his Hollandse kronijk, Johannes Beka in his Chronicle, Werner Roelevinck in his Fasciculus temporem, Reinier Snoy in his Batavise gebeurtenissen, Petrus Scriverius in his Oud-Batavie, and Matthaeus Vossius in his Jaar-boeken. The work ends with two poems on Gerard van Velsen and the death of Floris V.

Good copy with the book-plate of H.H. Jonkers pasted to the inside of the front cover.- (Binding shaved, hinges broken).
Muller, Portretten, 4 (does not mention the present edition, only mentioning Halma's Tooneel (1725)); Van Someren, Portretten, 101; Cat. Rijksmuseum Amsterdam I, p. 141; H.C. Peeters, De Rijmkroniek van Holland, haar auteur en Melis Stoke (Antwerpen 1966); J.W.J. Burgers, De Rijmkroniek van Holland en zijn auteurs (1999); online ed. with commentary: http://www.dbnl.org/tekst/stok001wgbr01_01/stok001wgbr01_01_0001.htm; and: http://www.inghist.nl/Onderzoek/Projecten/Rijmkroniek.

Related Subjects: History  Middle Ages  Netherlands 

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