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The first (and only published) volume of Meursius's collected historical works - a project of Blaeu -: the History of Denmark (and the Netherlands)

MEURSIUS, Johannes.
Historica Danica pariter & Belgica uno tomo comprehensa ... Operum omnium tomus primus.

With woodcut publisher's device on 5 separate titles, and full-page engraved portrait of the author by Simon de Passe, woodcut end-pieces and initials.

With woodcut publisher's device on 5 separate titles, and full-page engraved portrait of the author by Simon de Passe, woodcut end-pieces and initials.

With woodcut publisher's device on 5 separate titles, and full-page engraved portrait of the author by Simon de Passe, woodcut end-pieces and initials.

With woodcut publisher's device on 5 separate titles, and full-page engraved portrait of the author by Simon de Passe, woodcut end-pieces and initials.



Amsterdam, Willem & Johan Blaeu, 1638. 5 parts in 1 vol. Folio. Contemporary vellum, red mottled edges. With woodcut publisher's device on 5 separate titles, and full-page engraved portrait of the author by Simon de Passe, woodcut end-pieces and initials. (6), 118; (6), 133, (1 blank), (6), 87; (4), 150, (2); (4), 86 pp.

The first volume of the complete historical works by the great Dutch linguist and historian Johannes van Meurs (1579-1639), which the Blaeu's had planned to publish, but to which no further volumes were added. The general title-page (Historica Danica pariter & Belgica uno tomo comprehensa ... Operum omnium tomus primus) is lacking, but the five parts are completely present:

- 1. Historiae Danicae, sive de regibus Daniae, qui familiam Oldenburgicam praecessere, eorumque rebus gestis, à Dano ad Canutum VI, in quo desinit Saxo, libri quinque priores.
- 2. Historiae Danicae continuatio. Sive, de regibus Daniae, qui familiam Oldenburgicam praecesserunt, & eorum rebus gestis, à Canuto VI, in quo Saxo desinit, usque ad Christianyum I, libri quinque posteriores.
- 3. Historiae Danicae Libri III. In quibus res commemorantur gestae à Christiano I; ac Ioanne, ejus filio: & nepote, Christiano II.
- 4. Gulielmus Auriacus, sive, de rebus toto Belgio tam ab eo, quam ejus tempore, gestis; ad excessum Ludovici Requesensii.Pars prima. Tributa in libros decem.
- 5. Ferdinandus Albanus, sive de rebus eius in Belgio per sexennium gestis, libri IV. In quibus belli Belgici principium. Additur de induciis, liber singularis, in quo ejusdem belli finis.

Joannes Meursius was the most gifted Dutch humanist of the first generation, classical scholar and antiquary, who was extremely precocious, and at the age of sixteen produced a commentary on the Cassandra of Lycophron. For ten years he was the tutor to Johan van Oldebarneveld's children, and in 1610 he was appointed professor of Greek  and history at Leiden, and in the following year historiographer to the States-General of the Netherlands. In consequence of the disturbed state of his country during the Eighty Years War and difficulties with the Contra-Remonstrants, he welcomed the offer (1625) of Christian IV of Denmark to become professor of history and politics at Soro, in Zealand, combined with the office of historiographer royal.

As the historiographer of the States General Meursius was commissioned in 1611 to write the history of the Netherlands during the years 1609-1611, the beginning years of the Twelve-Years Truce. Already the next year appeared his Rerum Belgicarum liber unus, in quo Induciarum historia (here part 5).
His next work regarding the Dutch contemporary history was published in 1614: Rerum Belgicarum libri quatuor; in quibus Ferdinandi Albani sexennium [1568-1573], belli Belgici principium, on the beginning of the Eighty Years War. A revised version appeared in 1621 (re-edition in 1622; and 1638: here part 4) with the title: Gulielmus Auriacus, sive, De rebus toto Belgio tam ab eo, quam eius tempore gestis, more or less a biography of William the Silent till 1576.

The works Meursius compiled after 1625 as the historiographer of the Danish King are here in their first editions (after a first specimen printed in Copenhagen in 1631: Historiae Danicae libri tres). His complete Historia Danica  was first published in 1638 with the Blaeu's in Amsterdam, treating the years from the first Danish king, Danus till 1523 (here part 1-3). The history of the years 1523-1550 stayed in manuscript and appeared only in Meursius's collected works, edited by J. Lamy (1741-63).
The first part is dedicated to the Danish King and dated at Soroë, December 7, 1636, but the third part was already published earlier, and here the dedication is dated at Soroë August 7, 1630. Simon de Passe (1595-1647), who engraved Meursius' portrait worked also in Denmark for Christian IV, from 1629 to his death in 1647.

Good copy with contemporary notes on Meursius, including a list of his works on first fly-leaf and a contents on first title.- (Top of spine dam. (lacking fragment preserved), a few quires browned).
Graesse IV, 510; (portrait): Hollstein XVI, Simon de Passe 91.

Related Subjects: 17th Century  Denmark  History  Netherlands 

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