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Extremely rare issue with the German texts of the first and only edition of 'The mistake of Matrimony'

PASSE the YOUNGER, Crispijn de.
Les abus du mariage, ou sont clairement representez les subtilitez des homestes tant des femmes eu des hommes dont ils usent pour se tromper l'un l'autre a cecy sont adjoustez quelques enseignemens pour corriger tels abus.
Misbruick  des houwelycx, waer in klaerlijck word uitgebeeldt de boosheden en loosheden zo wel tusschen mannen als vrouwen gepleeght, om malkander behendigh te bedriegen ...
Misbrauch des Ehlichen Standes, waer in klaerlich wird aus gebilt die schändliche losheyt so wol bei Mannen als Frauwen die sich pflegen zu befleisigen einer den anderen zu betriegen ...

With engraved emblematical frontispiece and 25 plates (ca. 95 x 140 mm) with two ovals per plate showing 50 numbered portraits of adulterous women, lovers or spouses; full-page etching of a cart with three adulterous couples.

With engraved emblematical frontispiece and 25 plates (ca. 95 x 140 mm) with two ovals per plate showing 50 numbered portraits of adulterous women, lovers or spouses; full-page etching of a cart with three adulterous couples.

With engraved emblematical frontispiece and 25 plates (ca. 95 x 140 mm) with two ovals per plate showing 50 numbered portraits of adulterous women, lovers or spouses; full-page etching of a cart with three adulterous couples.

With engraved emblematical frontispiece and 25 plates (ca. 95 x 140 mm) with two ovals per plate showing 50 numbered portraits of adulterous women, lovers or spouses; full-page etching of a cart with three adulterous couples.

With engraved emblematical frontispiece and 25 plates (ca. 95 x 140 mm) with two ovals per plate showing 50 numbered portraits of adulterous women, lovers or spouses; full-page etching of a cart with three adulterous couples.



(Amsterdam, for Crispijn de Passe), 1641. Oblong 8vo. Modern half vellum, boards covered with marbled paper. With engraved emblematical frontispiece and 25 plates (ca. 95 x 140 mm) with two ovals per plate showing 50 numbered portraits of adulterous women, lovers or spouses; full-page etching of a cart with three adulterous couples. 45 lvs. (collation: p2-1, A-G4, H2, I4, (***)4, 2(***)2, I6-2).

Extremely rare and complete issue with all the German texts, of the first and only edition of 'The mistake off Matrimonij', a print series with 50 portraits illustrating the evils and wiles committed by both men and women cunningly to deceive each other, by Crispijn de Passe the younger (ca. 1597-1670).
The book is related in its design to Van de Passe's successful books Miroir des courtisannes (1631) and his Les vrais pourtraits de quelques unes des plus grandes dames de la chrestiente desguisees en bergeres (1640).
The 50 portraits of adulterous women, lovers or spouses, most with a moral injunction and with captions in French, illustrate the 'mistakes of marriage', explained and described in two Dutch quatrains printed underneath each plate and in six quatrains - two in French, two in Dutch and two in German - on the facing page. Crispijn took his material from contemporary, gossipy chronicles, and depicted French and Dutch women (nrs. 1-20) and - after e separate title-page (Ici commencent les cocquages d'Espagnie e d'Italie e les ruses des meschantz femmes / Hier beginnen de misbruycken van de Spaensche en Italiaensche vrouwen / Der misbrauch der Hispanier und Italianischen Frawen, und ihr arglistichkeiten die sie gebrauchen) -, Spanish and Italian women, who are mostly identified by their initials. The final two prints serve as a more general and anonymous example, showing an elderly astronomer star-gazing and neglecting his young wife, who has reacted by takng a young lover (nrs. 21-50; Veldman, fig. 175).
The work is preceded by an engraved frontispiece showing a pedestal with a cupid seated on the huge horns of a bull. On the front of the pedestal are symbols which refer to adultery: purses full of money, drink, gifts (a ring) and a lace collar (symbolizing the female sex). To the left a man with a coffer of money, the symbol of purchased love, and to the right a woman holding a mask, the attribute of deception and both are firmly grasping a horn (Veldman, fig. 174). Then follows a foreword by Crispijn de Passe in French, a longer in Dutch with its translation in German, referring to Ovid's Metamorphoses, Bk. X, 220-42.
The portraits of adulterers are followed by a dialogue between the classical shepherds Mopsus and Meliboeus, who see a cart passing by as they tend their flocks on Diemen Heath east of Amsterdam (f. I1r), on the verso illustrated by a full-page etching of a cart which is driven by a satyr over  a track strewn with horns; the passengers are three adulterous couples who tell their tales in the accompanying 'Waghe-liedt, op de voys: Kristijntje bistu kranck' (Cart song; f. I2r-I4v). On f. (***)1r-(***)3v is a long Dutch poem "Kuysche vermaningen aen alle misbruyckers des heyligen Echts" (Chaste admonitions to all abusers of holy wedlock), signed by Crispijn de Passe, and followed by an "Exhortatie oft ernstighe waerschouwinghe" (Exhortation or stern warning) on f. (***)4r-2(***)2r. The book closes with an alternative 'Cart song': "Der verdwaelde boeleerders Vrolick Wagen-liedt" on f. I2r-I5r.
Apparently there must have been two different issues of the book: one with the title, and sub-title partly, and two of the facing quatrains in English (most of the known copies), and one with these elements in German. The copies we could trace with German elements are all mixed-up copies with some of these elements in German, some in English. With the possible exception of the BL-copy (not seen), this is the only copy known with the complete German texts.

Nice copy from the library of G.S. Overdiep (bookplate on the verso of front cover).- (Faint water stain in some lvs, some lvs. a little bit thumbed).
I.M. Veltman, Crispijn de Passe and his progeny (1564-1670) (2001), p. 331-4; Landwehr, 'De graveur Crispyn de Passe Junior (circa 1596-1670) als uitgever-auteur", in: Jaarboek Ned. bibliofielen 1994  (1995), p. 63-92, esp. 89-92: C1-4; Hollstein XVI, 188; Gay/Lemonyer 1,7; Franken 1372;  

Related Subjects: 16th Century  Erotica  Netherlands  Print Series 

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€ 18.000,00

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