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Very rare print series ascribed to Crispijn de Passe

[PASSE the YOUNGER, Crispijn de].
(Twelve Months with couples in costumes from all over the world).

Engraved allegorical title (186 x 140 mm) and 12 engraved plates (138 x 88 mm) printed on large leaves of 294 x 185 mm.

(Amsterdam, Crispijn de Passe the Younger), ca. 1640. Folio. Nineteenth-century marbled wrappers. Engraved allegorical title (186 x 140 mm) and 12 engraved plates (138 x 88 mm) printed on large leaves of 294 x 185 mm. 13 lvs.

Very rare print series with 12 engravings showing the 12 months with the signs of the Zodiac in a small oval at the top. As each month is represented by a man and woman from 12 different parts of the world this series is also an interesting costume book.
The 12 engravings are not signed, nor numbered but are ascribed, first by Franken and later by Lipperheide to Crispijn de Passe the Younger (ca. 1597-1670), who worked from 1630 till 39 in Utrecht and since 1640 in Amsterdam. Underneath each image two Latin lines are engraved indicating the month and the origin of the couple:

1. Aquarius (January): a couple from Moscow ('Tum genialis hyems ...').
2. Pisces (February): a couple from Lapland ('Lappius et denso ...').
3. Aries (March): a couple from Holland ('Non calor aestivus ...').
4. Taurus (April): a couple from France ('Aprilis Veneri sater ...').
5. Gemini (May): a couple from Rome (Orbis delicias et ...').
6. Cancer (June): a couple from Spain ('Proximus Oceano fuscis ...').
7 (=8). Leo (July): a couple from the West Indies ('Qui solis radiis ...').
8 (=7). Virgo (August): a couple from North Africa (Arte vafer ...').
9. Libra (September): a couple from England ('Non calor immodicus ...').
10. Scorpio (October): a couple from Germany ('Temperat austero tristis ...').
11. Sagittarius (November): a couple from Austria ('Austria frigidiorseptemque ...').
12. Capricorn (December): a couple from Hungary ('Hungarus egelidas ...').

The reason for attributing these engravings to Crispijn de Passe Jr, probably is the appearance of the plates of the series in the inventories of the De Passe firm from 1639 (Veldman, p. 453, nr. 199: 'Twaelf maenden in drachten in 12 plaetgen') and 1653 (Veldman, p. 456, nr. 32). Franken was the first who ascribed the engravings (on the basis of only six plates: these 'Très belles gravures') to Crispijn Jr and Lipperheide has followed him.
The 12 engravings are numbered in our copy by a contemporary hand from 539 till 550 and 'signed' by a monogram (?) 'CXXXC'.

The series is erroneously preceded by an engraved title-page of an other print series: Duodecim anni menses. Die zwölff Monadt des Jarres. Inn Küpfer gestochen durch Wiolffgang Kilian (Augsburg, Mathias Kager, 1617; Thieme-Becker 20, pp. 302-5.

Fine large-paper copy.- (Some soiling on title).

Franken, L'oeuvre gravé de van de Passe, 359-64 (only 6 plates); Lipperheide 526; Veldman, Crispijn de Passe and his progeny, p. 453, nr. 199 and p. 456, nr. 32; not in Hollstein.

Related Subjects: 17th Century Netherlands Print Series

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