Intriguing and extensive collection of 351 devotional prints, comprising ca. 16 print series and several separate engraved title pages of print series and some separate devotional prints. Each print shows a small engraving depicting a religious theme for almost every occasion and especially for the important days of the liturgical year. These prints were engraved and published in Antwerp, which is considered to be the centre of production and publishing of devotional prints in the 17th- and 18th centuries.
The majority of these praying cards were originally published by Franciscus Huberti (or Frans Huybrechts, 1630-1687), who seems to have been the first engraver and publisher to produce these types of works in Antwerp. He was mostly known for publishing so-called "gerijmde gebedsprentjes" (rhymed devotional prints/prayer cards). After his death, his plates were sold and used by others to republish the prints, for example by Michiel Bunel (1670-1739) and later by Carolus Craen (1733-1799). Craen's plates were next used by Hendrik Leys (d. 1853, not to be confused with the Antwerp painter Henri Leys). In 1805, Leys had married Craen's daughter and took over the publishing and printing business of his mother-in-law immediately after. He mostly continued publishing prints using older copperplates that were already part of the business since his father-in-law ran it, and was one of the last printer-publishers to use copperplates in a time when lithography became more and more popular. At the end of his life, Leys owned approximately 12000 usable copperplates made or sold by a whole host of 17th- and 18th-century engravers and/or publishers of devotional prints, such as the Wierix-Barbé family, Huberti, Galle, Van der Sande, Bunel, and the Van Merlen family. Cornelis van Merlen (1654-1723) was a publisher and engraver active in Antwerp. The Van Merlen family were important engravers and publishers of devotional engravings in Antwerp during the 17th- and 18th centuries. In 1687, he married Sara Maria Huybrechts who was the daughter of publisher and engraver Gaspar Huberti and Sara Voet and niece of the Antwerp engraver Franciscus Huberti (1630-1687), whose engravings make up the majority of the present work. The (majority of the) present work is most likely made up of Craen's or Leys' prints of the plates by Huberti, Jacobus de Man, Anton Wierix, the Van Merlen family of engravers, and others.
A complete list of contents is available upon request.
With a manuscript owner's inscription on the verso of the first flyleaf ("Mimi Josephine Cogels 1822"), a manuscript inscription on the recto of the second flyleaf ("le 1er Avril 1822 1831"), and some faint pencil annotations on the verso of the second to last flyleaf and the recto of the final flyleaf. The binding shows some slight rubbing, the front joint is slightly weakened (without any loss), lacking the fore edge margin of the engraving of S. Gregorius (no. 351, not affecting the engraving), possibly lacking the 352nd engraving (only a stub of paper remains, possibly lacking the engraving of S. Ioannes Neponucenus by C. van Merlen), a few leaves show minor marginal tears (not affecting the engravings), and with a brown stain on the final two flyleaves. Otherwise in very good condition. Thijs, A.K.L., Antwerpen: internationaal uitgeverscentrum van devotieprenten, 17e - 18e eeuw (Leuven, 1993; Miscellanea Neerlandica, 7), passim; cf. for the publishers, see: https://archief.museumplantinmoretus.be/doc/au::108950 (Huberti); https://archief.museumplantinmoretus.be/doc/au::109845:1 (Craen); https://archief.museumplantinmoretus.be/doc/au::109887 (Leys).