GUICCIARDINI, Lodovico.
Descrittione di tutti i Paesi Bassi, altrimenti detti Germania inferiore. Con tutte le carte di geographia del paese, & col ritratto al naturale di molte terre principali; rineduta di nuovo , & ampliata per tutto la terz a volta dal medesimo autore. Al gran're Cattolico don Filippo d'Austria. Con amplissimo indice di tutte le cose piu memorabili.
Antwerp, Christopher Plantin, 1588. Folio. With an engraved allegorical frontispiece of the Low Countries (Belgia), an engraved architectural title in its first state with printed text, an engraved plate with a border of the coat of arms of the 16 Provinces and that of Brabant together with the coat of arms of Philip II in the centre pasted in, an engraved plate with an allegorical depiction of the Arts and Sciences and an architectural border with the portrait of Philip II in the centre, a large woodcut coat of arms of Guicciardini, 64 double-page engraved maps and views, 6 full-page engraved maps and views, 4 single pages with on each 2 engraved maps, woodcut headpieces and initials.
Contemporary gold-tooled vellum, with an oval centrepiece on both boards within a decorative frame, gilt edges, remnants of ties. [24], 432, [18] pp.
€ 8,500
Third Italian edition of the first illustrated description of the Low Countries. This popular guide to the Netherlands was written by the nobleman Ludovico Guicciardini (1521-1589), an Antwerp-based merchant from Florence, Italy. Most of the cities shown in the plans and views had never before been depicted in print before. Not only was Guicciardini's work a great success, going through dozens of editions in a wide variety of languages, but its maps, plans and views were also copied for decades, both for use in other works and for separate publication.
This 1588 edition is the last and at the same time the most beautiful edition published in the Southern Netherlands. In this edition Guicciardini shows us the gradual change concerning the (political) situation of the Low Countries as a result of the enduring resistance against the king of Spain. This current edition is a reprint of Plantin's Italian edition of 1581, but with the addition in the introductory part of Justus Lipsius' Latin poem, as it was printed in the French edition of 1582. Guicciardini's dedicatory to Philip II dated October 20, 1566 is also reproduced, but a new note by the author to the reader dated November 20, 1587 replaces the older one dated 1566. For this edition, Plantin used the improved and numbered copperplates of the French edition of 1582. The portrait of Philip II however is almost identical of those from the 1581 and 1582 editions, but is printed from a new copperplate (this portrait bears a.o. the small flower consisting of 8 instead of 7 balls at the upper side of the caption and to HISPANIARVM is added the second I). In the coat of arms of Philip, the coat of arms of Portugal is now added. Also, the copperplate of the plan of Antwerp is adjusted because of the demolition activities on the citadel and the year MDLXXI was changed into MDLXXXVII.
The vellum is somewhat soiled. The work is somewhat browned throughout, with some leaves affected more than others, some occasional spotting. Otherwise in good condition. Boele van Hensbroek 1877, no. VIII; Guicciardini illustratus 8; Tiele 1877; Touwaide 1973, 81-93; Touwaide 1974, no. 8; USTC 413827; Voet 1280; cf. Touwaide, Messire Lodovico Guicciardini gentilhomme Florentin (Nieuwkoop, 1975).
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