First edition of the collected poems, plays, sonnets, and songs of the most famous Dutch poet of the 17th century, Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft (1581-1647). It was also the only edition of his collected poems published during his lifetime. The work was intended to show his literary abilities, and to serve as an example for later authors. It opens with a dramatic play, followed by emblemata, songs, love and wedding poetry, and ends with psalms, highlighting Hooft's complete skillset in the literary realm. The second work in the present binding is the third, enlarged edition of Hooft's first historical biography, on the life of the king of France, Henry IV, a work that would later grant him the title of knight.
The collection was edited by Hooft's close friend, the scholar, statesman and poet Jacob van der Burgh (1600-1659), who dedicated this edition to Constantijn Huygens. The collection contains the plays Granida, Geeraert van Velzen, Baeto, and Paris oordeel. His Emblemata, here with the title Minnezinne-beelden, are illustrated with 30 charming half-page emblems engraved by Christoffel le Blon, or Pieter Serwouters, printed from the same plates as used in the original edition of the Emblemata in 1611, each with a Dutch, Latin, and French motto, repeated below the engraving, followed by distichs in the same three languages. The Latin verses are by C.G. Plemp, the French by R.J. de Nérée.
The portrait of Pieter Dirkszoon Hasselaer, who was a lay judge and member of the Amsterdam counsel, has here been reduced in size; it was first published in Hooft's Lijkklaght over Pieter Dircxz. Hasselaer (1617). Also included are Hooft's sonnets, songs, miscellaneous poems, and wedding poems (on the two weddings of P.C. Hooft: with Christina van Erp in 1610, and Heleonora Hellemans in 1627) by C.G. Plemp, Laurens Reael, W. de Groot, Constantijn Huygens, and Caspar Barlaeus. The work closes with psalms.
With the label of Henri Dircx mounted on the front pastedown. The vellum is slightly soiled. The leaves are somewhat browned and foxed, especially in ad 2, a water stain in the outer margin of the first 100 pages of ad 1, and another in the lower margin nearly throughout, the lower corner of page 37 of ad 1 has torn off. Otherwise in good condition. Ad 1: Landwehr, Emblem and Fable Books, 322; Leendertz 117; Scheurleer, Liedboeken, p. 140; STCN 852658524; USTC 1032392; ad 2: STCN 851961835; USTC 1031841.