Dutch Historical Pamphlets, vol. 1.
37 pamphlets, 1534-1577.

The items shown here are the earliest in a collection of some 4200 historical, political, and religious pamphlets that document various public debates in the Netherlands from the 16th to 18th centuries. This collection is the largest of its kind in this country. Dutch bibliographer W.P.C. Knuttel worked most of his career on a catalogue of the more comprehensive collection of these materials held in the Koninklijke Bibliotheek at The Hague. His catalogue, published in 9 volumes from 1889-1920, has long been the standard bibliographical tool for these pamphlets, which are therefore often referred to as Knuttel pamphlets.

Purchased primarily in 1925 and 1928 from bookseller Nijhoff (The Hague).

Jan Fruytiers (d. ca. 1582). Corte beschryvinghe vande strenghe belegheringhe ende wonderbaerlicke verlossinghe der stadt Leyden in Hollandt. Delft: Aelbr. Hendricksz., 1574.

A short description of the siege of Leiden, 1573-1574. This is one of a raft of similar publications, which served as news reports, spawned by the decades of war in the Low Countries. Prince William of Orange rewarded Leiden's citizens for their successful resistance to Spanish attack with the establishment of the University of Leiden in 1575.

Purchased in 1928 from bookseller Nijhoff (The Hague).

Adriaan van Baerland (1488?-1542?). Hollandiae comitum historia ac icones. Leiden: Plantin, 1584.

A history, with portraits, of the counts of Holland and Zeeland from the 9th century up to Charles V of Spain and Holy Roman Emperor, and his son Philip II of Spain. Also includes a life of Charles, Duke of Burgundy (1433-1477) and a catalog and description of the acts of the bishops of Utrecht.

Purchased in 1929 on the Reference Fund from Baker (i.e. bookseller G. A. Baker, New York?).

De Batavia. Manuscript on paper, ca. 1600.

Treatise in Latin, illustrated with 40 hand-painted coats of arms. A genealogical history, chiefly of the counts of Holland, from ca. 200 B.C. to 1597. The arms shown are of Margaret of Austria (1522-1586), Duchess of Parma, and regent of the Netherlands from 1559 to 1567 on behalf of her half-brother Philip II of Spain.

Purchased in 1970 for the Stephen Spaulding Collection from antiquarian book dealer William Salloch (New York).

Cornelius Kempius (d. ca. 1587). De Origine, situ, qualitate et quantitate Frisiae. Cologne: 1588.

The first printed history of Friesland.

Purchased in 1952 from Albert Hyma (Professor of History, University of Michigan).

Carel van Mander (1548-1606). Het schilder-boek. Amsterdam: Jacob Pietersz. Wachter, 1618.

First published in 1604, this account of the lives of famous artists from ancient times to the author's day is important partly for the very fact of its having been written in Dutch. Like vernacular accounts of voyages and contemporary historical chronicles, it extended the boundaries of Dutch literature. It is also of great value for art history.

This edition of Het schilder-boek. is comprised of six works by Mander, plus a short biography of the author. Shown here are the general title page and an opening from the section on Dutch and German artists.

Mander himself was a painter as well as a poet and prose writer. He was born near Kortrijk (present-day Belgium), traveled in Italy, and left the Southern Netherlands in 1583 to set up in Haarlem, and thereafter in Amsterdam.

Purchased in 1928 from bookseller Nijhoff (The Hague).

Pieter Christiaanszoon Bor (1559-1635). Nederlandsche oorloghen, beroerten en borgerlijcke oneenicheyden. Leiden: G. Basson, and Amsterdam: M. Colyn, 1621-1634. 5 vols. in 6

Bor's is the most valuable history of the Dutch wars of independence, 1556-1648, making use of original sources of his day. The engraved scene shown here depicts an episode from the Dutch revolt against Spain: the town of Maastricht is besieged by the General of the Netherlands for Spain, Alexander Farnese, Duke of Parma. After an obstinate resistance the town was taken and suffered a horrible sack and slaughter.

Purchased in 1917 from bookseller Kroch (Chicago).

Matthys Balen (b. 1610). Beschryvinge der stad Dordrecht. Dordrecht: Symon Onder de Linde, 1677.

A life-long citizen of Dordrecht, Balen is known as the historian of his native city. Because he had access to city archives at a time when they were not open to the public, this work is of substantial historical value for its details on the government of the city, its notable families, and its most important buildings.

This work is notable, too, for numerous illustrations, including six folding plates by the painter, etcher, and illustrator Romeyn de Hooghe (1645-1708). One of two plates shown here depicts the flooding of the diked polder-land around Dordrecht in 1421. Most of South Holland was inundated, with the destruction of villages, churches, and great estates. Thousands of people drowned.

Purchased in 1986 on the Hulst Fund from Ursus Books (New York).

Jacob Campo Weyerman (1677-1747). De levens-beschryvingen der Nederlandsche konst-schilders en konst-schilderessen. 's-Gravenhage: wed. E. Boucquet et al., 1729 (volumes 1-3) and Dordrecht: Ab. BlussÈ en zoon, 1769 (volume 4).

A history of the lives and works of Dutch painters by the eccentric, witty, and prolific journalist and painter Weyerman.

Purchased in 1960 from F.A. Bernett (Larchmont, N.Y.) on the Hulst Fund.

Jan Fokke (d. 1772). Historie van den Amsterdamschen Schouwburg. Amsterdam: G. Warnars, en P. den Hengst, 1772.

Account of the 1772 destruction by fire of the Schouwburg in Amsterdam, the city's principal theatre. Bound with it is Historie van den nieuwen Amsterdamschen Schouwburg (Amsterdam: G. Warnars, en P. den Hengst, 1775), also attributed to Fokke. Four folding engraved plates depict views of the fire. In the second work, five plates show the new theatre's faÁade and interior.

The two titles have also been attributed to Myndert de Boer; Fokke's and/or De Boer's names are signed to poems about the fire and to a jubilant tribute to the new building.

Purchased in 1996 on the Hulst Fund from bookseller Christian Koenig (Zelham, the Netherlands).