MEERBEECK, Adriaan de.
Theatre funebre ou sont representéez les funerailles de plusieurs princes et la vie, trespas, & magnifiques obseques de Albert Le Pie de tres haulte memoire Archiduc d'Autrice, Duc de Bourgoigne, Brabant, &c. faicts a Bruxelles le 12. de Mars, 1622.
Brussels, Ferdinand de Hoeymaker [printed by Henrick van Hastens in Louvain], 1622. 8vo. With a small woodcut decoration on the title-page and a full-page woodcut representing a "chapelle ardente" on the verso; a large folding woodcut plate with two horses, one dressed as a "cheval de bataille" and the other as used "à la pompe funebre du ... Archiduc". Further with 3 woodcut decorated initials (2 series) and 2 woodcut factotums. Contemporary vellum, remnants of ties. [8], 278, [2] pp.
€ 3,500
First and only French edition of a book of "splendid ceremonies", bringing accounts of the magnificent royal funerals of various Habsburgs (both Spanish and Austrian) together in one edition.
Impetus for the book was the Brussels funeral procession of Albert VII (1559-1621), Archduke of Austria, who in 1598 had married the Infanta Isabella, daughter of King Phillip II of Spain, who appointed them co-governors of the Spanish Low Countries. Meerbeeck dedicated the book to Aubert Lemire, dated 18 June 1622 and Adrian de Meerbeeck (1563-post 1627) wrote the text. In the same year the Ferdinand de Hoeymaker also published an edition in Dutch (Landwehr 72).
With an owner's inscription on the title-page: "Ex bibliotheca Corn. Boullvens[?]". Some browning; folded plate repaired with a hole in one fold, but still in good condition. Biogr. Nat. Belg. 14, cols. 252-254; Landwehr, Splendid ceremonies 71; Picarta (1 copy); STCV 6643304 (4 copies); WorldCat (6 copies).
Related Subjects:
