Scenes from History
Quarter Calf
Quarter Calf. Very Good. N.d., circa 1690. Folio, 36.5 by 23 cm. 47 leaves (printing only on rectos), with a total of 422 copper engraved vignettes -- 420 are a more or less standard smaller size, with some differentiation in their shape, and two are somewhat larger. The scenes are from the Bible, Classical history (Rome and Greece) and carry forward to the sixteenth century. Among the then more modern history was the fall of Constantinople to the Ottomans, Columbus' discovery, the ascension of Henry IV in France, the abdication of Queen Christina of Sweden in 1654, and the repulse of the Turks at the Gates of Vienna in 1683. The vignettes are highly detailed in the fine Baroque style of the period. There is no indication of where the collection of illustrations was printed, but we would conjecture in Amsterdam, given the heterodox nature of the scenes depicted, etc. The collection is complete, but the plates are not bound entirely in the correct order, as may not be surprising. There is no title page, but there are four pages which summarize the illustrations, and each vignette also has a caption. The vignettes may often have been cut from these sheets to serve as cards or paste-ons. (Inventory #: 004864)