Print of coat-of-arms of Prominent citizens of Amsterdam.

£12,500 · Offered by Shapero Rare Books

Rare engraving of the city of Amsterdam depicting the coat-of-arms of the city's burgomasters during the years spanning the Dutch Golden Age. The present rare work is the armorial plate of the city of Amsterdam comprising the names of its one-hundred-and-sixty citizens who served as burgomasters from 1578 to 1775. In this finely engraved and hand-coloured plate, the city of Amsterdam pays homage to its most prominent citizens as architects and guarantors of its prosperity both on land and on sea (personified to the left and the right of Amsterdam). Amsterdam itself is accompanied by the cartouche inscribed "conservat utramque" ("she preserves both [land and sea]") and personified at the top of the armorial plate, as well as further represented by both its coat of arms on the right and its seal on the left. Each name listed on the plate testifies to the brilliance of Amsterdam's cultural and political landscape during the Dutch Golden Age. The first coat of arms marks the momentous transition from Catholicism to Protestantism in Amsterdam, the most important trade center in Holland. The coat is that of Willem Bardesius and dates 1578. In May 1578 Bardesius led a bloodless coup, known as the Alteratie, in which Amsterdam joined the Protestant revolt and removed its Catholic civic council. The latter was replaced by a majority of Calvinist councillors and its first Protestant burgomaster, Willem Bardesius himself. The recurring presence of various coats of arms in this plate tes

• Binding: Hardcover

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