STRADA, Famiano.

by Famiano Strada

£2,500 · Offered by Sokol Books

Handsomely bound two volumes of Famiano Strada’s (1572-1649) account of the Dutch Revolt from Spain. The vols are exceptional for their many exquisite full page engravings, especially the Leo Belgicus in Vol II, where the Low Countries are depicted in the form of a lion. This is based on the original 1583 Eytzinger form with the lion standing facing right with a paw raised and holding a shield. The lion features heavily on the coats of arms of both Netherlands and Belgium and the depiction was a powerful byword for patriotism during the war in the Low Countries. The portraits are excellent likenesses of important figures from both sides. Famiano Strada was a Jesuit historian and moralist who taught at the Collegio Romano of the Jesuits in Rome. This work was commissioned by Ranuccio I Farnese in 1595 and was written with the assistance of Alexander Farnese (1545-1592). It was first published in 1632 and translated into Dutch in 1646. The book evocatively describes the scents and colours of the battle between the Spanish troops led by the Duke of Parma and the Dutch troops led by the Staten-Generaal van Willem van Oranje. In 1579 the northern provinces had established their independence as the United Provinces of the Netherlands, leaving the south under Catholic control as the Spanish Netherlands; at the time this work was first published the war with Spain was still continuing. It was only in the year this edition was produced, 1648, at the end of the Thirty Years War, that S

• Binding: Hardcover

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.