Study material, the old textbook examined

As you may know we, at Van der Steur, live amongst the mysterious history of more than 40.000 books and prints. Logically we are unable to read each and every one of them. This is why it can be very refreshing when a new intern stumbles upon an object that tells a greater story than just the one that is written inside. When our intern Sterre van der Sijde took a book from the shelf in our section dedicated to classical literature she noticed immediately that the book in her hands was special. This beautiful work, titled Fabulae Aesopi Graecè & Latinè is not bound in linen, leather or blank parchment as could be expected. Oddly enough it is bound in a parchment manuscript page with rubrication (sentences in red ink) and decorated initials. 

 

When opened, the book shows that it concerns the 1672 version of the fables of the Greek slave Aesopus (600 BC) and those of the Latin poet Avianus (400 to 500 AD), written in Greek and Latin in parallel columns. 

The book concludes with the poem ‘Batrachomyomachia’ or ‘Battle of the frogs and mice’, attributed to Homer. This book was first published in Amsterdam in 1626 as a study book for Latin and Greek scholars. The particular edition was provided by the academic Daniel Heinsius (1580-1655) from Leiden and copied at least eleven times without any major changes. It appeared to be in use for this purpose until 1727. 

Can you remember how your study books looked after toiling with them for a year? If they looked a bit like mine I find it astonishing that this small fable book survived this well for almost 350 years.

The fables in this book feature exquisite woodcarvings by the Swiss/Dutch woodcutter and engraver Christoffel van Sichem (1581-1658). Van Sichem made prints after portraits by his father, Christoffel van Sichem the Elder, and leading artists such as Bloemaert and Goltzius. For this fable book he made forty-one beautiful illustrations. The clearness of the cuts gives a modern feel to the plates. The illustration on page 73, ‘the fox and the goat’, is the only woodcut left that shows the monogram of van Sichem.

Besides the unusual binding, function and decoration there is definitely something else to talk about. On the recto of the first flyleaf, in between the stamps of institutions that previously owned the book, is an indication present of two V.I.P. from the past. The handwritten text: “Ex libris Joh: Conradi Zwinglij. Ao: 1693” and “Martini Usterii 1780”. The first name 'Johannes Conradi Zwinglij (Zwingli)' sounds familiar because the surname Zwingli was made famous by the Swiss reformer Huldrych Zwingli (1484-1531). Whether Johannes Conradi is a distant relative is not clear. The second name mentioned is Martini Usterii, better known as Johann Martin Usteri (1763-1827). 

Usteri, who was 17 when he signed this little book, was a famous swiss poet and engraver who was best known for his romantic idylls and historical prints. It's quite interesting to imagine to what extent an artist like Usteri could have been influenced by the fable illustrations he saw in his youth.

If there is one thing that we have learned from this little work of art, it is that our collection is like a treasure chest waiting to be discovered. 

  

 





Sanne Hansler

Steven Blankaart's ‘De borgerlyke tafel, om lang gesond sonder ziekten te leven’

 

With the New Year come new resolutions. What more popular than the wish to eat healthier in the next year, or at least until we feel better about ourselves or swimwear worthy.

So how do you go about eating healthier? First of all you should know what to eat and what not of course. These days it is all about the super foods, raw food, no carbs, no fat (or is fat good now?) and so on. Every year seems to have a new trend in what is healthy and what not. 

Apparently hundreds of years ago people suffered from the same ideas as we do now. In fact it is the other way around: we still have this obsession with health trends, and have had this for a long time. In 1683 a book was published in Amsterdam called ‘De borgerlyke tafel, om lang gesond sonder ziekten te leven’ (The civil table, to live a long healthy life without illness). 

The title is so refreshing: it says exactly what the purpose of the book is! So this book is a kind of cookbook with the latest healthy food tips, just like there are so many today. Actually the title of the book is more elaborate, it goes on as follows: ‘Waar in van yder spijse in ‘t besonder gehandelt werd. Mitsgaders een beknopte manier van de spijsen voor te snijden, en een onderrechting der schikkelijke wijsen, die men aan de tafel moet houden.' (In which every ingredient is treated separately. Furthermore with a concise manual of the cutting of the dishes, and an education in table manners). So the author Steven Blankaart, a physician of profession, had huge goals in mind with this book. The frontispiece (engraved title print) shows that he had a very broad audience in mind as well. At the table young, adult and old all eat the healthy food that Blankaart prescribes in this book. 

[Reference Nr. B1467]

by Hugo Rijpma 

Halloween is here!

Today is ‪Halloween‬, so we treat you with these beautiful books about ‪Ghosts‬! For sale at www.vandersteur.nl, EUR 736.

It's meant for "Allen, welken het bestrijden en afleggen van ontrustende vooroordeelen, met opzicht tot het aanwezen van geesten ernst is.....'.
Here is a list of some of the remarkable ghost stories in this book:
1. Van een spook, hetwelk eene deur, die niet alleen gesloten, maar ook van binnen gegrendeld was, van buiten opende, en eenen openbaaren lochenaar van spooken verbaasd.'
2. Bewys, dat een mensch zig in de daad zomwylen op twee plaatzen teven kan laten zien.
3. Van een brommend spook, hetwelk eens eene andere spookgedaante op het middagtsuur eenen vreeselijken schrik aanjoeg.
4. Van eenige honderd spooken, die in eene kerk, in West Pruisen, hunne zeer wonderlyke en nogthans natuurlijke rol speelden.
5. Van eene wezenlijk overledene matroone, welke, onmiddellyk na hare begraafnis weder levende in haar sterfbed lag.
6. Bewijs dat sommige mensen zich zelven dubbel zien.
8. Van een spook, het welk in eene oude ridderzaal, met veel geraas zyne spokerijen dreef, en veeltijds het licht uitblies.
15. Van een spook, het welk na dertien jaaren tusschen vier muren gemetsels te zijn geweest, nog zingende spookte.

Travel report of Bontekoe to Garrelt Verhoeven

Photo of the celebration

Together with the friends of the Bijzondere Collecties UvA, Antiquariaat Van der Steur donated the very rare travel report of Bontekoe to the leaving head curator Garrelt Verhoeven. Garrelt formerly worked at Antiquariaat van der Steur and is now going to the KU Leuven.

The book is the very rare travel report "het Journaal van Willem Ysbrants Bontekoe van Hoorn", dated 1725. It has beautiful woodcuts among which the portrait of Bontekoe on the titlepage.

ILAB POP UP BOOK FAIR - Haarlem

Antiquariaat De Vries & De Vries, Veilinghuis Bubb Kuyper and Antiquariaat A.G. van der Steur are welcoming you from 15.00 - 18.00 in the waiting room of Haarlem Central Station. From 17.00- 18.00 free valuation of rare books and prints!

ILAB poster