't Bosch der Eremyten ende Eremytinnen van Aegypten ende Palestinen (...) [The Forest of Hermits of Egypt and Palestine...
Hantvverpen (Antwerp): Hieronymus Verdussen, 1619. Bloemart, Abraham. First Edition in book form. 4to, 8 7/8 x 6 3/4 inches (251 x 171 mm). ix pp, 51 sheets on cream laid paper, text in Dutch (gothic letters). 50 numbered full page copperplate engravings of Christian hermit saints (25 male, 25 female), printed recto with text pages on verso. Full-page frontispiece for the work and with an additional full-page frontispiece for each of the two sections. Full contemporary vellum, untitled, with some handling discoloration but the vellum remains supple and the binding is tight. Pages clean and bright with a couple of foxing spots and a small brown stain on the 2nd frontis titled "Sacra Eremus ascetarum"; toned page edges. Previous owner's name and date in ink on front flyleaf and small pencil and ink notations inside back cover; bookplate of Buijnsters Smets pasted inside front cover.
[De Backer/ Sommervogel VII, 194-5; Hollstein 355-403; Roethlisberger 163, ill. 262–317]
Full title: 't Bosch der Eremyten ende eremilinnen, van Aegypten ende Palestinen, met figuren van Abraham Blommaert, door Ghristophorus a Sichem. Met kort verhael van een yders leven, getrocken uyt het Vadersboeck, door H. Jan van Gorcum, Priesler, ende H. R. Societatus (sic) Jesu. (The Forest of the Hermits of Egypt and Palestine with illustrations by Abraham Blommaert, engraved by Ghristophorus a Sichem. With brief stories of their lives taken from the book of the Fathers by H. Jan van Gorcum, priest of the Society of Jesus.
A fine series of engravings of the early Christian male and female hermits living in the Egyptian and Palestinian desert engraved in copper by Boetius A Balswert on drawings by Abraham Bloemart (1566 – 1651, the Dutch painter and engraver know mostly for his historical subjects and for being a central figure and teacher among the Utrecht Caravaggisti.
Provenance: the library of the book- and art-historians Piet Buijnsters and Leontine Smets.
Condition: Near Fine.
Item number: 1516
Price: $8,000.00
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