Famous and lavishly illustrated work on the genealogy and victories of Stadholder Prince Maurice of Orange (1567-1625), bound by the famous Amsterdam bookbinder Albertus Magnus. The present French edition was published by Johannes Janssonius in Amsterdam, but includes the title page from an otherwise unrecorded 1620 issue with the imprint of Jan Orlers, which is very rare. Most copies of the present edition have the Janssonius title page.
The author, Jan Jansz. Orlers (1570-1646) was a nephew and pupil of the well-known secretary of the city of Leiden, Jan van Hout. He worked as a printer of books in Leyden between 1596 and ca. 1618. The original Dutch edition of his description of the victories of Stadholder Maurice (until 1609) was published in 1610, with enlarged reprints in 1619 and 1651, under the title Nassauschen Laurencrans; beschrijvinghe ende af-beeldinge van alle de victorien. A Latin translation appeared in 1616; a German translation in 1612, 1617, 1618; an English translation in 1613; the first French translation in 1612, and the second in 1615. The present edition is the third in French, but is rarer than the second edition. The French editions have an added extensive genealogy of the house of Orange with 13 half-page engraved portraits of members of this house, beginning with the Emperor Adolf of Nassau.
Our copy has a very interesting provenance. The work was once in the collection of the famous Dutch book collector Paulus van Uchelen (17th century) who had his own regular binder: the celebrated Amsterdam book binder Albertus Magnus (1642-1689), who also bound the present copy. Furthermore, no less than three bookplates from former owners have been mounted onto the front pastedown: (1) of the Bibliotheca Lindesiana of Alexander William, 25th Earl of Crawford and 8th Earl of Balcarres; (2) the ex libris of C. Carsten (dates unknown); (3) and the bookplate of the Jewish-Dutch physician and book collector Barend (Bob) Luza (1893-1980), who was appointed as one of the general practitioners for the Jewish population in Amsterdam during the Second World War, and whose collection was auctioned in Amsterdam in 1981.
The vellum is somewhat soiled, the front hinge is weakened, but the structural integrity of the binding is still intact. The work is somewhat browned throughout, without the often lacking 7 genealogical folding plates. Otherwise in good condition. Haitsma Mulier/ Van der Lem 362c; Muller, Nederlandse historieplaten 977, note ("many of the editons of this important work are very rare"); Van Someren I, 1162; STCN 850320720 (6 copies, of which only 1 also with the Orlers title-page); cf. Fontaine Verwey, H. de la, Bookbindings by Albert Magnus, III (for the stamps).