First and only edition of a diverse collection of anecdotes, mostly regarding the weather, from biblical times up until the year 1700. The author lists war, famines, floods, earthquakes, storms, comets & eclipses, plagues (of diseases, rats, mice, locusts and caterpillars) as well as the prices of wine, corn and other foods. Particularly gruesome are the prices of food in besieged Derry which included dogs meat "fattened with the meat of dead Irishmen", cat, rat, candlewax, salted skins and even a "handful of wall" (p. 317). The book mostly lists events in Europe, but the colonies in Asia and the Americas are also covered, as are Turkey and the Middle East.
Gerrit van Spaan (1651-1711) was a baker, antiquary and poet known for various comic novels as well as a history of Rotterdam.
Binding worn and partially repaired with paste paper, but internally in very good condition, with only some browning to the final pages. Scheepers II, 777; STCN (4 copies); cf. Nijhoff & V. Hattum 295-297.