| Record ID | cp010946 |
| Voet reference number | 939 |
| Museum Plantin-Moretus | |
| Author | CHARLES V |
| Title page transcription | |
| Collation | |
| Fingerprint | |
| Number of sheets | |
| Pages | |
| Edition information | |
| Copies | UNamur- R6B.0076 |
| Bibliographical references | |
| Online bibliographical references | |
| Note 1 | Emperor Charles V died in the monastery of Yuste (Spain) on 21 September 1558. His son and heir to the Habspurg territories of Spain, the Netherlands and in Italy, Philip II, was at that moment in the Low Countries. To honour his father he had a magnificent funerary commemoration held at Brussels on 29-30 December 1558. The souvenir of this splendid ceremony has been preserved in a not less splendid illustrated commemorative album, often called - after the French title - La Pompe funèbre (or La magnifique et sumptueuse Pompe funèbre). On this publication: Rooses, M. Musée Plantin-Moretus, page 24, and especially J.-G. de Brouwere, 'La magnifique et somptueuse Pompe funèbre de Charles-Quint, 1558' in Société héraldique luxembourgeoise, Annuaire, 1950, no. 3, pages 47-62 (detailed description and useful bibliographical references). Cf. also J. Jacquot, 'Panorama des fêtes et cérémonies du règne [de Charles V]' in Les Fêtes de la Renaissance, II. Fêtes et Cérémonies au temps de Charles Quint, 1960, pages 467-473; L. De Pauw-de Veen, 'De staten van de "Pompa funebris" van Karel V door Johannes en Lucas a Duetecum naar Hieronymus Cock' in Miscellanea Jozef Duverger, II, 1968, pages 449-463; J. Landwehr, Splendid Ceremonies, State Entries and Royal Funerals in the Low Countries, 1515-1791 A Bibliography, Nieuwkoop - Leiden, 1971, pages 76-77. |
| Note 2 | La Pompe funèbre was Plantin's first spectacular publication but he didn't take the initiative. The man responsible for this commemorative album was the herald of arms Milan (Pierre de Vernois). In 1560, in a request for subsidy addressed to the Governor-General of the Netherlands, Margaret of Parma, Milan affirmed to have invested out of his own pocket more than 2,000 florins Carolus guilders to realize the edition; he was awarded a subsidy by the government of 900 florins Carolus guilders (F. Muller, De Nederlandsche geschiedenis in platen, I, 1863-1870, page 39). The illustration-part was done by the Antwerp engraver and publisher of prints, Hieronymus Cock, who made the drawings and had very likely the plates printed in his studio. Plantin's part in the enterprise was limited to the printing of the typographical texts. He was, however, entrusted by Pierre de Vernois with the sale of the publication, and it is his name who figures on the title-page of the different editions as the official publisher. To a certain point he must have shared this responsibility with Hieronymus Cock (who in the colophon of the Dutch edition is explicitly stated to sell the work: 'Veneunt Antuerpiae Hieronymo Kock…'), but all the evidence points to the fact that Plantin was the foremost sale's agent for La Pompe funèbre. |
| Note 3 | The work was published in various languages; that is to say the typographical parts at the beginning and at the end were printed either in French, Dutch, German, Italian, or Spanish. |
| Note 4 | Hieronymus Cock 'invented' the illustrations, i.e. he made the drawings as stated on plate no. 32 (Hieronymus Cock. Invē 1559). It may be supposed that he was asked by Pierre de Vernois to look after the engravers as well. These were the brothers Joannes and Lucas Duetecum, as stated on plate no. 2 (Ioannes a duetecum Lucas duetecum. Fecit). The French, Dutch, German and Italian editions have 33 illustrations of varying dimensions, numbered: [1], 2-32, [33]. To the Spanish edition has been added a plate with the 'lords of the Councils of Spain and Italy', numbered no. 33, bringing the total number of illustrations in this edition to 34 ([1], 2-33, [34]). One of the drawings of Hieronymus Cock (cp011396: the band of musicians) has been preserved in the British Library, London. |
| Note 5 | At a not specified date (in 1560) Plantin received a large consignment of 'pompes funebres' directly from Pierre de Vernois ('S'ensuict ce que nous avons eu de monsgr. le herault'), to be sent: 12 copies to Paris; the remaining 131 to the Frankfurt Fairs and comprising 34 'livres' in Italian, 37 'livres' in German, 6 'livres' in French, 6 'livres' in Spanish, 6 'livres' in Dutch, 22 in French bound in vellum, 10 'roulleaux' in German and 2 in French, 3 copies ('livres' or 'roulleaux' ?) 'en fla[meng] (Dutch) sans paindre', as also 5 'de toutes langues en roulleau' (it has been supposed that in these 5 copies the typographical parts consisted of texts in the different languages; more likely this entry means simply that the scribe didn't know exactly which languages were represented in this set of 5 'rolls'). These 143 (by inadvertence Plantin's total came only to 141) copies represented a value of 211 florins Carolus guilders 10 stuivers, to which were added 6 florins Carolus guilders 'pour la peincture de deux' and 45 florins Carolus guilders 16 stuivers 'pour les Sermons (?)'; in all 263 florins Carolus guilders 6 stuivers (Arch. 35, folio 177 recto). It is clear from this entry that the copies were sold either 'in roll' or bound in the form of a book. |
| Note 6 | Some other sales are entered in Plantin's registers: Arch. 35, folios 116 verso (20 November 1560; 2 French), 181 recto (25 April 1560; 1, language not specified but probably French), 183 verso (28 April 1560; 3 Italian: to Hieronymus Cock); Arch. 36, folios 6 recto (28 April 1561; 4, languages not specified but probably French: 2 florins Carolus guilders 10 stuivers a piece), 12 recto (30 August 1561; 25 French); 16 verso (18 November 1561: 6 copies 'collés', languages not specified: 1 florins Carolus guilders 9 stuivers a piece; 2 'painctes': 3 florins Carolus guilders a piece); Arch. 37, folio 50 recto (9 November 1565: 2 in German). The earliest sale's date noted is 25 April 1560: it may be supposed that the Pompe funèbre was in fact brought on the market not in 1559, as stated on the title-page, but early in 1560. |
| Note 7 | Plantin's tribulations with the authorities in 1562-63 led to the auction of his belongings on 28 April 1562. Among the items sold on the Friday Market were the copperplates of the Pompe funèbre ('De platen ende figuren vande vuytvaert van [den] keyser'), fetching the reasonable price of 127 florins Carolus guilders 10 stuivers, and a series of 'lots' consisting of varying numbers of Copies: 30 rolls and 10 'ongepapte' (not-glued, i.e. not glued together into one frieze), for 42 florins Carolus guilders 3 stuivers; 40 rolls and 10 'ongepapte', for 40 florins Carolus guilders 11½ stuivers; 40 rolls and 10 'ongepapte', for 40 florins Carolus guilders 13 stuivers; 50 rolls, for 34 florins Carolus guilders 10 stuivers; 37 rolls 'ongepapte' with an amount of written paper or writing-paper (literal translation of 'met een pack scrijfs'; this means probably that in the lot was included a miscellany of the printed explanatory parts), for 15 florins Carolus guilders; a 'heap of rolls with the writings' (= 'mette scriften', meaning again very likely the printed explanatory parts), for 3 florins Carolus guilders; finally a 'heap' of 'ongepapte' 'soo perfect als andere' (meaning 'some complete and some not'), for 4 florins Carolus guilders 10 stuivers In all 227 rolls and an unspecified number of odd pieces, which together fetched the impressive sum of 180 florins Carolus guilders 7½ stuivers (Arch. 27, folios 38 recto, 38 verso, 39 recto). |
| Note 8 | Who bought the copperplates at the auction is not known. Unknown are also their subsequent tribulations, but at the beginning of the 17th century they had come into the possession of Hendrik Hondius, who in 1619 in The Hague published anew the 34 plates to which were added 3 plates of Dances of Death (cf. De Brouwere, and Landwehr, no. 30). |
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