| Record ID | cp011924 |
| Voet reference number | 631 |
| Museum Plantin-Moretus | c:lvd:1132843 |
| Author | Hendrik BARREFELT |
| Title page transcription | Title-page: see plate [Exprimebat Iacobus Villanus, Anno Domini M.D. LXXXI.: printed typographically on a small sheet of paper and pasted onto the title-page]. |
| Collation | 4⁰ oblong (250 × 315): folios [1-4], 1-60 (typographical text: printed only on vo-sides) and 1-60 (illustrations printed only on ro-sides). All printed pages: within a typographical frame of fleuron-ornaments, the different columns separated by a frame of fleurons with a single rule on each side |
| Fingerprint | 158101 - # a1 iamais ui$a$e : # a2 matin com - # b1=b2 bien le$ |
| Number of sheets | 66 |
| Pages | [1 recto]: Title [1 verso]: Blank [2 recto]: Note on the book (on three columns, each with a heading: Interpretations ou declarations d'aucuns images, et figures des peculieres histoires de la Bible [roman type]; Interpretationes sive explicationes imaginum aliquot historiae Biblicae [italic type]; Beduydinghe oft verclaeringhe van sommighe figuren der Bybelscher Historien [gothic type]; underneath, on one column: quotation from 1 Corinth. XV, 47; printed on a small sheet of paper and pasted underneath the lower part of the fleuron-frame: In lucem editæ à Renato Christiano, Anno Domini M.D.LXXX.) [2 verso] (on two columns) - [3 recto] (first of the two columns): Ad lectorem (italic type, part in roman type) [3 recto] (second of the two columns) - [3 verso] (on two columns): Au lecteur (roman type) [4 recto]: Tot den Leser (on two columns; gothic type) [4 verso]: Quotation from 2 Petri 1.19 (on three columns; in French, Latin, Dutch; above: Latin quotation from 'Hebraeorum X. 1') 60 engravings numbered 1-60 (printed only on the recto-side of the sheets), numbered 1-60, giving a description and comment on the illustration, a typographically printed text (printed only on the verso-sides of the sheets), numbered 1-60, giving a description and comment on the illustration (on three columns: texts in French [roman type], Latin [italic type], Dutch [gothic type]; above each page, within a fleuron-frame, a Latin quotation from the Bible, in roman type and part in italic type) |
| Edition information | |
| Illustrations | Engravings: 1) Title-page and 60 illustrations, 200 × 265, representing scenes from the Old Testament, designed and etched by Pieter van der Borcht (signature 'PE. V. Borcht' on most of the illustrations: 1-31, 46-47, 49-60; the date '1582' on illustrations 3, 9, 10, 11, 13, 17, 20, 23, 27, 28, 29; the date '1584' on illustrations 8 and 30), numbered 1-60 (numerals placed on different places, probably scratched in at a later date; errors: twice 24, 43 for 34; see also immediately further) 2) Some of the plates have been reworked: A) Of the four copies in Museum Plantin-Moretus, the illustrations in A 1169 seem to constitute the original version: 1⁰) numbered correctly from 1 till 49 (with, however, the number 24 twice repeated, that is 24 for 24 and 24 for 25, and 43 for 34) 2º) from no. 50 numeration erratical: 51 (for 50), 52 (for 51), (52 not numbered), 54 (for 53), 55 (for 54), (55 not numbered), 57 (for 56), 58 (for 57), 59 (for 58), 06 (for 59), 60 (for 60) 3⁰) from plate 33 on: reference to the Biblical text illustrated (e.g. 'Genesis 26') B) Some of the plates of R 25.11 and R 209 have been reworked: 1⁰) The numeration from 50 onwards has been corrected and the missing numbers on plates 52 and 55 added 2⁰) Inscriptions referring to the Biblical texts have been added on plates 17, 18, 20, 22-28 3⁰) From no. 33 the plates in the original version (version A) have an inscription; in R 25.11 and R 209 this inscription has been completed: in nos. 36, 37, 41, 43, 47, 49, 50, 51, 54, 55, 56, 57, 58, 59 (e.g. 'Genesis 26' of the original version [version A] becomes 'Genesis 26.28') C) Copy R 25.12 has normally the plates of version A, but a number of them are not found in either A or B; in fact, they belong to the reworked plates as shown in B, which, for some reason or another, have not been reproduced in R 25.11 and R 209: 1⁰) Inscriptions referring to the Biblical texts have been added to nos. 19, 29, 30, 31 2⁰) 'Completed' inscriptions in nos. 32, 33, 43 (for 34), 35, 38, 39, 40, 42, 44, 45, 46, 48, 52, 53, 60. This means that, as far as can be reconstructed, following plates must have been reworked by adding inscriptions or completing them: nos. 17-20, 22-33, 43 (for 34), 35-60 3) Museum Plantin-Moretus copy A 1169 contains, following the Old Testament, another series of 39 illustrations (however, no. 18 missing) of the same dimensions and in the same style, showing scenes from the New Testament, but without a corresponding page giving a typographically printed explanation. The illustrations are numbered 1-39, but it seems that originally the series was intended to be presented as the continuation of the Old Testament series, as nos. 3 and 4 are in fact numbered 63 and 64 (the six has been scratched out but not completely erased). The whole series bears the signature of Pieter van der Borcht, whilst no. 39 shows the date '1585'. It is not quite sure if this series was actually published; more likely Plantin had the plates made but ultimately withheld the publication (cf. Notes) |
| Copies | Museum Plantin-Moretus - A 1169 - R 25.11 - R 25.12 - Municipal Print Room: R 209British Library London - 1897 a 20 |
| Digital copies | Museum Plantin-Moretus: R 25.11 |
| Bibliographical references | Rooses, M. Musée Plantin-Moretus, pages 54 and 178 A.J.J. Delen, Histoire de la gravure dans les anciens Pays-Bas . . 2me partie, Le XVIe siècle Les graveurs-illustrateurs, 1934, pages 89-90 (with reproduction of illustration no. 10: plate XXIII, 1) Voet, L. The Golden Compasses, I, page 101 (with reproduction of title-page and page [2 recto]: plate 22) Bib. catholica Neerlandica impressa, no. 3718 (under 1580) |
| Online bibliographical references | STCV c:stcv:12927936STCN 374290660 |
| Note 1 | Series of 60 illustrations showing scenes from the Old Testament, each with an explanation in French, Latin, and Dutch. |
| Note 2 | On the title-page has been pasted a note 'Exprimebat Iacobus Villanus, Anno Domini M.D. LXXX.' and on page [2r] 'In lucem editae à Renato Christiano, Anno Domini M.D.LXXX.'. They make believe that the text was written by Renatus Christianus in 1580, and published by Jacobus Villanus in 1581. In fact, the text was written (in Dutch) by Barrefelt and the edition clandestinely issued by Plantin. |
| Note 3 | The dates of publication 158-1581 are false as well: Plantin antedated the publication, very likely to avoid difficulties with the authorities (this time not so much the Catholic as the Calvinist). That the dates 1580-1581 are false can easily be proved by the fact that a rather large number of plates show the date of 1582, and two even the date of 1584. Moreover, in the (few) letters from Barrefelt or regarding the 'prophet', written in 1580-1584, nothing is said about the 'Imagines et figurae Bibliorum'. It may be surmised that Plantin had the larger number of plates made in 1582, that the remaining ones were executed in 1584, and that the edition was shortly afterwards published. Very likely still in 1584, as in M 321 is noted at the date of 1584: 'Bybelsche figuren in coper gebeten door P.V. Borcht [Biblical figures etched in copper by P. van der Borcht] f[euilles] -, [price:] flor. 2'. Also listed, but without the year of publication noted, in M 296, folio 2 verso (Bybelsche figuren copere stucken, [price:] flor. 2), and M 164, folio 5 recto. The edition was probably executed at Leiden (where in any way at Plantin's death the plates were preserved). |
| Note 4 | The original text has been written by Barrefelt in Dutch. Who did the Latin translation cannot be ascertained, but very likely Plantin made the French translation. This can be deduced from a letter of Barrefelt to J. Moretus, 17 February 1591, in which the 'prophet' tells to have enclosed in his last letter to Moretus a note for Franciscus Raphelengius about 'the interpretation of the figures' and the 'plates' themselves; but as he did not hear that Moretus sent the note, he, consequently, supposes that the 'interpretations' have been lost; a pity as they had been done in French by Plantin (Arch. 76, folio 449; cf. on the letter and its interpretation: Rooses, M. Musée Plantin-Moretus, page 54). Barrefelt is most likely referring to the eventual edition (by F. Raphelengius) of the 'Biblical Figures of the New Testament', not yet published, but of which the accompanying texts had already been translated into French by Plantin (and the copperplates executed in 1585). If Plantin did this for the New Testament, it may safely be surmised that he has done the same job for the Old Testament. |
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