| Record ID | cp012744 |
| Voet reference number | 2054 |
| Museum Plantin-Moretus | |
| Author | Stephanus Winandus PIGHIUS |
| Title page transcription | HERCVLES ‖ PRODICIVS, ‖ SEV ‖ PRINCIPIS IVVENTVTIS ‖ VITA ET PEREGRINATIO: ‖ Per ‖ STEPHANVM VINANDVM ‖ PIGHIVM CAMPENSEM. ‖ Historia Principis adolescentis institutrix; & anti- ‖ quitatum, rerum'que scitu dignarum varietate ‖ non minus vtilis quàm iucunda. ‖ Accedit rerum, & vocum memorabilium ‖ index accuratissimus. ‖ ⊕ 34 ‖ ANTVERPIÆ, ‖ Ex Officina Christophori Plantini, ‖ Architypographi Regij. ‖ M.D.LXXXVII. |
| Collation | 8⁰ [136]: A-Z⁸, a-t⁸, v⁴; pages 1-628, [629-680] (Errors: 191-206 for 161-176, 294 for 234, 23 for 239, 339 for 393) |
| Fingerprint | 158708 - # 1b1 A2 $qui : #1b2 Z5 $est$l - # 2b1 a1 a o : # 2b2 v3 ræ$ |
| Number of sheets | 42.50 |
| Pages | [1]: Title [2]: illustration 3-25: Stephani Vinandi Pighii Campensis, ad illustriss. Principem D. Ioannem Guilhelmum Clivium Guilhelmi filium…praefatio (Xanten, 15 May 1584; parts in italic type, greek type and Hebrew, marginals in roman type and greek type) 26-29: In illustrissimi principis iuventutis Caruli Friderici ducis Cliviae…coenotaphium à corona Pighio clementissimo domino suo positum epigramma Gerardi Platii (italic type) 30-32: In illustrissimi…Caruli Friderici…coenotaphium à corona Pighio…epigramma (word in greek type) 33-562: Text (italic type, parts and marginals in roman type and greek type) 562-569: Clarissimo…domino Henrico Wesio I.C. praestantissimo, atque illustrissimi principis Wilhelmi Cliviensium, etc. ducis cancellario Stephanus Vinandus Pighius S.P.D. (Xanten, 13 August 1584; italic type, parts and marginals in roman type) 570-590: Pompae equestris descriptio…(given at Xanten by prince Charles, 27 September 1572; italic type, parts and marginals in roman type) 591-610: Testimonia de morbo et morte Caruli principis…(italic type, marginals in roman type) 611-620: Letters between pope Gregorius XIII and Guilielmus, Duke of Cleves, regarding the death of prince Charles (italic type) 620-628: Elegiae in obitum Caroli by Ioannes Baptista Fonteius and others (parts in italic type, words in greek type) [629-670]: Index (on two columns; words in greek type) [671-674]: Auctorum nomina quos in hoc opere sequuti sumus (on two columns; italic type) [675]: Approbationes (s. Gerardus Busaeus; signed by Waltherus vander Steeghen, Antwerp) [676-678]: Privilege (Brussels, 6 October 1586, s. S. de Grimaldi; Vienna, 21 February 1565, s. Haller; Fontainebleau, 5 August 1582, s. De Neufville) [679-680]: Blank |
| Edition information | |
| Illustrations | A) Two engravings: 1) On page [2]: Hercules Prodicius (= Roman herme), 130 × 55 2) As an hors-texte, 144 × 250, but in principle to be bound between pages 30-31, where the explanations regarding the illustration are given: allegorical cenotaph (which has not been executed) of Charles of Cleves, with the inscriptions: above: Coenotaphium Caruli principis iuventutis; underneath: HEV TRISTE FATVM ‖ PRINCIPIA GAVDIILVCIVS OCCVPAT. ‖ V̄. ID. FEBR. ANN. ∞. DLXXV.; and with in the illustration the numbers 1-13, referring to the explanations. The engravings were executed by Pieter van der Borcht, who received, on 12 October 1586, 6 florins Carolus guilders 'pour la fig. [= les figures ?] au livre de Pighius' (Arch. 14, folio 124); B) One woodcut, 58 × 64, on page 553: a crude representation of a meteorological phenomenon in the sky in Italy, 29 January 1575 |
| Copies | Museum Plantin-Moretus - A 1246Heritage Library Hendrik Conscience AntwerpRuusbroec Institute LibraryKBR Royal Library of BelgiumCambridgeRoyal Library of San Lorenzo de El EscorialGhent University LibraryBritish Library LondonPostel AbbeyVatican Apostolic LibraryUL Liège- R3476AKU Leuven- Maurits Sabbe Library, P292.1 PIGH 1587UNamur- R6A.0302 |
| Bibliographical references | Ruelens-de Backer, page 300 (1587, no. 26)Cockx-Indestege, E. Belgica typographica 4003 |
| Online bibliographical references | STCV c:stcv:7079606 |
| Note 1 | Pighius accompanied Charles of Cleves, eldest son of the reigning Duke of Cleves, Wilhelm, on a long trip throughout Europe. The party went in mid-October 1571 from Düsseldorf to Austria, where they remained at Vienna for nearly two years. In September 1573 they finally left for Italy, where the prince travelled from city to city, until he suddenly died in Rome on 9 February 1575. In his Hercules prodicius, Pighius combines an eulogy of the late prince, presented as a paragon of all virtues, with a description of his travels, the honours bestowed upon him, the feasts at which he took part, etc., and gives some additional documents regarding the death of prince Charles and intended to quell rumours that the prince had been poisoned at Rome at the instigation of the pope (cf. Jongkees, 'S. W. Pighius', pages 176-177; H. de Vocht, Collegium Trilingue, IV, pages 123 and 205-206). |
| Note 2 | In the description of the travels through Italy, the country and its cities and monuments were outlined in great detail. This makes the most interesting part of the Hercules prodicius. When in 1600, at the occasion of the Holy Year, Franciscus Schottus compiled his Itinerarii Italiae rerumque Rom. libri tres, the first real Baedeker of Italy (often reprinted and imitated), he followed closely Pighius's work, only leaving out the personal experiences of the travellers (cf. Jongkees, op. cit., pages 177-178). |
| Note 3 | Shortly after his return in Cleves, Pighius submitted to the duke, the father of prince Charles, his project to write this commemoration of the late prince. It was accepted and Pighius started immediately. In 1580 he could already mail a copy of his manuscript to a friend in Rome, Fred. Bruttius (Ranaldi), secretary to Cardinal Sadoletus, asking to read it with a critical eye, and to submit it also to the Cardinal, to Fulvius Ursinus, and to J.N. Fonteius. Part of this copy is still in the Vatican Library (cf. Jongkees, op. cit., page 175). |
| Note 4 | What happened next is not very clear, but in any case the foreword was only written on 15 May 1584 and it lasted another two years before Plantin got the finished manuscript: in a letter of 27 July 1586 the typographer tells Pighius that he received the manuscript a month or so ago, and had submitted the text to Frederic Perrenot, Lord of Champagney, governor at that time of Antwerp. He let it also be understood that he had difficulties in finding the necessary capital to publish the work (Corr., VIII-IX, no. 1120; cf. also Plantin's letter to Perrenot, 4 October 1586: Ibidem, no. 1150; to Pighius, 9 February; Ibidem, no. 1212). |
| Note 5 | The printing started in the beginning of 1587. On 6 April 1587 Plantin mailed to the author an unspecified number of printed sheets through the intermediary of canon Adrianus Zoebius (Ibidem, no. 1240). On 10 August 1587 he sent two bound complete copies, explaining at the same time that he inserted the engraving showing the prince's cenotaph not at the end, but at the beginning, as the original intention had been (Ibidem, no. 1289: 'Caenotaphium Caruli te voluisse ad finem rejectum intelligere non potui nam praeterquam quod nihil tale scripseris erat in tuo exemplari conjunctum ipsi principio libri speroque jam tibi probatum esse nos typum sine tabellam sculpi curasse additamque esse ipsi descriptioni'). Some 50 copies were forwarded to the author, but, probably owing to the difficulties caused by the war, they were only sent to Pighius in the beginning of 1588 (cf. the letters of J. Moretus to Pighius of 28 March and 25 May 1588: Ibidem, nos. 1361 and 1377). |
| Note 6 | Listed in M 296, folio 8v (Hercules Prodicius Pighii, in 8⁰, [15]87, f[euilles] 43, [price:] stuivers 15), and M 321 (…'et 2 figures de cuivre'). |
| Further reading |
in The Plantin Press Online
(1,251 words)
| All Time | Past Year | Past 30 Days | |
|---|---|---|---|
| Abstract Views | 0 | 0 | 0 |
| Full Text Views | 16 | 16 | 2 |
| PDF Views & Downloads | 0 | 0 | 0 |
in The Plantin Press Online
(1,251 words)