Vondel - Palamedes + Hekeldigten - 1707

Extraordinarily richly equipped edition of Vondel's famous political tragedy in a magnificent contemporary gold-leather binding with numerous additional bound copper engravings, portraits, and folding plates.

“Palamedes Of Vermoorde Onnozelheit. Treurspel, met aantekeningen uit's Digters mondt opgeschreven. Den tweeden druk merkelyk vermeerdert.” With engraved title, 2 copper plates (of which 1 folding) as well as 6 additional bound copper plates. 8 pages + 82 pages

Bound: “Hekeldigten, met aantekeningen uit's digters mondt opgeschreven. Nooit voor dezen gedrukt.” With 5 copper plates and 18 additional bound, partly folded plates. 154 + 14 pages.

Publisher: Amersfoort, Pieter Brakman, 1707. Beautiful calf leather binding of the period with rich gold tooling, marbled paper endpapers, 21 x 17 cm.
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Joost van den Vondel (1587–1679) is regarded as the most important dramatist of Dutch Baroque literature and is often described as the literary counterpart to Shakespeare within Dutch cultural history. His tragedy Palamedes, first published in 1625, counts among the most influential political plays of the Golden Age. Behind the ancient plot about the unjustly condemned hero Palamedes lies a sharp allegory on the execution of statesman Johan van Oldenbarnevelt in 1619. The work became a powerful plea against judicial arbitrariness and political abuse of power and remains one of the classic works of Dutch literature to this day.

Of particular charm is the exceptionally rich Ausstattung (production/finishing) of this copy. In addition to the original copper engravings, the volume contains numerous additional bound portraits of notable figures such as Erasmus of Rotterdam, Hugo Grotius, Jacob Cats, Johan van Oldenbarnevelt, or Willem Teellinck, as well as historical views and large-format folding plates depicting the execution of Oldenbarnevelt and other contemporaneous events. This gives the work the almost character of an illustrated historical memory book of the Dutch struggle for freedom and the political history of the Republic.

Also bound are Vondel's first printed Hekeldigten, in which the poet comments with linguistic sharpness on social, religious, and political misprisions of his time. The combination of the famous tragedy with the satirical poems and the extraordinary expansion by numerous additional copper engravings makes this copy a particularly attractive collector's item of Dutch literary and cultural history.

Of particular interest is the documented provenance of this copy. It comes from the scholarly and art-historical library of the Dordrecht councilman Jan Schouten, as evidenced by both the original catalog card from his estate sale and the library stamp on the title page. Later the volume was in the library of the well-known German bibliophile Lothar Schmid, whose ex libris is also preserved.
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Paper is variably browned and occasionally lightly stained. The binding is slightly rubbed and bumped; the front hinge professionally repaired. Overall, a decorative and textually exceptionally richly equipped copy.