Van Haecht/Barlandus - Hertoghen van Brabant - 1612

THE CHAIN OF SOVEREIGNS: DIASTATIC ICONOGRAPHY AND ARISTOCRATIC MEMORY OF THE LOW COUNTRIES
This 1612 edition of the Chroniicke vande hertoghen van Brabant represents one of the most complete editorial devices for constructing aristocratic identity in the Southern Netherlands under the Habsburg era. It is not merely a chronicle, but a true instrument of power representation, in which the ducal genealogy is translated into a coherent visual and narrative sequence, capable of legitimizing the present through the monumentalization of the past. The nobility of the Dukes of Brabant is not only told here, but displayed and made tangible through a systematic gallery of portraits, functioning as an iconographic archive of sovereignty. The Dutch version by Laurens van Haecht, derived from Barlandus’s Latin matrix, broadens the audience and strengthens the work’s identitarian character, placing it in a cultural context where vernacular language, historical memory, and aristocratic consciousness intertwine. The Plantin-Moretus edition of 1612 consolidates this project, turning the volume into a display object destined for an audience aware of the symbolic value of lineage and dynastic continuity.
MARKET VALUE
For a complete copy of the 1612 imprint, the observable market places the volume, in ordinary but intact condition with the plates, in an indicative range between 800 and 1,500 euros.

PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Contemporary binding with raised bands, missing pieces and signs of wear. Ex libris with the arms of the Van Havre family.
Legend engraved under the heraldic shield: “E. Van Havre,” which likely indicates an Émile / Eugène / Engelbert. From a heraldic point of view, this is a baronial shield of the Southern Netherlands (Brabantine/Flemish area), with rampant lions as supporters, the noble crown above the shield, and a complex composition with partitions and lineage symbols.
Text in Gothic type arranged in two columns and an illustration apparatus consisting of a vignette at the title and 42 full-page copper-engraved portraits of the dukes of Brabant, engraved with strong plastic impact and intended for a sequential, almost museum-like reading. General browning, with signs of use. In old books with a centuries-long history, some imperfections may be present, not always noted in the description. Pages (2); 8nn; 232; 4nn; (2). This insert contains AI Visualizations. Refer to the original photographs to verify the object’s actual conditions. The images are an integral part of the description.

FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Chroniicke vande hertoghen van Brabant.
Antwerpen, Plantiinschen Winckel, 1612.
Laurens van Haecht Goidtsenhoven, Adrianus Barlandus.

CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
The work sits at the heart of the aristocratic culture of the Southern Netherlands, where dynastic memory is not mere erudition but a political instrument. The nobility of the dukes of Brabant is constructed as an uninterrupted line, a genealogical chain spanning the centuries and proposed as the foundation of territorial legitimacy. In this sense, the Chroniicke acts as a retrospective speculum principis: it does not educate the sovereign, but symbolically grounds him, inscribing him in a visual and historical continuity.

The sequence of the 42 portraits is not decorative but structural: each duke is isolated, monumentalized, and placed within a cumulative narration that transforms succession into a form of political eternity. Attribution to the artistic circuit of Otto van Veen and Jan II Collaert places the project in a cultivated, humanistically oriented environment, where image is a tool of knowledge and at the same time propaganda. The note “nae ’t leven” suggests a claim of authenticity that reinforces the documentary value of the effigies, even though they are idealized reconstructions.

From an aristocratic point of view, the book performs an essential function: it makes visible the nobility as embodied continuity. It is not only blood that is transmitted, but also the face, the posture, the authority. The reader traverses a true gallery of power, where each image confirms and reinforces the preceding one, constructing a coherent and persuasive visual memory. In this sense, the Chroniicke anticipates modern forms of dynastic representation and can be read as an iconographic atlas of territorial sovereignty.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Laurens van Haecht Goidtsenhoven was born in Mechelen in 1527 and probably died in Antwerp in 1603. A figure tied to the cultivated, urban circles of the Southern Netherlands, he was an author and translator engaged in spreading historical and antiquarian texts in the vernacular. His activity takes place at a crucial moment of cultural transition, in which humanistic knowledge is progressively made accessible to a broader public. The Chroniicke represents his most significant contribution, capable of transforming a Latin tradition into a shared identity instrument.

BIOGRAPHY OF THE ORIGINAL AUTHOR
Adrianus Barlandus, born in Baarland in 1486 and died in Leuven in 1538, was one of the leading humanists of the Low Countries. Professor at the Collegium Trilingue and in dialogue with Erasmus, he devoted much of his work to the history of the Dutch provinces. His historical work, marked by humanistic rigor and attention to sources, forms the basis on which Van Haecht’s Dutch version rests, broadening its diffusion and transforming its function.

PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The text derives from Barlandus’s Ducum Brabantiae Chronica and underwent an initial vernacular arrangement with the 1606 edition printed in Antwerp by Jan Baptista Vrients. The 1612 edition, sold at the Plantiinschen Winckel by the Moretus, is generally considered the second edition or a new commercial issue, with substantially identical content but a renewed editorial presentation. This operation testifies to the work’s success and its integration into the Plantin circle, which guarantees diffusion and prestige. The possible acquisition of Vrients’ remaining copies by the Moretus suggests material continuity as well as editorial. The long circulation of the engravings, reused in later contexts, confirms the autonomous value of the iconographic cycle and its fortune over time.

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
DBNL, Chroniicke vande Hertoghen van Brabant, work entry, identification of 1612 as the second edition of the Dutch version
DBNL, Repertorium van geschiedschrijvers in Nederland 1500-1800, entry Haecht goidtsenhoven, Laurens van
Google Books, Ghent University copy, Plantin-Moretus typographic imprint and descriptive illustration
Van Someren, Beschrijvende catalogus van gegraveerde portretten van Nederlanders, notice of the new edition and the iconographic series
Funck, Die deutschen Bücherillustrationen der Gotik und Renaissance, no. 327
Graesse, Trésor de livres rares et précieux, vol. III, p. 195
Lipperheide, Sammlung für Kostümwissenschaft, Gb 13
Lovaniensia, Scholars, Adrianus Barlandus (1486-1538), biographical profile
Auction catalogs Invaluable and Arenberg Auctions, material descriptions and sale results for the 1612 edition
De Slegte, antiquarian note on the circulation of Vrients copies and Plantin-Moretus intervention