Paesi Bassi / Francia - Ardres; Pieter van Overbeke - Puissante assiette de la Ville d'Ardres par son Alteße Ser.me le Cardinal Albert - 1581-1600

Exceptional and extremely rare contemporary 1596 copperplate engraving depicting the celebrated Siege of Ardres, printed in Antwerp by Pieter van Overbeke for the work "La Bellone Belgique" and preserved with crisp original inkwork.

This extraordinary and exceptionally well-documented military map is an iconographic record of the utmost importance for the geopolitical history of Renaissance Europe. The plate captures in real time the great siege and subsequent capitulation of the fortress of Ardres, which took place in May 1596, when the formidable Spanish Catholic armies led by the Governor-General, Archduke Cardinal Albert of Austria, laid siege to and conquered this strategic stronghold. This example is of exceptional significance to collectors thanks to the clearly legible signature P. van Ouerbeke esc in the lower right corner, attributing the print directly to Pieter van Overbeke’s celebrated publishing workshop in Antwerp, where it was printed in the same year as the events for inclusion in the extremely rare chronicle La Bellone Belgique.
The composition unfolds in an exceptionally detailed bird’s-eye perspective, combining the precision of an engineering plan with the vividness of a war chronicle. At the center of the plate stands the fortified plan of Ardres, enclosed by its bastioned walls, while the spectacular and meticulously arranged deployment of Spanish regiments and allied forces spreads out all around it. Each sector is identified by elegant banners and contemporary inscriptions marking the camps of the Spanish cavalry, the positions of individual commanders such as the Count of Bucquoy, Don Antonio de Zuñiga, and M. de Rone, and the course of the historic approaches toward Calais and Boulogne. The lower margin of the sheet is elegantly completed by a pair of official bilingual inscriptions arranged in two columns: the text in Old Dutch is printed on the left, with its Old French version on the right, certifying that the city was taken by capitulation on May 23, 1596.
This example is in excellent overall condition. Printed on sturdy contemporary sixteenth-century paper with a watermark, it retains exceptionally clean, crisp original black-and-white inking, with rich blacks, ideal for appreciating the minute details of the individual military tents, soldiers’ pikes, and horses in motion. The sheet retains its sound original margins on all four sides, has the natural central fold from its placement in the volume, and is completely blank on the reverse. It is a cartographic item of the utmost importance and is of definite museum interest, ideal for specialists in the history of fortifications and sixteenth-century European warfare.

Dimensions: 21 x 27 cm
Will be shipped by courier