Sanderus - Verheerlykt Vlaandre - 1735

IN FOLIO IMPERIALE - LE FORTEZZE FIAMMINGHE : SANDERUS ILLUSTRA GUERRE, PORTI E POTERE
This volume of Verheerlykt Vlaandre by Antonius Sanderus represents one of the most fascinating topographical celebrations of the Flemish Netherlands in the 18th century. More than a simple geographical repertory, the work is a visual and political construction of the Flemish territory: fortified cities, commercial ports, bastions, canals and urban panoramas are transformed into solemn and almost theatrical images through large, exquisitely elegant copperplate engravings. The scholarly tradition inaugurated by the great Flemish antiquary Sanderus is here updated and disseminated in Dutch, at a historical moment when the Flanders were still at the center of military and economic tensions in northern Europe.
The views of Dunkirk, Gravelines, Dixmude or Furnes are not mere urban representations: they become symbols of territorial control, maritime trade and regional identity. The work preserves the magnificence of Nordic baroque topographic culture, suspended between a military atlas, an antiquarian book and a political celebration of the landscape.
MARKET VALUE
The illustrated seventeenth- and eighteenth-century editions of Verheerlykt Vlaandre maintain a stable market among collectors of Flemish topography, historical cartography and northern European vedutism. The volumes with large copperplate plates complete typically command values between 1,200 and 3,500 euros, with fluctuations mainly tied to the completeness of the engravings, the freshness of impressions, and the conservation state. Exemplars with modern but elegant bindings and well-preserved plates, as in the present case, retain strong collectable interest, especially for the quality of the urban views on double pages.
PHYSICAL DESCRIPTION AND CONDITION
Subsequent half-leather binding of calf with smooth spine and marbled paper boards. Title page printed in red and black with an engraved allegorical vignette. Third of three volumes, complete with the 9 large off-text engravings on double pages depicting towns and fortifications of the Flemish: Veurne, map of the Veurne territory, Bergues-Saint-Winoc, Broekburg, two views of Dunkerque, Nieuwpoort, Diksmuide and Gravelines. Small decorative secondary engravings are absent. Some reddening and natural foxing. In old books, with a multisecular history, there may be some imperfections, not always noted in the description. Pp. (4); 4nn; 114; 52; (4).
FULL TITLE AND AUTHOR
Verheerlykt Vlaandre, behelzende eene algemeene en nauwkeurige beschryving van dat Graafschap… Derde Deel.
Leyden, Rotterdam & ’s Gravenhage, Jan Vander Deyster, Jan-Daniel Beman, Corn. en Fred. Boucquet, 1735.
Sanderus, Antonius.
CONTEXT AND SIGNIFICANCE
Antonius Sanderus was one of the most important historians and topographers of the Spanish Netherlands. His monumental work Flandria Illustrata, originally published in the Seicento, constituted one of the great European models of baroque illustrative topography. Verheerlykt Vlaandre of 1735 represents a continuation and divulgative reworking of that tradition, intended for a learned but broader public interested in history, geography and the urban prestige of the Flemish provinces.
Particularly important are the large double-page copperplates, which transform the volume into a true gallery of military urban views. The depicted cities appear as perfect fortified organisms: star-shaped bastions, walls, canals and maritime harbors reflect the strategic centrality of the Flemish in European geopolitics between the 17th and 18th centuries. Dunkerque and Gravelines, for example, were crucial nodes of trade and maritime wars between France, Spain, England and the United Provinces.
From an iconographic point of view, these engravings belong to the great tradition of Nordic vedutismo: elevated perspectives, cartographic precision, attention to defensive systems and strong theatricalization of urban space. The work thus sits at the crossroads of a military atlas, a historical book, and a luxury decorative object intended for aristocratic and bourgeois libraries of northern Europe.
BIOGRAPHY OF THE AUTHOR
Antonius Sanderus (Antoon Sanders, 1586-1664) was a Flemish priest, humanist, historian and topographer. Born in Antwerp, he devoted much of his activity to the historical and monumental documentation of the Flemish lands. His most famous work, Flandria Illustrata, is one of the absolute masterpieces of European baroque illustration topography, famous for the richness of engravings, urban views and antiquarian descriptions.
PRINTING HISTORY AND CIRCULATION
The Flandria Illustrata by Sanderus originally appeared in the seventeenth century in a sumptuous Latin edition illustrated with hundreds of engravings. During the eighteenth century the work underwent new redactions and adaptations in Dutch, among which the Verheerlykt Vlaandre of 1735. These editions were intended for an audience interested not only in antiquarian erudition but also in the political and cultural celebration of historic Flanders. The illustrated volumes circulated mainly in the Southern Netherlands, the United Provinces and European collecting circles specialized in historical geography and urban vedutism.
BIBLIOGRAPHY AND REFERENCES
ICCU / OPAC SBN: census of the seventeenth- and eighteenth-century editions of Verheerlykt Vlaandre.
WorldCat: bibliographic records of the 1735 edition.
Brunet, Manuel du Libraire, V, sections dedicated to Sanderus.
Graesse, Trésor de livres rares et précieux.
Koeman, Atlantes Neerlandici, repertories on Flemish and Dutch cartography.
Van der Heijden, Oude kaarten der Nederlanden.
Berlin Katalog / Ornamentstichsammlung: repertories of Flemish urban views.