Historia Batavica, cum appendice de vetustissima nobilitate, regibus, ac gestis Germanorum.

4to: 26-[1] ff.

Mod. half vellum. Good copy.

First edition, first issue (with “in calce addita” in title) of an early humanist history of Holland in Roman and early medieval times, written by the reformed scholar G. Geldenhouwer (Nijmegen 1482 - Marburg 1542). He was active in Leuven, partly as a corrector for Dirk Martens (notably for the 1st edition of Thomas More's Utopia). There he became a friend of Fr. Cranevelt and of Erasmus. Later he tried to connect Erasmus with the Reformation, but failed to do so. In 1517 the Emperor Maximilian named Geldenhouwer “poeta laureatus” after Noviomagus had presented him a poem during a visit to Tienen. The work includes long extracts from Tacitus as well as a Latin trsl. of part of Bk II of Jean Lemaire des Belges. Woodcut ill. on title.
ref. VD-16 G-1013. - Ritter 991 = Benzing (Egenolf) 21. - Flood (Poets Laureate) G-15. - STC German (BL) 336. - Not in Adams.