Mémoire historique sur la bibliothèque dite de Bourgogne, présentement bibliothèque publique de Bruxelles.

8vo: [4]-iv-216 pp.

Half black sheep, flat spine with gilt double fillets and a label (corners and joints rubbed).

Original edition by La Serna y Santander (1752-1813), bibliophile, incunabulist and curator of the Brussels Public Library. One of the first works to deal with the history of the future Royal Library of Belgium whose embryo was the sumptuous library of the Dukes of Burgundy (shared between France and Belgium after the French Revolution). Half of the work is devoted to notes on French- and Dutch-speaking Belgian poets before 1500 (pp. 109-151), on the "chambers of rhetoric" including an interesting repertoire by city (pp. 152-200), on Belgian musicians in the 16th century (pp. 201-208), followed by a list of donors from 1771 to 1777. With an autograph dedication to "Mons[ieur] Plaschaer membre du Corps legislatif de la part de l'auteur".
Ref. NBW II:426/431. - Adam, R. - "Le rapport de Charles-Antoine de La Serna Santander", In Monte Artium, 5 (2012), pp. 7-44.
Prov. Jean-Baptiste Joseph Guislain Plasschaert (1769-1821), politician from the Southern Low Countries (autograph dedication).