Series of etchings from an unknown (?) French translation of Famiano Strada's De bello Belgico.

Oblong folio; 33 pl. (minor spotting, last pl. glued on a strong paper with sl. tears, cut short and underlaid).

19th-c. half marbled sheep, marbled paper on covers with a title blind-stamped on a leather label (turn-ins lacking, joints sl. cracked, corners rubbed). Good copy.

Rare and delightful collection of 22 plates engr. by Romeyn de Hooghe (1645-1708) after drawings by Juan Ledesma, captain engineer of Spanish army, and 1 plate unsigned. It contains 3 engr. titles, 7 portraits (Charles V, Philip II, Margaret of Parma, the Duke of Alba, Luis de Requesens, Alexander Farnese and Don John of Austria), 23 battle scenes (i.a. the victory of Lepante, the capture of the cities of Gembloux, Maastricht, Tournai, Valenciennes, Oudenaarde), including 2 superb views of the bridge constructed by Farnese in front of Antwerp and its bombing. Except for the last, all these plates seem to be designed for an unknown (?) French edition of Famiano Strada's De bello Belgico (was it actually published?). The same plates with Spanish captions were used for Strada's Primera [-Tercera] Decada de las guerras de Flandes, translated by Melchor De Novar, S.J. (Cologne, s.n., 1682). The last one depicted a bird's-eye view of the land bewteen Antwerp and Verrebroeck, with a portrait of Ferdinand of Austria (captioned Ferdinando Callinico S.P.Q.A.), cut from a plate ("Laurea Calloana" designed by Rubens) of a copy of Jan Casper Gevaerts's Pompa introitus Ferdinandi Austriaca (Antwerp, Jan van Meurs, 1641).
Ref. VD17 7:692237S (= Spanish transl. of De bello Belgico). - USTC 1000061 (= Pompa introitus). - Not in DBS, BL German Books 1601-1700, Landwehr, Hooghe.
Prov. Michel Wittock (20th-c. bookpl.).