Featured My most international books; Emperor Leopold I (1716)

I do not post much here on this forum, but this is a series of books that I gladly want to share . I bought volume II and III first at an auction and later I have found the matching volume I at an antique book dealer!

It is a book called "Admirables efectos de la providencia sucedidos en la vida, e imperio de Leopoldo primero" and is written in Spanish attributed to Don Luis de Borje and Centellas by an Italian writer called Contstanino Roncaglia, printed in folio by 2 brothers (Henricus and Cornelius Verdussen) in Antwerp (now Belgium). It is about the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I (1640-1705), who reigned over Austria and Hungary and a lot of other regions in Europe. He is well known for his battle against the Ottomans around Vienna. The books describe the period of 1657-1687. The books contain many copper engravings of important people and important events in that period by Gasper Bouttats.

I bought the last two volumes from a dealer in France. Later I saw a matching volume at a dealer in the United States, so now the complete series is here in the Netherlands . I haven't seen enough evidence to determine if these volumes once really belonged together, or this was the standard way of binding of these books. In early modern times most books were bought without a binding and bound at a separate book binder.

I am really happy to bring these loose volumes together again!



Frontispiece of volume I. Leopold had a typical Habsburg chin/jaw




King Gustav of Sweden


Sultan Suleiman of the Ottoman Empire


Landscapes with massive battles






Festivities in Vienna

 

How wonderful to reunite these volumes. How long did it take you to track Volume one down?

 

Only a few weeks. After that a few weeks of doubting . I bought it, because maybe I never have the chance anymore to make the set complete…

 

Wow. That was serendipitous that a volume 1 of such an old and beautifully illustrated book was floating around out there. The best part is you found it across the pond and brought them back together from where it wandered from for perhaps centuries. The fact that this is the original book of this set or at least from that time period is astonishing. No wonder you are proud.

 

GRRRRREAT!!! Collection!!!!!

 

Wow, just WOW!

 

Love to see stuff like this !

 

How flaming COOL are those book spines !!

 

I would have expected an archaic Spanish but it's not. Fully readable.

Debora

 

I really like to research my old paper, so I started looking into this book. A question that really puzzles me is: "Why is a book, written in Spanish about a ruler in Central Europe is printed in Antwerp?" That does not really sound logical to me. One hint I found in the book is the attribution of the book to Don Luis de Borja (Borgia) y Centellas". Together with a copper engraving of his family crest, a long list of his titles are printed and there is still an et cetera at the end
This is the Spanish part of the Borgia family. The BBC TV-series "The Borgias" is about the part in Italy in the 16th century.

The last title on the list is (what I understand of the Spanish) "Governador de Districto Amberes", what I read as "Governor of the Antwerp District". In the early 18th century current Belgium was called the Spanish Netherlands. So this book was likely printed for their own governor (that happen to be a Spanish nobleman). Maybe Don Luis ordered the book.

It is particular difficult to find information about Antwerp in this period. After the closing of the river Scheldt (Schelde in Dutch) in the late 16th century (1585) and thereby closing it's important harbor, the economy collapsed and ended Antwerp's golden age. This economic turmoil would last until 1792, when the Scheldt was reopened, just after the French Revolution (1789). This results in a kind of dark ages of information.




Coat of Arms of the Borgia family, with a red bull.

 

I found out that Borja was governor of the citadel of Antwerp

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antwerp_Citadel

 

Well done on a BEAUTIFUL set!!!

 

Great evidence that the books belonged to the same set:
Book 1


Book 2

Book 3

This suggests that in 1882 the 3 volumes were part of the same set. I find is difficult to read this ownermark (ex libris ). De Ant.(?) Miguel dos (?) la(?) Basto(?). Can anyone else read this better?

The number 100 is probably the number in the library.

The pencil mark with the number of prints (estampes in French) has probably been added after the set has been split.

 

I asked Twitter as well, and maybe it is António Miguel da Costa Basto.

 

If that is correct I can add Portugal as a new related country as well

 

I don't find it illogical that the book was printed in Antwerp. It was a Spanish possession and the publisher specialized in Spanish-language books. Perhaps Don What's-His-Name, as the secular authority, gave permission for its publication. (That's what the language "Con licencia de los Superiores" is about.)

Debora

 

There are more books to find on the internet with the same owner name. Unfortunately I cannot zoom in more.

 

"Miguel de Costa Basto" according to description above. I think perhaps that's "Miguel da Costa Basto." Portuguese, not Spanish.

Debora

 

Likely the cataloguer had also problems with reading his owner mark. Just like this one: