Lot 831
831
ALPHABET, ou A.B.C. pour la Ieunesse De Nouveau inventé & mis en lumière par Aert van Meldert, demourant a Rotterdam l'An 1585. Avec privilege pour iiii ans Van Doort excu. (Leiden (?), 1598-99). Calligraphed title (partly in green ink), and 24 calligraphed lvs. representing the letters of the alphabet, each letter being the initial letter of an elevating text ('exempel'). 8°-obl. In limp cont. manuscript bind. (Margins of lvs. a bit frayed/dam. in places, light staining throughout, a bit browned).
Copy in manuscript of an (illuminated) initial/capital book ('kapitaal-voorletterboek') of which the original printed version was published in Leiden in 1585. Of this original edition, calligraphed by Aert van Meldert (1549-1617), only one copy is known to exist (Victoria & Albert Museum, London). Our manuscript copy was made by the schoolmaster Jan Barentsz Coop van Groen (c. 1560 - before 1625), who has written his name on the last leaf of the alphabet. The title page and 11 initials are meticulously copied in ink after the printed originals, the others seem to be 'invented' by Coop van Groen. The elevating texts ('exempels') next to the initials are all written in Dutch and they are all calligraphed differently. The texts differ from the ones found in the 'Victoria & Albert Museum copy' and are likely to have been chosen by Coop van Groen. The name Van Doort on our title-page does not appear on the title-page of the copy in the Victoria & Albert Museum. According to the RKD a Paulus (and Isaac?) van Doort worked in Hamburg from 1596-1610. - Cf. T. Croiset v. Uchelen. 'Vier in de Republiek verleende privileges voor gegraveerde kalligrafie in boekvorm - 1585, 1588, 1605 en 116.' In: Schriftgeheimen. Opstellen over schrift en schriftcultuur. (2017), p. 33-36; see also J.Q. v. Regteren Altena 'Vergeten namen IV: Aert en Pieter van Meldert'. In: Oud Holland 78, iii--iv (1963), p. 135-141.€ 5000
result € 4500
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