Histoire Metallique de la Republique de Hollande.

A Paris, Chez Daniel Horthemels Libraire..., 1687. FIRST EDITION. Folio, 370 x 235 mms., pp. [xiv], 317 [318 blank, 319 - 331 Index, 332 - 333 Errata and Privilege, 334 blank], engraved title-page (by S. La Clercinu Lalouette after Sébastien Le Clerc) preceding letter-press title-page, 12 full-page engraved plates, engraved vignettes in text, and culs de lampe, all finely executed, contemporary calf, old gilt spine, black morocco label; spine a little dried, some slight wear to joins, pp. 126 and 127 very browned. The French numismatist Pierre Bizot (1630 - 1696) made his reputation with this on the history of coins and medals of the Dutch Republic. He published a second part in 1690, but it only appeared in the Dutch editions, the first of which was published in that year. The coins and medals which he illustrates were themselves produced between 1566 and 1680. In the same year Bizot also published Theatre d'honneur des héros qui out sacrificé leurs vies pour la Republique de Hollande, o'u l'on voit gravez, sur le suivre, les Tombeaux magnifigues qui ont été en leur honneur et leurs épitaphes. Many of the engraved illustrations celebrate great moments in Dutch history. For example, in 1590, a turfship was the instrument by which the Dutch recaptured the port city of Breda from the Spanish, and Bizot records the feat in this work, with engravings (p. 63) of the medals struck. McGrath, Elizabeth: "A Netherlandish History by Joachim Wtewael," in Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes (1975).