I. [= Eerste] conferentie van eenige Nederlandtsche heeren. Op den tegenwoordigen staet deser landen.Middelburg, Jan de Laet, 1650. Small 4to (19.5 x 15 cm). 20th-century half vellum.

[34] pp.An anonymous political tract in the form of a conversation between four fictional gentlemen (Van Blyenberg, Van Sorgdal, Van Vraegwel, Van Weetburgh), whose names suggest happiness, concern, questioning and knowing respectively. It begins with a reference to the “onverwachte en haestige” (unexpected and sudden) death of the Prince of Orange, meaning Willem II, Prince of Orange and Count of Nassau, stadtholder of the Dutch Republic from 1647 to his death from the plague on 6 November 1650 at the age of twenty-four. In 1649, Admiral Witte de With, commander of the Dutch West India Company’s (WIC’s) fleet fighting the Portuguese in Brazil, came into dispute with the WIC and returned to the Netherlands against orders, arriving in April 1650. Stadtholder Willem II and the States General supported the WIC against De With and sentenced him to death. Although events in Brazil greatly influenced the politics debated in the present pamphlet and the former governor of Brazil is a central figure in it, only Alden & Landis appear to have recognised it as Brasiliana or Americana. This is the first known publication of the Middelberg bookseller Jan de Laet, who published two more pamphlets in 1655. Slightly browned and with a 2 mm hole in 1 leaf, nearly removing the letter e in “eygen”, but otherwise in very good condition and only slightly trimmed, with some deckles preserved on the fore-edge. Binding also very good. A fascinating discussion of the future of the Netherlands after the unexpected death of stadtholder Willem II, proposing the former governor of Brazil as successor, a respected ruler who never attained that position.l Alden & Landis 650/62; Knuttel 6899 & 6899a; STCN 830027661; USTC 1026235; not in Borba de Moraes; Bosch; Rodrigues.