Denkstein, Vladimir. HOLLAR Drawings. 78 pp. text with 44 illus., and 79 plates, 8 in color, 214 pp. in all. Folio, cloth. New York, Abaris, 1979.

LE ROY, Jacques. Castella & praetoria nobilium Brabantia coenobiaque celebriora ... Chateaux et maisons de campagne des gentilhommes du Brabant et les monast`eres les plus remarquables, representez au naturel, en quatre parties: qui comprennent le Territoire de Louvain, de Bruxelles, d'Anvers, & de Bois-Leduc. Four parts in one volume. [12] pp., 142 ff. With 1 engraved dedication leaf, engraved title-page, engraved title-vignette, 4 double-page folding maps, 16 double- and 7 full-page views and maps included in the pagination, and 186 engravings illustrating the text. BOUND WITH:

-----. L'Erection de toutes les terres, Seigneuries & Familles titrees du Brabant, Prouvee par des extraits de lettres patentes, tires des originaux. [8], 108 pp. With 1 engraved dedication leaf, engraved title-vignette, 1 double-page folding map, and 7 engravings illustrating the text. Folio, 415 x 276 mm, bound in contemporary vellum. Leiden: Pieter Vander Aa, 1699.

First Complete Edition, a fine copy of Le Roy's Brabant, a rare and splendid work containing views of the castles and county-seats of the nobility of Brabant and their parks and gardens. Many of the plates reveal the layout of formal gardens and parterres surrounding each castle.

The highest quality of engraving during the seventeenth and early eighteenth centuries was unquestionably being done in Holland and Flanders, and this volume is proof of that fact. These plates were executed by the best engravers of the day, i.a., Hollar, Harrewyn, Cause, Bouttats, R. Whitehand, L. Vorsterman the Younger, Ertinger, and others. Le Roy also includes views of historic monasteries and cloisters of the Duchy of Brabant, and some of them appear here in superb double-page engraved plates.

Baron Jacques Le Roy (1633-1719) was a Belgian geographer and historian with an intimate knowledge of the Brabant Duchy. He came from a distinguished family with a history of government service, and he himself was a counsellor of finance. The present edition of his Castella was published by the renowned press of Pieter Vander Aa, and the text appears in Latin, French and Dutch.

The Castella is divided into four parts, illustrating the estates and gardens of Louvain, Bruxelles, Antwerp, and Bois-le-duc. So that no noble person would take offense at the order of appearance, the castles are arranged alphabetically within each part. Nearly every plate depicts garden and landscape design in some form. We have been unable to trace a finer, more comprehensive work on the subject with as many high-quality engraved views. Le Roy's Castella is in fact the definitive statement on the castles and gardens of seventeenth-century Brabant (see the introduction to the Vokaer facsimile reprint, Brussels, 1982). Spine expertly repaired.

Funck 352. Parthey 792-795. Cf. Berlin Katalog 2239 (with 122 plates); Brunet III, 1002. Not in Fowler, Plesch, Hunt, Pritzel or Nissen BBI, and this edition is not in the Bibliotheca Belgica.