Les vrais pourtraits de quelques unes des plus grandes dames de la chrestiente, desguisees en bergères. Ware afbeeldinghe van eenige der aldergrootste ende doorluchtigste vrouwen van heel christenrijck, vertoont in gedaente als herderinnen.

4to oblong : [44 (of 57)] ff. (lacking 9 pls and 5 text ff.; marg. soiling, bottom corner of pl. 15 torn off and strengthened, upper part of pl. [27] torn off and underlaid, not touching engraving).

Mod. half vellum, marbl. paper covers, flat spine.

First ed. of a famous series of engraved portraits of women, picturing sovereigns and noble ladies of Europe, noble young (unmarried) women, and wives and daughters of the prosperous merchant class. Illustrated with an engr. additional title "Le Bouquet des Bergeres", 28 (of 36) engravings containing 56 (of 72) oval portraits of women, printed on rectos with the letterpress verse captions on facing versos, all by Crispijn van de Passe jr. (1594-1670). Each portrait is accompanied by a French quatrain with a Dutch prose trsl. on the facing verso. The work is of interest for historians of the Dutch Golden Age, as the portraits are of real, individual women, their identity disguised by pseudonyms, including members of the most distinguished Dutch families. It is also a significant document in the history of costume. All but a few of the women are dressed in the fashionable disguise of shepherdesses, an idyllic pastoral mode made popular by paintings of the Utrecht school in the 1620s, which by 1640 had spread to theatre, literature, and fashion. Ref. Franken (Van de Passe) 1371. - Hollstein (De Passe) 187. - Colas 2290. - Lipperheide 525. - Gay-Lemonnyer III:1381.