Topographia historica Gallo-Brabantiae [...].

Folio: front.-[8]-272-[8] pp.; 19 pl. (some spotting and browning, foxing on some ff., marg. missing of paper restored on f. C1).

18th-c. mottled calf, blind fillet frame and gilt coat of arms on boards, gilt-orn. spine with raised bands, red spr. edges (sl. rubbed, sm. def. restored on upper board, two min. wormholes on boards, gilding faded on spine). Good copy.

Rare first and only edition of this work based upon Jean Blondeau's unpublished manuscript "Commentaires sur le roman pays de Brabant" and Gramaye's "Gallo-Brabantia". Dedicated to the Bavarian Elector and last Governor of the Spanish Netherlands, Maximilian II (1662-1726). Engr. ill.: front. after Abraham van Diepenbeeck, 19 pl. (4 fold.), 40 pl. in-text, incl. the "Schema metallorum et colorum", dedicatory armorial head- and endpiece, map of the Gallo-Roman province "Romandua", 48 views of castles (Loupogne, Froidmont, Gembloux, Bornival, Ittre, Ottignies, Couroy, Clabecq, Argenteau...), and 7 pl. representing tombstones, sepulchral monuments, coats of arms and seals, all engraved by J. Harrewijn, F. Erlinger and J.V.C. Léonard. Some woodcut coats of arms.
Ref. Brunet III:1002. - BB III:839-41:L-104. - STCN (i.a., BL).
Prov. Baron Ferdinand von Plettenberg (1690-1737), Prime Minister of the Electorate of Cologne, Treasurer and Hereditary Marshal of Prince-Elector Clemens August of Bavaria, and heir of the castle of Nordkirchen (ms. entry on title; ref. Deutsche Biographie online). He was a nephew of Friedrich Christian von Plettenberg, Prince Bishop of Münster from 1688 to his death in 1706, but the supralibros used on our copy curiously bears the arms of another prince bishop, Christoph Bernhard von Galen, died in 1678. - Nordkirchen (ms. entry on title and bookpl.). - Emmanuel de Hennin de Boussu Walcourt (bookpl.).