ILLUSTRATED 1620 CHRONICLE OF THE ABUSES OF THE SPANISH GOVERNMENT IN THE NETHERLANDS AND THE NEW WORLD, IN CONTEMPORARY VELLUM BINDING

[DE LAS CASAS, Bartolomé] [GYSIUS, Johannes]. Le Miroir de la Cruelle & horrible Tyrannie Espagnole perpetree au Pays Bas, par le Tyrare Duc de Albe, & aultres Cómandeurs de par le Roy Phillipe le deuxiesme. WITH: Le Miroir de las Tyrannie Espagnole Perpetree aux Indes Occidentales. Amsterdam: Ian Everts Cloppenburg, 1620. Two volumes issued as one. Small quarto, contemporary full limp vellum; Collation: first part, :4, A4-Y4; second part, A4-R4. $4800.

Early abridged illustrated French edition of two popular works by Johannes Gysius and Bartolomé de las Casas chronicling abuses of the Spanish government, with engraved title pages and 36 etched plates depicting executions, tortures, and other atrocities perpetrated by the Spaniards. An excellent copy in contemporary vellum.

"The first piece is an abridgment of Gysius' 'Netherland disturbances' (see Sabin 11256, note) first published anonymously in 1616… Issued by Cloppenburch, to whom the work has been wrongly attributed, as supplementary to his editions of the piece by Bartolomé de las Casas" (Library of Congress Catalog). Gysius was a 17th-century Dutch historian; De las Casas was a 16th-century Spanish priest stationed in the New World who used the protection of the Church to speak out against the Spanish treatment of Latin American natives and is now considered one of the forefathers of liberation theology. De las Casas' best-known work is the Brevisima relación, first published in Seville in 1552. "Different reasons motivated the printing of non-Spanish editions of De las Casas' treatises… In the Netherlands the treatises were used to strengthen patriotic-revolutionary unity during their long struggle for liberation from Spain… [editions of Brevisima relación] were used predominantly for propaganda purposes. Gradually, however, Dutch colonial motivation subtly emerged. An example of this admixture of purposes is found in the 1620 French edition of the Brevisima relación published by Jan Evertszoon Cloppenburg in Amsterdam. The theme of national independence and, to some extent, religious freedom was dominant in this abridged edition" (Kislak 253). Text in French. "Two volumes in one: the two parts should not be separated although each has its own title page and pagination" (Library of Congress Catalog). Page 89 of the first part misnumbered 87; leaf C2 of the second part mislabeled A2. Palau y Dulcet V:194. Graesse IV:538. Bookplate, book label, early owner inscriptions.

A clean, fine, and desirable copy in contemporary vellum.