Author: SICHEM, Christoffel II van.
Title: 't Schat der zielen, dat is: Het geheele leven ons Heeren Jesu Christi naer de vyer Evangelisten. Naer vervolgh des tijdts by een ghevoeght, in seven stucken verdeelt. Met seer schoon figuren verciert, gesneden door C. van Sichem, voor P. J. P[aets].Amsterdam, Pieter J[acobsz]. P[aets], 1648. With 686 woodcuts, many full-page, by Christoph van Sichem (many with his monogram), after his own designs and after drawings and paintings by Aldegrever, Goltzius, Dürer, Bloemaert, the Wierix brothers, Lucas van Leyden, Maarten van Heemskerck, Joannes Stradanus, etc. 17th-century vellum, manuscript title on smooth spine.
Description: 800, [4] pp.First and only edition of a Catholic devotional book on the life of Christ (in 5 numbered parts), the works of the Apostles, saints' lives, and religious emblems, perhaps the most richly illustrated woodcut book of the 17th century, with almost 700 woodcuts by Van Sichem, when one includes the 7 large ornamental woodcuts with putti, beasts, insects and flowers. Van Sichem may also have cut the numerous woodcut decorated initials with biblical figures, appearing mostly in the works of the Apostles. The book's title may have been influenced by an otherwise unrelated work published in the previous year, Den schat der zielen, an unillustrated translation of a work apparently first written in Catalan by Miguel Comalada, which saw later editions as well. The present work is built entirely around Van Sichem's extraordinary woodcuts. Christoffel van Sichem (ca. 1581-1658), the second and most important of four artists of that name, was one of the greatest woodblock cutters of the Dutch golden age. With owner's signature on endleaf. With the outer edge of the woodcut on the "Bosch der eremyten" title-page slightly shaved, a few mostly marginal tears, the largest in the gutter margin of 1 leaf repaired, slightly affecting the border, and a smaller one slightly affecting 1 woodcut, and a few leaves somewhat thumbed, smudged or spotted, but still generally in good condition. A famous and popular Catholic devotional work, with nearly 700 Van Sichem woodcuts.l Hollstein XXVII, p. 51 (no. 52); Poortman, Bijbel en Prent 48; STCN (8 copies, incl. at least 2 incomplete); cf. Het Boek XIII (1924), pp. 195 ff.

Keywords: [04F65CFF5112] ART & ARCHITECTURE|[04F65CFF5112] ART & ARCHITECTURE -> [G91CNMP078RQ] Drawings, Prints & Watercolours|[6369B77AC038] LITERATURE & LINGUISTICS|[6369B77AC038] LITERATURE & LINGUISTICS -> [CB9F1A8B7F5C] Dutch Literature|[0953FE2C125A] RELIGIO