Author: GHEYN, Jacob II de.
Title: The exercise of armes for calivres, muskettes, and pikes. After the ordre of his Excellence Maurits Prince of Orange Count of Nassau etc. Governour and captaine generall over Geldreland, Holland, Zeeland, Utrecht, Overijssel, etc. Sett forthe in figures by Jacob de Gheyn. With written instructions for the service of all captaines and comaundours. For to shewe hereout the better unto their jong or untrayned souldiers the playne and perfett maner to handle these armes.The Hague, [1607 (added in manuscript on the title page)]. 3 parts in 1 volume. Folio (ca. 37 x 27 cm). With engraved title page with at the head of the page the coat of arms of the dedicatee, Prince Henry Frederick, eldest son of King James I of England within a wreath of lilies and roses, which - together with the title and the imprint were engraved on 3 separate slips of paper pasted over areas left blank for that purpose; and 117 (including one repeat) expertly engraved plates (ca. 26 x 19 cm): 42 numbered plates in part 1, 43 partly-numbered plates in part 2 and 32 numbered plates in part 3. All engravings including the engraved title-page are magnificently coloured and highlighted in gold and silver by a contemporary hand. The plates show exercises with the arquebus (part 1), musket (part 2), and pike (part 3). Mid-19th-century gold-tooled half (faded) red morocco and red cloth sides, gilt edges, marbled endpapers, bound in 1840-ca. 1860 by the celebrated British bookbinder Robert Riviere (1808-1882) with his stamp "Bound by Riviere" in the bottom outer corner of the verso of the first flyleaf.
Description: [4]; [2]; [3] ll.Splendid copy of this very rare English edition of De Gheyn's illustrated major military manual, with the plates in their first state, before they were numbered and with some details added during the colouring stage instead of being engraved (several puffs of smoke in the illustrations). The present copy is one of the three "presentation copies" of the first English edition (New Hollstein, The De Gheyn family, II, p. 159, 1b).The history of the publication of the book is complex. It appears that Count Johann II of Nassau-Siegen (1561-1623) commissioned De Gheyn in about 1596 to publish the work, together with, or with the support of, his nephew, the great military commander and Stadtholder Prince Maurice who had re-organised the army of the Dutch Republic. Many copies have the engraved date “1607” on the title-page changed to “1608”, suggesting that this may have been the true date of issue. The same “title-border” was used for the various early editions with the engraved texts on slips of paper to be pasted onto the places left blank on the engraved title-page. Different coats-of-arms were used for the different languages. The Dutch issues show for instance the coat-of-arms of Prince Maurice.This work is of the highest interest for military history regarding the early 17th century. It constitutes a simple, transparent, and well-illustrated manual for the instruction of recruits in the rapid and skilful handling of “calivers” (an obsolete name for the arquebus), muskets, and pikes, which had proven to be essential for the successful and revolutionary way of warfare introduced by Prince Maurice through reforming the Dutch army by introducing exercises and strict discipline in the past years. Fully coloured copies like the present were produced largely for princes and other important persons and were probably coloured by De Gheyn himself who was certainly responsible for the high standard of the colouring. In our copy the title is in the first undated state. All the early editions use the same main plate for the title-page, so the text and arms for the editions in various languages and with various dedications were engraved on three separate slips of paper to be pasted over blank spaces: for the coat of arms (above), the engraved title (centre), and the imprint and privilege (below). The book met immediate success and makes a considerable contribution to our knowledge of military history. The large format editions like the present were followed in 1609 and 1619, by smaller quarto editions with woodcut copies of the original engravings. The present copy varies slightly from other similar copies, in that the compiler of this particular copy added plate 34 in part two twice (unfortunately omitting part 2 plate 2 in that process) and adding 2 plates with minor variants to this copy (part 2 plates 29 and 35). Arguably, this makes the present copy even rarer.The provenance of the present copy is impressive to say the least. It was most likely the presentation copy from De Gheyn for Robert Cecil, first Earl of Salisbury (1563-1612), judging by the paper slip mounted on the recto of the second flyleaf which contains in early 17th-century manuscript the following text: "For my Lord ye(?) Earl(e) of Salisbury". This note is accompanied by a later, more extensive annotation below the slip of paper reads: "This appears to have been a presentation copy to Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury. The above inscription was on the fragment of a flyleaf, and is probably the autograph of the author - De Gheyn. [signature]". Robert Cecil was Secretary of State to Queen Elisabeth I of England and King James I of England. In 1608, around the time the present work was published, Cecil was appointed Lord Treasurer. Furthermore, the splendour of the expert and strictly contemporary colouring of all engravings including the title-page prove that the present copy was made for a very important person like a nobleman or high statesman. Other bookplates show that the present work was, at least, part of two other collections. The first of the two is Christopher Turnor (1809-1886) with his bookplate on the front pastedown, who was an English Conservative Party politician, MP for South Lincolnshire between 1841 and 1847, founder of Stoke Rochford Hall, and the son of English antiquarian, author, and politician Edmund Turnor (1755/56-1829). The second of the two is Hermann Marx (1881-1947), a famous German-born stockbroker and banker, and a noted book and print collector. His "very choice and valuable library" was auctioned by Sotheby's in 1948.With the book plate of Christopher Turnor on the front pastedown, the book plate of Hermann Marx on the recto of the first flyleaf, and the paper slip with the 17th-century dedication to the Earl of Salisbury (with the 19th-century(?) note below) on the recto of the second flyleaf. The numbers of the plates are added in a contemporary hand, since the plates here appear in their first (unnumbered) state. The first plate of each part also contains Gheyn’s signature ("J. De Gheyn. in.") in manuscript instead of as part of the engraving. The binding shows some signs of wear (some rubbing along the edges, corners and the spine and fading of the leather and cloth on the front board and spine), plate 2 in plate in part 2 has been replaced by a duplicate of plate 34 from the same part, internally some minor marginal browning or staining, but the coloured and highlighted engravings remain fine and clean. Overall in very good condition.l Cockle 79; Keynes, ‘New observations on Jacques de Gheyn’s “The Exercise of Arms”’, in: The Print Collector’s Newsletter, 13 (1983), pp. 211-212; Kist, Commentary to the facsimile of the Dutch edition (1971); Lipperheide, nos. 2057-2060; Meij, Jacques de Gheyn II als tekenaar, p. 12, nos. 15-20 (pp. 45-47); Muller, Historieplaten, no. 1117 (& Suppl.); New Hollstein, The De Gheyn family, nos. 340-457 (descriptions and illustrations of all plates); Regteren Altena, Jacques de Gheyn, Three generations, vol. 2, pp. 64-78, nos. 342-464; Simoni, ‘A present for a Prince’, in: Ten studies in Anglo-Dutch relations (1975); STCN 85107989X (3 copies); cf. Jähns, pp. 1005-1007 (other eds.).

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