Author: MANDER, KAREL VAN
Title: Het Schilder - Boeck waer in Voor eerst de leerlustighe Ieught den grondt der Edel Vry Schilderconst in verscheyden deelen wort voorghedraghen. Daer nae in dry deelen t'leuen der vermaerde doorluchtighe schilders des ouden en nieuwen tyds. Eyntlyck d'wtlegginghe op den metamorphoseon pub. Ouidy Nasonis Oock daerbeneffens wtbeeldinghe der figueren Alles dienstich en nut den schilders Const beminders en dichters oock allen staten van menschen.
Description: Haerlem, voor Paschier van Wesbusch Boeck vercooper, 1604. [Jakob de Meester, Alkmaar 1603/4]. 4to. W. engr. title [Van Mander inv. Maetham sculp.]. (Without engr. portrait). 17th c. full clf., rebacked, original spine laid down. (16 lvs., 305 lvs. [last 5 lvs: leaf 1 appendix, lvs 2-4 index, leaf 5 errata]. (This copy, as issued, without the explanation of Ovidius' Metamorphoses, see note below). First edition of the best source book of biographies of 16th c. painters.: Wurzbach II, 95/7: Bibl. Rijksmuseum I, 327: Chamberlin 2018: 'The lives of the artists begin on folio 58 and have a titlepage which bears an Alckmaer imprint and the date 1603'. Schlosser, 312, 332: A book which for the Northern countries became what Vasari's Lives of the painters was for Italy. Presentation copy from J.H.Leichius [see Jöcher vol. II, 2349/50] to J.Fr. Christ, inscribed in ink on the recto of the blank leaf preceding the titlepage. The book was reprinted in 1618 at which time a biography of Van Mander was added. Copies of both imprints exist with and without the explanation of Ovidius Naso's Metamorphoses and with and without engraved portrait. See also Querendo XIII, 4, (1983)pp. 260 - 286, an extensive description by Werner Waterschoot of Karel van Mander's 1604 'Schilder-Boeck', its position in the printed oeuvre of de Meester and the preference of readers for either the 1604 or 1618 edition. Especially important are Waterschoot's remarks on the make up of the extinct copies. 'As a less expensive, more practical and immediately useful purchase, however, Van Mander and his publisher allowed those artists and readers who were interested in the subject the possibility of buying either the combination of "Grondt" and the Lives, or the collection of Wtleggingh in combination with the Vutbeeldinge. Thus 2 copies have survived which happen to include the first possible combination... P.P.Rubens's copy ... only consists of the Lives, while Wtlegging in combination with the Vvtbeeldinge also appear on their own... [Van Mander and Wesbusch] allowed for the possibility of selling sections of the same book separately.' This also explains the 2nd engraved titlepage and the new set of signatures for the Ovidius. A separate book had a better chance of selling. 'All in all the 1604 edition of the Schilder-Boeck is a solid piece of work, thanks to the collaboration of a meticulous author and a conscientious and well-equipped printer.':

Keywords: books 16th art painting life vita Brk