Tooneel van de Mannelicke Achtbaerheyt aen-gewesen in de Voor-sprake teghen-sprake ende uyt-sprake gedaen over de weygheringhe van de Koninginne Vasthi
16222666Middelburg: Jan van der Hellen for Jan Pieterss. van de Venne 1622. 4to 233 x 176 mm. 16 60 19 1 blank pp. Large emblematic publisher's mark on title-page four half-page engraved illustrations by Pieter de Jode 2 Pieter Serwouters and Willem van der Passe after Adriaen van der Venne. Woodcut head- and tail-pieces and initials. Short marginal tear to title light dampstaining to first and last leaves. Later parchment over pasteboards ms. spine title. Provenance: Samuel Ashton Thompson Yates 1842-1903 bookplate dated 1894.  First Edition of Cats' retelling of the Biblical tale of Queen Vasthi the wife of Ahasuerus who refused her husband's summons to appear before his guests wearing the royal crown and presumably nothing else and who was duly punished. The first part of Cats' word-playing verse adaptation whose title may be translated as The Theater of Manly Respectability is a long speech in the Queen's defense and in defense of all women followed by a speech against her and in favor of "Manly Respectability." The work concludes with the Judgment which is that Vasthi should obey her husband because women's subservience to men is a law of nature. A final poem titled "Aller Princessen Spiegel aller Vrovwen Spoor" is illustrated with an engraving showing the humbled queen wearing a yoke around her neck. The parallels and differences between the Biblical Ahasuerus and Herodotus' tale of King Candaules supplied in Latin and Dutch translations in an appendix whose wife's rebellion was more successful are fully exploited by Cats and by the illustrator Cats' usual partner the painter and engraver Adriaen van de Venne whose brother Jan published the edition.Van de Venne's engravings notably the scene of Candaules' naked wife being surprised by Gyges served as models for a number of Dutch painters. The Van de Venne brothers played a central role in the dissemination of Cats' poetry and it is their joint production that makes the works come alive: "The complete works of Cats together with Van de Venne's illustrations formed a sort of housebook of the Dutch people which remained popular for two centuries." Bol p. 117.Following the privilege on the title verso is a letter from the publisher to all bailiffs officials and readers "Noodige Waersschouwinge." complaining of the many counterfeit editions of an earlier Cats work the 1620 Self-stryt and explaining how to tell them apart. A second edition without the Noodige Waersschouwinge appeared later in 1622 and several further editions followed. De Jonge van Ellemeet Museum Catsianum 97; Bol Adriaen Pietersz. Van de Venne 1989 p. 118. Jan van der Hellen for Jan Pieterss. van de Venne unknown books
Musinsky Rare Books, Inc. · États-Unis1 250,00 $US≈ 1 057,63 €
