117 - COSTER, Charles de. The Legend and the Heroic, Joyful, and Glorious Adventures of Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak in the Land of Flanders and Elsewhere.

COSTER, Charles de. The Legend and the Heroic, Joyful, and Glorious Adventures of Ulenspiegel and Lamme Goedzak in the Land of Flanders and Elsewhere. Second edition, partly in the original, illustrated with 32 separate etchings by fourteen leading Belgian artists. A fine copy in a contemporary binding with its original covers intact. Paris, Brussels, Leipzig, and Livorno: Librairie Internationale and Lacroix; A. Lacroix, Verboeckhoven & Cie, 1869. Folio, navy blue half-shagreen, spine with filleted and cold-stamped raised bands, gold fleurons running lengthwise between the bands, author and title in gold lettering, illustrated covers on yellow paper preserved (contemporary binding). v and 480 pages, 32 separate etchings (including the frontispiece title), a woodcut at the beginning of the preface, and two compositions on the cover, all engraved by 14 different artists. Minor scuffing, 2 damaged corners, rare foxing, more noticeable in the margins of the plates. Second edition, partly original (the famous “Preface of the Owl” appears here for the first time), illustrated with 32 separate etchings (17 more than in the original), engraved by fourteen leading Belgian painters and engravers (Rops (3), Artan, Becker, Boulenger, Clays, De Groux, Dillens, Duwée, Fourmois, Hubert, Jaugey, Lauters, Schaefels, Smits, de Schampheleer, Van Camp, Van der Hecht, and Van der Din). The plates are printed here on tinted laid paper, with engraved titles. Considered the “Flemish Bible” and the masterpiece of French-language Belgian literature, Charles De Coster’s novel transposes the folk character of Till the Trickster to the 16th century, in the midst of the Beggars’ Revolt against the tyranny of Philip II of Spain and the Duke of Alba. [Vicaire, V, 166.] A sturdy copy, complete with its plates.