217 - SANDÉRUS. [BLAEU].

SANDÉRUS. [BLAEU]. Flandriæ illustratæ. Volume Two. Cologne, 1644. Folio, (8) folios, pp. 404–654, 68 and 38 pp., (2) folios. Contemporary gilt vellum with overlay, covers decorated with a double frame of gilt scrolls with large metal spandrels, large gilt motif in the center, gilt spine, red edges (some wear to the binding with losses on the spine and the upper joint split at the top and bottom, stained vellum, pages slightly browned, uneven but present foxing, a map split along the central fold, minor worm damage without loss at the corners of a few folios, a tear on folios 597–598). Description: Second volume of the famous chorographic and cartographic work *Flandria illustrata*, on the former County of Flanders, initiated by the Flemish canon and historian Antoine Sandérus (or Antoon Sanders). First edition printed in very few copies, in the publisher’s gilt vellum, entirely mounted on tabs. A beautiful volume richly decorated with the frontispiece title page, a large engraved portrait of Mello, 23 large views or fold-out maps, 87 half-page views or plans (including 2 double or long ones), 19 full-page plates, 4 figures, and ornate initials, all engraved in black. In 1638, the publishing rights to the work passed from Hondius to the Blaeu brothers in Amsterdam, while Sandérus and his publishers intensified their collection of documents, asking the magistrates of Flemish cities to provide topographical maps for the engravings in the second volume. The maps and plans are the work of Blaeu; the text is by Antoine Sander (1586–1664). Graesse, VI, 262. Bibliotheca Belgica, V, 28–35.