Rare ilustrated fable book Vondel, Jost van den. – Vorstelijcke Warande der Dieren – Bound with: 1. Vondel, J.v. P=alamedes of Vermoorde Onnozelheit Treuspiel – 2. Vondel, .v. Hekeldigten, met aanteekeningen.

Rare ilustrated fable book. The emblems of Vorteliicke Warande are especially charming, with most portraying animals with anthropomorphic brio. 125 double-pages with a fable printed on the right page and the engraving illustrating the fable facing. – Leaves 123/124 missbound. – 2 and 3. The playwright and poet Joost van den Vondel,1587-1679, who is considered the most prominent author of the Golden Age of the Dutch Republic, published his tragedy ‚Palamedes, oft vermoorde onnooselheit‘ in 1625. In 1652 he published a second edition with drastic alterations. This edition of 1707 is based on that revised edition. Vondel expressed in the Palamedes his political views, accusing under a thinly veiled disguise of an oscure Greek allegoric story the strict Calvinist Contra-Remonstrants and Prince Maurits of Orange of a political murder, the beheading in 1619 of the ‚Land’s Advocate of Holland for the States of Holland‘ Jan van Oldenbarnvelt, who had been the virtual ‚Prime Minister‘ of the Dutch republic for 32 years. The unlawful killing of Palamedes on the ground of false accusations by the Greeks, stood for the execution of this Dutch statesman. The harsh and tyrannical villain, Agememnon, was clearly intended to portray Maurits, stadtholder of the Dutch Republic. Vondel stood for civil liberty, especially in religious matters. Vondel opposed with this ‚J’accuse‘-like play any form of tyranny, of the church and of the government. § The second title in this binding contains Vondel’s satires (Hekeldichten). He began to publish them shocked by the execution of Oldenbarnevelt in 1619. One of the first is ‚Geuzenvesper‘ (Geuse Vesper), a satire against the strict Calvinists and the judges who had condemed Van Oldenbarnevelt. The most famous satire is his ‚Roskam‘, in which he attacked corrupt regents, and ‚Harpoen‘ against the view of the strict protestant Contra-Reformists, who found that their authority should also apply outside the church). – Front board a bit loosened, the engravings in strong impressions.