A century of typographical excellence: Christophe Plantin and the Officina Plantiniana (1555-1655)
A century of typographical excellence: Christophe Plantin and the Officina Plantiniana (1555-1655) FR

VI. Triumphant baroque

36. Official memoir of urban and princely festivities

Johannes Bochius. Historica narratio profectionis et inaugurationis serenissimorum Belgii principum Alberti et Isabellæ Austriæ archiducum. Anvers: Officina Plantiniana (Jan I Moretus), 1602. In-folio.

The account of the journey and festivities associated with the accession of Albert and Isabella of Austria as governors of the Spanish Low Countries (1599) was entrusted to Johannes Bochius, humanist and secretary of the town of Antwerp. The town subsidized a large part of this prestigious publication.

   The section devoted to the entry and sojourn of the new governors in Antwerp was illustrated with engravings printed ‘in the text’. The drawings by painter Joos de Momper were transposed into engraving in the Antwerp workshop of Theodore Galle, the regular and then exclusive collaborator of the Plantin-Moretus firm, and moreover, son-in-law of Jan Moretus i since 1598. Prominence was given to the processions, public ceremonies and imposing ephemeral monuments, often à l’antique, which were installed in different locations in the city. Jan Moretus also reproduced the tribute that he had printed in the presence of the princely couple during their visit to his famous printing-house on 17 December 1599.

Mazarine: 2° 6179-1 3e ex

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