GEVAERTS, JEAN GASPARD (= CASPAR GEVARTIUS).

POMPA INTROITUS HONORI SER. PRINCIPIS FERDINANDI AUSTRIACI HISPANIARUM INFANTIS S.R.E. CARD. BELGARUM ET BURGUNDIONUM GUBERNATORIS, ETC. A S.P.Q. ANTWERP. DECRETA ET ADORNATA. ANTWERP, IOANNES MEURSIUS FOR THEOD. VAN THULDEN, 1642.

      Large folio (56 x 41 cm). Contemporary vellum, spine gilt, sides with gilt armorial center-piece and on frontcover in gilt 'Ieremias Wildens'. With richly designed triumphal arch full of allegorical figures by Pieter Paul Rubens serving as frontispiece and title, engraved by Iac. Neeffs, 46 engravings in text mostly of coins and medals, and 43 numbered etched plates illustrating the rich allegorical and phantastic ornamental triumphal arches and festive decorations, paintings, statues, etc., designed by Pieter Paul Rubens for the Splendid Entry of the Cardinal Infante Ferdinand of Austria into Antwerp, including a splendidly designed equestrian portrait of Ferdinand, and a large triumphal car by Pieter Paul Rubens, and also including a second portrait of Ferdinand, a large view and plan of Antwerp, a view of the fireworks behind the cathedral and two views of festive processions by Theod. van Thulden, who etched all the plates. (8), 189, (13) pp. Splendid monument of Baroque book illustration, easily the most superbly illustrated book of the 17th century. The designing and planning of the city's triumphal arches and decorations to celebrate the "Splendid Entry" of Ferdinand of Austria into Antwerp in May 1635 was the largest order Pieter Paul Rubens ever received, offering him the occasion to fully display his rich imagination and to let go free his wildest phantasies. The festivities themselves had been so magnificent and the decorations and lightning had been so fairy-like that the city magistrats ordered the painter and engraver Theodor Van Thulden, a pupil of Rubens, to make a record of it for posterity. The work was held up by the city's secretary who was to supply the text, and when the text was ready at last, both Rubens and Ferdinand had died, in 1640 and 1641 respectively. Still, the delay had some good points too, as now the magistrats ordered an extra print to honor Ferdinand's memory, and a magnificent drawing by Rubens of a triumphal car was added to the book. Also the text had grown from simple explanations of the mythological figures and recordings of inscriptions into a most scholarly edition, with all mythological allegories philologically explained with quotations from the Classics, and richly illustrated by engravings of ancient coins and medals as well. Full source references were given and indices added. The costs of publication were enormous and although the preface is dated July 1641, and the colophon dates the printing of the text 1642, it was only at the end of January 1643 that the book came officially on the market. The "Pompa Introitus Ferdinandi" easily belongs to the most expensive book productions illustrating Baroque festivities, caused also by its extra large folio size. This on the other hand greatly enhanced the beauty of the prints, as Van Thulden was now more able to depict in all details the very elaborate and luxurious designs of Rubens. Good copy.- (With library stamps of 'Bibliotheca publica Antwerpiensis' and another Antwerp library on verso frontispiece; rebound, new endpapers). The Mark J. Millard Architectural Collection,Northern European Books, Sixteenth to Early Nineteenth Centuries, 38, pp. 163-7; Landwehr, Splendid Ceremonies, 99, listing all plates; Von Roeder-Baumbach, Versier. Blijde Inkomsten, 28; Berlin Kat. 2947; Atlas Van Stolk II, 1764; Muller, Hist.pl., 1728; Arents, "Pompa Introitus Ferdinandi, Bijdr. Rubensbibliogr.", in: De Gulden Passer 27 (1949), p. 81; ff. Hofer, Baroque Book Illustr., 128.