WILLINK, Daniël.

Amsterdamsche Buitensingel nevens de omleggende Dorpen, opgeheldert door aanteekeningen over veele voornaame geschiedeniszen: met afbeeldingen eeniger oude en tegenwoordige stads poorten, wachttoorens, kloosters dorpen, enz.Amsterdam, Andries van Damme, 1723. 8vo. With engraved frontispiece, 4 folding engraved views, 11 full-page engraved plates with 2 views each, a full-page engraved plate with 2 scenes in roundels, an engraved vignette on the title-page, and an extra-added contemporary folding engraved portrait of the author. Mid-eighteenth-century sprinkled calf.

      - (36), 304, (28) pp. Nijhoff & V. Hattum 331; Muller, Portretten 6091. First edition of a laudatory verse account of the Amsterdam city walls and the canals that run alongside them, with the city gates, weigh stations, etc., as well as the churches, monasteries and workshops in the neighborhoods outside the walls, all beautifully illustrated with 28 views of the city, its buildings, boats in the canals and river, the surrounding polder land, etc., finely engraved by Jan Goeree, including the title vignette and allegorical frontispiece. The coverage is both contemporary and historical, and the extensive notes to the verse text add much factual detail, indexed at the end. Most of the views are based on drawings then in the collection of the jurist Brouërius van Nidek. Two exceptions are the large general view from the barge canal that connects Amsterdam to Haarlem, rendered from life, and the large general view from the river Amstel, after a painting by A. Stork. The preliminaries include a verse dedication to D. Trip, a note to the reader, 22 pages of verses in praise of the book by nine different poets, and a list of Willink's earlier publications. The two scenes in medal-like roundels, engraved by P. v. Abeele, show Count Willem granting the city of Amsterdam a coat of arms in 1342 and the Emperor Maximilian adding the crown in 1488. The extra-added portrait of the author (17.5 x 13 cm), drawn by G. Lubienietzki in 1722, includes his coat of arms and a verse by D. van Hoogstraten.Daniël Willink (1676-1722) was an Amsterdam wine merchant best known for his various publications about his native city. Jan Goeree (1670-1731), one of Amsterdam's leading artist-engravers, is best known for his finely engraved book illustrations. The portrait of the author, made in the year of his death, appeared in Willink's posthumous Lustplaats Groot Heerema (Nijhoff & V. Hattum 337).With a tiny tear along the fold of the extra-added portrait, running a half centimeter into the background, a few creases in one of the folding views, and an occasional minor spot, but generally in fine condition, with the paper still crisp. Binding very good, with some cracks in and around the hinges and a small chip at the head of the spine. A fine copy, with beautiful views of Amsterdam and its architecture.