HORTENSIUS, L.

Dutch edition of the famous description of the rebellion of the Mennonites Oproeren der wederdoperen; geschiet tot Amsterdam, Munster, en in Groeningerlandt.

      Amsterdam, Samuel Imbrechts, 1660.. Contemporary vellum. With engraved illustration on title, and 16 full-page engraved plates in text, one repeated. 168, 11 (1) pp.. Dutch edition of the famous description of the rebellion of the Mennonites by Lambertus Hortensius from Montfoort (1500-1574), rector of the Latin school at Naarden. First edition with a separate part on the mennonites in Groningen, the northern part of the Low Countries Oproer in Groeningerlandt . First published in Latin, under the title Tumultum anabaptistarum liber unus , at Basel in 1548, the book presents, after a short survey of the origins of the Anabaptist movement, a detailed account of the events in Munster, written in a fluent and skillful style, without divisions into chapters. The result is a graphic and impressive description, which gave the book its great fame and longliving influence. The author had dedicated the book to the burgomasters and council of Amsterdam, praising them for their wisdom and vigorousness in mastering the Anabaptist attempt at a coup d'etat. The author compared their wisdom to the hesitancy and foolishness of the government of Munster. The plates vividly show the excentric behaviour of the Mennonites and their final defeat and execution. The one repeated plate must have been a cancel, but the replacement is not present here. The paintings after which the engravings were made were burned in 1652.signed I.M.P. Good copy.- (Few wormholes). Cf. Simoni H 186 (first Dutch ed. 1614); Knuttel, Ned. Bibliogr. Kerkgeschiedenis , p. 150-151; Mennonite Encyclopedia II, p. 816; Boekenoogen, p. 53 (not this ed.).