BELGIAN HISTORY - RICHLY ANNOTATED BY SUCCESSIVE USERS

Gramaye, Jean-Baptiste: I. B. Gramaye Andoverpiensis præpositi Arnhemensis, serenissimorum principium et provinciarum Belgicarum historiographi, et professoris Academici Namurcum. In quo breviter comitum series, gesta, decora ex Archivis opidorum & cænobiorum, diversisq[ue] tam calamo quam typo exaratis codicibus digesta. Antverpiae, Ex Officina Typographica Martini Nutii, ad insigne duarum Ciconiarum. 1607.

Copy with interesting annotations of this attractively presented work on the Belgian city of Namur written by historian Jean-Baptiste Gramaye (1579-1635). Two distinct annotating hands have added significant supplementary material, the first extending family trees and the second adding a list of the governors of the county of Namur. The binding is stamped for ‘Mr de secus’, who is perhaps François Marie-Joseph-Hubert de Sécus (1760-1836), a Belgian politician. The book was previously owned by an individual from Nivelles, a city near Namur. 

This appears to be the only edition of the work. The second volume (not present here) has the same imprint details. 

Details

Printed. Volume 1 only. 21.5 x 16.5 cms in binding, quarto, pp. 111 [9]. Includes final blank. Printer’s device to title page. Decorative initials and tailpiece. Nine pages include family trees.  

Bound in ‘cats paw’ calf over boards. Gold-tooled lettering to front cover (MR DE SECUS). Gold-tooled red goatskin label to spine (GRAMAY HIST NAMUR). Gold-tooled decoration to spine (acorns) and sides. Marbled pastedowns and endpapers (the marbled paper, possibly in short supply, extended through pasting the marbled endpapers each to a blank sheet and then pasting a further strip from a different stock to make the full page). Red edges.

Condition (textblock): light browning and occasional stains; annotations occasionally slightly trimmed at edges. Condition (binding): leather a little rubbed and worn. 

Provenance: 

1. Fairly extensive underlining throughout, plus various additions to family trees on pp. 93-95. 
2. Partially cancelled ex libris to title page, ‘Ex Libris […] […] ?Huber[…] Nivigelles M DC LI’.  
3. A list of ‘Gouverneurs du Comté de Namur’ has been added to both sides of the final blank, comprising 34 names ranging from 1282 to 1587 (the final two names undated).
4. ‘Mr de secus’ stamped to binding, perhaps François Marie-Joseph-Hubert de Sécus (1760-1836). 
5. Miscellaneous modern pencil notes to front endpaper. 

Bibliography:

STCV c:stcv:12925096. Not in USTC. OCLC shows just one copy outside mainland Europe (Wadham College Oxford, both volumes).  

On François Marie-Joseph-Hubert de Sécus, see Biographie Nationale vol. 22 (1914-1920), cols. 138-139, last accessed by us 14/12/2023 via academieroyale.be