CONTINENTAL BOOKS CATALOGUE 1448 - Maggs Bros. Ltd.

18 CAMphUYSEN (DIRK RAphAELSz) Stichelycke rymen, om te lesen
ofte singhen. Onderscheyden in III. deelen. Op nieuws over-sien en grootelijckx
vermeerdert, oock de noten van Druck-fauten ghecorrigeert, en verrijckt met vele
copere figuren. Amsterdam, by Iacob Colom, 1647.
Folding engraved portrait (255 x 185mm) of the
author by S Savey after C Castelein, 61 large
engravings (125 x 80mm), including one
tipped-in between Q4 and R1 unpaginated and
with blank recto, by F Allen and P Nolpe
(Landwehr), fine large historiated woodcut
initials, musical scores in text.
Oblong 4to (144 x 196mm) [4]ff 326pp [3]ff.
Contemporary mottled calf, gilt decorative border on
covers with central gilt lozenge shaped ornament made
up of small stamps, spine gilt in compartments (expertly
rebacked with original spine laid down). £5,000
First illustrAted edition oF cAmphuysens’
importAnt collection oF devotionAl songs,
first published in 1624. The engravings are
emblematic, each one with a motto above and a
four line epigram beneath. In this edition parts one
and two include musical scores for every poem.
The Dutch poet and schoolmaster
Camphuysen (1586-1627) ‘is significant in the
history of music for his Stichtelycke rymen, om te
lezen of te zingen (Hoorn, 1624), which in the
first edition, and in the many subsequent ones,
was published with music, whereas in Dutch
Calvinist church services only rhyming psalms
to Geneva melodies were sung. The 17th
century, thanks also to Camphuysen’s poetry,
saw the development of domestic devotional
songs for one or more voices, which were often
accompanied by, or arranged for, instruments...
Camphuysen’s poems enjoyed great popularity
and gave to Dutch piety of the 17th and 18th
centuries an individual character comparable
to that of early Pietism in Germany.’ (Grove).
Small tear to inner margin of portrait with
slight loss of image, blank lower corner of C4
torn away, paper flaw in Oo4 affecting one or
two letters over three lines, Rr2v and Rr3r
somewhat soiled.
Bookplate of GS Overdiep.
Praz p296 (only calls for 58 engravings).
Landwehr Dutch Emblem Books, no 40 (‘The
only edition with emblematic plates’). Scheurleer,
Nederlandsche Liedboeken, p39.
19 CARThUSIAN LITURGY Libellus continens modum recipiendi, ac
incellandi Novitios. Absolendi & inungendi infirmos. Item sepeliendi mortuos:
cum devotis aspirationibus & precibus. Astheim, 1689.
Manuscript on paper, in Latin and German. 4to (210 x
160mm) [1], 91ff (last three blank). 26 lines, rounded
gothic script in brown, red and blue ink, German text in a
neat cursive script. Musical notation on four-line staves,
some penwork ornamentation. Contemporary vellum
over pasteboard (covers with a few stains). £2,400
An unusuAl mAnuscript combining the liturgy
for the reception of novices into the Carthusian
order with the liturgy and prayers for the
absolution and anointing of the sick, and burial
of the dead. The manuscript was produced for
the Buxheim Charterhouse by the 70-year-old
Wurzburg born Fr Caspar Hess at the Astheim
Charterhouse, ‘Scripsi in Cartusia Asthiem.
Anno 1689. F Caspar Hess. Herbipolensis.
aetatis an 70. Pro Cartusia Aulae B Mariae V. in
Buxheim’. The Monasticon Cartusiense, vol II in
Analecta Cartusiana, no 185: 2 (2004) records
that Caspar Hess, who became a novice in 1641,
produced liturgical manuscripts for Astheim and
other charterhouses of the province (Provincia
Alemanniae inferioris).
The manuscript gives a fascinating insight
into the workings of the Carthusian order where
life is very nearly eremitical. The monks live in
solitude in separate houses or ‘cells’ off the great
cloister and, except on Sundays and feast days,
meet only three times a day in the church. Here,
at the beginning of his life as a monk, great
emphasis is placed on his fellow cloister monks
bringing the novice to his cell in procession and
finally, at the end of his life, when extreme
unction is to be administered, the monks process
again to the cell, the sick monk is anointed,
pardoned and blessed and all present give him a
last kiss of peace. For burial the monk is dressed
in his robes and cowl, laid on a wooden plank,
and placed in the grave without a coffin.
The Carthusian liturgy is unique and differs
considerably from the Roman Rite, being
substantially that of Grenoble in the 12th century
with some admixture from other sources. In the
manuscript some prayers are in the vernacular for
the benefit of the lay brothers, written in a cursive
script. The body of customs that had been the basis
of Carthusian life became the statutes of the order
when compiled by Guigo, the fifth prior of the
Grande Chartreuse, in the mid-12th century
(Migne, Patrol Lat cliii 631); enlargements and
modifications of this code were made in 1259, 1367,
1509 and 1681. The 1681 revision may well have
prompted the production of this manuscript, a
change is noted at the foot of f 51v for example.
Revisions were only ever slight and the unofficial
motto for the order is ‘Cartusia nunquam reformata
quia nunquam deformata’ (the order has never been
reformed, because it was never deformed).
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