DE GHEYN II, Jacob.

Very rare, a lovely copy in original Dutch vellum of one of the earliest editions, bar the presentation copies, of Jacob de Gheyn’s splendid manual of infantry warfare, with 117 beautiful engraved plates showing soldiers wielding arquebuses, muskets and pikes, in excellent impressions, with strong lines and an even tone.

The publishing history of this work is complicated, due largely to the work’s immediate and immense success, with editions in Dutch, French, German, English and Danish published from 1607 in Amsterdam and the Hague. Cockle claims that the English edition was in fact ‘the original’ (p. 65). In some copies of the 1607 Hague edition the date was changed in pen to 1608, which may be the true date of publication; another state exists with the date re-engraved to 1608 (Hollstein 3). The plates appear in two states, the earliest without numbering; in all editions except the presentation copies, the states of the plates change at random. In our copy, where almost all of the plates are in the second or third state, i.e. numbered and signed, the first plate appears in the second of three states, with number but no signature (supplied in ms.), while this copy also contains the first state of number 26 in the final series (number supplied in ms.), which in its second state was erroneously numbered 24.

All the early editions used the same engraved title-page, with blank portions to accommodate paper tabs engraved with the required coats of arms, dedications or privileges. On the title-page of this edition is a Latin dedicatory address from de Gheyn to the States General of the Netherlands, the arms at the top combining those of the Dutch provinces with the Habsburg eagle and the arms of stadtholder Maurice Prince of Orange (1567-1625), to whom the work itself is dedicated. It was Maurice’s cousin, however, Johann VII von Nassau Siegen (1561-1623), who is credited with inspiring De Gheyn’s project. Johann had condensed his extensive, first-hand military knowledge into a Kriegsbuch containing many innovative new ideas for the use of the Dutch States Army, chief among these being the introduction of standardised parade ground infantry drills, for which he envisaged producing an illustrated manual.

De Gheyn’s purpose was didactic, aiming to provide a clear visual model for conducting infantry drills. They show the various movements and postures to be adopted when firing the lighter arquebus or ‘caliver’ and the heavier musket, which was used with a supporting stand, and finally the pike. These were the three core units of the basic infantry battalions developed by the Spanish in the sixteenth century, known as tercios, and used against the Dutch in Eighty Years’ War or War of Dutch Independence. These formidable infantry units, quickly adopted by the Dutch and other nations, came to dominate warfare in the first half of the seventeenth century, especially in the Thirty Years War and English Civil War. De Gheyn’s illustrations also became popular motifs in decorative art, appearing on Delft tiles and as panel paintings in the c.1630 Pages’ Room at Clifton Hall in Nottinghamshire.

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