Les Marques D'honneur de la Masion de Tassis

Jules Chifflet

Antwerp: Balthasar Moretus, 1645

Folio. First edition of a richly illustrated history of the family of Thurn und Taxis. Contemporary blind tooled calf, raised bands. Wear and some abrasions to leather. Joints starting to split. 8 of 9 plates, 3 folding, 25 coats of arms engraved in text, head and tail pieces. Occasional dampstaining in margins, affecting engraved title, minor worming in gutters primarily at back.

Published on the occasion of the coming of age of Lamoral Cladius Franz, Count of Taxis. From an early age he had taken an interest in his distinguished family whose fortunes derived from their monopoly on the postal services in the Holy Roman Empire, the Netherlands and Burgundy since the early sixteenth century. Perhaps the most remarkable engraving in the work is the double-page plate by Wenzel Hollar representing the splendid funeral of Jean-Baptise De Tassis, which took place in Cologne 1588. The count had been killed during the siege of the town of Bonn. The work also contains a fine portrait of Count Lamoral engraved by Paul Pontius after Nicholaus van der Horst, both distinguished pupils of Rubens. Both were also responsible for the remarkable double portraits of Muley Hassan, ruler of Tunis in the 1530s, and Johann Baptista, Count of Taxis, both in Arab costume and identical pose. Muley Hassan resided in Johann Baptista's house in Brussels for a few months in 1535 after the capture of his kingdom by the Barbary Pirates. He was reinstated by Charles V later in the same year. Drugulin 765; Funck 291; Hollstein 9: Van der Horst, 50-53, 56, 62-63. Cioranescu 1928