Description

This fine portrait depicts the Holy Roman Emperor Leopold I (1640-1705, reigned 1658.-1705), the King of Hungary, Bohemia and Croatia.  The emperor’s portrait is contained within a roundel surrounded by a register bearing his name and titles (in Dutch), placed within the breast of the Habsburg Imperial Eagle, whose wings hold aloft the crests of imperial electors, all together a time-honoured motif.

The portrait appeared within an extremely rare pamphlet published to celebrate the Emperor’s coronation, translated from the original German by Dirck van Wageningh, entitled Artyckelen, van de verkiesingh des […] onverwinlicksten vorst en heer, heer Leopoldus, verkoosen roomsch keyser (Amsterdam: Hendrick Doncker, 1658).

The publisher of the pamphlet, whose workshop was responsible for engraving the present portrait, Hendrick Doncker (1629-99), was most famous as a cartographer, best known for his exquisite sea charts.

The translator of the pamphlet, Dirck van Wageningh, was an Amsterdam-based writer, who notably translated an edition of Adam Olearius’s famous travel account into Dutch, Beschijvingh vande nieuwe Parciaensche ofte Orientaelsche reyse (Amsterdam, 1652).

The present portrait is very rare; we can locate only 6 institutional examples of the pamphlet.

References: [Re: pamphlet:] OCLC: 71737907; Knuttel 7943.