Een oud schipper, van Monickendam.... [Rare Pamphlet on the Eighty Years' War].

No place, no date [1608]. Small 4to (18.0 x 14.6 cm). Engraved title page; five pp. 19th-century marbled wrappers. A very rare pamphlet in which the anonymous author questions a truce between the Netherlands and Spain. "The Twelve Years' Truce was the name given to the cessation of hostilities between the Habsburg rulers of Spain and the Southern Netherlands, and the Dutch Republic, as agreed in Antwerp on 9 April 1609 (coinciding with the Royal Decree of Expulsion of the Moriscos). It was a watershed in the Eighty Years' War, marking the point from which the independence of the United Provinces received formal recognition by outside powers. For Spain, the truce was seen as a humiliating defeat as they were forced to make several sacrifices but they scarcely got anything in return" (Wikipedia). The engraving shows the Dutch and Spanish engaged in some kind of ritual battle on a beach, with shells along the tide line, and dunes in the background. According to Tiele the truce was: "een van de aardigst geschrevene blaauwboekjes tegen den vrede" [one of the most pleasantly written pamphlets against peace]. Paper trimmed to plate edges, some light, mostly marginal staining, small chip to last leaf lower outer corner, otherwise very good. Knuttel, 1466; Muller, 1254b; Tiele, 676.