Imperatorum Romanorum a Julio Caesare ad Heraclium usque, Numismata Aurea, Excellentissimi, dum viveret, Caroli ducis Croii et Arschotani &c. Magno & sumptuoso studio collecta, Nec minore fide, atque industriâ Jacobi de Bie ex archetypis in aes incisa, Brevi & Historico Commentario explicata. Accedit Ludolphi Smids M. D. Romanorum imperatorum pinacotheca. Sigebertus Havercampus Recensuit & auxit. [WITH 92 PLATES].

Amsteldam, Martinum Schagen, 1738. Hardcover. .. Three parts in one volume. With a total of 92 plates. Royal quarto (280 x 225mm). I: Pp. (xiv), (iv) half-title, second title-page dated 1737, (viii), 186, (6) index. Plus engraved frontispiece and engraved portrait. II: 64 numbered copperplate leaves, each with 12 illustrations of coins, printed on recto only. III: Pp. 28, second engraved frontispiece, a suite of 12 splendid copperplate portraits of Roman emperors mounted on horses, with historiated backgrounds, each portrait accompanied by a verse engraved at bottom. Plus a 13th such plate, this with allegorical illustration, concluding the suit. Plus 12 copperplate leaves, each with 12 illustrations of coins, printed on recto only. Main title-page printed in red and black. Footnotes; small chip to blank margin of a single plate, well away from image. HARDCOVER, bound in contemporary quarter goat skin, dyed and glazed, and marbled boards, spine with 5 raised bands; paper on boards rubbed, corner-tips bit worn. In a very good external condition and in fine internal condition. A wide-margined copy, untrimmed. Exceptionally bright interior; crisp plates. ~ The first and only enlarged edition of this work. Beautifully illustrated, this edition has an extended number of plates with a total of 912 coin impressions on 76 copperplates; 2 engraved frontispieces, one engraved bust portrait, and a remarkable suite of 13 exquisite equestrian emperor portraits, engraved by C. de Passe after Johannes Stradanus (Jan van der Straeten, 1523-1605). The work went through several editions, was first printed in Antwerp in 1615 and 1627 (Beller); later in Berlin in 1705 (Rüdiger). In 1738 publisher Martin Schagen got the publishing rights and issued the present copy. He could now reset the entire work and print it in elegant quarto format, add the Johannes Stradanus suite of portraits, extra suite of coin illustrations, and allow the plates the freedom to remain bound separately from the text. The edition was printed on handsome laid paper with ample margins, and the strikes of the plates are remarkably more beautiful than these of their predecessors. I-1