ISSELT, Michael ab (pseudonym: D.M. JANSONIUS). Mercurius Gallobelgicus: sive, rerum in Gallia & Belgio potissimum: Hispania quoque, Italia, Anglia, Germania, Polonia, vicinisque locis ab anno 1588 usque ad Martium anni praesentis 1594 …

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ISSELT, Michael ab (pseudonym: D.M. JANSONIUS). Mercurius Gallobelgicus: sive, rerum in Gallia & Belgio potissimum: Hispania quoque, Italia, Anglia, Germania, Polonia, vicinisque locis ab anno 1588 usque ad Martium anni praesentis 1594 … Cologne: Gottfried von Kempen. 1594.

8vo. Contemporary vellum with Zwischgold borders, fleur-de-lis cornerpieces, and central arabesque blocked to boards, date of 1594 gilt to upper board, yapp fore-edges roll-tooled in gilt, flat spine gilt in compartments and lettered in gilt, edges gilt and gauffered with acorn tools; pp. [32], 685, [3 (blank)]; woodcut Mercury device to title-page, printed marginalia throughout; tarnishing to Zwischgold, slight soiling to boards; variable browning (heaviest to first and final few quires); nonetheless a good copy in a handsome binding.

Second, expanded edition of this early newsbook, a precursor of the modern newspaper and one of the earliest of such publications to use ‘Mercurius’ in its title, a term that became synonymous with newsbooks in the seventeenth century.

Mercury (Mercurius in Latin), the messenger of the Roman gods, lent his name to publications conveying news. During the seventeenth century, ‘mercury’ became synonymous with newsbooks, as such publications were, as it were, the messengers of news. Straddling the boundary between news and recent history, several similar publications appeared throughout Europe, including the Mercure François (twenty-five volumes, 1611–1648), likely the first serial publication in French on current affairs, and Vittorio Siri’s Mercurio, overo Historia de’ tempi Correnti (fifteen volumes, 1644–1682).

The Mercurius Gallobelgicus records political and military events across Europe, arranged chronologically, with the year clearly indicated in the outer margin of each page. This volume covers the assassination of Henry III of France in 1589, military campaigns during the Dutch Revolt, and the war in Central Europe against the Ottoman Turks. The author, Michael ab Isselt (c. 1530–1597), was a Dutch Catholic refugee who settled in Cologne and published books about recent history, some under the pseudonym D.M. Jansonius.

The first issue of Mercurius Gallobelgicus, covering the period from 1587 to 1592, was published in Cologne by Kempen in 1592. The present edition extends the account to 1593. Further continuations, covering the periods 1593–1594 and 1594–1596, appeared in 1595 and 1596 respectively.

OCLC finds one copy in the US (Columbia) and two in the UK (BL, Bodleian).

USTC 675719; VD16 I 600.

SKU: 2126602