Details
PETTER, Nicolaes. Klare Onderrichtinge der Voortreffelijcke Worstel-Konst. Amsterdam: Johannes Janssonius van Waesberge, 1674.
4° (235 x 190mm.). Title with woodcut device, 71 ETCHED PLATES BY ROMEYN DE HOOGE, divided into 13 sections. (Title and plates 2 and 3 with small tears to outer margin neatly repaired, small hole to plate 67 caused by paper fault, occasional light staining.) Contemporary vellum (endpapers renewed, slightly soiled). Provenance: Mark Dinely (bookplate: sale Christie's, 26 June 1991, lot 183, #1300).
FIRST EDITION of this manual on self-defence, made famous by the lively etchings of the Dutch engraver, Romeyn de Hooghe (c.1650-c.1720). Each of the 13 sections deals with a different defensive manoeuvre, lettered to correspond with the text, and each begins with an unprovoked attack on a gentleman by a ruffian, who is finally overpowered by his would-be victim. Petter was wrestling master at a school in Amsterdam, where he taught self-defence to gentlemen, using every possible tactic (including very ungentlemanly kicking and hair-pulling) to teach his charges how to protect themselves. The book was issued posthumously by his pupil Robert Cors, and a German edition was published in the same year. A second Dutch edition was published in 1675 and French editions in 1690 and 1712. Landwehr Romeyn de Hooge 39.
4° (235 x 190mm.). Title with woodcut device, 71 ETCHED PLATES BY ROMEYN DE HOOGE, divided into 13 sections. (Title and plates 2 and 3 with small tears to outer margin neatly repaired, small hole to plate 67 caused by paper fault, occasional light staining.) Contemporary vellum (endpapers renewed, slightly soiled). Provenance: Mark Dinely (bookplate: sale Christie's, 26 June 1991, lot 183, #1300).
FIRST EDITION of this manual on self-defence, made famous by the lively etchings of the Dutch engraver, Romeyn de Hooghe (c.1650-c.1720). Each of the 13 sections deals with a different defensive manoeuvre, lettered to correspond with the text, and each begins with an unprovoked attack on a gentleman by a ruffian, who is finally overpowered by his would-be victim. Petter was wrestling master at a school in Amsterdam, where he taught self-defence to gentlemen, using every possible tactic (including very ungentlemanly kicking and hair-pulling) to teach his charges how to protect themselves. The book was issued posthumously by his pupil Robert Cors, and a German edition was published in the same year. A second Dutch edition was published in 1675 and French editions in 1690 and 1712. Landwehr Romeyn de Hooge 39.