HUYBRECHTS Adriaen (printer - editor ) - Crispin van den BROECK ( designer ) - Susanne van BREE ( dedicatee ) :
Reference : 40116
" Antwerpen, Adriaenus Hubertus Antverpiensis excudit, 1576, suite of 1 + 18 engravings, portrait format, leaf size 36,5 x 25,5 cm, plate size 26,5 x 19 cm, the plates are sown together in the left margin and kept in a modern half cloth portfolio in a box. Title page has a tiny marginal hole, with, as usual , some very slight soiling at some plates, some small marginal wormholes but on the whole a very nice suite. The suite consists of 19 engravings; a title page with the dedication to the abbess Suzanne van Bree of the abbey of Rothem ( Rotem ) , a suite of 18 (numbered 3->20) depicting scenes in the life of Mary . Missing are the plates with the number 1 (if this is not the title ?) and certainly plate 2. All the plates have a printed caption in latin - in cursive lettering . Plate 17 has no signatures at all. All other plates are signed by A.H. as printer (excud.) , all plates (except 13 and 17) are signed by CVB as designer (inv.). Plate 7 has also a signature of I. Ditmer sculps. Plates 3 , 6, 9, 10, 13, 14, 16, 18 bear the signature H.C.F. (Hans Collaert fecit ?). Plate 11 depicts the nativity; plate 13 , the adoration of the Magi ; plate 20 , Assumption of BVM. The dedicatee Suzanne van Bree was the abbess of the cisterciensian abbey of Rotem (near Halen, Limburg). The Dutch name for the abbey was ''Mariëndaal'' (Vally of the Holy Mary) , hence the subject of the suite. S. van Bree was appointed abbess in 1555 by Mary of Hungary, governess of the Netherlands. She died and was buried in Sint-Truiden on 27th September 1584. (Monasticon Belge , Vol. vi)."