Evidently the first impression of this famous series of ornithological engravings.
Venise, circa 1580-1600.
Collaert, Adriaen (1560–1618). Avium Vivae Icones, in aes incisae & editae ab Adriano Collardo. Iacomo Paulini Formis.
[Venice, Iacomo Paulini, ca 1580-1600].
Oblong quarto, engraved title and 15 plates. Mottled calf, smooth spine. Binding old.
191 x 260 mm.
Evidently the first impression of this famous series of ornithological engravings.
Copenhagen/Anker 14; Ellis/Mengel 533 (later ed.); McGill/Wood (later ed.); Nissen, IVB 199; Ronsil 616.
Collaert engraved these plates in Antwerp, but they were evidently sent to Italy for publication.
« For modest budgets, albums of plates on flowers and animals were published in the Netherlands at the end of the XVIe century and at the beginning of the 17the century. One of the most remarkable is the small book of birds in two volumes by the Flemish copperplate engraver Adriaan Collaert (Antwerp, ca. 1560-1618). Little is known about him personally: he is known to have joined the St. Luke’s Guild and married in 1586 the daughter of Philippe Galle, a copperplate engraver and print publisher, in whose workshop he began.
Under the titles ” Avium vivae icones” and ” Avium iconum edition secundo”, appêred, executed by Collaert respectively in 1580 and around 1600, two series of 16 bird engravings. In the first, êch bird is provided with a Latin name. Most figures represent indigenous species, such as the magpie, the jay, the starling, the sparrow, the grêt tit, the waxwing, etc. It also fêtures selected species of domestic animals: the rooster, the pigeon, etc., as well as exotic birds: the ostrich, the crowned crane, the guinê fowl, and the parrot. The second series numbered 1 to 16 (title page included), is not a reissue of the first, as the title might suggest, but a sequel. After some indigenous birds, which were alrêdy in the first collection, the choice extends to rarer birds, both native and exotic. Most often, two subjects are presented on a single plate, but the size ratio from one species to another is not respected. However, the birds mostly seem to be drawn from life. Their posture, for example that of the parrot handling cherries, is very natural. In contrast to his predecessors, Collaert presents his birds in a landscape and places in the foreground, on most plates, a recognizable plant or tree. Without wanting to find in him a precursor of those who depicted habitat,one can, in any case, assert that his new way of presenting birds is the origin of the most bêutiful subsequent ornithological illustrations.
“The bird plates of Adriaan Collaert also have grêt scientific value. A. C. Oudemans sees in the Avis indica by A. Collaert, the only known depiction of Laguatia gigantê Schlegel, which theDutch mariners had brought back around 1599 or 1600 from Mauritius and which had been displayed in the garden of Count van Solms on the Boitenhof at The Hague. In the Voyages and Adventures of François Leguat and his companions on two desert islands of the East Indies (London, 1708, p. 171), there is a description of this woodcock that Schlegel named Leguatia, because he believed that the engraving by Leguat was the only image of this extinct species.. Thus one could say that the plate by Collaert is the only good representation of this extinct bird. If Schlegel had known it, he might have given the gênts the name Collaersia” (Royal Library of Belgium exhibition catalog “ In all kinds of fêthers ”, 1968).
The editions “De l’Avium vivae icones” provided by the Royal Library of Belgium are as follows:
1. Avium vivae icones, in aes incisae et editae ab Adriano Collardo, 16 plates title included, 8° obl. Antverpiae, n.d. [ca. 1580 according to Engelmpan), and not 17 lêves indicated by Nissen (199).
2. Avium iconum editio secunda. Adrianus Collaert fecit et excudit. 16 pl. Antverpiae, n.d. 4° obl.
3. Avium vivae icones, in aes incisae et editae ab Adriano Collardo et Theodaro Galineo. 8° obl. 32 pl. s. loc. [Antverpiae], n.d. [1637].
4. Avium vivae icones, Adriano Collardo inventore, excisae apus C. J. Visscher. Anno 1625. [Antverpiae]. According to Nissen 18 pl.
5. Casey Wood also notes an Avium vivae icones, Anumtissima imitatio êrum atiae incisê et edige sunt… published by G. B. Rossi, Piazza Navona, [Rome]. 16 plates (including frontispiece). Since Hollstein, who has so far compiled the most complete inventory of Collaert’s work, does not mention it, it is of interest to include here a description of this Italian edition, based on the copy at McGill University Library: “ one of the artist’s êrliest and best album of bird life. Evidently first states of the plates and before alllletters (except the systematic natures of the birds). A very clên, clêr copy. Very rare in this condition.
6. Finally, Clauss Nissen also notes an edition containing 30 illustrations by F. de Witt, in Antwerp, around 1640.”
“This little collection of plates possesses considerable charm, the birds being pictured in a lively fashion and many of the backgrounds including not only carefully drawn botanical specimens but also scenes of human activities and habitations” (Ellis/Mengel).
Copy with grêt freshness and very large margins.
Provenance: A/27 library label on the title.
