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PHILIPP VON ZESEN. SAMTLICHE WERKE. VOL XVI. BESCHREIBUNG DER STADT AMSTERDAM. Herausgegeben von Ferdinand van Ingen. Berlin and NewYork: Walter de Gruyter, 2000. Pp. iv + 627; 69 plates. DM 598.
Zesen's Beschreibung der Stadt Amsterdam (1664) is one of the few works of his which appeared in more than one edition during his lifetime (two editions appeared in 1664, one in quarto, one in twelvemo, published by two different publishing houses in Amsterdam). It has long been a popular work in The Netherlands, because of the detailed descriptions of the city of Amsterdam. However, until Christian Gellinek edited a photomechanical reproduction (1988), scholars of all kinds were forced to rely on one of the 1664 editions. Van Ingen's edition fills a lacuna left even after Gellinek's edition, providing a clear and easily readable edition with excellent reproductions of the plates, which present us with contemporary images of almost all the important buildings of the city in 1664.
The book was composed by Zesen, according to his own words, to thank the city fathers for the honor of having been declared an honorary citizen of Amsterdam (he received that honor on 20 October 1662). Zesen knew the city well, he had "nunmehr innerhalb zwei and zwanzig jahren die meiste zeit/ als ein Gast/ [da] zugebracht" (p. 8). Of course, there were probably financial considerations, too, both for Zesen...