929J Choquet, François-Hyacinthe / Baes, Martin (engr.).
Sancti Belgi Ordinis Praedicatorum.
Douai: Balthasar Bellère, 1618. price $1,900
Octavo 17x 10.5 cm. Signatures:π8,A-R8S3(4 blank and lacking) (16) including engraved, title. With 15 full-page engraved plates in text, signed by Martin Baes (fl. 1604-1637). Bound in handsome late 19th century English calf ruled in gilt, with gilt ornaments and title on spine (bound by W. Pratt). Provenance: 1) Charles Inglis (1824-1900), his intricately cut-out ex-libris; 2) Edward Arnold, Esq., of the Grove, Dorking (his sale in 1929, Sotheby’s, lot #91); 3) Harold E. Matthews (ca. 1950?).
Sole edition of this textual and iconographic treatment of celebrated Dominicans of the Low Countries, including recently-martyred beata and saints. The first 5 chapters describe the early history of the order in Belgium; around half of the 30 or so remaining entries are accorded a full-page portrait including the traditional motifs of the holy man or woman. Chapters are also found on the particular devotion to the rosary (a Dominican innovation) in the Low Countries (pp. 262-268).
Perhaps surprisingly, the single lengthiest entry (62 pages) is given to Margaret of Ypres (1216–1237), a mystic visionary who engaged in self-flagellation. The second lengthiest entry (28 pages) is given to the obscure Bruxelloise poet Margareta de Gerines (ca. 1400-1470).
Among the Dominicans who had enjoyed recent martyrdom during the Wars of Religion we find Antonius Timmerman (pp. 117-127), executed for the attempted assassination of William of Orange in 1582. Blessed Birgitta (Brigida) of Holland. She was a Dominican tertiary (member of the Third Order) who lived in the Netherlands in the 14th century , known as a mystic and a widow, and she is recorded as a stigmatized person, meaning she is believed to have received the wounds of Christ. She died around 1390.
The engraver Martin Baes (fl. 1604-1637) was likely trained in Antwerp and was active in Douai from 1618 until his death. He is most often associated with the English College and its activities there, but we see no obvious Recusant connection to the present work.
Margaret of Ypres (1216–1237)
A young laywoman inspired by the early Dominican preaching in Flanders, Margaret of Ypres became renowned for her precocious holiness, intense affective piety, and ministry of consolation to the poor and sick. Her short life, marked by fasting, tears, and visions, was celebrated by Dominican writers as an ideal of interior devotion that mirrored the earliest friars’ call to reform the heart.
Margareta de Gerines († c. 1275)
A Dominican tertiary connected to the conventual world of northern France and Flanders, Margareta de Gerines is presented by Choquet as a model of hidden sanctity. Her life of penitence, ecstatic prayer, and self-effacing charity exemplifies the contemplative dimension of the Dominican vocation, where the offering of one’s interior life becomes a form of preaching.
Brigida of Holland (late 13th–early 14th c.)
Brigida, a little-known but strikingly devout woman associated with the Dominican milieu in the Low Countries, is remembered for her simple virtues, constancy in prayer, and unwavering service to her community. Choquet includes her as a witness to the broad social reach of Dominican spirituality, showing how the Order inspired sanctity among laywomen as readily as among friars and nuns. Her quiet perseverance and devotion to the Passion place her squarely within the tradition of northern female mysticism.
OCLC shows US copies at the NYPL, Dominican House of Studies, Illinois, Harvard, Providence College, and Wisconsin.
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