Unique Copy of Makeblijde's Dutch and French Catechism, in a Volume of Catechisms

Lodewijk Makeblijde (1565–1630).
Catechismus oft Christliicke leeringhe . . . voor de Catholijcke Ionckheydt . . . der provincie van Mechelen . . . . Catechisme ou doctrine chréstienne . . . Pour la jeunesse Catholique . . . de la province de Malines.
Antwerp: Widow of Jan Cnobbaert, 1644. (BRB0690)

Makeblijde’s Catholic catechism was first printed in 1610 and Dutch and French editions continued to be published following his death in 1630. Several editions are extant in only one or two copies. This unique copy of a bilingual Dutch-French edition in a contemporary vellum binding is bound with three other early seventeenth-century catechisms: Makeblijde’s Le petit catechisme pour la jeunesse Catholique (1621, the only known copy), a manuscript catechism written in French (ca.1640), and the bilingual Gheestelijcke diamanten ende perelkens voor de Catholijcke Ionckheydt. Diamans et perles spiritueles pour la jeunesse Catholique (1644, earlier than any previously recorded edition). The front pastedown is inscribed by an early owner (“Anna josepha”) and at the beginning of the volume is a two-page manuscript, “Hymne avant le catechisme,” composed in Latin.