After Jan van der Straet, called Stradanus 1523-1605

Engravings by Karel de Mallery, Cornelis Galle, Hans and Adriaen Collaert, circa 1578, many good impressions, published in Antwerp by Philip Galle, title and 30 plates, from the set of 104, with margins, pl. 2 annotation in ink just below title space, pl. 25, 32 and 79 with minor folds, occasional foxmarks and traces of surface dirt, light paper discoloration, other minor defects, (unexamined out of frames)

First edition of this marvellous hunting series. The second edition was published in Amsterdam circa 1630. 'Straat... was born in Bruges, but did most of his work in Italy. He was principally a designer of cartoons for tapestries, and there are very few of his pictures in existence. From 1553-1571 he was employed by the Duke Cosimo de Medici in Florence, who commissioned him to make a number of designs for tapestries, representing fowling, fishing and hunting scenes, for the adornment of twenty rooms in the Palace of Peggio-a-Cajano. The present set of 'Venationes' was engraved from these beautiful and original compositions.' (Schwerdt 2:228)