RESERVED

Johannes Mauritius (1660-1720).

Zeege-pralende lof-tooneel der vrouwelyke sexe, tegen dat vuyl en leelyk A, B, C, vol hatelyke namen der vrouwen, uytgebraakt van de Papen, […] om haar huwelijks-verbod te styven, en een yder, die sy in 't klooster lokken willen, af te schrikken van den huwelyken staat.

Amsterdam, Johannes Strander, 1704.

8°. [48], 378, [12] pp. With an engraved frontispiece.

Contemporary mottled calf with ribbed and gold-tooled spine, sprinkled edges.

               Rare first and only edition of a peculiar and polemical work, which uses a female abecedarium to attack Catholic invective against women. Arranged alphabetically—from Avidum animal to Zelus Zelotipus—the author ironically surveys women’s wit, eloquence, moral qualities, and physical appearance, combining satire, polemic, and learned rhetoric. The book also offers insight into early-eighteenth-century Protestant debates on marriage, gender, and Catholic religious culture.
               The author was an Amsterdam merchant and former Catholic priest who converted to Calvinism and became known for his vehemently anti-Catholic writings, often directed against monastic life and clerical celibacy. Zeege-pralende lof-tooneel der vrouwelyke sexe must be read within this broader religious and ideological agenda: Johannes Mauritius presents Catholic denunciations of women as a deliberate strategy employed by “the Papists” to justify the prohibition of marriage and to lure men into the cloister. He was the father of the prodigy poet, jurist, and later Suriname governor Joan Jacob Mauricius (1692–1768), whose early intellectual development was shaped by his father’s militant anti-Catholicism and literary ambitions.

Condition: corners slightly bumped, front joint splitting. Small faint stain on the first few pages (see pictures). Otherwise in very good condition.

Reference: Muller 482; De Vries 190; Scheepers I, 452.