PETTER, Nicolaes. Der künstliche Ringer: oder Dess Weyland Wolgeübeten und Berühmten Ring-Meisters Niclaus Petters Kurtze, jedoch klare Unterweisung und Anleitung zu der Fürtrefflichen Ringe-Kunst: Darauss zulehrnen, wie man sich bey allerhand vorfallenden Schlägereyen fürsichtig beschützen, alle unredliche Anfälle, Stösse, Schläge, und dergleichen Angriffe mit geschwinder Fertigkeit abkehren, und seinem bosshafften Ansprenger Kunst-geschicklich begegnen könne. Amst., J.J. van Waesberge, 1674. 4to. Bound in very fine 19th century crushed black morocco by L. BROCA, richly gilt, ribbed spine, gilt triple fillet border, inside borders and dentelles around both covers, double fillet border around edges of covers, marbled endpapers, a.e.g. With 71 full-p. etched plates by Romeyn DE HOOGHE. (8), 15, (3 blank)pp.
The very rare first and only German edition, published simultaneously with the much more common Dutch edition, of the finest of all wrestling books, containing also a method for an unarmed man attacked by a man armed with a knife to defend himself. The book is perhaps even more important by its ills. by the famous Dutch artist Romeyn DE HOOGHE (1645-1708) than by the text of Nicolaes Petter. Sydney Anglo characterizes the book as "historically speaking the most important treatise on unarmed combat ever printed . the finest of all wrestling books and deservedly the most famous". The combination of Petter's lucid descriptions, devoid of all jargon and De Hooghe's masterful depiction of pain and violence in the engravings, elevates the book to its position of solitary eminence. It is also unique in presenting an effective and complete unarmed combat system in a format from which it would be actually to learn. After the preface there is indeed a kind of advertisement "An den Kunst-Begierigen Leser" (To the lovers of the art), in which those interested are recommended to take lessons in wrestling with the pupil of the late Petter, Robert Cors, who gives his lessons on payment at the house of Petter's widow on the Prinsengracht in Amst. not far from the fencing-school.
Attractive copy from the library of Marquis Emmanuel Du Bourg de Bozas Chaix d'Est-Ange, with his morocco bookplate on first free endpaper.- (Old number on title-p.; first few lvs w. small waterstain in outer blank margin).
Thimm p. 224; Landwehr, Romeyn DE HOOGHE as bookillustrator 39 (p. 93, with reproduction of plate 61 on p. 92); S.Anglo, The martial arts of Renaissance Europe (2000), p. 190; Lipperheide 3042; Hollstein IX, nrs. 968-1038; cf, En Garde 66, listing an incomplete copy of the Dutch edition.