8vo. 5 parts in 1: (XVI),865 (recte 871),(1 blank)(84 appendix) p. Contemporary limp overlapping vellum 16 cm (Ref: Brunet 1,982: 'Ce recueil de pièces érotiques est un des plus agréables que nous ayons en ce genre, mais il y manque nombre de morceaux qui auraient dû y figurer'; Graesse 1,444; Gay-Lemonnyer 3,1308) (Details: 2 thongs laced through the joints. Manuscript title on the back. Each part has its own title, followed by a dedication, preface and list of contents) (Condition: Binding age-tanned, worn, spotted and somewhat wrinkled. All four ties gone. Front flyleaf removed. First title thumbed, and showing a small hole at the imprint. Paper foxed and yellowing, some gatherings browning) (Note: This is the first edition of one of the most important 17th century anthologies of erotic Neolatin poetry from 148 poets. The collection was compiled by the Dutch man of action and letters, and neolatin poet, Damas Heymansz. Blyenburg, born Dordrecht 1558, deceased while traveling to Bohemia in or after 1616. Damas was in 1586 enrolled as a law student at Leiden and followed an intellectual career. In his youth he published a poem in praise of the neostoic treatise De Constantia of Justus Lipsius (1584), who was a professor at Leiden. He corresponded with many scholars. From a letter to Bonaventura Vulcanus, professor of Greek at Leiden, it seems that he participated in one of the first trips to the East Indies as a captain. In 1594 we find him in America, where he entered into the service of the first British governor of Virginia. Damas published the works of Fulgentius of Ruspe (Amsterdam 1610 & 1612), published an anthology of 200 Latin poets, Cento ethicus ex variis Poetis hinc inde contextus (Leiden 1599), and compiled another anthology,Veneres Blyenburgicae (Dordrecht 1600, 2nd edition 1613 Amsterdam). (NNBW 4,175/76; and ((www)).regionaalarchiefdordrecht.nl/achtergronden/familie-van-blijenburg-15e-17e-eeuw/ ) The Veneres Blyenburgicae, divided into 5 areolae (flower-beds), contains on more than 900 pages 1137 erotic poems of 148 poets, of Alciatus, Bonefonius, Dousa, Erasmus, Gruterus, Hessus, Lotichius, Muretus, Marullus, Politianus, Robortellus, Sannazarius, Janus Secundus and many others) (Collation: 1, *8, A-O8; 2, P-Z8; 3, 2A-2P8; 4, 2Q-2X8; 5, 2Y-3N8, 3O8 (minus blank leaf 3O8) (Photographs on request)