Calderon. Een lofdich

First edition; no copy recorded in the CCF or Worldcat, with a single copy held at the Real Academia Española.

Full red shagreen portfolio, smooth spine without lettering, double gilt and blind-tooled fillet borders with gilt garlands and rosettes at the corners on the covers, gilt title lettered in the center of the upper cover, moiré white silk endleaves and pastedowns, contemporary binding.

Inscribed and signed by Albertus Frederik Johan Reiger to Baron Joseph Louis Heinrich Alfred Gericke van Herwynen (1814–1899), Minister of the King of the Netherlands to the Court of Brussels, accompanied by an autograph signed note addressed to the same, dated 12 December 1881 and sent from Lunteren (Gelderland).

An exceptionally rare Dutch poem in praise of the great poet Pedro Calderon de La Barca (1600–1681), an unusual occurrence even in regions formerly within the Spanish sphere in the seventeenth century. It should be remembered, however, that it was published on the occasion of the second centenary of Calderon’s death, composed for the competition organized by the Real Academia Española and open to poets from across Europe. Albertus Frederik Johan Reiger (1856–1927) was born in Amsterdam, but almost nothing is known about his life.