Batavia Illustrata, ofte Verhandelinge Vanden Oorspronk Voortgank, Zeden, Eere, Staat en Godtsdienst van Ou Batavien Mitsgaders Van den Adel en Regeringe van Hollandt. by van Leeuwen Simon. 1685 s Gravenhage: Johan Veely, Tongerloo, Jasper Doll, 1685. First Edition. Hardcover (Full vellum).Attractively engraved added title page. Printed in two columns, 1520 numbered leaves. 

1st Edition. Batavia Illustrata, or Treatise on the Origin, Progress, Morals, Honor, State and Religion of Old Batavien, as well as of the Nobility and Government of Holland, partly from W. van Gouthoven and other writers, but mainly from a multitude of old writings and authentic documents and evidence. Compiled by Mr Simon van Leeuwen - The Hague, Johan Veely, Johan Tongerloo, Jasper Doll,

With Van Leeuwen we encounter a writer interested in several subjects: Dutch law, Dutch history, Roman law and even world history. In my view he clearly aspired to have a part in major projects both within Holland and on an European scale. Only by considering this context you can arrive at an explanation for the title of his posthumously published massive work Batavia illustrata, ofte Verhandelinge vanden oorspronk, voortgank, zeden, eere, staat en godtsdienst van Oud Batavien (…) (1 vol. in 2 parts, The Hague 1685), “Illustrious Holland, or a treatise on the origin, progress, traditions, state and religion of Old Batavia“. Van Leeuwen presents here materials around an enlarged edition of a work by Wouter van Goudhoeven (1577-1628), D’oude chronijcke ende historien van Holland (first edition 1620), in itself a continuation of the so-called Divisiekroniek, first printed in the early sixteenth century. Van Leeuwen does not only follow the foot steps of Dutch historians, but chooses a title, Batavia Illustrata which in a way sounds as a conscious imitation of the title of a famous work on the history of Italy, Italia illustrata by Flavio Biondo. The frontispiece of Van Leeuwen’s opus ultimum shows in front of the two angels with the title at the left an allegory of the Dutch virgin with a staff bearing the hat of library and a hand caressing the Dutch lion, and at the same time telling Clio, the muse of history, the stories of Holland’s glory which she jots down in the book on her knees. If you read the complete title on the title page you cannot miss the double approach of this work, a continuation and improvement on earlier histories and a work based on research in oude schriften ende authenticque stukken, “old manuscripts and original records”.