Around 1590, drawings were regularly sent out of the city of Florence - pen-and-ink drawings, shaded in brown and blue - destined for the engraving workshops in Antwerp. Jan van der Straet sent some four hundred such designs across the Alps; in return came printed editions that were distributed across Europe and as far as the Far East. Van der Straet had first travelled this route himself, but in the opposite direction - a painter and designer of prints, born in Bruges around 1523.
His training began with his father in Bruges and led to Pieter Aertsen’s workshop in Antwerp; in 1545, the Guild of Saint Luke admitted him as a master. Shortly afterwards, he moved south, via Lyon and Venice according to his biographer Raffaello Borghini; in Venice, around 1550, a Flemish weaver from the Medici tapestry workshop lured him on to Florence. In Italy, Jan van der Straet became Giovanni Stradano, Latinised as Johannes Stradanus.
From 1557, he was Giorgio Vasari’s closest collaborator on the decoration of the Palazzo Vecchio; his self-portrait appears right next to Vasari’s in a section of the ceiling of the Salone dei Cinquecento. In 1570, he signed a panel for the studiolo of the Medici prince Francesco I - his laboratory and cabinet of curiosities - with ‘Ioannes Stratensis Flandrus’, meaning ‘Jan van der Straet, the Fleming’ - his origins spelt out in full right in the heart of the Medici Palace. Such self-assurance came at a price: in Vasari’s circle, people mocked the overly Flemish character of his paintings, and Vasari even tried to take an altarpiece commission for Santa Maria Novella away from him - but Stradanus kept it.
In 1576, he entered the service of Don Juan de Austria, the victor of the Battle of Lepanto, in Naples; he followed him to the Netherlands later that same year - his first return home in twenty years - and, for his first major series of engravings commissioned by Philips Galle, delivered forty portraits of horses from the general’s stables. From 1583 onwards, he settled permanently in Florence once more and devoted himself primarily to creating engravings; the prints were produced in Antwerp by the Galle and Collaert families of engravers and by the Wierix brothers. His hunting tapestries for the Medici villa at Poggio a Caiano thus developed, by 1596, into an encyclopaedia of hunting comprising 104 plates: the *Venationes* series. One of these is: ‘Men in heavy armour attack bears by stabbing them in the vital organs, Plate 26 from *Venationes Ferarum, Avium, Piscium*, engraved by Jan Collaert’. In the plate, the bears rear up like wrestlers against hunters in gleaming full-body armour; a slain animal lies in the grass in the foreground.
In the late 1580s, he designed the *Nova Reperta*, twenty plates on the innovations of the time - the compass, gunpowder, spectacles, the iron clock - first published in Antwerp in 1591; the series had been inspired by the humanist Luigi Alamanni, whose notes appear on the reverse sides of the sketches. A plate entitled *Impressio Librorum* depicts, of all things, the trade that brought Stradanus’s own images to the world: a printing workshop at work. On the left, the typesetters sit at their type cases, whilst a boy lays out freshly printed sheets; on the right, the printer strains against the press; the Latin caption celebrates the process with a comparison: just as a single voice reaches many ears, a single written text fills a thousand pages.
At the same time, Florence was reflecting on Dante’s afterlife. In 1587/88, Stradanus, again for Alamanni, drew a series on the Divine Comedy, focusing on the Inferno; in 1588, the young Galileo Galilei gave lectures at the Accademia Fiorentina, the city’s scholarly society, on the shape, location and size of Dante’s Hell. It is against this backdrop that the ‘Map of Hell, illustration from Dante’s Inferno, 1587’ belongs: The funnel of Hell opens out as a terraced abyss, ring upon ring, each circle labelled, with tiny figures crowding the ledges, and towards the bottom everything narrows to a single dark shaft. The planned series of engravings remained unfinished; only a single plate was ever published, depicting Dante and Virgil before Lucifer.
He worked right up until shortly before his death; he died in Florence in 1605 and was buried in the Chapel of the Foreigners at the Santissima Annunziata. The bust at his grave, modelled on a portrait by his son Scipione, emphasises his Bruges origins, and in the *Schilder-Boeck* of 1604, Karel van Mander’s collection of artists’ biographies, it is stated, in German translation, that Flanders may take comfort in having had such a remarkable citizen of Bruges, who made the beautiful city of Florence even more beautiful with his work.
His collection thrives on this long-distance trade in prints: engravings and hand-coloured engravings make up the bulk of it, and the most delicate aspect of them is precisely what was added in Antwerp - the line of the graver, which Stradanus himself never held in his hand; it was created by Galle, Collaert and Wierix. At Meisterdrucke, we therefore produce these prints using the giclée process without a screen, resulting in no visible dot pattern; every single line of engraving from the Antwerp workshops is rendered individually on fine natural white paper, every hatching, every cross-hatching.
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.jpg "Map of Hell, Illustration from Dante")
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 engraved by Jan Collaert (1566-1628) publishe - (MeisterDrucke-163439).jpg "Men in Heavy Armour Attack Bears by Stabbing them in the Vitals, plate 26 from")
 engraved by Jan Collaert (1566-1628) publishe - (MeisterDrucke-163439).jpg)
.jpg "Horologia Ferrea, plate 5 from")
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.jpg "Conspicilla, Plate 15 from")
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.jpg "Oleum Olivarum, Plate 12 from")
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.jpg "Crucifixion by Jan van der Straet")
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.jpg "The region of Ethiopia produces every kind of beast - tigers, lions, wild ox, ostrich, deer and other animals live together peacefully, It is the custom to hunt elephants, illustration from")
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_Straet_-_Ulysses_Mercury_and_Circe_With_the_companions_of_Ulysses_transformed_into_pigs_(_-_(MeisterDrucke-1016546).jpg "Ulysses, Mercury and Circe by Jan van der Straet")
_Straet_-_Ulysses_Mercury_and_Circe_With_the_companions_of_Ulysses_transformed_into_pigs_(_-_(MeisterDrucke-1016546).jpg)
.jpg "Two Monks Present Silkworms Smuggled from China to the Emperor Justinian, plate 2 from")
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.jpg "Ponte a Santa Trinita, Florence by Jan van der Straet")
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.jpg "Vanity, Modesty and Death by Jan van der Straet")
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.jpg "The Siege of Florence by Jan van der Straet")
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.jpg "Ferdinand Magellan, Plate 4 from Americae Retectio by Jan van der Straet")
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.jpg "An Ambush Against Giovanni de")
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.jpg "Spinning Silk (Introduction of the Silkworm and Silk Production in Europe) (Vermis Sericus) by Karel van Mallery")
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.jpg "Paul Bitten by a Viper in the Hand (History of the Apostles) by Hendrick Goltzius")
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 landing in America engraved by Theodor Galle (1571-1633) - (MeisterDrucke-39708).jpg "Amerigo Vespucci Landing in America, Engraved by Theodor Galle by Jan van der Straet")
 landing in America engraved by Theodor Galle (1571-1633) - (MeisterDrucke-39708).jpg)
_-_(MeisterDrucke-1330735).jpg "The Blessed Are Received into Heaven (The Last Judgment) by Hendrick Goltzius")
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.jpg "The Astrolabe - Amerigo Vespucci, from Nova Reperta by Jan van der Straet")
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_Straet_-_Distillatio_In_igne_succus_omnium_arte_corporum_Vigens_fit_unda_limpida_and_poti_-_(MeisterDrucke-927297).jpg "Distillation: 16th century engraving by Jan van der Straet on the different stages of distillation. by Jan van der Straet")
_Straet_-_Distillatio_In_igne_succus_omnium_arte_corporum_Vigens_fit_unda_limpida_and_poti_-_(MeisterDrucke-927297).jpg)
Nieuwe_uitvindingen_-_(MeisterDrucke-1332267).jpg "Production of Copper Engravings by Philips Galle (attributed to workshop of)")
Nieuwe_uitvindingen_-_(MeisterDrucke-1332267).jpg)
Venationes_Ferar_-_(MeisterDrucke-1361676).jpg "Fishing with the Help of Pelicans (Hunting Scenes) by Karel van Mallery")
Venationes_Ferar_-_(MeisterDrucke-1361676).jpg)
 engraved by Jan Collaert (1566-1628) - (MeisterDrucke-205095).jpg "Semi-Naked Savages of India Using Pelicans to Catch Fish, plate 91, illustration from")
 engraved by Jan Collaert (1566-1628) - (MeisterDrucke-205095).jpg)
Nieuwe_uitvindingen_en_ontdekkingen_(ser_-_(MeisterDrucke-1367866).jpg "Distillation (title on object) New Inventions and Discoveries (series title) Nova Reperta (series title) by Philips Galle (attributed to workshop of)")
Nieuwe_uitvindingen_en_ontdekkingen_(ser_-_(MeisterDrucke-1367866).jpg)
.jpg "Birdcatchers Using Traps Baited with Rats to Capture Hawks, plate 64, illustration from")
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.jpg "The Invention of Gunpowder and the First Casting of Bronze Cannon, plate 4 from")
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In_quibus_omne_genus_venationi_-_(MeisterDrucke-1376110).jpg "Wild Cat Hunt (series title: Hunting Scenes) by Philips Galle")
In_quibus_omne_genus_venationi_-_(MeisterDrucke-1376110).jpg)
.jpg "Indian Method of Catching Geese in Shallow Water by Placing a Gourd on Their Head with a Bait of Food on Top, Plate 94, Illustration from")
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.jpg "Four Scenes from Sericulture Series by Jan van der Straet")
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Venationes_Ferarum_au_-_(MeisterDrucke-1384851).jpg "Hunting Water Snakes in India by Karel van Mallery")
Venationes_Ferarum_au_-_(MeisterDrucke-1384851).jpg)
.jpg "Giovanni de")
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.jpg "Sea Monster Attacking a Boat During a Spectacle in a Marine Enclosure at Ostia, plate 85, illustration from")
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.jpg "Bear hunting with dogs and spears, illustration from")
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.jpg "Title-Page of a Sketchbook Showing Two Scenes, One Including the Blinding of Cyclops (Recto) by Jan van der Straet")
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.jpg "Hyacum et lues venerea, plate 6 from")
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.jpg "Collecting Mulberry Leaves and Feeding the Silkworms by Karel van Mallery")
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_-_Vrouwen_verjagen_een_saterJachttaferelen_(series_title)Venationes_Ferarum_auium_-_(MeisterDrucke-1362702).jpg "Women Chasing Away a Satyr by Jan Collaert (II)")
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.jpg "Cornelia, the Virtuous Mother of the Gracchi by Theodoor Galle")
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_-_Jacht_op_kraaien_en_spreeuwenJachttaferelen_(series_title)Venationes_Ferarum_aui_-_(MeisterDrucke-1362040).jpg "Hunting Crows and Starlings by Jan Collaert (II)")
_-_Jacht_op_kraaien_en_spreeuwenJachttaferelen_(series_title)Venationes_Ferarum_aui_-_(MeisterDrucke-1362040).jpg)
_-_KrokodillenvangstJachttaferelen_(series_title)Venationes_Ferarum_auium_piscium_p_-_(MeisterDrucke-1370609).jpg "Crocodile Hunt (series title: Hunting Scenes, Venationes Ferarum, Auium, Piscium Pvgnae Bestiariorum) by Jan Collaert (II)")
_-_KrokodillenvangstJachttaferelen_(series_title)Venationes_Ferarum_auium_piscium_p_-_(MeisterDrucke-1370609).jpg)
Achivvs_(title_on_object)Paardenrassen_uit_de_Kon_-_(MeisterDrucke-1376091).jpg "Horse from Greece (Achivus) (series title: Horse Breeds from the Royal Stables of Don Juan of Austria) by Hieronymus Wierix")
Achivvs_(title_on_object)Paardenrassen_uit_de_Kon_-_(MeisterDrucke-1376091).jpg)
Nova_Reperta_(ser_-_(MeisterDrucke-1362273).jpg "Printing Press by Philips Galle (attributed to workshop of)")
Nova_Reperta_(ser_-_(MeisterDrucke-1362273).jpg)
 engraved by Philip Galle (1537-1612) c1600 (later colouration) - (MeisterDrucke-157625).jpg "The Production of Olive Oil, plate 13 from")
 engraved by Philip Galle (1537-1612) c1600 (later colouration) - (MeisterDrucke-157625).jpg)
_-_Diana_als_patrones_van_de_jachtVenatio_(title_on_object)Belangrijkste_bezigheden_-_(MeisterDrucke-1357204).jpg "Diana as Patroness of the Hunt (Principal Occupations of a Prince) by Raphaël Sadeler (I)")
_-_Diana_als_patrones_van_de_jachtVenatio_(title_on_object)Belangrijkste_bezigheden_-_(MeisterDrucke-1357204).jpg)
.jpg "A bear hunt showing a hairy bear sinking its sharp claws into one of the hunters, illustration from")
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_(after)_Straet_-_A_Herd_of_Elephants_Instinctively_Build_a_Pit_Trap_plate_1_from_Venationes_Ferar_-_(MeisterDrucke-1121039).jpg "A Herd of Elephants Instinctively Build a Pit Trap, Plate 1 from")
_(after)_Straet_-_A_Herd_of_Elephants_Instinctively_Build_a_Pit_Trap_plate_1_from_Venationes_Ferar_-_(MeisterDrucke-1121039).jpg)
.jpg "Hunting Sea Creatures, plate 84 from")
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In_quibus_omne_genus_venationis_aucupij_pi_-_(MeisterDrucke-1376061).jpg "Monkey Hunt by Philips Galle")
In_quibus_omne_genus_venationis_aucupij_pi_-_(MeisterDrucke-1376061).jpg)
_-_Venus_en_MarsVenvs_et_Mavors_(title_on_object)_-_(MeisterDrucke-1367674).jpg "Venus and Mars by Jan Collaert (II)")
_-_Venus_en_MarsVenvs_et_Mavors_(title_on_object)_-_(MeisterDrucke-1367674).jpg)
_-_KonijnenjachtJachttaferelen_(series_title)In_quibus_omne_genus_venationis_aucupi_-_(MeisterDrucke-1364654).jpg "Rabbit Hunt by Philips Galle (possibly)")
_-_KonijnenjachtJachttaferelen_(series_title)In_quibus_omne_genus_venationis_aucupi_-_(MeisterDrucke-1364654).jpg)
.jpg "Indians Shoot Lions with Arrows, who have Captured Monkeys in their Mouths, illustration from")
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_Straet_-_Printing_office_c1600_-_Holland_Printing_on_the_left_the_characters_use_characte_-_(MeisterDrucke-985941).jpg "Printing office, c1600 - Holland. Engraving from")
_Straet_-_Printing_office_c1600_-_Holland_Printing_on_the_left_the_characters_use_characte_-_(MeisterDrucke-985941).jpg)
_-_VenusVenvs_(title_on_object)Zeven_planeetgoden_(series_title)Septem_Planetae_(se_-_(MeisterDrucke-1363167).jpg "Venus by Jan Collaert (II)")
_-_VenusVenvs_(title_on_object)Zeven_planeetgoden_(series_title)Septem_Planetae_(se_-_(MeisterDrucke-1363167).jpg)
.jpg "The Great King of the Parthians hunts with his tame panthers, illustration from")
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_-_Kroning_van_Maria_met_engelenscharen_-_(MeisterDrucke-1362265).jpg "Coronation of Mary with Choirs of Angels by Johann Sadeler (I)")
_-_Kroning_van_Maria_met_engelenscharen_-_(MeisterDrucke-1362265).jpg)
_-_Onthoofding_van_Jakobus_de_MeerdereHandelingen_van_de_apostelen_(series_title)Ac_-_(MeisterDrucke-1359485).jpg "Beheading of James the Greater (Acts of the Apostles) by Philips Galle (possibly)")
_-_Onthoofding_van_Jakobus_de_MeerdereHandelingen_van_de_apostelen_(series_title)Ac_-_(MeisterDrucke-1359485).jpg)
.jpg "Giovanni de")
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.jpg "Fowlers Catching Crows, Illustration from")
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.jpg "The Descent of the Holy Ghost by Philips Galle")
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Nova_Reperta_(ser_-_(MeisterDrucke-1361164).jpg "Clockmakers (series title) by Philips Galle (attributed to workshop of)")
Nova_Reperta_(ser_-_(MeisterDrucke-1361164).jpg)
.jpg "Sketchbook Page: Pearl Fishing; Recto, Diana by Jan van der Straet")
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_-_(MeisterDrucke-1330485).jpg "The Damned Enter Hell (The Last Judgment) by Hendrick Goltzius")
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 and Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) engraved by Jan Collaert (1566-1628) printed by Philipp Galle (1537-1612) c1600 (b - (MeisterDrucke-62335).jpg "Discovery of America with portraits of Amerigo Vespucci and Christopher Columbus engraved by Jan Collaert printed by Philipp Galle by Jan van der Straet")
 and Christopher Columbus (1451-1506) engraved by Jan Collaert (1566-1628) printed by Philipp Galle (1537-1612) c1600 (b - (MeisterDrucke-62335).jpg)
Nova_Reper_-_(MeisterDrucke-1360554).jpg "Artillery Workshop (series title: New Inventions and Discoveries) by Philips Galle (attributed to workshop of)")
Nova_Reper_-_(MeisterDrucke-1360554).jpg)
.jpg "Apollo Flays Marsyas by Theodoor Galle")
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.jpg "Page from a Sketchbook Showing St. Luke by Jan van der Straet")
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.jpg "The Saracen Joust in Via Larga, Florence by Jan van der Straet")
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End_-_(MeisterDrucke-1381265).jpg "David playing his harp for King Saul, Hymn to Music (series title) by Adriaen Collaert")
End_-_(MeisterDrucke-1381265).jpg)
Thessalvs_(title_on_object)Paardenrassen_uit_de_Ko_-_(MeisterDrucke-1376143).jpg "Horse from Thessaly by Hieronymus Wierix")
Thessalvs_(title_on_object)Paardenrassen_uit_de_Ko_-_(MeisterDrucke-1376143).jpg)
.jpg "God")
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_engrave_-_(MeisterDrucke-321228).jpg "Vespucci Discovering America, plate 2 from")
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.jpg "Preparation and Use of Guayaco for Treating Syphilis, Engraved by Philip Galle, c.1570 by Jan van der Straet")
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_-_Paulus_wekt_Eutychus_terug_tot_levenHandelingen_van_de_apostelen_(series_title)A_-_(MeisterDrucke-1359491).jpg "Paul Revives Eutychus (Acts of the Apostles) by Philips Galle (workshop of)")
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.jpg "Calculating Longitude with the Declination of the Sun, plate 17 from")
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 engraved by Jan Collaert (1566-1628) pub by Phillipus Gallaeus - (MeisterDrucke-191957).jpg "The French King Stag Hunting with Dogs, Illustration from")
 engraved by Jan Collaert (1566-1628) pub by Phillipus Gallaeus - (MeisterDrucke-191957).jpg)
.jpg "Hunting Monkeys in the Countryside, Illustration from")
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_-_Vlucht_naar_Egypte_-_(MeisterDrucke-1365008).jpg "Flight into Egypt by Jan Collaert (II)")
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Paardenrassen_uit_de_Koninklijke_stallen_v_-_(MeisterDrucke-1376016).jpg "Horse from Saxony by Hieronymus Wierix")
Paardenrassen_uit_de_Koninklijke_stallen_v_-_(MeisterDrucke-1376016).jpg)
.jpg "Titlepage of")
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.jpg "The Blessed are Separated from the Cursed (The Last Judgment) by Hendrick Goltzius")
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.jpg "Medicine Against Syphilis by Philips Galle (attributed to workshop of)")
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.jpg "The Acts of the Apostles by Adriaen Collaert")
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_-_Paulus_verkondigt_de_leer_van_Christus_te_RomeHandelingen_van_de_apostelen_(seri_-_(MeisterDrucke-1362999).jpg "Paul Preaching the Doctrine of Christ in Rome by Philips Galle (possibly)")
_-_Paulus_verkondigt_de_leer_van_Christus_te_RomeHandelingen_van_de_apostelen_(seri_-_(MeisterDrucke-1362999).jpg)
.jpg "Saint Luke Painting the Virgin and Child by Philips Galle (attributed to workshop of)")
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Paard_-_(MeisterDrucke-1376115).jpg "Horse from Rome and a Broodmare (series title: Horse Breeds from the Royal Stables of Don Juan of Austria) by Hieronymus Wierix")
Paard_-_(MeisterDrucke-1376115).jpg)
.jpg "The Descent of the Holy Ghost by Philips Galle")
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.jpg "Hunters using Falcons to hunt Geese, illustration from")
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.jpg "Album with Representations of the Family History of the House of Medici by Philips Galle")
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.jpg "Unicorns on the banks of the Indus, hunted by permission of the King, illustration from")
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.jpg "The Development of Printing, plate 5 from")
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 - (MeisterDrucke-62790).jpg "Portrait of Amerigo Vespucci by Jan van der Straet")
 - (MeisterDrucke-62790).jpg)
.jpg "The Battle of Labadia si Sena and St. Abonda, Plate 3 from")
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.jpg "Page of a Sketchbook- Showing a Scene of a Cremation by Jan van der Straet")
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In_quibus_omne_-_(MeisterDrucke-1376039).jpg "Deer Hunt with Camouflage by Philips Galle")
In_quibus_omne_-_(MeisterDrucke-1376039).jpg)
_Straet_-_Oyster_fishing_17th_century_Engraving_by_Giovanni_Stradano_(Jan_Van_Der_Straet)_-_(MeisterDrucke-948515).jpg "Oyster fishing. 17th century. Engraving by Giovanni Stradano (Jan Van Der Straet) (Johannes Stradanus) (1523-1605) by Jan van der Straet")
_Straet_-_Oyster_fishing_17th_century_Engraving_by_Giovanni_Stradano_(Jan_Van_Der_Straet)_-_(MeisterDrucke-948515).jpg)
.jpg "The Invention of Copper Engraving, plate 20 from")
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.jpg "Hannibal Makes Defeated Romans Fight Each Other, illustration from")
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Nova_Rep_-_(MeisterDrucke-1360867).jpg "Medicine Against Syphilis by Philips Galle (attributed to workshop of)")
Nova_Rep_-_(MeisterDrucke-1360867).jpg)
.jpg "Paul Drives Out Evil Spirits in Ephesus by Philips Galle")
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 engraved by Jan Collaert (1566-1628) pub by Phillipus Gallaeus Amste - (MeisterDrucke-178637).jpg "Fishing with Tridents, plate 90, illustration from")
 engraved by Jan Collaert (1566-1628) pub by Phillipus Gallaeus Amste - (MeisterDrucke-178637).jpg)
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