Beschryving der nieuwlijks uitgevonden en geoctrojeerde slang-brand-spuiten, en haare wijze van brand-blussen [Description of the Recently Invented and Patented Fire Engine, and the Method of Fire Extinguishing].

Jan van der Heyden (1637–1712).

Beschryving der nieuwlijks uitgevonden en geoctrojeerde slang-brand-spuiten, en haare wijze van brand-blussen [Description of the Recently Invented and Patented Fire Engine, and the Method of Fire Extinguishing].

Amsterdam: Jan Rieuwertsz,

1690.

The main focus of my collection is architectural treatises, i.e., books on the orders. This work by Jan van der Heyden is really an exception and one of my favorite books; it deals with a fantasy house in a seventeenth-century city, an Amsterdam look-alike. With beautiful and spectacular plates, fire and fire hoses are everywhere to be seen, and you wonder if the library will be saved. Apart from the dangers of the rapid spread of fire, it gives much information about the use of, and way of life in, a typical canal house. It tells me a lot about their construction as well, very useful for today's restoration architects. Van der Heyden was multi-talented: he was superintendent of the Amsterdam fire brigade, and a skilled painter of city views, as well as an inventor.

Wolbert Vroom