Beinecke MS 536
The Netherlands (Leeuwarden), 1601-1605
Iohannes Baers, Lamentationes Ieremiae carmine elegiaco redditae

1. f. 1r	[title page:] Lamentationes Ieremiae prophetae carmine elegiaco redditae per Ioannem 
Baers Flandrum G(andavensem?). Leowardiae Frisiorum e musaeo suo, 1601.	f. 1v blank

2. ff.2r-4v	Epistola dedicatoria [running title]. Illustrissimo ac nobilissimo viro d. Roberto 
Cecil, Regiae Maiestatis a secretis fidelissimo, equiti aurato, eruditionis ornamentis politissimo et 
virtutum splendore praestantissimo s.d.p. Quum de republica perbene consensu omnium, vel certe 
probatissimorum, mereantur qui quae a plerisque pro cuiusque commodo ac naturae convenientia 
hominum generi non inutila [sic] habentur, in apertum proferant ... Interea Deus optimus 
maximus amplificando amplitudine vestra perpetuam suam conservet benignitatem. Valeto. 
Vestrae amplitudinis oppide studiosus Ioannes Baers.

Dedicatory epistle to Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury (c. 1563-1612), secretary of state of 
Queen Elizabeth, on whom, cf. Oxford Dictionary of National Biography, v. 10 (Oxford, 2004), 
pp. 746-759. The author alludes to the sermons his father used to deliver on Lamentations. This 
Carmelite monk in Ghent, named Paschasius Baers, became after his conversion minister in Zele 
(East Flanders) and from 1580 onwards in various places in the Netherlands; from 1590 to 1603 
he was active in Leeuwarden, where his son composed the poem described in article 3. He died 
after 1618. See Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek, v. 1 (Leiden, 1911), 224.

3. ff. 5r-33r	Lamentationes Ieremiae prophetae. Cum miser Israel abductus ab hostibus esset, / 
Servitiique iugo colla subacta daret, /  Et Solyma infelix etiam vastata iaceret, / Flens Hieremias 
sedit ... Nos satis et nimium cladum gravitate repulsos / Implacata tua puniit ira manus. 
Lamentationum finis. 1605.

Iohannes Baers (Baersius), born in Ghent 1580, d. 1653, studied theology in Leiden, was 
minister in various places in the Northern Netherlands, was 1629 in Pernambuco (Brasil) and in 
1632 back in the Netherlands minister in Soest. He is the author of two books in Dutch, 
published in 1648 and 1653 respectively, but his poetic paraphrase of Lamentations seems to be 
unrecorded. See about him Nieuw Nederlandsch Biografisch Woordenboek, v. 1, 223-224. 
Whether this work was finished in 1601 or 1605 is not clear.

Paper, ff. IV + 33 + II, 185 x 140 mm.

I 4 (4 blank leaves), II-IX 4 (ff. 1-32), X 4 (-4, f. 33 + 2 blank leaves). Original pagination "1"-
"63" beginning on f. 2r. "Typographic" signatures in the middle of the lower margin of all recto 
pages, from A to H, type "A", "A1", "A2", "A3", starting on f. 2r (so that quire II exceptionally 
presents only the signatures "A" to "A2"). Horizontal catchwords on all pages at the right.

Hard-point ruling (type 13, 113 x 89 mm.) for one column of  12 lines below top line (14 traced 
lines, of which the bottom line is not used).

Written by a single scribe in  careful  Humanistica Cursiva. Titles and running titles are in a larger 
size of the same script.

Original limp vellum binding, both covers decorated with a simple blind-tooled frame and four 
small gilt fleurons in the corners. Remains of two green silk ties. Gold-tooled inscriptions in 
capitals, on front cover: ".SERO.SED.SERIO." ; on rear cover "ANNO.1601." Inscription in ink 
on the spine: "Lamentationes ***********". Edges gilt.

Some blank pages and ff. 32v-33r are badly damaged by coarse scribbles in ink, seemingly 
without any meaning.

Dedicated to Robert Cecil, 1st Earl of Salisbury (see above); the motto of the Salisbury family 
"Sero sed serio" appears on the binding and is repeated in contemporary Humanistica Cursiva on 
the first blank leaf r. On the same page the early inscription "E [£?] 1:20" and the price (s. XX)  
"£ 150". Purchased from Quaritch, 30 August 1973, on the Mrs. Lathrop Colgate Harper Fund in 
memory of Lathrop Colgate Harper, litt. d. 

Albert Derolez

Updated 27.11.2007