Fasciculus temporum
Hand-coloured engraving of the destruction of the city of Utrecht. (Fasciculus temporum, 1480 - KU Leuven University Library)
Under Philip the Good, who was duke from 1419 to 1467, the Burgundian realm truly reached its zenith. By means of marriages, purchases, inheritances and political machinations, Philip succeeded in adding the bulk of the Low Countries to his duchy: from Brabant to Liège, and from Luxemburg to Holland. It was not without reason that the humanist Justus Lipsius later described him as the Conditor Belgii, the Unifier of the Netherlands.
Why this is justified is apparent from this ostentatious chronicle, presented to the reader by the Dukes of Brabant, the bishops of Utrecht and the counts of Holland, Zeeland and Hainaut. All these regions were part of the Burgundian realm for most of the 15th century. The printer Jan Veldener, who worked both in Utrecht and Leuven, made the book into a typographical masterpiece with several hand-coloured prints.