Sanderus, Anthony

, an eminent topographer and antiquary, was born at Antwerp, in Sept. 1586. He was first taught Latin at Oudenarde, and pursued his classical studies at the Jesuits’ college in Ghent. He then studied philosophy at Douay, and in 1609 obtained the degree of master of arts. After some stay in his native country, he entered on a course of theology at Louvain, which he completed at Douay, and in 1619, or 1621, took the

| degree of doctor in that faculty. Being ordained priest, he officiated for several years in various churches in the diocese of Ghent, was remarkably zealous in the conversion of heretics, i. e. protestants, and particularly contended much with the anabaptists, who were numerous in that quarter. Having, however, rendered himself obnoxious to the Hollanders, by some services in which he was employed by the king of Spain, their resentment made him glad to enter into the service of cardinal Aiphonso de la Cueva, who was then in the Netherlands, and made him his almoner and secretary. Some time after, by the cardinal’s interest, he was made canon of Ipres (not of Tournay, as father Labbe asserts) and finally theologal of Terouanne. He died in 1664, in the seventy-eighth year of his age, at Afflingham, an abbey of Brabant in the diocese of Mechlin, and was interred there, with a pious inscription over his grave, written by himself.

The long list of his works shews that his life was not spent in indolence. Some of these of the religious kind we shall omit. The principal, which respected literature, or the biography and history of the Netherlands, were, 1. “Dissertatio parsenetica pro instituto bibliothecae publics Gandavensis,” Ghent, 1619, 4to. 2. “Poematum libri tres,” ibid. 1621, 8vo. 3. “Panegyricus in laudem B. Thomse de Villanova,” ibid. 1623, 4to. 4. “Encomium S. Isidori,” Antwerp, 1623, 8vo. 5. “De Scriptoribus Flandrise, libri tres,” ibid. 1624, 4to. 6. “De Gandavensibus eruditionis fama claris,” ibid. 1624, 4to. 7. “De Brugensibus eruditionis fama claris,” ibid. 1624, 4to. 8. “Hagiologium Flandrise,” &c. ibid. 1625, 4to, and with additions, at Lisle, 1639. 9. “Elogia Cardinalium sanctitate, doctrina, et armis illustrium,” Louvain, 1625, 4to. 10. “Gandavium, sive rerum Gandavensium libri sex,” Brussels, 1627, 4to. 11. “De claris sanctitate et eruditione Antoniis,” Louvain, 1627, 4to. 12. “Bibliotheca Belgica manuscripta,” 2 parts or volumes, Lisle, 1641 and

1643, 4to. 13. “Flandria Illustrata,” Cologne, 1641 and

1644, 2 vols. fol. a most superb book, well known to the collectors of foreign history and topography. There is an edition published at the Hague in 1730, 3 vols. fol. but the original is preferred on account of the superior beauty of the engravings. 14. “Chorographia sacra Brabantia, sive celebrium aliquot in ea provincia ecclesiarum et ccenobiorum descriptio,” Brussels and Antwerp, 1659, 2 vols. fol. | 1669. This is a still more splendid work than the former, and of much more rare occurrence in a complete state, very few copies of the second volume being in existence. The reason assigned is, that the entire impression of the second volume was suppressed as soon as completed, and remained in the warehouse of a bookseller at Brussels until 1695, in which year that city was bombarded by the French, and all the copies, except a few in the possession of the author’s friends, perished by fire. This likewise was reprinted at the Hague in 3 vols. fol. 1726 27, but with different plates, and of course this edition is not so highly esteemed. Sanders wrote other topographical works, which appear to remain in ms. ¹