[Jacobus van Egmont ]: De Historie van de verduldige Helena van Constantinopel een Konigs Dogter, die 27 Jaaren agter Land doolde in groote Armoede. Amsterdam [n.d. but c.1730/1740] First edition of a very rare Dutch Volksboek for the Levant. Large in 8vo, publishers original papercovers trimmed but generally intact, complete, text clean with few wear, overall in very good condition. The Volsboek (a kind of street publications) started to be very popular in the Netherlands in mid 18th century and shaped social attitude on many fields. The history of Helena, a princess of Constantinople, is basically fictional (although has clear root on a much older French Chanson de geste (epic poem) from the 14th century. She passed 27 years of suffering, exile and trials, all this has many direct references to the situation of the Greeks of the 18th century in the Levant. It served as both entertainment and a lesson of Christian endurance under a tyranny. The real Levantine climate of extreme oppression on the Christians is well pictured. All these publications are in the origin of the birth of Philhellenism in many societies. The memory of the glorious past and the actual oppression were the two basic factors that gave birth to the social Philhellenism. These street publications for diffusion in the middle class,far away from any library, mostly perished. Very rare