Emblemata cum tetrastichis latinis.
Metz, [Abraham Faber for] Jean Aubry [1584].
Oblong 4to (140 x185 mm.). 1-4 [5] 6-7, [2], 8-88p. NINETY ETCHED PLATES (90 x 104 mm.) INCLUDING TWO PORTRAITS OF THE AUTHOR AND ONE OF THE DEDICATEE, FORTY-ONE EMBLEMS and their facing French verse explanations, the title-page, privilege, dedication, printer’s “To the Reader” and author’s “To the Reader”.
Contemporary gilt-ruled ivory vellum over flexible paper boards with gilt olive wreaths in the center of each panel (soiled, front cords weak), flat spine gilt-ruled, all edges gilt.
First Edition. In all subsequent iterations, the Latin quatrains at the base of the copperplates were cut away and the intaglio explanatory French sonnets by Pierre Joly were set in type.
A devoted antiquary and poet, Boissard began traveling at age eight, learned Latin, Greek and Italian, sketched monuments, ruins and inscriptions in Europe and the Middle East and spent twenty-two years guiding young nobles on Grand Tours. After settling in Metz, he drew these emblems, inserting Latin and Greek text into the picture puzzles on plinths or in open books. He was sufficiently proud of his work to commission two bust portraits of himself, one braced by Hermes and Athena (pl. 6) and the other legended in Greek (pl. 88). The engraver of this volume is not known. Nor is there a ready explanation of the non-sequential secondary numbering in the lower right corner of thirty-four plates.
By the early 17th century, several more or less close reprints or reworkings had appeared along with a German translation and a complete recutting of the plates. Our unnumbered emblem (Manet immutabile fatum) has the Latin poem on the blank face of the plinth supplied in contemporary manuscript from the 1588 edition. Adams et al. locate four copies of this first edition (BnF (2 exx.; I found 1), Huntington (complete, despite Adams’ note), New York Public (def.)). That offered here is complete and in its original binding (hand-soiled, title and final verso dusty, the blank lower outer corner of twenty leaves with a minor stain, a couple of scattered wax spots).
¶Adams, Rawles & Saunders, A Bibliography of French Emblem Books F.111; Praz, Studies in 17th-Century Imagery 277-8; Landwehr, Romanic Emblem Books 164; Brun, Le Livre français iIllustré de la Renaissance 2d ed. 138 “Édition extrêment rare”; Rahir, La Bibliothèque de l’amateur…les livres les plus éstimés 331; New York Public Library…Catalogue…Spencer Collection I: 22; BnF Dépt. des estampes, Inventaire du fonds français. Graveurs du XVIe siècle II: 144,3 (engr. Alex. Vallée) & II: 242-3,3 (engr. Adam Fuchs); Répertoire bibliographique des livres imprimés en France au 16e siècle III: 369,2a; Cioranesco 4262; see Châtelain’s Livres d’Emblèmes no. 31 (Boissard’s autograph ms.).
Price: $18,500.00