Antique print, etching and engraving | Solar Eclypse [allegory of Protestantism] / Verduistering, published ca. 1600, 1 p.

Page from a book with a peculiar illustration of a Solar Eclypse.The inscription below is the same that was included in Théodore de Bèze's 1580 edition of the "Icones", a collection of portraits of the major European Protestant theologians and emblems that refer to the tyranny of the Roman Catholic Church.The inscription below reads: "Luna velut fratri propius coniuncta, perisse / Stultis videtur funditus, / Quae tamen admoti spectat qua lumina Solis, / Longe refulget clarior. / Sic periisse pii vulgo qui morte videntur, / Absit perisse dixerim, / Ipso qui potius Christo propriore potiti, / Quod quaesierunt obtinent." which translates in " When the moon gets closer to her brother (the Sun), seemes to disappear in the eyes of the foolish; yet the side facing the sun and thus closer to it gets actually brighter; in the same way the dead seem just dead to the common people. Yet these, now closer to Christ, have obtained what they wished for."Therefore the moon that stands closer to the sun represents the reformed man, who can stand up close to Christ, without the intercession of the Roman Church.From Hendrik Hondius's 'Icones virorum'. Etching and engraving on paper, on verso text in letterpress; plate mark: 173 x 122 mm, total: 217 x 170 mm; some damages along the external margins, not affecting the plate. Overall in good condition.…