From Bernard Quaritch Ltd ABA ILAB, London, United Kingdom
Seller rating 5 out of 5 stars
AbeBooks Seller since June 30, 1998
About this Item
8vo, pp. [xvi], 875, [21], with an emblematic engraved frontispiece and 32 engraved emblematic plates by Boetius a Bolswert; a very good copy in contemporary vellum, spine lettered in ink; lightly soiled, ties perished, endbands slightly loose; a few scattered seventeenth-century annotations in light brown ink, nineteenth-century ownership inscription in the lower margin of the title (Joseph Haskell, 1844) and Haskell's Latin dedication inscription to his wife, Anna Carolina, 'sponsae dilectissimae' to rear free endpaper, dated 1857.First edition, an attractive copy, of an emblem book which unites the spiritual meditations and practices of the Belgian Jesuit Antoine Sucquet with fine emblematic illustrations devised by the great baroque engraver Boetius à Bolswert (c. 1580 1633), called by Praz 'the illustrator of the sentimental and ecstatic states of the soul'. Boetius à Bolswert's exquisite refinement gives here, again in Praz's words, 'peeps of Hell and glimpses of Heaven' (p. 195). Man's worst drives are iconised in the form of satyrs, ghouls, harpies, werewolves, semi-human lizards, his progress towards eternal life ever hindered by the multifarious and rapacious beast within. With his brother Schilte, Boetius was among the most sensitive and felicitous engravers to render Rubens' drawings. Sucquet's emblem book was extremely successful, with numerous editions in Latin, and many vernacular translations, within a decade. Provenance: From the library of Rev. Joseph Haskoll (or Haskell), Canon of St Ninian's in Perth (1819 1871), with a loving dedication to his wife, Lady Anne Caroline Erskine (c. 1823 1891). STCV 6601067; USTC 1003176; Brunet V, col. 577; Landwehr 633; Sommervogel VII, col 1690, 1; Praz, p. 506. Seller Inventory # C2052
Bibliographic Details
Title: Via vitae aeternae iconibus illustrata per ...
Publisher: Antwerp, Martin Nutius, 1620.
Publication Date: 1620
Edition: 1st Edition
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Bernard Quaritch Ltd
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