De l'art des devises. Avec divers recueils de devises du mesme autheur.

4to: [40]-521-[22] pp. (sl. browned, scattered and ± strong foxing, wide margins).

19th-c. three-quarter brown calf signed Marlière, marbled paper on boards, spine with gilt raised bands and black label (calf worn with scratches on the corners).

First edition dedicated to Cardinal Antonio Barberini. Fine engraved illustrations: title-frontispiece by Le Paultre, title vignette, plate by Lalouette (arms of the Duchess d'Aiguillon in a wreath of flowers) p. 382, and 122 emblematic vignettes. Divided into "Traité des devises", "Cabinet des devises" (ill. with 65 vignettes), "Jardin des devises", "Devises royales" et "Devises adoptées" i.e. borrowed from Henri Louis Habert de Montmor (1600-1679), a friend of the author (ill. with 57 vign.). The Jesuit Le Moyne (1602-1671) was one of the architects of the revival of emblematic literature, which had been in decline since the end of the 16th c.
Ref. Landwehr, Romanic, 471. - Chatelain, Livres d'emblèmes, 1993, n° 55. - Praz 401. - DBS V:1369.