Emblemata amatoria. Afbeeldinghen van Minne. Emblemes d’Amour.

4to oblong: 144 pp. (some unobtrusive staining in 1st half, 2nd half spotted).

Mod. gold-tooled crimson morocco, covers with frames of triple gilt rules, gilt-titled flat spine, gilt sides, a.e.g., gilt inside dentelles, marbl. endpapers (older gilding of edges fading). Very good copy.

Very rare original ed. of “the most elegant example of Dutch love emblems” (Porteman). The book contains a "Voorreden tot de Ievcht" (134 ll.), 30 numbered love emblems and a collection of lyrical poetry (pp. 73-144). The emblem verses consist of a motto and a couplet in each of the three languages used: Dutch by P.C. Hooft (1581-1647), Latin by the Amsterdam poet C.G. Plemp (1574-1638, a cousin of Hooft’s wife Christina van Erp), and French by R. de Nerée (1579-1626), a French theology student. The rectangular emblem ills incorporate the Dutch, Latin and French mottoes. The engraved title and 30 engraved emblems are ascribed to M. le Blon or P. Serwouter. For its publisher, the cartographer Willems Jansz. (later called Blaeu, 1571-1638), a cousin of Hooft, it was the start of an impressive series of Dutch literary landmarks (mostly emblematical), including e.g. Hooft’s "Geeraerdt van Velsen" (1613) and "Granida" (1615, 1620), Roemer Visscher’s "Sinnepoppen" (1614, 1618), Daniel Heinsius’s "Nederduytsche poemata" (1616), the "Thronus Cupidinis" (1618) and reprints of Jacob Cats’s "Silenus Alcibiadis" en "Maechden-plicht" (1619, 1622). Many of these were typographic jewels as well. Ref. Leendertz (Hooft) 17. - Landwehr 320 (LC) & 384 (Romanic). - Adams/Rawles/Saunders (Fr. embl. bks) F.320. - Embl. bks Leiden 234. - Simoni (BL) H-173. - STCN 851961959. - Annotated ed. by K. Porteman (1983; digital ed. DBNL, 2002).