Beschreibung:

ROLLENHAGEN, Gabriel. Nucleus emblematum selectissimorum, quae itali vulgo impresas vocant... , [no place]: Crispin de Passe, [no date], [vol. II: Utrecht: Crispin de Passe for Johannes Janson 1613]. 2 volumes in one, small 4° (184 x 146mm.), 2 engraved titles, 2 portraits and 200 engraved plates by Crispin de Passe the Elder, English translation of distiches supplied in pencil on lower margins (first title soiled, a few plates browned, otherwise mainly marginal browning or soiling), 19th-century half calf and marbled boards, spine ruled in gilt and dated at foot, morocco lettering-piece (head of spine slightly chipped, rubbed). Provenance: Frank Linsly James (bookplate); circular stamp on lower margin of title. Second edition, first published in Cologne in 1611. This collection of emblems consists "of engravings of high inventive and decorative charm. Religious and moral truths [are] expressed in complicated imagery. Rollenhagen [is] the portical inventor whose ideas De Passe [delineates] in delicate circular engravings" (Benesch Rubens to Daumier , p. 28). All emblems are accompanied by distiches of four-line verses in Latin. The Landwehr and Praz copies both list Cologne as the imprint of the first volume ("Coloniae E. Musaeo caelatorio Crispiani Passaei"). Our copy, however, makes no mention of Cologne as the imprint. Brunet IV, 1359: "Volume recherché à cause des jolies figures qui le composent ... La seconde partie se trouve quelquefois séparément"; Landwehr Low Countries , 573; Praz p. 141.