[HOOFT, Pieter Cornelisz.].
Emblemata amatoria. Afbeeldinghen van minne. Emblemes d'amour.
Amsterdam, Wilem Jansz. Blaeu, 1611. Oblong 4to (15 x 19 cm). With an engraved title-page, with the title in Latin, Dutch and French. With 30 engraved emblems (ca. 10.5 x 13.5 cm), each with tri-lingual mottos in the engraving and distichs in Dutch with Latin and French translations on the opposite page. The Dutch text is mainly set in gothic letters, while the Latin and French texts are set in roman and italic letters respectively. The Dutch songs and sonnets in the second half of the work are set in roman and gothic letters, sometimes in two columns. 19th-century gold-tooled red sheepskin, with two triple-fillet frames and 4 ornamental corner pieces between the two frames. With an elaborately gold-tooled spine, including the French title and the year of publication, gold-tooled board edges and turn-ins, gilt edges, marbled endpapers and a yellow, red and green reading ribbon. 144 pp.
€ 50,000
First edition of a landmark in the history of Dutch literature and the apogee of Dutch emblem books, written by one of the most important authors of the Dutch Golden Age, Pieter Cornelisz. Hooft (1581-1648). This edition was the first publication in an impressive series of books presenting contemporary Dutch poetry and literature, printed and published by Hooft's cousin, the great Amsterdam cartographer, printer and publisher Willem Jansz. Blaeu. The emblems are followed by 48 songs, poems and sonnets, 45 published here for the first time. A second and expanded edition followed in 1618.
The Latin and French translations of the distichs were done by Cornelis G. Plemp and Richard Jean de Nérée. The beautiful, very detailed engravings have been variously attributed to Michel and Christoffel le Blon, Jan Pinas, Simon Frisius and Pieter Serwouter.
The binding is very slightly scuffed around the corners and the head and foot of the spine, the first and last few pages are slightly browned, occasional very slight foxing. Otherwise in very good condition. Hollstein (Dutch & Flemish) XXVI, p. 250, no. 59; Landwehr, Emblem Books Low Countries 320; Leendertz 17; Praz, pp. 124-125, 371-372; STCN (5 copies); De Vries, Emblemata 48.
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