First edition of a delightful emblem book on the vanities of the world with 50 beautifully engraved emblems, which show Flemish street scenes, landscapes, and interiors. This intriguing work systematically contrasts worldly vanity and Christian truth of various different themes, including health, fame, and art. The emblems are intended to illustrate both sides. In order to properly interpret them, one has to carefully read and analyse the accompanying text.
The work was written by the canon and archdeacon Antoine de Bourgogne (1593/94-1657), who lived in Bruges. Though the present edition is often described as the second issue of the first edition (some reference works do not distinguish the two, or treat the first as incomplete), it is a line for line reprint of the first issue of the first edition, which was printed in the same year by the same printer. However, the present issue has been expanded with 10 leaves of additional material in the preliminaries, and an addendum at the end. A Dutch edition in verse by Petrus Gheschier appeared in 1643 with the title Des wereldts proef-steen ofte de ydelheydt door de waerheyd beschuldight ende overtuyght van valscheyt. Further editions in metrical Latin verse and in German appeared soon after.
The emblems were engraved by Andreas Pauwels (or Pauli, 1598-1639), after designs by the Antwerp-based painter Abraham van Diepenbeeck (1596-1675). Each emblem is accompanied by two mottos, a "vanitas" and a "veritas", and is followed by an explanatory text in Latin prose, often including verses. One emblem, for example, shows a kitchen with food being prepared over a roaring fire, and is intended to illustrate both the vanitas "odorum fragrantia", and the veritas "inania saturitas". Another, showing a battle at sea, illustrates the vanitas "equorum genus omne" and the veritas "quot genera, tot perisula". At the end of the work, a table of the mottos, a summary of the contents, a list of the authors consulted, and a list of the people, objects and concepts mentioned in the work can be found. Paultre provides an extensive analysis of the opposing views in the emblems.
Like most emblem books published in the Southern Netherlands, the present was also used as model by the pupils of the rhetoric classes of the Jesuit Colleges.
The vellum is somewhat soiled, the manuscript title has faded. The pastedowns are torn along the turn-ins, the first free flyleaf and the engraved title have been trimmed along the fore edge, without affecting the image, the hinge is broken between the engraved title and the first page, but the structural integrity of the binding is still intact, the first and last few leaves are slightly frayed along the fore edge. Otherwise in good condition. BCNI 9195; De Vries, Emblemata, 178; Landwehr, Emblem and fable books printed in the Low Countries, 98; Praz, pp. 292-293; STCV 6688160; USTC 1004374; cf. Paultre, R., Les images du livre, pp. 167-173; STCV 12917123 (same year & publisher, different collation).