Charming religious and profane love emblem book with 118 plates, with the text engraved in the plates and without any letterpress text. The emblems depict figures, some with angelic wings or aureoles, each accompanied by a Biblical verse in Latin or a motto in Latin and a distich in French. Some of the plates are signed by Jean Messager, others are after Philippe de Mallery and Gillis van Schoor. The first edition, with the same number of plates, was published at Paris in 1631 by Jean Messager, Pierre Mariette's predecessor. The Antwerp bookseller Michael Snyders had published 39 of the 118 emblems in his 1626 Amoris divini et humani effectus and 83 (including those 39) in his 1629 Amoris divini et humani antipathia, printed in Antwerp by Geeraerdt van Wolsschaten I, which Snyders reissued there in 1655. These included the engravings by Philippe de Mallery and Gillis van Schoor. This reflects a widespread tendency to incorporate emblems from earlier successful print series into new ones: ''En d'amplifiant de 35 emblèmes nouveaux... nouveaux livres'' (Chatelain). The present work is a later issue of the second edition, which was first published by Pierre Mariette in the 1650s, but the present copy is printed on paper watermarked 1742 (griffin = I [mushroom-shaped tower, topped by T] DUPVY FIN|AUVERGNE 1742), so this is a later issue with the exact smae plates, title-page and collation.
With owner's inscriptions of "Mde Devige Darmont" (18th century?), Victor Alexandre Cabour (1796-1865) in Noyon (1813) on a free endleaf and the title-page, and the leather bookplate of Roger Paultre on the paste-down. A few plates with some tiny spots, but otherwise in very good condition. Binding slightly rubbed along the extremities, front hinge cracked. A charming book of love emblems, engraved in the early 17th century. Chatelain, pp. 166-167; Landwehr, Romanic emblem books 272; Praz, p. 255; not in Droz.