Ad 1: Second edition, in the rare second issue, of an emblem book by Nicolaeus Taurellus (1547-1606), German philosopher and professor of medicine and physics who studied at Tübingen and Basel and taught at Basel and Altdorf (near Nürnberg), first published also in Nürnberg but by Paul Kauffmann, in 1595. The present 1617 issue is in fact a reissue of the 1602 edition published by Lochner (see below) with the preliminaries cancelled (the first 3 leaves a1-3). "Apparently this emblem book was intended as an album amicorum" (Landwehr): the emblems are printed on one side of the leaves only (and are preceded by 3 blank pages), leaving room for friends to write inscriptions. Some of the illustrations copy some in Jost Ammans 1579 Stamm- und Wappenbuch.
Ad 2: Second (expanded) edition of funeral songs for about thirty scholars and others who died in Nürnburg, Basel or elsewhere in Switzerland or southern Germany (including Altdorf, Tübingen and Engelthal), first published also in Nürnberg but by the heirs of Katharina Gerlach, in 1592. It originally covered people who died in the years 1581 to 1591, but the present second edition adds a few people who died up to the year 1598, including the Tayrelluss mother. Most or all are Taurelluss friends and colleagues.
By 1580, Taurellus had left Basel to take up the chair of physics and medicine at the newly founded University of Altdorf where metaphysics soon became an important part of the curriculum.
With manuscript owner's names in ink on title-page. In good condition, with only small light stains on 2 emblems. Ad 1: Landwehr, German emblem books, 588; Praz 512 note; VD17, 23:626967U (2 copies); ad 2: STC German 17th century T140 (with 1602 ed. of ad 1); VD17, 23:284194Z (7 copies).