Father Sebastiaan

LAUREMBERG, P. Vernieuwde en Vermeerderde Acerra Philologica, Dat is, Vier Hondert Nutte, Uytgelesene, Vermaeckelijcke, en Denckwaerdige Historien ende Discoursen: Alle Liefhebbers der Historien tot vermaeck, en insonderheyt de Studeerende Jeucht tot merckelijcke oeffeninghe, en nootsaeckelijck onderwijs in alle stucken tot de Geleertheyt bevorderlijck, uyt de beroemste soo Griexsche als Latijnsche History-Schryvers by een versamelt. En nu in onse Nederlantsche Tale overgeset door J. Blasius. Leyden, Nic. Hercules, 1656.
Rare, first known Dutch edition of a very popular encyclopedic school book of the 17th century, first published at Rostock in 1633 by Peter Lauremberg (1585-1639). Born in Rostock, Peter Lauremberg was professor in medicine at Rostock and later professor in mathematics and natural science at Hamburg in Germany. His book became very popular at schools, remaining in use for almost two centuries. Here it contains 400 short stories and discussions on a wide range of subjects for the general instruction of youth, mostly taken from classical authors, with comments added according to the latest scientific views, and often with the moral of the story and/or some proverbs added as well. Subjects are classical history and politics, mythology, emblems, the nature of the world and natural phenomena, natural history, geography, herbs and medicine, etc. etc. The work was adapted into Dutch from the German original by Joannes Blasius, brother of the celebrated physician and medical author Gerard Blasius and himself a lawyer and poet living at Amsterdam. He was a friend of the author's son Jacob Sebastiaan Lauremberg, who had taken over his father's work. At the beginning of the last hundred stories, an extra half-title is added, reading: "Vernieuwt ende Verbetert Vierde Honderd.. door Jacob Seb. Laurembergh", followed by an extra preface in which Jacob Seb. Lauremberg explains that he was asked, as the son of the original author, to rewrite these last hundred stories, which were added by a completely incompetent anonymous author "when Jacob Marcius at Leyden published the book about eleven years before". So the book must first have been published at Leyden in about 1645, but it was probably translated by someone else, and no copies seem to have survived. Of interest is also the statement by the son that the stories were originally intended to be translated into Latin by the author's pupils. But, apart from being exercises in Latin, the contents of the book were intended to teach youth at the same time all possible subjects in the arts and sciences. The preface promises young people that by reading the book they will in a short time learn as much as spending several "beautiful and agreeable" years at university.
Good copy, with ms. bookplate in red and black in a Gothic hand, reading "Liber Fosci", and with some woodcut initials touched with red.
Cf. Buijnsters, <I>BNK</I>, 394, note (ascribing the Dutch translation to G. Blasius); Muller 410-411 (ed. of 1675 and 1734); Scheepers II, 760 (ed. of 1675); Waller 1010 (ed. of 1734); Bibelebontse Berg p. 126 and 190 (once ascribing the translation to J. and once to G. Blasius, and both times mentioning the edition of 1656 as the first translated by Blasius, and the edition of 1661 as the first complete edition with 600 stories).

2 parts in 1 vol. Sm.8vo. Contemp. vellum. With richly engraved allegorical frontispiece. (24), 534, (14, 4 blank); 422, (10) pp.

[SW: 17th Century; Dutch; German; Schoolbooks; Encyclopaedic Works]

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ALCIATI, Andrea. Very rare and one of the most complete Latin editions of the famous Emblemata Emblemata D.A. Alciati, denuo ab ipso autore recognita, ac, quae desiderabantur, imaginibus locupletata. Accesserunt nova aliquot ab autore emblemata suis quoque eiconibus insignita. Lyon, Mathias Bonhomme (Colophon: Lyon, excudebat Mathias Bonhomme), 1551.
Very rare and one of the most complete Latin editions of the famous <I>Emblemata</I> by Andreas Alciati (1492-1550), the father of the genre of Emblem books, who, as Ruth Mortimer put it: 'set the standard for the popular field of emblem literature'. This 1551 Lyon edition, printed by Bonhomme, was simultaneously published by the Lyon publisher Guillaume Rouille in the same year. The only difference to be observed - except for the title-pages -, are the woodcut borders on pp. 225-6, which are different in both editions. Bonhomme, has thus distinguished his own copies from those published by Rouille. 'The copy of the 1551 [Co-]edition generally found in libraries is the issue with Rouille's mark' (Praz).Mortimer wrote of the present edition: 'This edition is representative of the most extensively illustrated of the Bonhomme-Rouille volumes. There are woodcuts for the full set of two hundred eleven emblems, including additions and the substitutions of new blocks or inaccurate subjects or repetitions in the series, attributed to Pierre Eskrich. This process of substitution and revision continued in the later editions, not all of which contain the same number of blocks'. This series, especially designed for Bonhomme and Rouille for their first co-edition of Alciati in 1548, is frequently attributed to Bernard Salomon, but almost certainly should be assigned to Pierre Eskrich. This is the firs tinstance of Rouille's commissioning a series of woodcuts in imitation of the sets designed by Salomon for Jean de Tournes. Eskrich has expanded the scenes and added further detail, varying in his use of Salomon's ideas. The series has been considerably augmented. The additions are derived from Alciati's second <I>Emblematum libellus</I> printed at the Aldine press in Venice in June of 1546. The text for the new emblems was appended to Jean de Tourne's 1547 edition without woodcuts, so that Eskrich was the first Lyon artist to deal with these subjects. The group of 14 emblems at the end is concerned with different varieties of trees, and are borrowed from Balthazar Arnoullet blocks from Leonard Fuchs's <I>De historia stirpium</I> (1549).With the exception of the privilege and index each page is enclosed within a four-part ornamental border. There are 33 different borders, designed by 'P.V[ase] = Eskrich, who also is responsible for the title border.Alciati originally wrote the emblems as epigrams for the amusement of his humanist friends and sent a selection of them under the title <I>Emblemata</I> to his friend Peutinger at the court of Emperor Maximilian I of Habsburg. In 1531 Steyner at Augsburg published the first edition of Alciati's <I>Emblemata</I> illustrated with 98 woodcuts. In 1534 Christian Weichel at Paris published a second edition with 111 woodcuts. Both editions were published without Alciati's co-operation or consent. In a letter to Pietro Bembo, Alciati criticized the Augsburg edition for mutilating his texts, but was satisfied with the Paris edition; he never mentioned, however, the woodcuts. Alciati himself published his work at Basel in 1547 and at Lyon in 1548. The first French edition of the complete emblems was published by Rouille at Lyon in 1548, but still only about half of the emblems were illustrated. After Alciati's death his <I>Emblemata</I> were edited first with commentary by the German humanist Sebastiaan Stockhammer, and since 1573 with the learned commentary by the French Alciati interpreter Claude Mignault.Alciati's<I> Emblemata</I> is regarded the first emblematic book ever, which became extremely popular in the sixteenth century and had an enormous influence on later emblem books. It is originally a collection of 104 Latin emblem poems, each consisting of a motto (a proverb or other short enigmatic expression), a picture, and an epigrammatic poem. Alciati was born in Alzata near Milan in 1492. He studied law in Milan, Pavia and Bologna, and was soon recognized an outstanding student. In 1518, when he was 26, he moved to Avignon to teach law but returned to Milan in 1522. In 1529 Francis I invited him to teach at the University of Bourges, which he did till 1534. After his return to Italy, he taught law in Pavia, Bologna, Ferarra, and, finally, Pavia, where he, after a remarkably distinguished career, died in 1550. Alciati was immensely well known during his lifetime, principally for his interpretations of Roman law. His collected works in 4 volumes were published in Basel in 1549, and set the direction for the study of civil law for his generation and several to follow. The work for which he was praised even more, however, was his <I>Book of Emblems</I>, which he wrote in his spare time. The earliest mention of his emblem book is in a letter to Francesco Giulio Calvi, a bookseller, 9 January 1523. 'During this Saturnalia, at the behest of the illustrious Ambrogio Visconti, I composed a little book of epigrams, which I entitled emblems: in separate epigrams I describe something which, from history or from nature, signifies elegantly after which painters, goldsmiths, and metal-workers could fashion the kind of thing we call badges and which we fasten on hats, or use as trademarks, like the anchor of Aldus, the dove of Froben, and the elephant of Calvus, which is long pregnant, but produces nothing'. It has been argued that the emblems were initially intended as epigrams, though (in his letter to Calvo) he seems quite conscious of the signifying power of the images. The images seem to have come into existence, however, only after the texts. This can be stated by the fact that many of the poems can work well without the pictures. Alciati's emblem book stands at the beginning of the development of an incredible popular genre of lavishly illustrated, mysterious, intriguing, witty and moralistic emblem books. It is also a milestone in the history of book illustration in general.
Good copy.- (Binding used and damaged, gilding almost gone; title thumbed and frayed with contemp. ownership's entry: 'Biblioth: Collegii Petriceo: Siles. Piad. / 128. U', erased ownership's entry on front paste-down and one dated 1708 on p. 6).
Green, <I>Alciati</I>. 48; Duplessis, <I>Alciat</I>, 55; Baudrier X, p. 221, and cf. IX, pp. 187-8; Landwehr, <I>Romanic Emblem Books</I>, 53 (mentions copies in Milan, Verona and The Hague); Praz p. 250; Mortimer, <I>French</I>, 16; Adams, Rawles & Saunders,<I> Bibl. of French emblem books </I>(1999), F.031; Gültlingen,<I> Bibliogr. livres impr. a Lyon</I> VIII, 'Bonhomme', nr. 136; <I>Index Aurel.</I> 102981; Brun, <I>Le livre francais illustr. de la Ren</I>., p. 140.

8vo. Contemporary full calf over wooden boards with gilt title 'Emblemata Alciati' on front cover, gilt borders and blind stamped panel on both sides, remains of clasps. Title printed in cartouche of richly decorated woodcut architectural border with grotesques, containing Bonhomme's Perseus device (Baudrier, nr. 7, by Georges Reverdy) inserted in a medallion frame below the title, 197 woodcut emblems (ca. 60 x 65 mm) and 14 woodcuts of trees (ca. 66 x 42 mm; pp. 213-26), all assigned to Pierre Eskrich, pp. 3-226 in richly decorated woodcut Renaissance borders (ca. 155 x 100 mm) of varying design of which many have the monogram 'P. V' (= P. Vase, = Pierre Eskrich), some woodcut initials and endpieces. 226, (5, 1 blank) pp. [Collation: A-O8, P4].

[SW: 16th Century; Woodcuts; Emblem Books; Latin; Emblem]

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Father Sebastiaan: Vampyre Sanguinomicon: The Lexicon of the Living Vampire, Weiser Books 2010 ; weicher Einband / soft cover ISBN: 1578634806
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Father Sebastiaan: VAMPYRE SANGUINOMICON: The Lexicon Of The Living Vampire, Red Wheel/Weiser ISBN: 1578634806
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