Devises Héroïques.

by Claude Paradin

€5,000 · Offered by Librairie Clavreuil

Landwehr, Romanic, 564; Cartier, 379; Brun, 266. Seconde édition, la première avec le texte. Elle est illustrée d un encadrement sur le titre et de 182 emblèmes gravés sur bois par Bernard Salomon, dont 64 ont été conçus spécialement pour cette édition. « The first Protestant collection of religious devices, a book which played a very important role in the European emblem tradition » (Landwehr). On trouve, parmi les emblèmes les plus célèbres, la Salamandre couronnée de François 1er, le triple croissant de Henri II, la fleur de souci et le soleil de Marguerite de Valois, le collier de la Toison d or, l emblème de Diane de Poitiers (un tombeau d où sortent deux rameaux d olivier entrelacés autour d une flèche), l épée du Connétable de Montmorency, etc. « This second edition of 1557 offers a version of the text which is markedly different from that of the original edition published by De Tournes in 1551. There the work was much smaller, containing only 118 devices, whereas the 1557 edition contains 182. But more significantly the nature of the work is changed: the original version giving a set of basic devices comprising woodcut figure plus motto, is transformed in 1557 by the addition at the end of each device of a French commentary explaining its significance, and identifying the person who used it, or – in the case of the unattributed devices – the universally applicable lesson which could be derived from them. In this new form – which became the norm for subsequent editions

• Binding: Hardcover

Found via Rare Books Intel, a search across rare-book dealers, auction houses and marketplaces worldwide.