Le Pegme... mis en Francoys par Lanteaume de Romieu gentilhomme d'Arles. Lyons, Macé Bonhomme, 1560

£3,000 · Offered by Maggs Bros Ltd

Much enlarged second edition in French of this influential emblem book, the first with the substantial ‘discursive essay’ on each emblem, nearly tripling the size of the volume compared to the first. In the French editions Bonhomme uses a wider variety of woodcut frames and also omits the long prose treatises of the Latin edition and translates only the poetry and devices. The frames are of great variety and charm; there are allegories, grotesques, flowers, animals, and ornaments of all kinds. The woodcuts and borders are attributed by Baudrier to Pierre Eskrich (or Vase) as designer. The French edition is far rarer than the Latin. Praz notes that Lyons was important as a link between the Italian and the French Renaissance and that the publisher of Cousteau’s Pegma , Bonhomme, was also the publisher of Alciati and Aneau. He continues, “the title Pegma is a synonym of ‘emblem’. The volume is very similar to Alciati’s, and not only the title but also the contents have an Alexandrian flavour: thus the first emblem illustrates the image of Justice according to Chrysippus, the second that of Justice in the Zodiac according to Nigidius Figulus, another is dedicated to the statue of Jupiter, another is derived from the Spartan custom of making maidens go naked and matrons clothed (the plate of this emblem makes one think of Titian’s emblematic picture which goes under the name of Sacred and Profane Love ), another is based upon Apelles’ picture, Calumny , and so on.” Alison Saunders

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