[Rarebooks] FS: Horapollo's important emblem book. Paris: 1551

[Karmbooks at aol.com]

(EMBLEM BOOKS) Horapollo. ...DE SACRIS NOTIS & SCULPTURIS DUO... Paris: 
Jacobum Kerver. 1551. Sm. 8vo. (20),240,(4)pp. Title & text in Greek & Latin. 
Complete with the final leaf, blank except for the large device on the verso. 
Illus. with 195 very fine woodcuts, 2” x 2”, some attributed to Jean Cousin or 
Jean Goujon. Bound in early 19th century calf over marbled boards, very top of 
spine darkened. A few small cracks at top & bottom of hinges, but very sound. 
Title a bit soiled. Woodcuts are sharp impressions.     $5,000.00 (trade 
discount allowed)
The first illustrated Greek and Latin edition. The cuts first appeared in the 
French edition of 1543, with seven of these here (in 1551) replaced with new 
blocks. ”The importance of the Kerver editions (the French of 1543, and this 
Greek & Latin of 1551) is that they are the first in which the emblematic 
wood-cuts accompany the text of Horapollo, thus presenting it in the form of an 
emblem book. This is all the more appropriate, in that it is the Renaissance 
interest in Horapollo which led to the new pictorial and literary genre of the 
emblem book.” (Schreiber). Note: the woodcut on p. 95 is printed upside down, and 
the cut on p. 110 is a cancel pasted in place, as found in the Harvard and 
Hoe copies. See Mortimer, French Books #315; Praz p. 374; Landwehr, Romantic 
Emblems, #387.

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