ALCIATUS, Andreas (1492-1550). Les emblemes, in French and Latin. Paris: Christian Wechel, 1540. 8° (153 x 94mm). Roman and italic types. Woodcut printer's device on title, another version on final recto, 113 emblematic woodcuts, ornamental initials. (Last leaf [blank but for device] in facsimile, tiny repaired hole in A5, faint stain on title.) Citron morocco gilt by Duru, 1860, edges marbled and gilt. Provenance: contemporary annotations in French (washed) -- bought from Antonio López, 1944.

ALCIATUS, Andreas (1492-1550). Les emblemes, in French and Latin. Paris: Christian Wechel, 1540. 8° (153 x 94mm). Roman and italic types. Woodcut printer's device on title, another version on final recto, 113 emblematic woodcuts, ornamental initials. (Last leaf [blank but for device] in facsimile, tiny repaired hole in A5, faint stain on title.) Citron morocco gilt by Duru, 1860, edges marbled and gilt. Provenance: contemporary annotations in French (washed) -- bought from Antonio López, 1944.

One of two 1540 editions, illustrated with the same woodcuts from the first French edition of 1536, attributed to Mercure Jollat. The solemn Gothic type of the earlier edition is replaced by a more easily readable roman and italic. The first edition appeared in 1531, but it was the Paris editions that 'set the standard for the popular field of emblematic literature' (Mortimer). Brunet I, 148; Landwehr, Romanic Emblem Books, 21; Salloch cat. 270, no. 10; cf. Mortimer, Harvard French, 13; not in Praz.