[PASSE, Crispin de]

Theater of love [Antwerp, circa 1606] RARE AND BEAUTIFUL BOOK OF LOVE EMBLEMS, ENTIRELY ENGRAVED. REMARKABLE CHAIN OF PROVENANCES: LA VALLIÈRE, RICHARD DE MONTBARD, VAN DER HELLE, TECHENER FILS, DANYAU, DÉLICOURT. COPY CITED BY BRUNET ORIGINAL EDITION and only edition Small in-4 (182 x 123 mm). Book entirely engraved. The text presents different aspects of calligraphic typography, among which civilization characters COLLATION : (21) ff. [of 29, including 1 blank] printed on the front only CONTENTS : (f1v) : title-frontispiece, (f2v) : emblems and poems ILLUSTRATION: 21 engravings [of 28] on copperplate at mid-page, each captioned with an engraved sizain. 18 of the engravings are circular emblems with mottoes in French, Latin and Italian. They were probably made in the Antwerp workshop of Crispin de Passe l'Ancien (1564-1637) Eighteenth century binding. Olive morocco, gilt decoration, triple fillet in frame, flower at the corners, long spine decorated with grotesque with vertical titling, gilt edges PROVENANCE: Louis-César de La Baume Le Blanc, duc de La Vallière (1708-1780; his sale, Paris, 1783, I, No. 4332) -- Jacques Richard de Montbard (1744-1812; stamped with arms, affixed twice; not in his 1812 sale in Lyon) -- Charles-Joseph van der Helle (bookplate; his sale, Paris, 1868, no. 1692, which attributes the binding to Padeloup) -- Librairie Léon Téchener fils (1869, no. 2307, marked 145 francs) -- Dr. Antoine-Constant Antoine-Constant Danyau (1803-1871; bookplate; his sale, Paris, 1872, no. 375, 105 francs) -- Étienne Délicourt (1809-1883; bookplate) A little short of margins, bottom of the 10th leaf shorter BIBLIOGRAPHY: Brunet, V, col. 771; Supplement, II, col. 755: "the exemplar seen by M. Brunet was probably incomplete; it requires 28 numbered leaves including the frontispiece, each bearing a beautiful metal engraving by Goltzius; under each plate is a sixain in French engraved in various characters. The Van der Helle copy, announced as being that of the duc la Vallière, in Padeloup's marble, was sold for 105 fr.; it conformed to M. Brunet's description [V, 771] and was probably the exempl. Landwehr, Emblem Books in the Low Countries, Utrecht, 1970, no. 655 -- M. Praz, Studies in Seventeenth-Century Imagery, Rome, 1975, p. 514 -- Landwehr, Romanic Emblem Books, Utrecht, 1976, no. 717 -- Adams, Rawles, Saunders, French Emblem Books, Geneva, 1999, II, F.562