"Amorum Emblemata figuris æneis incisa studio Othonis Væni, Batavo-Lugdunensis. Emblemes of Love, with verses in Latin, English, and Italian, obl. 4to.: Antverpiæ, 1608."
Prefixed is an English dedication "to the most Honourable and Worthy Brothers William, Earl of Pembroke, and Philip, Earl of Montgomerie, Patrons of Learning and Chevalrie," whose coat of arms also is given.
"The Doctrine of Morality, or a View of Human Life according to the Stoic Philosophy, &c. A translation, by T. M. Gibbs, from the French of M. De Gomberville, with 103 copper plates by Daret, folio: London, 1721."
To each engraving are appended quotations from Horace, &c., with English translations: but both engravings and quotations have been pirated (without the least acknowledgment) from Van Veen's _Horatia Emblemata_.
It must be admitted that a comprehensive work on European Books of Emblems, illustrated with fac-similes of the various engravings, &c., is a great desideratum in modern literature. I feel highly flattered by the kind commendations which MR. CORSER has bestowed upon my two small attempts towards such a work, and by his encouraging me to proceed "to enlarge and complete" the same. Now, I do not altogether despair of _enlarging_ it. But when my excellent friend puts forward a proposal to _complete_ it, he should be informed that my library alone contains nearly 250 volumes strictly emblematical, and published during the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. By far the greater part of these are in Latin. To carry forward a work of such magnitude to anything like _completion_ must therefore be rather wished for than expected.
Allow me to add the following to MR. CORSER'S list:
"The Christian's Divine Amusement, consisting of Emblems and Hieroglyphicks on a great Variety of Subjects, Moral and Divine, in four books. By the late Rev. Mr. J. Jones. Embellished with near 100 beautiful emblematical cuts, 12mo. pp. 191.: London, 1764."
I know not who the Rev. Mr. J. was, but his book is the old one of Francis Quarles. The author, or rather adapter, attacks and demolishes the fable as a method of instruction, and would substitute the emblems. In remodelling Quarles, Mr. Jones makes the following alterations, or improvements:--Instead of the Latin motto under each cut, he presents us with four lines of English verse, which contain a general explanation of the emblem. The page facing the cut he divides into two parts or sections of odes and hymns suited to common psalmody, and the moral, or application, also in a poetical dress.