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Via vitae aeternae iconibus illustrata per Boetium a Bolswert.

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First edition, an attractive copy, of an emblem book which unites the spiritual meditations and practices of the Belgian Jesuit Antoine Sucquet with fine emblematic illustrations devised by the great baroque engraver Boetius à Bolswert (c. 1580–1633), called by Praz ‘the illustrator of the sentimental and ecstatic states of the soul’.

Boetius à Bolswert’s exquisite refinement gives here, again in Praz’s words, 'peeps of Hell and glimpses of Heaven' (p. 195). Man’s worst drives are iconised in the form of satyrs, ghouls, harpies, werewolves, semi-human lizards, his progress towards eternal life ever hindered by the multifarious and rapacious beast within. With his brother Schilte, Boetius was among the most sensitive and felicitous engravers to render Rubens’ drawings. Sucquet’s emblem book was extremely successful, with numerous editions in Latin, and many vernacular translations, within a decade.

Provenance: From the library of Rev. Joseph Haskoll (or Haskell), Canon of St Ninian’s in Perth (1819–1871), with a loving dedication to his wife, Lady Anne Caroline Erskine (c. 1823–1891).

STCV 6601067; USTC 1003176; Brunet V, col. 577; Landwehr 633; Sommervogel VII, col 1690, 1; Praz, p. 506.

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