Rare first edition with these woodcuts and with the vignettes, which is in fact a pirated edition of 1624 edition (Landwehr) by P.J.Paets. Most editions of this common emblem book have engravings. The woodcuts were designed by Van Sichem, a pupil of Goltzius. Noteworthy are the vignettes on a black background. They were also used by Paets for the Dutch translation Goddelycke Wenschen of 1645 and for S. Augustinus’s Vierige Meditatien ofte aendachten. Some of the woodcuts were also published by I. Maes in Leuven for Thomas à Kempis’s Die alleen-spraecke der zielen met Godt, 1628.

The pictures tell the story of the human soul (Anima, a little girl) guided and saved by the Saviour (Divine love, a little boy with wings). The popularity of these emblems went hand in hand with the growth of the cult for the Infant Jesus. No less than 42 editions of this work appeared between 1624 and 1757.

Herman Hugo (1588-1629) was a Jesuit professor at Antwerp and Brussels, and later chaplain to the Spanish general Ambrose Spinola, who in the early seventeenth century fought against the Dutch revolutionaries. Hugo served in the latter's campaigns as a minister to the soldiers.

- Provenance:
1) Booksellers label on upper paste down “GUY, Libraire […] Lyon [...]”
2) Three lines handwritten provenance in brown ink on title page: “Dono Datus mihi Joa: van Mande(?)”

- Literature: Landwehr 346; Praz 143 ff. and 377; De Backer-Sommervogel IV, 513, 6; Le Blanc III, 37; Brunet III, 366; Emblem Books in Leiden 253; Funck 338; Hollstein XXVII, 40; Spamer 144; Spamer, Das kleine Andachtsbild, p. 144, and Doorgaans verciert met koperen platen, Leyden University 1990, nr. 6; STCN 1 copy.

- Condition: Some very small stains in the paper. Very attractive and beautiful woodcuts. A desirable copy with strong impressions.