With an engraved title page signed 'Theodor. Galle fecit.', 12 full page emblematic engravings by Theodor Galle with an engraved 2 line verse in Latin and explanation of the plate at the bottom, 2 small round end piece portraits on p. 25 & 67 and a printer's device on the last leaf.

Black morocco, tooled in gold. On the covers a double fillet border. Spine with 4 raised bands, bordered by a double fillet. Title in compartment 2. Endbands of white and reddish silk. Edges gilt.


Only edition of this early Jesuit emblem book, concerning the struggle between the instincts and the soul. Copies also exist with the impressum of Theodor Galle.

"The Duodecim Specula consists of twelve chapters, each prefaced by an imago, focusing on various kinds and degrees of specular image: it starts with the Everyday Mirror (speculum commune), manufactured by "human artifice" (artis opus), the surface of which philosophers use to expose human characteristics, and ends with the Mirror of Beatific Vision (speculum visionis beatificae), in whose images the 'cutting edge of the mind' (acies mentis) glimpses the radiance of divinity." (The authority of the world).

Printed title with an early manuscript annotation "c'est la plus rare des ouvrages du Jesuite David, il est recherché a cause des gravures dontil est orne". Ownership signature on the engraved title page crossed out.

-Literature: Imhof (Moretus) D-2; Landwehr, Dutch emblem books, no. 188; Funck p. 303; BNCI 5556; Bibliotheca Belgica II, D157; Praz p. 313; Hollstein 7: Galle 113-124; Melion, Walter & Enenkel, The Authority of the Word: Reflecting on Image and Text in Northern Europe, 1400-1700.

-Condition: Title page lower blank margin torn off, affecting in the right corner the engraving; Upper end leaves torn out; Corners a bit damaged; Else a desirable copy, rare in a black morocco binding of the time.