EARLY AMERICAN EMBLEM BOOK BY THE MYSTIC MM. GUYON
Guyon, Jean Marie Bouvier de la Motte. DIE HEILIGE LIEBE GOTTES UND DIE UNHEILIGE NATURLIEBE NACH IHREN UNTERSCHIEDENEN WIRKUNGEN, IN XLIV ANMUTHIGEN SINNBILDERN UND ERBAULICHEN VERSEN VORGESTELLET. Lancaster: Zum Druck befördert durch Jacob Schweitzer, Gedruckt von Johann Bär, 1828. 360 pp. Illustrated with a frontispiece and 44 small woodcuts on 11 plates.
First German American edition, reprinted from the edition published in (Solingen) Mulheim, Germany in 1751, also with 12 emblem plates. Both editions are based on Mme. Guyon’s mystical writings printed in Paris in 1717 and illustrated with emblems based on the work of the Dutch masters Herman Hugo and Otto van de Veen.
The emblem plates are cut in simple outline by J. Henry and contrast the “holy love of God and the unholy love of Nature.” This is the principal subject of 44 verses and 44 emblems that are contained in this work.
Arndt, German Language Printing, II, 2948. Shoemaker, Checklist of American Imprints, 33449.
Bound in contemporary calf, clasps; binding scuffed on boards and joints, lower clasp repaired.Text block toned with age and some scattered foxing throughout. Otherwise a sound copy.