Junius, Emblemata, Antwerp, Plantin, 1565, red morocco gilt by Allô, Hoe copy

Junius, Hadrianus (Adriaan De Jonge). Hadriani Junii Medici Emblemata, ad D. Arnoldum Cobelium. Eiusdem Aenigmatum libellus, ad D. Arnoldum Rosenbergum. Antwerp: Christophe Plantin, (15 May) 1565

First edition of Junius's emblem book, structured with a heading with a dedication to a particular person, a woodcut, and a four-line verse; longer prose descriptions appear in a later separate section, as explanations of emblems were sometimes considered to be unnecessary and contrary to the enigmatic nature of the subject. The book proved a commercial success, with numerous reprints and editions in French and Dutch printed by Plantin before the end of the sixteenth century.

The woodcuts are by Gerard Janssen van Kampen and Arnold Nicolai to designs by Geoffroy Ballain and Pieter Huys. The missing emblem on leaf D8v is presumed not to have been available at the time of printing.

2 parts, 8vo (168 x 104 mm). Roman and italic type, 24 lines plus headline. collation: A-I⁸ K⁴; *⁸: 84 leaves (p.64 blank). Each page within a typographic border, woodcut Plantin device on title-pages, woodcut illustrations. (Plausibly washed.)

binding: Red morocco gilt (172 x 115 mm), by Allô, gilt-tooled in period style, spine gilt in compartments, red edges.

provenance: Robert Hoe (1839-1909), blue morocco gilt booklabel, sale, Anderson Auction Company, New York, 24 April 1911, lot 1910 — Paul Harth, red morocco gilt booklabel, sale, Paris, 20 November 1985, lot 108. acquisition: Purchased in 1989 from Martin Breslauer, New York. references: Landwehr, Emblem Books of the Low Countries 399 (mentioning this copy); Voet 1476 (variant B) & 1477; Carolyn Shipman, Catalogue of books of emblems in the library of Robert Hoe (New York, 1908), p.74