Maccio, Emblemata, Bologna, 1628, contemporary mottled calf

Maccio, Paolo. Emblemata cum privilegiis. (Bologna: Clemente Ferroni, April 1628)

First and only edition of Bolognese emblematist Paolo Maccio's (c.1570-1638) Emblemata, featuring engravings by Giovanni Battista Coriolano, Oliviero Gatti, and Agostino Parisini.

Many of the emblems are familiar scenes from the works of Virgil, Ovid, Cicero and Horace, such as the burning of Troy and the sword of Damocles, and are presented with accompanying quotes in both Latin and Italian. 

More unusual emblems include 'Mali malos absterrent', which is illustrated with a crocodile suspended from the ceiling of a church: a practice that took place across early modern Europe. This work also contains an early depiction of a telescope, used in a negative context, in a warning about envying things that others possess. 

4to (212 x 144 mm). Roman type. collation: A-Z⁴ AA-TT⁴: 168 leaves. Engraved title within typographical border, engraved frontispiece of the Madonna and Child, 81 full page engravings within typographical borders, the engraving on PP3 printed upside-down. (Occasional offsetting, some light marginal staining.)

binding: Contemporary mottled calf (218 x 152 mm), spine gilt in compartments, edges speckled red and blue, some deckle edges. (Binding rubbed with a few small wormholes, spine chipped, joints weak.) 

provenance: Gentien Charron (plausibly the auditeur des comptes who was the cousin of Colbert's wife Marie Charron), inscription on title-page. acquisition: Purchased in 1990 from Robin Halwas, London. references: Landwehr, Romanic Emblem Books 496; USTC 4007086; L. Konečný, "Young Milton and the Telescope," Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes 37 (1974), p.370