Duodecim Specula Deum Aliquando Videre Desideranti Concinnata 1610.
Size: 7 7/16 x 5 1/8 in.
This book is titled Duodecim Specula Deum Aliquando Videre Desideranti Concinnata in Latin, which means “Twelve Mirrors Arranged for Those Who Wish to See God Someday”, and it is a Dutch emblem book written by P. Iohanne David, illustrated by Theodore Galle, and published at the Officina Plantiniana in Antwerp in 1610. The book is a devotional emblem book written in Latin, it has 12 engravings depicting scenes from the life of Jesus, and each engraving is accompanied by a Latin hymn or poem that reflects on the spiritual significance of the depicted event, such as the Nativity, the Crucifixion, and the Resurrection.
This devotional emblem book presented a meditative program centered around twelve metaphorical mirrors, arranged consecutively to guide the soul towards God, and the meditative mirrors were interspersed with a number of real mirrors and other optical instruments that created an opposition between optics and devotion - between what you see and what you believe.
The emblems combined text and image into one coherent whole, they followed a tripartite formula consisting of an image (pictura), caption (inscriptio), and short verse (subscriptio), and they often contained a moralizing message. David was also a member of the Society of Jesus which developed a religious culture anchored in the motto “finding God in all things”, and when you realize the book was created at a time when important scientific discoveries were being made in the early seventeenth century, the book makes sense: Kepler observed that planets revolved around the sun in an elliptical motion and the retina of the eye inverted the image we have of the external world, and Galileo used lenses to create telescopes that allowed people to observe the heavens and the universe, and Galileo almost lost his life - he was considered a heretic - because he believed the earth revolved around the sun, which was in exact opposition to what the Church and the Bible said at the time - and people didn’t know how to reconcile their beliefs with what they saw in the heavens.
Iohanne David (1545-1613), also known as Jan David, was a Dutch artist who studied philosophy and theology in Louvain (Leuven), Belgium, he became a priest in 1570 and joined the Jesuits - the Society of Jesus - twelve years later, and he was a fervent defender of the Catholic faith.
Théodore Galle (1572 - 1633) designed and engraved the emblems. He had taken over the engraving workshop and printer’s publishing house from his father around 1600. He also married Catherina Moretus, which established not only a family tie, but a professional bond with the Plantin-Moretuses, and the Galle workshop became a supplier to the Officina Plantiniana.
The book has vellum covers, with the title and date of 1610 on the spine, gilt-ruled borders on the covers, “Anne Beauchamp her booke” is inscribed on the front flyleaf,
the engraved title-page has an architectural border and a vignette featuring a Jesuit icon, there are 13 pages of preliminaries before the emblem for the first chapter, including one page of contents before the first emblem in the book, then 184 pages of text, a 13 page index at the rear, with errata on the last page of the index, then one page titled “Summa Privilegii” which says no one may print this book or import it into lower Germany for eight years without fines, and finally a page that says the book was printed in Antwerp for the Officina Plantiniana by Iohanne Moretum in 1610 and the printer's device is on the last page of the book, and the title page and all 12 full-page engravings by Galle are present.
The book measures 7 7/16 x 5 1/8 inches wide and is in good condition. The binding is tight and the pages and engravings are pretty clean, with light brown spots in the margins, a large chip across the top of the front flyleaf, light chips at the top of the title page, some corner creases at the top of some of the pages, and worm holes on some pages towards the rear.
WorldCat says there are ten copies in Special Collections around the world, but all those copies are ebooks and one copy is on microfilm, so the book at auction here is actually very rare. Zwiggelaar sold one copy at auction in 2014 for €1300 ($1725), Ketterer sold a copy in Hamburg for $375 in 2015, Swann Galleries sold a copy for $530 in 2020, one copy is being offered for sale for $1250 right now on the rare book website we use, and we are starting the bidding low to give people a chance to bid on this intriguing rarity from the 17th century.
All items are sold AS IS. Lot and condition details are for descriptive purposes only. Sarasota Estate Auction is not responsible for errors and/or omissions of condition. The absence of a condition report does not imply that the lot is perfect or free from wear, flaws, or characteristics of age. Please bid according to your own expertise, or request any additional information and/or photographs you deem necessary.
