Emblem Book by Francis Quarles 1778
This book is titled Emblems Divine And Moral: Together With Hieroglyphics Of The Life Of Man, written by Francis Quarles and first published in 1635, and this edition was published in 1778, during the Revolutionary War in America.
The book is 3/4 bound, with five raised bands, the title and date of 1778 impressed on the spine, the book has brown textured boards, salmon-colored endpapers, a pencilled note on a front endpaper says there are 2 frontispieces, 78 plates, of which 36 are colored, and 15 hieroglyphics, then an engraved frontis, the title page says the book was published in London by Alexr. Hogg on Paternoster Row and the date is in Roman numerals at the bottom of the title page, then a three-page preface, a page by the author dedicated to Edward Benlowes, a page addressed to the reader by Quarles, there are five books of emblems running from the first emblem on page 8 to page 240, then the Hieroglyphics of the Life of Man (I - XV) run from 241 to 289, followed by an errata page and four pages about translations of the Latin mottoes, the last page has directions to the binder, and the book is here is probably rebound.
Francis Quarles (1592 - 1644) was an English poet most famous for this work. Born in Romford, Essex, his family had a long history of royal service. He entered Christ’s College when he was only sixteen and subsequently studied for the bar. In 1613, when Princess Elizabeth married the King of Bohemia (Frederick V of the Electoral Palatinate), Quarles was made her cupbearer and went with her to Europe, remaining in that post for several years. (Historically, a cupbearer was an officer of high rank in royal courts whose duty was to pour and serve drinks at the royal table, to guard against poison in the king or queen’s cup - he was sometimes even required to swallow some of the drink before serving it, which means he was a highly trusted member of the court to hold that position and had great influence.) Quarles married in 1618 and had eighteen children - that is what the research says - he returned to England in 1633 and spent two years preparing his Emblems book, in 1639 he was appointed city chronologer, a post previously occupied by Ben Jonson, and when the Civil War broke out in England, he was a Royalist.
Quarles illustrated the first edition himself and William Marshall did the engravings for the book, as well as the illustrations for Hieroglyphikes of the Life of Man (1638), which was published along with Quarles' Emblems, and each emblem was paraphrased with a passage from Scriptures, followed by passages from the Christian Fathers, and concluded with an epigram of four lines. The book was very popular with readers, but not with the critics, because many of them considered the illustrations grotesque.
The book measures 6 5/8 x 4 1/4 inches wide and is in good condition. The binding is tight and the pages and text are pretty clean, with occasional offset from the illustrations, light wear on the edges of the spine and at the tips, small rubbing on the edge of some pages at the rear, and some pencilled notes on the endpapers, and all the emblems and engravings are present, including the colored engravings.
The book has numerous listings with various dates on WorldCat and this edition is being offered for $300 to $400 on the rare book website we use - a disbound copy from 1635 goes for $300 and a complete copy from 1684 goes for almost $900, copies published after 1800 generally go for $300 and up - and this is a chance to own another emblem book from the 1700’s.
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