Beschreibung:

Veen, Otto van. Emblemes de l'amour divin. Paris: Pierre Landry [ca 1690]
This book is an adaptation of van Veen's Amoris Divini Emblemata, published in Antwerp in 1615, in which all 60 engravings have been reduced in size. In this edition each engraving is accompanied by a Latin inscription, with a quatrain in French below. The Amoris Divini Emblemata, with its depictions of Divine Love and the Human Soul, is the religious counterpart to van Veen's 1608 Amorum emblemata, which featured Cupid and his lover. The Amoris Divini Emblemata was supposedly created in response to suggestions made by Archduchess Isabella of the Netherlands that van Veen's emblems could be reworked to reflect a more religious meaning. Despite this, most emblems in this work are original, with less than half referring back to those of Amoris Divini Emblemata.
This copy was owned by James Edwards (the son of William Edwards of Halifax , who became the most renowned antiquarian bookseller in London, responsible for the London sale of the Pinelli Library from Venice and the Bibliotheca Parisi(a)na. He also had a notable personal collection of fine books, and after retiring in 1800 (his business passing to R.H. Evans), he sold some of his library at Christie's in April 1804, and the rest through Evans in April 1815; this book instead went to his young son James who would have been under ten years old at the time.
12mo (144 x 87 mm). 60 unsigned leaves, each with a full-page engraving, including the title-page. 
binding: Late eighteenth-century straight-grained red morocco gilt (149 x 92 mm), flat spine gilt, edges gilt, blue moiré silk endpapers. (Extremities slightly rubbed, upper joint weak, some loss to head and foot of spine.)
provenance: James Edwards (1759-1816, the bookseller), inscription on flyleaf in gold ink, "James Edwards from his Father J.E. June 1814" — James Edwards junior — [probably sale, Sotheby's, London, 2-4 June 1947, part of lot 615, bought by Francis Edwards, London] — sale, Sotheby's, London, 23 June 1970, lot 210. acquisition: Purchased in 1990 from Diana Parikian, London. references: Adams, Rawles & Saunders F.609; Landwehr, Romanic Emblem Books 758; P. Boot, "Similar or Dissimilar Loves? Amoris Divini Emblemata and its relation to Amorum Emblemata", Otto Vaenius and his Emblem Books (2012), 157-173