Lot 18: PEACHAM, Henry (1576-1643). Minerva Britanna or A Garden of Heroical Deuises ... newly devised, moralized, and published . London: Wa. Dight, [1612]. 4° (208 x 154mm). General title with woodcut device and architectural border, part title with

PEACHAM, Henry (1576-1643). Minerva Britanna or A Garden of Heroical Deuises ... newly devised, moralized, and published. London: Wa. Dight, [1612]. 4° (208 x 154mm). General title with woodcut device and architectural border, part title with woodcut device and decorations, 202 (of 204) woodcut emblems. (Lacks V4, C4 torn with slight loss of text, burn hole in E2 affetcing woodcuts recto and verso, woodcuts on S1r-v and Bb4r-v defaced with central area cut out.) Contemporary spotted calf (spine gilt). Provenance: Henry Duke of Kent, 1713 (bookplate) -- Thomas Philip, Earl de Grey (bookplate).

ONLY EDITION of this emblem book, dedicated to Prince Henry. It departs in important respects from Peacham's previous emblem works. The interpretative verse is in English, and many of the repreated plates differ in detail. The emblematic woodcuts are believed to be his own work. He hence had no need of the sometimes massice borrowing of plates to which other emblem writers resorted. Reference is made to football and tennis in the emblems on M4 and R3. Hazlitt I, p. 448; Lowndes V, 1808; STC 19511.

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