Emblemata Sive Symbola a Principibus, viris Eeclesiasticis, ac Militaribus, aliisque usurpanda. Devises ou Emblemes pour Princes, gens d'Eglise, gens de guerre, & aultres. de Vaenius, Otto (Otto Van Veen) - 1624: WITH THE ARMORIAL BOOKPLATE OF PRINCE AUGUSTUS FREDERICK, SON OF KING GEORGE III, KENSINGTON PALACE

First and only edition. Ex Officina Huberti Antonii, Typographi Iurati, sub Aquila aurea. Bruxellae. M. DC. XXIIII. 1624. Stamp of the Antwerp publisher Philippum Lisaert below, not seen on other copies. Small quarto. Text in Latin and French. Title page with Horis Svis Quaeque Placet engraved horological vignette. Dedication a Seignour Jean de Montfort, Conseillier et Maistre. Lectori et Spectatori. Approbatio. 2pp. 23pp text, 207 emblems on 23 plates. Full leather, spine renewed in the original style, retaining the original seventeenth century boards. Original seventeenth century marbled endpapers. Small ink dots to upper corner of title page, occasional small spots and light toning. Endpapers darkened to edges. Original boards a little scarred with age, corners rubbed. Bookplate(s) to fep., an earlier plate obscured beneath the other. Provenance: From the library of Prince Augustus Frederick Duke of Sussex, Son of George III, Kensington Palace. Armorial Bookplate by Perkins and Heath: coat of arms, flanked by lion and unicorn supporters, surrounded by the Garter ribbon and collar, St George below, surmounted by a ducal coronet, his crest, and with his motto "Honi soit qui mal y pense : Si deus pro nobis quis contra nos" Printer's mark "Perkins and Heath". Inscribed shelf mark VI. O. D. 25 This is the larger form of the two bookplates designed for the Duke. The Duke was a renowned bibliophile, and his librarian Thomas Joseph Pettigrew, oversaw the library's expansion and cataloged its contents. The library was sold after the Duke's death in 1844. Bibliotheca Sussexiana. The extensive and valuable Library of His Royal Highness the late Duke of Sussex, K.G. ... which will be sold by Auction. London: R.H. and T. & C. Evans, Pall Mall 1st and 31st July, 12 August 1844, 30 January, 22 April, 11 August 1845. The Duke of Sussex's interest in symbolism is evident in that George Oliver's Signs and Symbols (1837) was dedicated to Prince Augustus Frederick, Duke of Sussex. He was the favourite uncle of Queen Victoria, and gave her away at her wedding to Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg-Gotha in 1840. "The tutor of Peter Paul Rubens, Otto Vaenius or Van Veen (1556-1629) is widely regarded as one of the most influential practitioners in the emblem genre in seventeenth-century Europe." Aneta Georgievska-Shine. Otto Vaenius and his Emblem Books (Glasgow Emblem Studies 15) Simon McKeown, ed. "Emblemata sive symbola is remarkably little known. This is perhaps understandable, since there is only one edition from 1624 which was issued by an obscure publisher, Hubert Anthoine. It cannot have been a large print run, judging by the small number of remaining copies." "Vaenius's emblem game… Emblemata Sive Symbola as a Hieroglyphic language." Vassilieva Olga, Coining Neo-Stoic Hieroglyphs. From the Brussels Mint to Emblemata sive symbola 2012, Glasgow Emblem studies 15 2012 (Otto Vaenius and his Emblem Books, ed. Simon McKeown) Jean de Montfort, 'singulier ami' of Otto Vaenius. To Lord Jean de Monfort, Counsellor and General Master of the Mint of her Catholic Majesty in the Netherlands, Fourier of the Household, & Warden of the Ladies-in-Waiting of the most excellent Isabella Clara Eugenia, Infanta of Spain, Devices and emblems must be presented and dedicated to those who are inclined to such speculative things, and who likewise know their practice, as you have shown in the medals and effigies of the Kings of Spain and of the Archdukes our sovereign Princes, whose reliefs have been regarded as the foremost of our times because of their curious and striking resemblance, so well that no one until now reached such a perfection. Receive accordingly in good part as an amateur and my singular friend this little book which is suited, it seems to me, to pass the time virtuously and give you pleasure in your daily business, and which will give you the matter to conceive other ones, as it happened to me with the invention of these ones, that I dedicate to you wholeheartedly, as your very affectionate, O.V. Referenced by: Landwehr, J. Emblem books in the Low Countries 1554-1949 703 Rare. Held in two libraries in the UK: Cambridge University & UCL. Bibliothèque Nationale de France. Huntington Library, California.