Beschreibung:

JESUITS -- Imago Primi Saeculi Societas Iesu a Provincia Flandro-Belgica Eiusdem Societatis Repraesentata . Antwerp: Officina Plantiniana Bathasaris Moreti, 1640.
JESUITS -- Imago Primi Saeculi Societas Iesu a Provincia Flandro-Belgica Eiusdem Societatis Repraesentata . Antwerp: Officina Plantiniana Bathasaris Moreti, 1640. 2 o (343 x 218 mm). Engraved title and 124 emblematic engravings by Cornelis Galle woodcut initials and tail-pieces, woodcut printer's device at end. (Aa4 with short marginal tear, water stained in lower margins.) 18th-century marbled calf gilt, red morocco lettering-piece on spine (front joint partly split, some waterstaining). Provenance : Anna Alexandrina van der Straten (early signature on final leaf below printer's device); early manuscript note on Vv3v; acquired from Emil Offenbacher, 1962. FIRST EDITION of this emblematic work outlining the tenets, practices and activities of the Jesuits. According to Aldin and Landis, it is chiefly the work of Joannes Bollandus and Godefridus Henschenius. Praz describes the work as "the celebration of celebrations, the triumphal arch erected by the Jesuits in rich, luxuriant scrolls, in bizarre and pompous cartouches" and notes how the style of the emblems matches the subjects of the various sections, including persecution, martyrdom, travails in Japan and England, the trophies and homages of popes and sovereigns, etc. It was published simultaneously in Dutch. Aldin & Landis 640/6; Landwehr 111; Praz, pp.185-8.