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an open book with a picture of a group of people on it
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Emblemata Cats, Jacob An anthology comprising three works. With numerous emblematic engraved illustrations. 1. Silenus Alcibiadis sive Proteus depicted in images of love. Goude, Rammazeyn, c. 1645. – 2. Self-stryt, Sense-images. Heeren 1645. – 3. A Scene Depicting Manly Virtue. Heeren 1645. A later edition of the most significant works by the poet Jacob Cats, featuring impressive emblematic engravings. - Cf. Landwehr, Emblem & fable books 115 – The second volume is a long, highly moral didactic poem devoted to man’s inner struggle between sin (the flesh) and virtue (the spirit). The third volume is the counterpart for husbands and men in positions of leadership. – The coloured illustrations are in pochoir colouring. Jacob Cats (1577–1660) – a lawyer, diplomat, Grand Pensionary of the Republic of the United Netherlands and, at the same time, the most widely read poet of the Dutch Golden Age – is regarded as the true people’s poet of the Netherlands: Around 50,000 copies of his didactic poem on marriage, *Houwelyck*, were sold between 1625 and 1655 alone, and even today, many of his aphorisms live on as set phrases in everyday Dutch speech. His literary debut, and at the same time his best-known work, was the first title in this anthology, ‘Silenus Alcibiadis sive Proteus’, first published in Middelburg in 1618. The ambiguous title alludes to two ancient motifs: Silenus as an ugly outer shell concealing precious contents – a metaphor for veiled truth popularised by Erasmus in the *Adagia* – and the sea god Proteus as a symbol of mutability. Both allusions point to the work’s fundamental structural principle: Cats uses the same copperplate engravings in three successive parts, each with a different accompanying text, so that one and the same image is interpreted in turn as a love emblem, a moral lesson and a religious admonition. The circular emblems in the first parts are based on designs by Adriaen Pietersz. van de Vennes, who remained the principal illustrator of Cats’ emblematic oeuvre throughout his life; they were engraved by, amongst others, Jan Gerrits Swelinck. The second title included in the volume, ‘Self-stryt’ (Self-strife), is an extensive, deeply moralising didactic poem that deals with man’s inner struggle between sin, embodied in the flesh, and virtue, embodied in the spirit – a typical example of the didactic and religious orientation that pervades Cats’ entire body of work and made him the favoured court poet of the Calvinist-influenced bourgeoisie. The third work, “Tooneel vande mannelicke acht-baerheyt” (Scene of Male Virtue), forms its complementary counterpart and is addressed to husbands as well as to men in positions of social and official leadership; both works were originally published in Middelburg in 1620 and 1622 respectively and, as in the present case, were repeatedly compiled together with the “Proteus” into anthologies throughout the 17th century. This compilation of the three central early works – teachings on love and morality, The Struggle for Virtue and Social Ethics – forms, taken as a whole, a compact compendium of Cats’ moral teachings, illustrated by the characteristic circular copperplate engravings, which, in the emblematic tradition, combine image and maxim into an inseparable unity. Given the work’s extraordinary popularity, numerous reprints and new editions—often difficult to distinguish bibliographically—appeared throughout the 17th century under various publishers in Amsterdam, Middelburg, Gouda and The Hague – including this present edition, published around 1645 in Gouda by Rammazeyn, which forms part of this long-standing printing tradition, documented in Landwehr’s standard bibliography of Dutch emblems under the cited number 115. Slightly yellowed and in places slightly stained. Jacob Cats (1577–1660) – lawyer, diplomat and Grand Pensionary of the Republic of the United Netherlands, as well as the most widely read poet of the Dutch Golden Age – is regarded as the Netherlands’ true poet of the people: of his didactic poem on marriage, ‘Houwelyck’, some 50,000 copies were sold between 1625 and 1655, and many of his maxims remain proverbial expressions in everyday Dutch speech to this day. His literary debut, and at the same time his most famous work, was the first title bound in the present volume, “Silenus Alcibiadis sive Proteus”, first published in Middelburg in 1618. The double-edged title alludes to two motifs from antiquity: the figure of Silenus as an ugly outer shell concealing precious contents – an image popularised by Erasmus in his “Adagia” as an allegory of veiled truth – and the sea god Proteus as a symbol of mutability. Both allusions point to the work’s underlying structural principle: Cats uses the same engravings across three successive parts, each with a different accompanying text, so that one and the same image is interpreted once as an emblem of love, once as a moral lesson, and once as a religious admonition. The circular emblems of the first parts are based on designs by Adriaen Pietersz. van de Venne, who remained the principal illustrator of Cats’s emblematic works throughout his life; these were engraved, amongst others, by Jan Gerrits Swelinck. The second title included in the volume, ‘Self-stryt’ (‘Inner Strife’), is an extensive, deeply moralising didactic poem dealing with man’s inner struggle between sin, embodied in the flesh, and virtue, embodied in the spirit – a typical example of the didactic-religious orientation that runs through Cats’s entire body of work and made him the favourite household poet of the Calvinist-minded bourgeoisie. The third title, “Tooneel vande mannelicke acht-baerheyt” (“A Display of Manly Honour”), forms its complementary counterpart, addressed to husbands as well as to men in positions of social and official leadership; both works were originally published in 1620 and 1622 respectively in Middelburg, and were, as in the present case, repeatedly bound together with “Proteus” into composite volumes over the course of the seventeenth century. Taken together, this combination of the three central early works – teachings on love and morals, the struggle for virtue, and the ethics of social standing – forms a compact compendium of Cats’ moral doctrine, illustrated by the characteristic circular engravings that unite image and maxim into an inseparable whole in the emblematic tradition. Given the extraordinary popularity of the work, numerous reprints and new editions—often bibliographically difficult to distinguish from one another—appeared throughout the seventeenth century from various publishers in Amsterdam, Middelburg, Gouda and The Hague – the present edition, too, published around 1645 in Gouda by Rammazeyn, forms part of this long-standing printing tradition, documented under the cited number 115 in Landwehr’s standard bibliography of Dutch emblem books.
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About the sale Valuable books, prints, historical photographs
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Auction time 10/24/2026 at 10:00 AM
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