César Ripa - Iconologie, ou, explication nouvelle de plusieurs images, emblèmes, et autres figures - 1644

Iconologie, or, new explanation of several images, emblems, and other figures, by César Ripa translated by Jean Baudoin. In Paris, at Mathieu Guillemot, 1644. Two parts in one volume in 4to (23.5 x 36 cm) of 204 pages + 196 pages. Contemporary full calf binding with marble pattern, front and back boards decorated with a double-filet frame showing wear, strong epidermal defects. Spine with raised bands, seven compartments decorated with fleurons, brown title label. Edges cracked.
Second edition of the first French translation by Jean Baudouin in 1643. Illustrated with two frontispieces and engraved plates: 174 in the first part and 284 in the second part for a total of 458.
Iconology became the “book of the bedside” for painters, sculptors, decorators, and architects of the Baroque and Classical era (as under Louis XIV) for knowing how to visually represent an abstract idea.
It is a vast alphabetical and thematic repertoire describing allegorical personifications (the Virtues, the Vices, the Passions, the Arts, the Sciences, the Seasons, the Elements, or the figures of Fate). Each figure is described through its physical attributes, clothing, colors, animals or accompanying objects (for example, Prudence with her mirror and her serpent) drawing on Antiquity, hieroglyphics, and humanist texts.
Good copy.