Martinet - Emblesmes royales a Louis le Grand - 1673

231 pages. Magnificent binding, full leather with gold tooling, spine with two headbands and raised bands, gilded edges.
First and only edition of a book of emblems dedicated to King Sun Louis XIV of France. The book features a carefully crafted edition with a woodcut vignette on the title, small woodcut initials, large final woodcut plates, and borders of ornamental floral motifs fused beneath each emblem. At the end of the dedication to Louis the Great, the king's personal emblem, a woodcut sun, is added. The engraved emblems depict gods and ancient heroes, plants, animals, buildings, battle scenes, etc., followed by brief poems in French. COMPLETE AND VERY RARE BOOK. Pages 12 + 219. Emblems: there are 2 on the second leaf, one on each side, titled 'L’arc de Triomphe' and on the reverse, another titled 'Sonnet'; then follow the 60 numbered engravings, with a couple of errors in the Roman numeral numbering, namely; the engraving on page 73 is marked XXII but should be XXV, and it differs from the other XXII on page 63, also placed between XXIV and XXVI. Additionally, the number XLIV appears twice on pages 157 and 159, with different engravings, and one of them corresponds to the missing number XLV. Finally, on page 13, there is an unnumbered engraving, meaning the complete book.