A TREASURE TROVE OF IMAGES
De Ponte, Ludovicus [= Luis de la Puente, S.J.] [Sichem, Christoffel van, the younger]: Der zielen lust-hof, inhoudende 1. Het leven ende lijden onses heeren Iesu Christi, met meditatien daer op, uyt Ludovico de Ponte, Priester der Societeyt Iesu. II. De wercken der Apostelen. III. De Openbaringe van St. Ian. Met corte verclaringhen uyt de H. Out-Vaders ende treffelijcke Catholijcke Leeraren by een ghestelt. alles in drie hondert schoone figuyren, ghesneden door C.V. Sichem, voor P.I. Paets seer constigh afgebeelt. Tot Loven [Leuven], voor Isbrandt Jacobsz, voor P.I. Paets [Amsterdam] 1629.
Heavily illustrated work extracted and translated from the Meditaciones of the Jesuit Luis de la Puente (Valladolid, 1554-1624). The many woodcuts are made by Christoffel II van Sichem (c.1581-1658). His sources include Albert Dürer (see fol. 245 verso for a copy of Adam and Eve dated 1512, with the Dürer monogram), and Hieronymus Wierix (a source for images of the Passion - see Hollstein, 45 #37). Incorporated entirely is a thirteen-print series (including title-page), which first appeared in 1617, called The Youth of Christ (De Kindsheyd onses Heeren Jesu Christi) (Hollstein, 41 #s 4-16).
“It is not extravagant to see in these little woodcuts a continuation of the tradition of such 16th century artists as Jost Amman, except that the strong light - and - shadow highlighting of the figures shows a clear development into the baroque” (Lehmann-Haupt, 287).
Details
First edition. One volume, 17.9 cms. x 12 cms., octavo, fols. [39] 416 [=417]. Signed: A-Lll8. Pages within printed borders, woodcut architectural borders and Jesuit symbol to title-page, woodcut illustrations throughout, woodcut initials and tailpieces. Light or medium browning, bound in panelled calf, edges yellow and speckled red (binding rubbed, cracking to joints, clasp plates still intact but straps removed). Inscription, to top margin of title-page and to facing endpaper, of J.P. Gilles, stamp to front free endpaper recto of Louis Gilles, gold label to front pastedown, “Ex bibliotheca Baron Charles Gilles de Pelichy Brugensis, 1872-1958, Galerie Garnier, Brugge, 1972-73”.
STCN 08681852X. STCV: c:stcv:6910984. Backer-Sommervogel IV 1274. Hollstein, p. 47, #47. OCLC shows copies outside European mainland at Catholic University of America, Emory, Glasgow, British Library.
K.G. Boon, G.S. Keyes, D. de Hoop Scheffer, Hollstein’s Dutch and Flemish engravings, etchings and woodcuts, ca. 1450-1700, vol. 27 (Amsterdam, 1983). Hellmut Lehmann-Haupt, ‘Christoffel van Sichem. A family of Dutch 17th century woodcut artists’. Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 1975, 274-306.