PONA (Francesco) - Lot 45

Lot n° 45
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PONA (Francesco) - Lot 45
PONA (Francesco) Cardiomorphoseos sive ex corde de sumpta emblemata sacra. Verona, 1645. Small in-4 with 1 title-frontispice, (3) ff. 208 pp. (3 ff., 208 pp.) : soft vellum, smooth spine with long title in ink (contemporary binding). First and only edition of this book of emblems by the Italian scholar and philosopher Francesco Pona (1594-1654). Surprisingly engraved intaglio illustration. It includes a title-frontispiece and 101 oval-shaped emblems in the text: the latter all focus on the sacred image of the heart, which appeared in the 17th century thanks to the liturgical cult of the Sacred Heart initiated by St. John Eudes and St. Margaret Mary Alacoque. (Landwehr, Romanic, n° 610.- Praz, p. 461.) A fine copy in contemporary vellum. It belonged to the writer and screenwriter Jean-Claude Carrière (1931-2021) who had built up a fine collection of books on emblems and the Baroque period. He noted, on a small leaflet, his impressions: "Francisco Pona's 'Cardiomorphoseos' is truly a mad, hasty book, loaded with sexual symbols of all kinds, sloppily drawn, breathless, popular. Religion has really been visited, by fools. But the rapin side comes out here and there (plate 68), irresistible. The author is undoubtedly a "broken-hearted lady". A major obsession, very rare. It is understandable that the Church was not fond of this. From the libraries of Arthur Dinaux, with a long autograph note on the first endpaper (1864, n° 2053), and Jean-Claude Carrière (I, 2013, n° 106). Small angular tear on folio H2, some light foxing.
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