"Laun in Bohmen", Meisner, Daniel

A miniature bird's-eye plan of the city of Louny in Bohemia. In the foreground is a scene of a women grieving a dead man next to an aggressive looking crocodile. According to the text below the scene, a crocodile is symbolic of evil which shows itself as a grieving woman. That message is reinforced in the title above which translates to "do not always believe the laments of women." The view is based on Matthaus Merian's 1612 view of the city.

Meisner's emblem book, containing over 800 pictorial-poetic compositions, was enormously popular throughout Europe in the 17th century. The plan views were based on the work of De Bry, Braun & Hogenberg, Merian and others with the addition of emblematic figures or scenes in the foreground, juxtaposed with moralizing and edifying verses beneath the image and a Latin motto at top. It was originally issued with 52 plates as the Thesaurus philo-politicus in 1623-24. After Meisner's death in 1625, Eberhard Kieser, with assistance from Johann L. Gottfried, completed the work and published it until 1631. The plates then appeared in the eight parts of Sciographia Cosmica published by Paulus Furst between 1637-78. The plates for these editions were renumbered alphanumerically in the upper right corners - A-H (identifying the 8 parts) and 1-100 (plate number). They were finally issued in 1700 and 1704 in Rudolf J. Helmer's Politica-politica.

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Condition: B+

Even-aged toning with a few minor spots.