"Nonclutz in Engellandt", Meisner, Daniel

A lovely view of Nonsuch Palace, a Tudor royal palace in Surrey, England. The palace was built by Henry VIII beginning in 1538, and was one of his grandest building projects. Nonsuch Palace changed hands several times until it was given to Barbara, Countess of Castlemaine, who had it pulled down in 1682 to pay off gambling debts. In the foreground is a pelican scaring numerous wild animals, with Latin and German verses below which explain that when a pelican screams she scares all the beasts away, but he who understands her screams is not at all bothered by it.

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+

Minor soiling.