Picinelli, Filippo: Mundus symbolicus, in emblematum universitate formatus, explicatus, et tam sacris, quam profanis eruditionibus ac sententiis illustratus. 2 parts in 1 Vol. Köln: T.a. H. Theodorus von Cöllen 1715. 36,5 x 22,3 cm. With an illustrated copperplate title page, 1 engraved and 1 woodcut title vignette, and 33 emblematic copperplate illustrations in the text. 25 leaves, 740 pages; 2 leaves, 268 pages, 103 leaves. Leather binding with 5 bands, featuring blind-stamped cover fillets, floral decoration on the spine, 2 spine labels and 2 signature labels on the spine.

(Stained, bumped and with a few wormholes. The half-title page is creased, stained, with a filled-in missing section and a small tear in the lower margin. The title page bears handwritten ownership notes in black ink. Folio a⁴ with a filled-in gap within the head vignette. Filled-in gaps in the text on folios Z³⁺⁴. Folios Mmm³⁺⁴ detached from the binding. Folio Dd³ bound behind Dd⁴. Some to fairly heavy water and age stains in places. Browned and with a few small paper discolorations.)

Landwehr V, 484. - The latest edition of this comprehensive collection of source material. The Italian Augustinian canon, scholar and preacher Filippo Picinelli (1604–1679) is regarded as one of the most significant figures in the artistic and scholarly tradition of emblematics, which combined images, symbols and brief aphorisms. He believed that the visible world created by God could be read as a symbolic book. His encyclopaedia, comprising more than 1,000 folio pages, is based on this concept.