WITHER, George (1588–1667). A Collection of Emblemes, Ancient and Moderne. London: A[gustine] M[atthews] for Richard Royston, 1635.

Small folio (287 x 180 mm). Woodcut printer’s device on title–page within double–ruled border, separate title–pages for each book but with continuous register and pagination, engraved portrait of Wither, 200 engraved emblems after Crispin van de Passe the elder for Gabriel Rollenhagen’s Nucleus emblematorum (1611–1613), woodcut initials, head– and tail–pieces (lacking the following: explanatory verse prior to engraved title–page; additional engraved title–page; *4 (second page of dedication); the final two woodcut dials, one being supplied in early facsimile on vellum with pointer). (Initial blanks with some marginal tears, title–page a bit soiled, some marginal browning, few with stains and chipping). Full contemporary English dark calf with central panel in blind (rebacked, some surface wear to covers and corners, renewed endpapers). Provenance: Elisabeth Fettiplace (ownership inscription dated 1708); S.? Lawrence Horne (ownership signature dated 1724); Irvin Garfield Schorsch (later armorial bookplate).

FIRST EDITION, VARIANT GENERAL TITLE. An important emblem book by the English poet and author that is of “particular interest because it contains a pair of volvelles in its final pages… These simple moving parts could thereby be used as rudimentary calculators and memory aids… Wither included his volvelles for a quite different purpose. Blindly turning these two dials allowed a reader to select an emblem upon which to concentrate his or her attention. He intended for the ‘Lottery’, to be an entertainment, something he referred to as a ‘Moral Pastime’. As Rosemary Freeman observes in her English Emblem Books, ‘it obviously had the same appeal as a Fortune–teller at a party’” (Belongea, “Wither’s Volvelles”, The Newberry Library). ESTC S118586; STC 25900c; Wither to Prior 1038; Not in Pforzheimer.