Jesuit dialogues with emblematic illustrations

[Raicsani, Johann, SJ]. Itinerarium athei, ad veritatis viam deducti [...].

€ 3,000.00

Second edition of this extremely rare and curious emblem book, with the text couched in the form of seven dialogues between a "vir politicus" and "theologicus", generally attributed to the Hungarian Jesuit János Rajcsanyi. The dialogues concern (1) the existence of God; (2) divine providence; (3) fate; (4) predestination and divine prescience; (5) the immortality of the soul; (6) on Gehenna; and (7) the resurrection of the dead. Along with a frontispiece, each dialogue is preceded by an emblematic engraving by the Viennese artist (Franz) Ambros Dietel (d. 1737?) which constitute extraordinary, and frequently visionary, pictorial representations of the substance of each of the dialogues. The frontispiece is signed "A. Dietel sc. Vi.", others "Dietell" or "D. sc.". The plates depart from the usual format of the emblem book in that there is no motto, but the symbolic content of the images, each with an accompanying Biblical verse, places it squarely in the tradition.

Although Sommervogel cites no other edition and gives Raicsani's dates as 1670-1733, his text was first published in Vienna in 1676 with six very similar plates which clearly were the model on which Dietel based his engravings. An undated edition which may precede the present one was printed in Passau by Maria Margarete Höller, and reprints appear as late as 1757. All editions are rare: no copy of any edition in U.S. libraries, and only two copies anywhere (Bavaria State Library and Austrian National Library) of this 1704 edition.

Paper lightly browned; a few tiny wormholes to spine. 19th century bookplate of Anton Kurz on pastedown; handwritten and stamped 1979 ownership of the Viennese collector Werner Habel (1939-2015) to the flyleaf.