Hermannus Hugo. De Prima Scribendi Origine et universa rei literariae antiquitate: cui notas, opusculum de scribis, apologiam pro Waechtlero, praefationem et indices adjecit C.H.Trotz, jctus. 8vo, [40], 40, 611, [67]p, 5 leaves of plates (2 folded), 19cm, Trajecti ad Rhenum [Utrecht], Apud Hermannum Besseling, 1738.
Title-page in red and black, decorated throughout with woodcut ornaments; 5 copper-engraved plates (2 folding). Bound in contemporary full vellum over thongs, neatly titled by hand on the spine. Some occasional light spotting. A very good bright copy.
Hermann Hugo (1588-1629) was a Jesuit priest, writer and miltary chaplain. His Pia Desidaria, a spiritual emblem book published in Antwerp in 1624, was 'the most popular emblem book of the seventeenth century'. It went through 42 Latin editions and was widely translated up to the 18th century.
