Very rare first edition of a beautifully illustrated emblem book depicting religious, profane, and mythological scenes, by Jean Jacques Boissard (1528-1602). Boissard was a French humanist, antiquarian, poet, and artist from Besançon, who settled in Metz in 1560 after many journeys and stays in Italy. From 1585 onwards, he was in contact with the well-known engraver, illustrator, and publisher Theodor de Bry (1528-1598) in Frankfurt am Main with whom he published the famous Icones virorum illustrium in 1597 (a collection of 100 portraits of important men). This work continued to be expanded in later editions, then known under the title Bibliotheca chalcographica.
The present Theatrum vitae humanae was printed in the author's hometown of Metz in 1596 by Abraham Faber, at the expense of the engraver Theodor de Bry in Frankfurt am Main (see the colophon on p. 266). Each of the 60 plates, numbered "I-LX" and depicting biblical, profane, or mythological scenes, is accompanied by a 4-line Latin poem in hexameter, which is then followed by an explanation in prose by Boissard. De Bry published a German translation in 1597 in Frankfurt am Main and some 40 years later a second Latin edition appeared in that same city with the publisher Wilhelm Fritzer.
With the large engraved armorial book plate of James Allardes on the front paste-down, a contemporary manuscript detailed list of engravings on the recto and verso of the first free flyleaf, another manuscript inscription on the verso of the first free flyleaf below the list, by an 18th-century owner of the work named C. B. Lengnich; he refers to Pierre Bayles Dictionnaire (vol. I, p. 589) and mentions the rarity of the present edition. Further with a few manuscript annotations in the margins (mainly on p. 2) and some manuscript underlining of the text. The binding is somewhat dust-soiled and shows a brown stain on the back board, the corners of the boards are slightly scuffed, the title-page shows some (dust) soiling, some dust-soiling in the margins and thumbed corners throughout, the leaves are slightly frayed along the fore-edge. Otherwise in good condition with clear engraved illustrations in the text. Adams, B-2344; Brun, p. 138; Brunet, I, p. 1067; Ind. Aurel., 121.340; Landwehr, French, Italian, Spanish ... Emblems (1976), no. 167; Praz, p. 279; Redgrave, Boissards Emblems, in: Transactions of the Bibliogr. Society (1893); Tchemerzine, Bibl. dauteurs franç., I, p. 815; VD16 B 6465.