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Introduction

Introduction

General Introduction

This is our preliminary edition of Amoris divini et humani antipathia by Ludovicus van Leuven. We intend to add a full introduction to this edition. For now we have limited ourselves to the bare essentials.

Ludovicus van Leuven

It is likely Ludovicus van Leuven was born somewhere south of Leuven, shortly after 1600.1 After he had found someone to take care of his illegitimate child, he became a Capuchin. Later on he started as a clergyman. Van Leuven died in 1661 in Brussels.

Amoris divini et humani antipathia

About the Book

The printing history of the Amoris divini et humani antipathia is extremely complicated and vague.2 The 1629-edition of the Amoris divini et humani antipathia is based on two earlier editions of the same work. In 1628 an edition was published in Paris by publisher Guillaume le Noir, being prepared by Michel van Lochom. This 1628-edition was a pirate edition, based on the 1626-edition titled Amoris divini et humani effectus varii, published by Michiel Snijders. The 1629-edition contains more engravings than its predecessors, and the 83 engravings are divided into two divisions ('De Amore Humano' and 'De Amore Divino'). The Amoris divini et humani antipathia was reprinted in 1636, 1648 and 1655.

The structure of the 1629-edition of the Amoris divini et humani antipathia is modelled after Vaenius's Amoris divini emblemata (see: [Titlepage]): just like in Vaenius's emblems, the Latin subscriptio's consist of quotes, the Dutch and French subscriptio's of verses and the Spanish subscriptio's are based on epigrams made by Alphonso de Ledesma. The content of the Amoris divini et humani antipathia, however, differs from Vaenius's Amoris divini emblemata, and the picturae are drawn after the example Boethius a Bolswert had set in Herman Hugo's Pia desideria. Cats's Sinne- en minnebeelden (see: ) provided some of the Latin texts, and the 1629-edition of Amoris divini et humani antipathia also shows traces of influence by Typus mundi (see: [Titlepage]), a Jesuit-emblem book published in 1627.

Editorial Procedures

Copy Used for This Edition

In making this edition of Amoris divini et humani antipathia we have used the copy of the edition of 1629 conserved in the Library of the Radboud University, Nijmegen, shelf number 641 C 75.

Transcription

We have transcribed the full text from the Nijmegen copy and encoded this text using TEI mark-up, to allow for flexibility in presentation and non-destructive editorial enhancement of the text. The full Project Guidelines for transcription, editorial intervention and indexing of the text are available elsewhere on this site.

Literature

The full Emblem Project Utrecht bibliography may be accessed using the menu option at the left side of this (or any) window. A selection of literature relevant to Amoris divini et humani antipathia follows here.


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Notes

1
This brief sketch of the life of Van Leuven is based on Porteman, Nieuwe gegevens He was born as Philippe de Vilers.
2
This brief sketch is based on Porteman, Nieuwe gegevens