Emblémes, ou, Devises chrétiennes
This 1697 emblem book, published in Utrecht by the bookseller Antoine Schouten, collects Christian devices in which each motto sits above a small engraved scene in a circular frame. The pictures are plain line engravings of landscapes, trees, a sundial, and light breaking through cloud, with the Latin inscriptions carried in the ring. A designer could draw on their compact circular framing and the way a short phrase and a single image are paired to carry a moral idea.
