Gisb. Cuperi Harpocrates, Sive Explicatio imaguncluæ argenteæ perantiquæ; quæ in figuram Harpocratis formata representat Solem. Ejusdem Monumenta Antiqua Inedita. Multi Auctorum loci, multæ Inscriptiones, Marmora, Nummi, Gemmæ, varii ritus, & Antiquitates in utroque Opusculo emendantur & illustrantur. Accedit Stephani Le Moine Epistola de Melanophoris.
Utrecht: (Trajecti ad Rhenum) Apud Franciscum Halma, Acad. Typogr., 1687, Quarto. This copy is bound in 20th century quarter calf. .
¶Harpocrates was adapted by the Greeks from the Egyptian child God Horus, who represented the newborn sun, rising each day at dawn. Harpocrates's name was a Hellenization of the Egyptian Har-pa-khered or Heru-pa-khered, meaning "Horus the Child". In the second century B.C., Egyptians connected Harpocrates with the mystic cult of the Egyptian goddess Isis. Harpocrates holds a finger to its lip for the Egyptians a symbolic gesture representing childhood. Yet the Greeks mistook these stature/symbols, for a hush for silence. The Greeks, misinterpreted Harpocrates as the personification of silence. This particular work is a study of statues and other art from classical antiquity that depict these later figures of silence. And again, the Roman interpretation added strength to the Mystery of silence.
¶The frontispiece signed and dated in the plate: Joh. van der Avele invention and fecit. Title page in red and black. This edition is enhanced with a letter of Etienne Le Moyne; this text has a half-title and the second text: Monumenta Antiqua. Cuper's research is a precursor to art history and Winckelmann.
Brunet 6, no. 22603; Cicognara 3212; Ebert 5512; Graesse 2,308
. Item #388JPrice: $1,800.00