Occasio Arrepta Neglecta. Huius Commoda: Illius Incommoda. Auctore R.P. Ioanne David Societatis Iesv Sacerdote.
Antwerp: Ex officina Platiniana, apud Ioannem Moretum. 1605. First Edition. This copy is bound in contemporary calf with a Cross insignia in gold on the front board and Mary and the Baby Jesus on the rear board. Daly & Dimler Jesuit series ;part one: J.144 p.150. Sommervogel vol. II, 1847: 7.: Landwehr EFBLC #186.
Bibl. Belgica II, D 139. Praz 313.; Praz II 60; Funck 303. Brunet II, 536: "Les ouvrages de J. David sont recherchés ů cause des gravures de Th. Galle dont ils sont ornés." A very nice copy, Quarto, 8 x 6 in. First (and only)edition. +-++4, A-Z4, a-t4. Item #864
First edition. A very beautiful collection of emblems, written by a Belgian Jesuit. The illustrations consist of one frontispiece and 12 engaging plates which were engraved by engraved by Théodore Galle. Each one depicts the goddess "Occasio"which is the Latin name for Caerus, personification of opportunity whose comments and depicts both opportunity and neglected opportunity. A second part with continuous pagination, but its own title page with the printer mark of Plantin. "Occasio drama" .Which is a drama by the author embodying this thought process. "
For a wonderfull, insitefull and informative long chapter on the Occasio see
Figured Personification and Parabolic Embodiment in Jan David’s Occasio Arrepta, Neglecta
By Walter S. Melion 2016. The following is a snippet from it:
"David propounds a general doctrina imaginis that construes sacred images as key instruments of spiritual reflection, instruction, and renewal...."The Occasio arrepta, neglecta fulfills this mimetic function by exploring a distinctive paradigm of the emblematic image: as David points out in his “Preface to the Reader”, the book’s twelve emblems originate in the conversion of a pagan idol—the winged and changeable goddess Occasio, famously portrayed by Phidias and described by Ausonius—into a prosopopoeic device capable of carrying a Christian meaning [Fig. 14.2].3 The goddess is transformed emblematically into the personification of Opportunity ‘seized’ (‘arrepta’) or ‘shirked’ (‘neglecta’) as the respective occasion of doing what is good or bad. In turn, this process of conversion is compared to that of converting the meditator into a true follower of Christ, capable of seizing every opportunity of imitating him."
David entered the society of Jesuits in 1581 - The engraver Galle worked closely with the publisher Plantin-Moretus and was married to the daughter of Jan Moretus and Martina Plantin. He can be considered the "most important picture publisher of the first half of the 17th century in the Netherlands" (AKL XLVIII, 8).
Price: $4,500.00