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Biblio-Morality on One Piece of Paper, 1688

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The allegorical frontispiece of Gulielmus Saldenus’ De libris variorum usu & abuso, (printed in Amsterdam in 1688) is a good outline for what this (little) book is contains–about being good and being bad–and extending that to the treatment of books.  The main image is of a bookseller and a customer; through the windows we see the pious headed to chapel, on left; and at right, a good-sized book-burning, which is a fairly rare thing to see on a decorated beginning-of-a-book illustration.  The allegory is fairly complete, and seems as though it could not be less not-subtle than it is.

[Source:  Bibliopolis website, for the history of the printing of the Dutch book, here.]


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