Paradisus animae Christianae, lectissimis omnigenae pietatis deliciis amoenus. by HORSTIUS, Jacob Merlo - 1732

Coloniae Agrippinae: Janssonii Waesbergii, 1732. Hardcover. See Description. 8vo. pp. [32], 680, [4], 93, [1]. With extra illustrated title page and 8 emblematic engravings by A. Schoonebeck (a student of Romeyn de Hooghe). The illustrated title displays a series of images depicting Paradise and the fall of man. The main title is printed in red and black and contains a woodcut device with a Jesuit Christogram. Bound in full modern dark brown bonded leather with a French groove. The interior pages are generally clean and crisp and the plates are well executed with a sharp impression. The illustrated title and the main title are mildly age-toned; a tiny chip on the upper margin of the illustrated title is neatly patched. Two leaves (S6-7) contain an area of chipping on the bottom margin edge (probably a manufacturing flaw). This is the 1732 edition of Jacob Merlo Horstius’s hugely popular devotional book (first printed in 1630; and with Schoonebeck’s engravings – 1683?). Horstius’s "Paradisus" is divided into 7 sections – 1.) on the worship of the Trinity 2.) on the veneration of saints 3.) on sin and penance 4.) on the spiritual and religious life 5.) on Holy Communion and the Mass 6.) on the life and death of Christ 7.) on the veneration of the Virgin, the remembrance of death, and the preparation for a happy death (praeparatione bene beateque moriendi). Each section includes various meditations, exercises, instructions, prayers and orations. Horstius’s "Manuale pietas" (with separate pagination) is also included at the end of the book. The content of this last work relates to the seven penitential psalms and also offers orations in times of war and calamity. [ADB XXI, p.447].