Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Emblem Books

Le miroir des ames, ou exposition des différens états des ames par rapport à Dieu, conformément à la réalité ou aux idées allégoriques de la Foi.
Lyon: Perisse Frères, 1822.
(BRE0057)

The human heart is shown holding within it either Jesus or the devil in these allegories for the soul in states of grace and sin. Striking visuals such as these were designed to encourage the renunciation of sin. The symbols found in the eighteenth-century Le miroir du pecheur clearly influenced the nineteenth-century Miroir des ames. In addition, the latter title includes scenes of unrepentant souls on their deathbeds, at Judgement Day, and in hell.