Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Emblem Books

Le miroir du pecheur composé par les RR. PP. Capucins, missionnaires, très-utile pour toutes sortes de personnes; le tout represente par figures.
Troyes: Veuve P. Garnier, ca. 1750.
(BRB0255)

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.

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Sin and Penitence
Eighteenth and Nineteenth-Century Emblem Books