POIKILOGRAPHIA,

Book Description

London, Published for the Author, 1812. . 9 x 13 1/2. 24 engraved plates, including frontis portrait of Coates. Rebound in quarter calf & marbled boards, new endpapers and tissue guards. Fine, tall copy. Rare. A virtuoso display of micro engraving. Each plate displays a great variety of styles, alphabets (including Hebrew, Greek, and Anglo-Saxon), and flourishes. Most plates bear a vignette. In a virtuoso performance, The Lord's Prayer is engraved on a 1/4 inch square tablet; the letters in "DEUS EST AMOR" are formed by the microscopic engraving of Corinthians 13; in the Decalogue plate, the entire text of the ten commandments form a Hebrew word, and the Hebrew text is engraved on Moses' two tablets. Many of the images and texts are from the Bible. Coate is not mentioned in Heal, English Writing Masters; he was probably Canadian. Not in Bonacini (who lists only Jones' 1830 reprint). 

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