Emblem books of the Low Countries  

"Sinnepoppen, first published in 1614, is perhaps the most popular emblem book of the Dutch Golden Age."[1]

"The importance of emblem books to Dutch seventeenth-century culture has never been in doubt, and the distinctive contribution of Dutch emblem books to the way the emblem genre developed more widely - in England, France and Spain for instance - during the seventeenth century has long been recognised in such standard histories as Mario Praz's Studies in Seventeenth Century Imagery (London, 1939) and Rosemary Freeman's English Emblem Books (London, 1948)."

"But if someone asks me what Emblemata really are? I will reply to him, that they are mute images, and nevertheless speaking: insignificant matters, and none the less of importance: ridiculous things, and nonetheless not without wisdom [...]"--Proteus Ofte Minne-Beelden Verandert In Sinne-Beelden (1627) by Jacob Cats, preface

"Een schoone Vrouwe, blanck van aengesicht, met grove en swarte hayren, die om hoogh zijn gekrult, en dick van locken, met vette flonckrige oogen, die dertel drijven: vertoonende dese teyckenen de overtolligheyt van 't bloed, 't welck in een goede welstand wesende, oorsaeke is van geylheyt: en de verheven neuse is oock een teycken van 't selve, nae de gelijcknis van een kromme snuyte van een dier, dat seer totte Wellust is genegen; gelijck Aristoteles verhaelt."--"Uytbeeldinghen des Verstants (1644) by Dirck Pietersz. Pers