Emblem Books

September 10, 2006 5:26 PM

Alciato's (or Alciati's) Book of Emblems, first published in 1531, began the craze for emblem books. You can see the international scope of the emblem book's popularity by visiting the Emblem Project Utrecht (Dutch love emblems), the English Emblem Books Project, Glasgow University Press Emblem Website (French emblem books), the Bavarian State Library Project (international collection; German-language site), German Emblem Books, and Literatura Emblemática Hispánica (Spanish; utterly bonkers search engine). Bryn Mawr and the University of Iowa have online exhibitions from their collections. See also this scholarly exploration of the emblem book's influence on William Blake. (A different work by Alciati was discussed in this thread.)
posted by thomas j wise (7 comments total)

[this is awesome]
posted by headspace at 5:59 PM on September 10, 2006

Excellent thanks thomas j wise. It's great to have so many linked in the one place.
posted by peacay at 7:15 PM on September 10, 2006

These are great: very useful for unlocking all sorts of odd references in early modern lit, and amazing in their own right. For some sad reason, I often recall the melancholy Alciato #165. And I dare anyone to have a glance at this Enlglish Translation of Claude Paradin's emblem-book, and resist turning, and turning, and turning the pages, whether you like the weird emblems, or those that seem to have special contemporary relevance.
posted by washburn at 9:41 PM on September 10, 2006

Another fine international collection at another German-language site is that presented on the Herzog August Library's Emblematica Online pages: click here for the titles they have digitised, all at admirably high quality.

And many thanks for this post, tjw!
posted by misteraitch at 11:04 PM on September 10, 2006

Monday morning. Many thanks, I needed that.
posted by IndigoJones at 5:32 AM on September 11, 2006

Very interesting. Thanks
posted by ob at 6:03 AM on September 11, 2006

This is excellent - thank you.
posted by thatwhichfalls at 6:22 AM on September 11, 2006