Usually known simply as the ''Emblemata'', the first

emblem book An emblem book is a book collecting emblems (allegorical illustrations) with accompanying explanatory text, typically morals or poems. This category of books was popular in Europe during the 16th and 17th centuries. Emblem books are collections ...

appeared in Augsburg (Germany) in 1531 under the title ''Viri Clarissimi D. Andreae Alciati Iurisconsultiss. Mediol. Ad D. Chonradum Peutingerum Augustanum, Iurisconsultum Emblematum Liber''. Produced by the publisher Heinrich Steyner, the unauthorized first print edition was compiled from a manuscript of Latin poems which the Italian jurist

Andrea Alciato Andrea Alciato (8 May 149212 January 1550), commonly known as Alciati (Andreas Alciatus), was an Italian jurist and writer. He is regarded as the founder of the French school of legal humanists. Biography Alciati was born in Alzate Brianza, nea ...

had dedicated to his friend

Conrad Peutinger Conrad Peutinger (14 October 1465 – 28 December 1547) was a German Humanism, humanist, jurist, diplomat, politician, economist and archaeologist (serving as Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, Emperor Maximilian I's chief archaeological adviser). A ...

and circulated to his acquaintances. The 1531 edition was soon followed by a 1534 edition authorized by Alciato: published in Paris by Christian Wechel, this appeared under the title ''Andreae Alciati Emblematum Libellus'' ("''Andrea Alciato's Little Book of Emblems''"). The word "emblemata" is simply the plural of the Greek word "emblema", meaning a piece of inlay or mosaic, or an ornament: in his preface to Peutinger, Alciato describes his emblems as a learned recreation, a pastime for humanists steeped in classical culture. The ''Emblemata'' grew to include over 200 individual

emblem An emblem is an abstract or representational pictorial image that represents a concept, like a moral truth, or an allegory, or a person, like a king or saint. Emblems vs. symbols Although the words ''emblem'' and '' symbol'' are often use ...

s and appeared in hundreds of editions, of which probably the best known is that published in Padua by Tozzi in 1621, the ''Emblemata Cum Commentariis Amplissimis''. The "very full commentaries" to which the title refers were written by the French scholar Claude Mignault. Alciato's work spawned thousands of imitations in all the European vernacular languages: secular, religious, or amorous in nature,

s were an integral part of European culture for two centuries. The

preface __NOTOC__ A preface () or proem () is an introduction to a book or other literary work written by the work's author. An introductory essay written by a different person is a '' foreword'' and precedes an author's preface. The preface often closes ...

reads in part (translated): ''While boys are entertained by nuts and youths by dice, so playing-cards fill up the time of lazy men. In the festive season we hammer out these emblems, made by the distinguished hand of craftsmen. Just as one affixes trimmings to clothes and badges to hats, so it behooves every one of us to write in silent marks. Though the supreme emperor may give to you, for you to own, precious coins and finest objects of the ancients, I myself shall give, one poet to another, paper gifts: take these, Konrad, the token of my love.''

Bibliography

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External links

Alciato at Glasgow
- 22 editions of Alciato from 1531 to 1621, housed at Glasgow University

* ttps://www.mun.ca/alciato/index.html The Memorial University of Newfoundland (Canada)- concise description and texts about Alciato's Book of Emblems
Atalanta fugiens (1617)
- A German/Latin emblem book of 50 alchemical concepts, also containing musical fugues, by Michael Maier
Devises et emblemes anciennes & modernes (1699)
- Emblem book with motto (superscriptio) in German, French, Latin, and Italian {{Authority control 1531 books Emblem books