Adrien Gambart's Emblem Book (1664): the Life of St Francis de Sales in Symbols, and: Emblemata Sacra: Emblem Books from the Maurits Sabbe Library, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Abstract

Reviewed by: Adrien Gambart’s Emblem Book (1664): the Life of St Francis de Sales in Symbols, and: Emblemata Sacra: Emblem Books from the Maurits Sabbe Library, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven Wendy M. Wright (bio) Adrien Gambart’s Emblem Book (1664): the Life of St. Francis de Sales in Symbols. Facsimile edition with a study by Elisabeth Stopp. Edited by Terence O’Reilly with an essay by Agnés Guiderdoni-Bruslé. Philadelphia: Saint Joseph’s University Press, 2005. xi + 373 pp. / 113 Illustrations. $60.00 (cloth); Emblemata Sacra: Emblem Books from the Maurits Sabbe Library, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven. By Ralph Dekoninck. Philadelphia: Saint Joseph’s University Press, 2006. 116 pp. / 81 Illustrations. $45.00 (pb.) So you thought graphic novels were something new? Or perhaps as you've studied or taught Christian spirituality you've left the visual evidence to the art historians or seen such as marginal to the tradition. Think again. Two beautifully produced new books from Saint Joseph's University Press will introduce you to the visually symbolic world of emblem books and, more intriguingly, to emblematic thinking, an important expression of early modern Christian humanist culture. From the sixteenth to the eighteenth centuries, emblem books thrived in Europe and in the mission field. As one learns, the term "emblem" covers a broad range of phenomena but in its canonical form an emblem typically has three parts: a motto, a symbolic picture, and an accompanying text. At the heart of an emblem is a metaphor or trope to which all elements of the emblem relate. All elements of the emblem, according to humanist theory, were also essential, for the theory held that an image is a body without a soul if not accompanied by its sister, poetry. Emblems rested upon the cognate assumption that hidden truths are ascertainable under the form of visible signs. While there were many types of emblems, the genre that is the topic of the two books under review—Adrian Gambart's Emblem Book and Emblemata Sacra—is sacred emblems. Such emblems were understood to be revelatory of hidden meanings, moral lessons, and divine truths. The invisible was assumed to be made manifest through the visible. Or, to put it in Ignatian terms, one could find [End Page 104] God in all things. Emblems also schooled one in the spiritual art of doing that very seeking and finding. Emblamata Sacra is the catalogue from an exhibition of selected emblem books from the extraordinary collection of Jesuitica at the Maurits Sabbe Library at Leuven exhibited at Saint Joseph's University early in 2006. But it functions as much more than a catalogue as it contains brief essays by noted European and American scholars on the theology, rhetorical theory, function (catechetical, meditative, educational, rhetorical, apologetic, evangelistic), production of and spiritual practices associated with sacred emblems. Emblematics saturated every facet of early modern life: the theatre, public life, court life, architecture, and religious procession. Especially interesting is the way in which emblems were linked to Jesuit spirituality, pedagogy, and catechetics as well as to wider humanist theory. Those quintessential early modern men, the Jesuits, were the great producers and disseminators of emblem books. Emblem books were used extensively in catechetical instruction and the foreign missions: Jerome Nadal's emblematic meditations on the Gospel were foremost among these. In some cases the pedagogical intent was overt: the various pictorial elements of emblems might be carefully numbered and accompanying comments would enable the ones instructed to discern an intended spiritual meaning. Jesuit schools were seedbeds of emblem culture. Not only were emblems used in schools to help hone the intellect (images cement abstract ideas in the mind, memory, and senses) but emblematic thinking itself was encouraged. There were contests in which students vied to create the most clever and insightful emblems. Most significantly, emblems mirrored the very techniques of spiritual formation employed by the Society of Jesus. The tripartite structure of the emblem correlates to the technical aspects of Ignatian prayer which acknowledges the distinction between composition of place, meditation, and colloquy; to its psychological dimension which appeals to the three faculties of the soul (memory, understanding, and will); and to the classic Christian spiritual progression of purgation, illumination...