Emblem Books Research Articles

Ars symbolica et ars meditandi

The Jesuit theory of the contemplation of material symbols leads away from hermeneutics towards a support system for the pleasurable transmission of virtue, while anxiety about overactive or deficient imaginations led to using concrete, given images as pragmatic support for meditation, for example through emblem books.

La conception et l'édition des livres d'emblèmes dans la France du xvie siècle

A Difficult Collaboration Research on a number of French emblem books shows that, in the 16th century at any rate, if the pictures often come from the publisher who extends capital for the work, nonetheless conception reverts to the title page author.

L'emblème en Espagne aux xvie et xviie siècles : actualité et perspectives futures

The survey of the present state of Spanish emblem books studies is followed by an analysis of the potential brought to them by modern information technology, in particular regarding different CD-Rom projects.

Emblème et propagande théologico-politique en Espagne au Siècle d'or : le symbolisme de la couronne

The major Spanish tradition emblem books is a speculum regis by Diego de Saavedra Fajardo; but the Prince’s mirror is not absent from more ostensibly moral or religious books, such as Juan de Horozco’s Emblemas Morales, through the motif of the crown as fallax bonum.

Bernard Salomon: Illustrateur lyonnais by Peter Sharratt

5o8 Reviews mid-seventeenth-century Jesuitmissionary. The contrast between differentcultures, and thedefinition in relation to the 'other'which ensues, isalso the theme ofMichael Heath's highly entertaining reading of French representations ofTurkish views of the French. Marie-Madeleine Fragonard's contribution concerns a fascinating case study ofAgrippa d'Aubigne's diplomatic relationswith England, revealing a failed attempt at a unified Protestant Europe. David Trotter's piece engages in similarly thorough historical scholarship, in this case ofmixed-language documents in thePyrenees. In differentways, these contributions show that national identitywas not itself fully formed during theRenaissance, which is of course an impediment to the forming of an international conception, such as Europe. Yvonne Roberts's chapter reveals one ofmany of thedivisions affectingFrance at this time.Margaret McGowan's reading of Blaise de Vigenere's work on ancient texts is an absorbing reading ofRenaissance practices of translation, annotation, and commentary. In general, thevastmajority of specialists will learn something from the scholarship on offer in thiswell-presented and virtually error-freevolume. UNIVERSITY OF EXETER HUGH ROBERTS Bernard Salomon: illustrateur lyonnais. By PETER SHARRATT. (Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance, 400) Geneva: Droz. 2005. 534 pp. SwF 145. ISBN 978-2 6oo-oIOOO-9. This informative study constitutes the firstbook-length discussion of Bernard Sa lomon's ceuvre since Natalis Rondot, Bernard Salomon, peintre et tailleur d'histoires a Lyon, au XVIe siecle (Lyon: Imprimerie deMougin-Rusand, I897). Peter Shar ratt aims to build upon this earlier work by marshalling recent research into the Renaissance, the history of the book, and the relationship between text and image. Furthermore, whereas Rondot' sstudy lacked any illustrations, thisnew book contains over a hundred pages of beautifully reproduced images, provided in dimensions as close as possible to those in the original works. Sharratt divides his study into four sections which deal, first, with Salomon's lifeand his role in theworld ofRenaissance printing; secondly, and at greatest length,with his sources; thirdly, with his style and his influence upon laterworks; and, fourthly, with the relationship between textand image in theworks illustrated. In addition, a lengthy appendix aims to establish a catalogue of Salomon's work, and throws into doubt some previous attributions to him.Within each section, Sharratt proceeds systematically through Salomon's works, giving meticulous descriptions of them aswell as of theirprobable sources, and con sistently referring the reader to the numbered reproductions of the images (to be found at the back of thebook). Thus he returns to the same works as his focus shifts from, forexample, sources to style.This can be somewhat tantalizing. For example, Sharratt evokes in several places the image illustrating Sc&ve's Saulsaye inwhich the poem's shepherds are shown in frontof the urban landscape of Lyon; the image is described as a fairly realistic, albeit idealized, view of the Lyonnais cityscape, and Sharratt observes that this realism might appear surprising given the imaginary fi gures of the shepherds. However, the reader has towait until the fourth section of the book before being offered an explanation for this (which isgrounded in an increasing interestduring the I540s in representing towns, and indoing so innew ways). The general conclusions to Sharratt's sections and chapters are often relatively brief and unsurprising: forexample, the respective emphases placed upon teaching, moving, and pleasing depend upon the genre towhich thework illustrated belongs; thus, forexample, moral and didactic goals appear to be more important in emblem books than in imaginative vernacular literature.However, the main value of thisdense MLR, I02.2, 2007 509 study lies in itsdetailed and painstaking treatments of Salomon's individual works. Sharratt provides an erudite wealth of information and observations, demonstrating, forexample, thatSalomon's woodcut of theLiberation of St Peter is imitated from Raphael's fresco at theVatican. The analysis isvery careful. For example, calling into question thenotion thatSalomon was directly influenced byHolbein's Bible illustra tions,Sharratt situates him rather within a livelyFrench traditionofBible illustration, and evokes at length the complex networks of influence at play within this tradition. Through this rich discussion, the reader gradually builds amultifaceted picture of Salomon atwork, of his subjects of predilection, his style,his relationship to sources, and his probable considerations when creating a given illustration; however, thisbook will be of interestnot...

The design of a Virtual Library of Emblem Books

Antique documents, which undoubtedly represent our cultural heritage and can be considered a very rich source of information, are kept in many countries only on libraries with historical archives. The antiquity and fragility of such documents makes their access very restricted. Considering that nowadays the Internet is one of the most interesting places to publish any kind of information, it seems logical to use it to both preserve our cultural heritage and provide a broader access to these documents. This work presents a virtual library that stores data, transcribed texts and digitalized pages of historic Spanish documents from the 16th–18th centuries. This virtual library has two main objectives: first, by offering a set of services, including a powerful user interface to search and browse the documents, a bulletin board, a chat, or mail boxes, the virtual library is transformed into a meeting place for researchers that use emblem books as sources of information for their studies. Second, the virtual library contributes to the preservation of emblem books. We shall describe in this work the project that led to the development of the Virtual Library of Emblem Books, showing its evolution from the beginning (simple search forms and answer pages) to its current state as a virtual library, focusing on the techniques used to build an intuitive and powerful user interface. Copyright © 2006 John Wiley & Sons, Ltd.

Adrien Gambart's Emblem Book (1664): The Life of St. Francis de Sales in Symbols: a facsimile edition with a study by Elisabeth Stopp

Adrien Gambart's Emblem Book (1664): The Life of St. Francis de Sales in Symbols: a facsimile edition with a study by Elisabeth Stopp

Webs of Allusion: French Protestant Emblem Books of the Sixteenth Century by Alison Adams (review)

MLRy 100.3, 2005 811 tool that should find its place in the reference section of any library holding early modern books, and no doubt also on the shelves of many individual scholars. University of Durham Jennifer Britnell WebsofAllusion: French Protestant Emblem Books ofthe Sixteenth Century. By Alison Adams. (Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance, 378) Geneva: Droz. 2003. x + 324 pp. SwF 92.20; ?62.42. ISBN 2-600-00874-8. Well researched and demonstrating an extraordinary wealth of knowledge, Alison Adams's book is a substantial addition to the existing literature on the subject of emblems, and offers a virtuoso display of interpretative skill in the deciphering of complex emblems built upon 'webs' of biblical and classical references beyond the grasp of the majority of today's readership. Adams peels back layers of meaning through her identification and interpretation of quotations from ancient sources, while taking pains to situate each book not only within the oeuvre of the particular author but also within the historical, social, and religious context of sixteenth-century Europe. The Protestant emblem books of Georgette De Montenay, Theodore de Beze, Jean Jacques Boissard, and Paul Perrot De la Salle provide the focus for individual chap? ters. Although not strictlyan emblematic work, Perrot's Tableaus sacrez of 1594 serves as a valid point of comparison, and Adams's discussion of his religious sympathies is originally worked. A particular emphasis is placed on the thematic organization of collections. Although this often results in artificial divisions, a fact acknowledged by Adams, it is also a useful tool for highlighting the driving moral forces and attitudes behind each work. This gives the reader an overview that is often tightlybound thematically with the religious convictions of the sixteenth-century author. Protestant, or more specifically Calvinist, beliefs expressed in emblem books, either openly or tacitly,are a central feature of Adams's investigation and her discussion stresses antiCatholic sentiment and the frequent fusion of classical and biblical sources. While focusing on the original French or Latin version of each work, Adams also explores sixteenth- and seventeenth-century translations. These inform our inter? pretation ofthe original through their faithfulness or otherwise to the principal text, as well as through the stylistic and linguistic techniques employed by the translator. As a result, new light is shed on the reception and comprehension of emblematic works at differentperiods in history. The various rhetorical strategies employed in these translations are emphasized by Adams, who constantly highlights links between texts, weaving for the reader a network of connections between the collections she discusses. Though it could occasionally have benefited from a more vibrant style, Webs ofAl? lusion successfully establishes a delicate and necessary balance between an overview of the content of each work and a detailed analysis of individual emblems. Overinterpretation is carefully avoided and the result is a convincing examination of the complexities ofthe sixteenth-century emblem book that constantly stresses the vari? able relationship between motto, subscriptio, and pictura and emphasizes the wide diversity of approaches to the composition of emblems during the period. St John's College, Cambridge Sophia Pickford ...

A Bibliography of French Emblem Books of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Vol. II: L-Z by Alison Adams , Stephen Rawles , Alison Saunders (review)

810 Reviews by two differentauthors with reference to the same protagonist; the 'contingent figure' of Fortune herself as she appears in the discourse of Reason; and the 'knowledge of contingency' as it emerges from Nature's lengthy discussion of free will, divine foreknowledge, and moral responsibility. There is no question that these themes are important to the text overall, and Heller-Roazen's book helps to redress a very real gap in modern critical coverage of this much-debated poem. I must admit to a disagreement with his reading of the famous midpoint scene in which the God of Love names the two poets and foretells Guillaume's death and Jean's birth. HellerRoazen asserts that while both poets are named and their respective contributions to the poem identified, Love's interlocutor here, the narrator of the poem, cannot be either Guillaume or Jean. Yet ifone consults the text, it is clear that the God of Love is addressing his troops rather than the Lover, and that the narrator-protagonist of whom he speaks is none other than Guillaume de Lorris, identified explicitly as such in line 10496 of Lecoy's edition. Heller-Roazen's analysis thus needs, in my view, some nuancing; while the poetic subject(s) and voice(s) of the Rose are unquestionably shifting and complex, the situation is not, I would argue, quite as he says it is. Another quibble, less serious, involves mistranslations. One, 'lad' for 'lady' (p. 134), is undoubtedly a simple typographical error. The other is more mysterious: on page 127 Heller-Roazen translates Nature's 'Onques ne fisriens pardurable' as 'God never made anything everlasting', when it clearly means 'I [nature] never made anything everlasting'. Perhaps this too results from some undetected typographical glitch, since Heller-Roazen's analysis of the passage does not sufferfrom the distortion that this might suggest. In all, this book allows fora richer appreciation of the intellectual traditions that helped shape the Rose: a poem, in Heller-Roazen's elegant formulation, that is 'dedicated, through its language, its form, its rhetoric, and its organization, to an exploration ofthe many forms of its own possibility and actuality' (p. 131). Pembroke College, Cambridge Sylvia Huot A Bibliography of French Emblem Books of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, Vol. ii: L-Z. By Alison Adams, Stephen Rawles, and Alison Saunders. Geneva: Droz. 2002. xxii + 762pp. SwF 142; ?103.95. ISBN 2-600-00676-1. Only three years after the appearance of Volume 1 of this massive bibliography, the second and final volume has been published. Covering authors beginning with the letters L-Z , it continues to use the excellent principles of description established in the firstvolume (see my review in MLR, 97 (2002), 423-24). The introductory pages contain firsta list of twenty-three further libraries visited, together with an acknowledgement of information received from colleagues since the publication of the first volume; there is then a full list of the libraries cited in Volume 11. The catalogue itselffollows; once again there are occasional introductory passages relating to particularly significant authors such as Georgette de Montenay. As promised in the firstvolume, there is a substantial list of additions and corrections (pp. 653-705); in many cases these relate to additional copies examined, but there are also several examples of editions not previously known. The system of numbering allows these to be readily integrated into the main sequence. There is an admirable series ofindexes: a consolidated index of names and titles,followed by one of principal authors and titles, and then more specialized indexes of editors, commentators, translators, and other supplementary authors; artists; dedicatees; printers/publishers; places ofpublication; dates ofpublication. Once again, one is struck by the careful attention paid to ensuring maximum usefulness to the reader. This splendid production will become an essential MLRy 100.3, 2005 811 tool that should find its place in the reference section of any library holding early modern books, and no doubt also on the shelves of many individual scholars. University of Durham Jennifer Britnell WebsofAllusion: French Protestant Emblem Books ofthe Sixteenth Century. By Alison Adams. (Travaux d'Humanisme et Renaissance, 378) Geneva: Droz. 2003. x + 324 pp. SwF 92.20; ?62.42. ISBN...

Reading English Ramist Logic Books as Early Modern Emblem Books: The Case of Abraham Fraunce

Historians of dialectical studies have long dismissed Ramist dialectic as rhetoricized logic in large measure because Ramist logic books exemplify logical principles with passages from oratory, poetry, and the Bible. These rhetorical illustrations consistently figure the logical abstractions in highly visual, concrete, and ekphrastic images and, thus, they often serve as “speaking pictures” for the Aristotelian taxonomies and nomenclature. The Ramist logic book might profitably be understood as bimedial, much like an emblem book, and its modus legendi a dynamic act whose end is acquiring conceptual knowledge. Focusing on the dialectical and emblematic writings of the Ramist Abraham Fraunce, this essay explores the extent to which Ramist habits of mind move between verbal thinking and visual thinking—move between words and word-pictures—to grasp the logical concepts printed on the pages of the popular dialectics.

L'Allégorie de l'Antiquité à la Renaissance

Études réunies par Brigitte Pérez-Jean et Patricia Eichel-Lojkine. Paris, Champion, 2004. 684 pp. Hb €58.00. This substantial volume brings together some thirty-two contributions from specialists in a range of disciplines and periods whose common focus is on allegory and its uses. The organization is broadly chronological, with each of the two sections grouping together articles around themes relevant to the historical period. The first section deals with the origins of allegory from antiquity to the early Christian era, focusing on texts in Latin and Greek from antiquity, the Byzantine period and beyond; the second with the vernacular and Latin texts of the Middle Ages and early modern period. The shift in focus from the first to the second section is inevitably away from allegoresis towards the creation of literary texts, the production of allegory in narrative and the visual arts: it was in the Middle Ages that allegory started to be something other than a method of interpretation, a way of reading Homeric myths. The first section is further subdivided into parts dealing with theoretical and philosophical background and literary practice. The second has thematic groupings centred on Christian uses of pagan myth, rhetoric and allegorical creation, and architecture and the visual arts. Both sections deal extensively with the two principal types of allegory, the allegorical narrative and the personification of abstractions. Sauzeau brings out some complications in this latter category in his article on the function of personifications in Greco-Roman religion. Allegoresis is by no means neglected in the second section, which includes several articles on Christian readings of Scripture and myth: the notion of ‘saving’ myths by putting them into a Christian interpretative framework is nuanced in the articles by Meyers on Theodolus and Ballestra-Puech on Dante's Arachne. The coherence of the volume's organization does not preclude variety. Some of the contributions chart the history and prehistory of the term ‘allegory’ (Brisson, Chiron and Thomas in the first section). Others survey the differing approaches to allegory from a philosophical or epistemological perspective: included are articles on Aristotle, Stoicism, Epicureanism, Scepticism and Neoplatonism; Fauquier's article on Proclus' reading of the Parmenides is outstanding. Still others chart the recurrence of a certain theme in different texts: the ‘allegorical temple’, for instance, or the prosopopoeia of the Roman patria (Martin), an article that has its counterpart in the second section in Moreau's piece on Ronsard and d'Aubigné. Other contributions develop interesting and sometimes surprising readings of specific texts: Dante is well represented, but not at the expense of lesser-studied authors of the early Christian world (Arator, Martianus Capella) and the Renaissance (René d'Anjou, Béroalde de Verville). Both sections are supplemented by extensive bibliographies. The chronological approach coincides satisfyingly with the development of central themes. The final section of the second part focuses on the visual arts and architecture, figuring the shift in favour of allegory's poetic function, as the image breaks free from the constraints of rhetoric. Spica's article on emblem books and the interweaving of narrative and image stands as an appropriate conclusion to the volume.

Fortune's Wheel: Dickens and the Iconography of Women's Time (review)

Reviewed by: Fortune's Wheel: Dickens and the Iconography of Women's Time George J. Worth (bio) Elizabeth A. Campbell , Fortune's Wheel: Dickens and the Iconography of Women's Time (Athens: Ohio University Press, 2003), pp. xxiii+253, $42.95 cloth. Copiously documented and agreeably written, Elizabeth Campbell's study traces the uses to which Dickens puts the figure of the Wheel of Fortune and related verbal and pictorial concepts throughout his fiction, giving special emphasis to his three "'women's' novels" (xxi): Dombey and Son, Bleak House, and Little Dorrit. She sees "Dickens's representation of Fortune and his wheel imagery" as revealing "an actual revolution in his thinking about historical time: from faith in a linear, progressive, 'masculine' time to a belief in a more fatalistic, cyclical time that could be construed ... as 'feminine'" (3), a change that culminates in Great Expectations. Campbell devotes most of her long introductory chapter to a historical survey of how Fortune was viewed from the Middle Ages through the eighteenth century, incorporating in her account the contributions of a number of authors and artists and of emblem books and popular literature to what had become by Dickens's time a widely disseminated tradition on which nineteenth-century imaginative writers were able to draw freely. In keeping with her thesis, Campbell organizes the rest of her book in a "cyclical," seasonal pattern, from "Spring 1840–1849," through "Summer 1850–1853" and "Fall 1854–1859," to "Winter 1860." (What happens in Dickens's oeuvre after that, with Our Mutual Friend and The Mystery of Edwin Drood, is left unresolved.) The periodicals Dickens edited, in which a number of his novels first appeared, play only tangential roles in Campbell's account, but there is a sense in which serialization forms a central part of her argument. That frequent Victorian mode of publication "affected the patterns of writerly production and readerly expectation and consumption in ways that integrated congenially with the rhythm of at least middle-class, literate women's lives"; "it was," therefore, "especially adaptable to the sympathetic treatment of women's time in its various manifestations" (87). Dualities loom large in Fortune's Wheel – not only between masculine time and feminine time, but also between clashing perceptions of Fortune herself. Campbell does not shy away from pointing out that such easy dichotomies have a way of breaking down, just as the wheels of that early-Victorian icon the railway revolve on their axles and move trains forward. In these days of slipshod writing and copy-editing, it is a pleasure to come across a book as well produced as Fortune's Wheel. The errors it contains are few and trivial. Some of the illustrations displayed between pp. 155 and 157 are difficult to make out, but it is better to have them that [End Page 119] way than not at all. In short, Elizabeth Campbell and her publisher are to be congratulated on what they have achieved in this valuable study. George J. Worth University of Kansas, Emeritus George J. Worth George J. Worth is Professor Emeritus of English at the University of Kansas. His publications include books on James Hannay, W. Harrison Ainsworth, Charles Dickens, and Thomas Hughes. His latest, Macmillan's Magazine, 1859–1907: “No Flippancy or Abuse Allowed” (Ashgate), appeared in 2003. Copyright © 2005 Victorian Periodicals Review

:Webs of Allusion: French Protestant Emblem Books of the Sixteenth Century

:<i>Webs of Allusion: French Protestant Emblem Books of the Sixteenth Century</i>

REVIEWS OF BOOKS

Books reviewed:Ann Moss, Renaissance Truth and the Latin Language Turn.W. G. Naphy, Plagues, Poisons and Potions: Plague‐Spreading Conspiracies in the Western Alps c. 1530–1640.Susan Broomhall, Women and the Book Trade in Sixteenth‐Century France. (Women and Gender in the Early Modern World).C. Scott Dixon and Luise Schorn‐Schütte (eds), The Protestant Clergy of Early Modern Europe.Alison Adams, Webs of Allusion. French Protestant Emblem Books of the Sixteenth Century.B. C. Bowen, Humour and Humanism in the Renaissance.M. Tetel (ed.), Etienne de la Boétie: Sage révolutionnaire et poète périgourdin.

Emblemata Sacra. Emblem Books from the Maurits Sabbe Library, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven

Emblemata Sacra: Emblem Books from the Maurits Sabbe Library, Katholieke Universiteit Leuven is the catalogue of an exhibition mounted at the Francis A. Drexel Library at Saint Joseph‟s University in spring 2006. This exhibit took place in conjunction with the celebration of the Society of Jesus‟s commemoration in 2006 of three major anniversaries: the 450th anniversary of the death of its founder, St. Ignatius Loyola (1491-1556), as well as the 500th anniversary of the birth of Ignatius‟s first two companions, St. Francis Xavier (1506-52) and Bl. Peter Faber (1506-46). The “Emblemata Sacra” exhibit featured nearly seventy emblem books from the world‟s premier theological library‟s rich collection of preciosa and Jesuitica. The exhibit was divided into thirteen thematic sections, each of which in the catalogue is explained by text prepared by a specialist in emblem studies and illustrated by full color, high density images of each of the emblem books exhibited. The volume also includes a bibliography.

The Practice of Community: Humanist Friendship during the Dutch Revolt

In 1574 Abraham Ortelius, the renowned Flemish cartographer and antiquarian, began to collect signatures, inscriptions, and pictures from his international network of friends. They entered their contributions in an album, called an amicorum (book of friends). Given the lack of geographical mobility during the Dutch revolt, Ortelius's friends occasionally circulated this album amongst themselves. Others sent their contributions directly to him in Antwerp. As the album grew in scope and prestige over the following twenty-four years, inscriptions were included on behalf of deceased friends. Eventually an index was added by Ortelius's nephew, but as Ortelius reached the end of his life further entries were added. By the time he had died the album contained more than 130 names, making it one of the most distinguished signature collections of the time, including such illustrious figures as Jean Bodin, Justus Lipsius, William Camden, and Gerard Mercator.1 The contributors cross generational, geographical, and religious boundaries. What was the purpose of collecting such an album? What does it tell us about the humanist culture of the time? And why did a diverse group of academics, artisans, and merchant scholars decide to celebrate friendship? The first friendship albums (alba amicorum) were kept during the mid15408 by students at Wittenberg.2 These students used books (often the Emblem Book of Alciati, or a Bible, or a work by Melanchthon) as albums in which they collected autographs and insignia from professors in Wittenberg and the neighboring protestant universities that they visited in the course of their study. Entries were sometimes written in the margins of these books, sometimes on interleaved pages, and sometimes on liminary pages at the front or back. Most of the entries are brief salutations with short epigrams or quotations. These have been analyzed into various statistical forms by Wolfgang Klose.3 It is not surprising that most of the quotations come from classical sources. Ovid is the most frequently

Volpone and Beast Fable: Early Modern Analogic Reading

In “Volpone and Beast Fable: Early Modern Analogic Reading,”Richard Dutton considers the political register of Volpone, generally underestimated in criticism of the play, in relation to its use of beast fable. Other studies have acknowledged that the play’s debt to “fox lore” encompasses may kinds of sources, such as bestiaries and emblem books, as well as the non-classical beast epic Reynard the Fox (translated by Caxton in 1481); in arguing for a more pointed political register in Volpone, Dutton acknowledges a pervasive rather than a direct reliance on a variety of sources but points to the importance of an overriding connection between beast fable and the tradition of political satire. He furthermore suggests that two examples would have been especially relevant for analogically minded contemporary readers: Spenser’s Prosopopoia, or Mother Hubberds Tale (“called in” in 1591); and Thomas North’s translation of Anton Francesco Doni’s Moral Philosophy, published in 1570 and reissued in 1601. The first is relevant not only because of its run-in with the censors over criticism of the Cecils but because of its preoccupation with disguise and personation. North’s translation of Doni’s beast-tales—dedicated to the Earl of Leicester—would have provided a “template” of trust, loyalty, and deceit in the political context, one that would have evoked the Cecils once again, in a way that was deniable but entirely open to view. 370 richard dut ton 50 Cf. Doni/North’s advice “To the Reader”on how “reading it through, and oft, advising that he readeth, he shall finde a marveylous benefite therof”(my emphasis). This content downloaded from 157.55.39.127 on Mon, 27 Jun 2016 07:30:18 UTC All use subject to http://about.jstor.org/terms

:A Bibliography of French Emblem Books, Vol. 2, L-Z

Un second volume (de L a Z) vient completer A bibliography of French emblem books. Il inclut, parmi de nombreux autres titres, le premier livre d’emblemes publie sur le sol francais, le Theatre des bons engins de Guillaume de la Perriere, des œuvres de propagande par Charles Perrault (mieux connu pour ses Contes) et par le tres prolifique Claude-Francois Menestrier, et plus inattendu peut-etre, le seul livre qu’ait publie Georgette de Montenay, une femme-poete du seizieme siecle consideree comme une fervente Calviniste. Chaque notice comporte une reproduction du titre, une collation technique detaillee, une description de la disposition (souvent accompagnee d’une illustration) et une liste d’exemplaires identifies.

Corpus Librorum Emblematum: The Jesuit Series. Part Three (F-L) (review)

This is the third part of an important project, undertaken by two authors who have made their mark in the world of emblem studies. In the introduction they present their work as follows: "This bibliography attempts to encompass all extant books of emblems, emblematically illustrated works, and books dealing with the theory and practice of emblematics that were written by members of the Society of Jesus." There was a good reason to choose the Jesuits, for they "produced more books in this genre than did any other identifiable group of writers, and second, they published in all major European vernacular languages as well as in Latin." The authors estimate that the complete series will comprise [End Page 742] about 1700 entries, of which 500 are first editions. They excluded books with fewer than three plates or woodcuts, and books which have only an emblematic title-page or an emblematic frontispiece, a rather contestable decision. (Why not fewer than two or four plates?)

Review: A Bibliography of French Emblem Books of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. II

Review: A Bibliography of French Emblem Books of the Sixteenth and Seventeenth Centuries, vol. II