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| ** Introduction ** Overview ** Forerunners ** Spread of Emblem Books ** Parallel and Evolving Forms ** Emblematic Influences: Art and Architecture ** Emblematic Influences: Literature and Coins** List of Emblem and Related Books in Special Collections ** Bibliography of Secondary Literature ** |
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With the popularity of Alciati’s emblem book, other authors were quick to begin writing their own emblems. France, the Netherlands, Belgium, England, Spain, Germany, and Hungary joined Italy in creating and publishing emblem books—both in universal Latin and vernacular languages like French, German, Dutch/Flemish, Spanish, and English.
While Emblematum Liber gives a general moral overview of life, some emblem books have a more specific theme and purpose. However, they all usually remain didactic. Examples include emblem books dealing with love, politics, fables, and both the Catholic and Protestant religions.
Otto van Veen—or Othello Vaenius—was one of the most recognized Dutch emblematists. He wrote two emblem books on the subject of love: Amorum emblematum in 1608 and Amoris divini emblemata in 1615, introducing the Cupid characters: Amor and Amina. |
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Herman Hugo’s Pia
desideria (1632) was the best known of all Jesuit emblem books
and was also translated and adapted most often into other European
languages until the end of the 18th century. Hugo uses Otto van
Veen’s Amor and Amina characters, but he chooses to use sacred
religious texts to aid the mid-16th century Catholic Counter-Reformation.
Both religious movements—Protestant and Catholic—saw
great value in emblems as a form of communication and rhetoric. |
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One of the best-known
English emblem authors, Francis Quarles, used Hugo’s illustrations
but wrote a free translation of Hugo’s Latin poems. Quarles’
Protestant beliefs and respected poetry helped his Emblemes
remain popular in England for many years and through approximately
sixty editions (Holtgen 107). |
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Spaniard Diego de Saavedro Fajardo wrote Idea de un principe politico cristiane in 1640. This book is a “mirror of princes”—meaning that it was written with the intention of educating princes—thus serving a political function. The mirror concept calls for the prince to realize his true essence by seeing himself “mirrored” in the emblems. This emblem visually incorporates a mirror as well: “Siempre el mismo” (Always the same one). “Whatever the mirror represents over its whole surface appears in each piece when it has been broken. Thus the lion looks at himself in the two pieces of the mirror engraved here, and signifies the strength and the perseverance the prince must always maintain” (Spica 93). |
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Since Alciati was never translated into Dutch, only the well educated Dutch and Flemish could read the Latin Emblematum Liber. Jacob Cats believed (and rightfully so) that the usual emblem book addressed only the educated intellectuals, and so he took a different approach in order to appeal to a wider public. In his preface, Cats expressed the idea that any and every person could gain something from his emblems, if they but read the text and viewed the image frequently. “Father Cats” became a household name and was one of the most popular Dutch emblem writers. |
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Two examples of other emblem book genres: fables by Dutchman Joost van den Vondel and love emblems by Frenchman Albert Flamen.
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