CHAPTER II.

SKETCH OF EMBLEM-BOOK LITERATURE PREVIOUS TO A.D. 1616.

SECTION I. _EXTENT OF THE EMBLEM LITERATURE TO WHICH SHAKESPEARE MIGHT HAVE HAD ACCESS._

IN the use of the word Emblem there is seldom a strict adherence observed to an exact definition,—so, when Emblem Literature is spoken of, considerable latitude is taken and allowed as to the kind of works which the terms shall embrace. In one sense every book which has a picture set in it, or on it, is an emblem-book,—the diagrams in a mathematical treatise or in an exposition of science, inasmuch as they may be, and often are, detached from the text, are emblems; and when to Tennyson’s exquisite poem of “ELAINE,” Gustave Doré conjoins those wonderful drawings which are themselves poetic, he gives us a book of emblems;—Tennyson is the one artist that out of the gold of his own soul fashioned a vase incorruptible,—and Doré is that second artist who placed about it ornaments of beauty, fashioned also out of the riches of his mind.

Yet by universal consent, these and countless other works, scientific, historical, poetic, and religious, which artistic skill has embellished, are never regarded as emblematical in their character. The “picture and short posie, expressing some particular conceit,” seem almost essential for bringing any work within the province of the Emblem Literature;—but the practical application of the test is conceived in a very liberal spirit, so that while the small fish sail through, the shark and the sea-dog rend the meshes to tatters.

A proverb or witty saying, as, in Don Sebastian Orozco’s “EMBLEMAS MORALES” (Madrid 1610), “Divesqve miserqve,” _both rich and wretched_, may be pictured by king Midas at the table where everything is turned to gold, and may be set forth in an eight-lined stanza, to declare how the master of millions was famishing though surrounded by abundance;—and these things constitute the Emblem. Some scene from Bible History shall be taken, as, in “~Les figures du vieil Testament, & du nouuel~” (at Paris, about 1503), _Moses at the burning bush_; where are printed, as if an Emblem text, the passage from Exodus iii. 2–4, and by its side the portraits of David and Esaias; across the page is a triplet woodcut, representing Moses at the bush, and Mary in the stable at Bethlehem with Christ in the manger-cradle; various scrolls with sentences from the Scriptures adorn the page:—such representations claim a place in the Emblem Literature. Boissard’s _Theatrum Vitæ Humanæ_ (Metz, 1596) shall mingle, in curious continuity, the Creation and Fall of Man, Ninus king of the Assyrians, Pandora and Prometheus, the Gods of Egypt, the Death of Seneca, Naboth and Jezabel, the Advent of Christ and the Last Judgment;—yet they are all Emblems,—because each has a “picture and a short posie” setting forth its “conceit.” To be sure there are some pages of Latin prose serving to explain or confuse, as the case may be, each particular imagination; but the text constitutes the emblem, and however long and tedious the comment, it is from the text the composition derives its name.

“~Stam und Wapenbuch hochs und niders Standts~,”—_A stem and armorial Bearings-book of high and of low Station_,—printed at Frankfort-on-Mayne, 1579, presents above 270 woodcuts of the badges, shields and helmets, with appropriate symbols and rhymes, belonging as well to the humblest who can claim to be “vom gutem Geschlecht,” _of good race_, as to the Electoral Princes and to the Cæsarean Majesty of the Holy Roman Empire. Most of the figures are illustrated by Latin and German verses, and again “picture and short posie” vindicate the title,—book of Emblems.

And of the same character is a most artistic work by Theodore de Bry, lately added to the treasure-house at Keir; it is also a _Stam und Wapenbuch_, issued at Frankfort in 1593, with ninety-four plates all within most beautiful and elaborate borders. Its Latin title, _Emblema Nobilitate et Vulgo scitu digna, &c._, declares that these Emblems are “worthy to be known both by nobles and commons.”

And so when an Emperor is married, or the funeral rites of a Sovereign Prince celebrated, or a new saint canonized, or perchance some proud cardinal or noble to be glorified, whatever Art can accomplish by symbol and song is devoted to the emblem-book pageantry,—and the graving tool and the printing press accomplish as enduring and wide-spread a splendour as even Titian’s Triumphs of Faith and Fame.

Devotion that seeks wisdom from the skies, and Satire that laughs at follies upon the earth, both have claimed and used emblems as the exponents of their aims and purposes.

_Plate 2_

With what surpassing beauty and nobleness both of expression and of sentiment does Otho Vænius in his “AMORIS DIVINI EMBLEMATA,” Antwerp, 1615, represent to the mind as well as to the eye the blessed Saviour’s adoption of a human soul, and the effulgence of love with which it is filled! (See Plate II.) They are indeed divine Images portrayed for us, and the great word is added from the beloved disciple,—“Behold, what manner of love the Father hath bestowed upon us, that we should be called the sons of God.” And the simple _Refrain_ follows,—

_“C’est par cet Amour que les hommes Sont esleuez de ce bas lieu; C’est par cet Amour que nous sommes Enfans legitimes de Dieu: Car l’Ame qui garde en la vie De son Pere la volonté, Doit au Pere ès cieux estre vnie (Comme fille) en eternité.”_

And that clever imitation of the “~Stultifera Nauis~,” _the Fool-freighted Ship_, of the fifteenth century, namely, the “CENTIFOLIUM STULTORUM,” edition 1707, or _Hundred-leaved Book of Fools_ of the eighteenth, proves how the Satirical may symbolize and fraternize with the Emblematical. The title of the book alone is sufficient to show what a vehicle for lashing men’s faults the device with its stanzas and comment may be made; it is, “A hundred-leaved book of Fools, in Quarto; or an hundred exquisite Fools newly warmed up, in Folio,—in an Alapatrit-Pasty for the show-dish; with a hundred fine copper engravings, for honest pleasure and useful pastime, intended as well for frolicsome as for melancholy minds; enriched moreover with a delicate sauce of many Natural Histories, gay Fables, short Discourses, and edifying Moral Lessons.”

Among the one hundred _distinguished_ characters, we might select, were it only in self-condemnation, the Glass and Porcelain dupe, the Antiquity and Coin-hunting dupe, and especially the Book-collecting dupe. These are among the best of the devices, and the stanzas, and the expositions. Dupes of every kind, however, may find their reproof in the six simple German lines,—p. 171,

~“Wer Narren offt viel predigen will, Ben ihnen nicht wird schaffen viel: Dann all’s was man am besten redt, Der Narr zum ärgsten falsch versteht, Ein Narr, ein Narr, bleibt ungelehrt, Wann man ihn hundert Jahr schon lehrt.”~

meaning pretty nearly in our vernacular English,

“Whoso to fools will much and oft be preaching, By them not much will make by all his teaching. For though we of our very best be speaking, Falsely the fool the very worst is seeking. Therefore the fool, a fool untaught, remains, Though five score years we give him all our pains.”

But Politics also have the bright, if not the dark, side of their nature presented to the world in Emblems. Giulio Capaccio, Venetia, 1620, derives “IL PRINCIPE,” _The Prince_, from the Emblems of Alciatus, “with two hundred and more Political and Moral Admonitions,” “useful,” he declares, “to every gentleman, by reason of its excellent knowledge of the customs, economy, and government of States.” Jacobus à Bruck, of Angermunt, in his “EMBLEMATA POLITICA,” A.D. 1618, briefly demonstrates those things which concern government; but Don Diego Saavedra Faxardo, who died in 1648, in a work of considerable repute,—“IDEA de vn Principe Politico-Christiano, representada EN CIEN EMPRESAS,”—_Idea of a Politic-Christian Prince, represented in one hundred Emblems_ (edition, Valencia, 1655), so accompanies his Model Ruler from the cradle to maturity as almost to make us think, that could we find the bee-bread on which Kings should be nourished, it would be no more difficult a task for a nation to fashion a perfect Emperor than it is for a hive to educate their divine-right ruling Queen.

_Plate 3_

La Creatione & confuſuione del Mondo, 1

Prima ch’ il gran futtor dell’ Vniuerſo Con pietà gli poneſſe intorno mente, Era cieco nel Mar l’ Aer ſommerſo, Nel centro il Fuoco, e’l tutto era niente, Ch’ ogni Elemento, di virtù diuerſo, Non hauea luogo à lui conueniente: Ma del verbo diuím l’amor profondo D’ vn C A O S ordinò ſi bello il Mondo,

But, so great is the variety of subjects to which the illustrations from Emblems are applied, that we shall content ourselves with mentioning one more, taking out the arguments, as they are named, from celebrated classic poets, and converting them into occasions for pictures and short posies. Thus, like the dust of Alexander, the remains of the mighty dead, of Homer and Virgil, of Ovid and Horace, have served the base uses of Emblem-effervescence, and in nearly all the languages of Europe have been forced to misrepresent the noble utterances of Greece and Rome. Many of the pictures, however, are very beautiful, finely conceived, and skilfully executed;—we blame not the artists, but the false taste which must make little bits of verses where the originals existed as mighty poems.

Generally it is considered that the Ovids of the fifteenth century were without pictorial illustrations, and could not, therefore, be classed among books of Emblems; but the Blandford Catalogue, p. 21, records an edition, “Venetia, 1497,” “_cum figuris depictis_,”—with figures portrayed. Without discussing the point, we will refer to an undoubted emblematized edition of the _Metamorphoses_ of Ovid, “Figurato & abbreviato in forma d’Epigrammi da M. Gabriello Symeoni,”—_figured and abbreviated in form of Epigrams by M. Gabriel Symeoni_. The volume is a small 4to of 245 pages, of which 187 have each a title and device and Italian stanza, the whole surrounded by a richly figured border. The volume, dedicated to the celebrated “Diana di Poitiers, Dvchessa di Valentinois,” was published “A Lione per Giouanni di Tornes nella via Resina, 1559.” An Example, p. 13, (see Plate III.,) will show the character of the work, of which another edition was issued in 1584. The Italian stanzas are all of eight lines each, and the passages of the original Latin on which they are founded are collected at the end of the volume. Thus, for “La Creatione & confusione del Mondo,” the Latin lines are,

“_Ante mare & terras & quod tegit omnia, cœlum. . . . . . . . Nulli sua forma manebat. Hanc Deus, & melior litem natura diremit._”

Of the devices several are very closely imitated in the woodcuts of Reusner’s Emblems, published at Frankfort, in 1581. The engravings in Symeoni’s Ovid are the work of Solomon Bernard, “the little Bernard,” a celebrated artist born at Lyons in 1512; who also produced a set of vignettes for a French translation of Virgil, _L’Eneide de Virgile, Prince des Poetes latins_, printed at Lyons in 1560.

“QVINTI HORATII FLACCI EMBLEMATA,” as Otho Vænius names one of his choicest works, first published in 1607, is a similar adaptation of a classic author to the prevailing taste of the age for emblematical representation. The volume is a very fine 4to of 214 pages, of which 103 are plates; and a corresponding 103 contain extracts from Horace and other Latin authors, followed, in the edition of 1612, by stanzas in Spanish, Italian, French and Flemish. An example of the execution of the work will be found as a Photolith, Plate XVII., near the end of our volume; it is the “VOLAT IRREVOCABILE TEMPUS,”—_Irrevocable time is flying_,—so full of emblematical meaning.

From the office of the no less celebrated Crispin de Passe, at Utrecht, in 1613, issued, in Latin and French verse, “SPECVLVM HEROICVM Principis omnium temporum Poëtarum HOMERI,”—_The Heroic Mirror of Homer, the Prince of the Poets of all times_. The various arguments of the twenty-four books of the _Iliad_ have been taken and made the groundwork of twenty-four Emblems, with their devices most admirably executed. The Latin and French verses beneath each device unmistakeably impress a true emblem-character on the work. The author, “le Sieur J. Hillaire,” appends to the Emblems, pp. 69–75, “Epitaphs on the Heroes who perished in the Trojan War,” and also “La course d’Vlisses, son tragitte retour, & deffaicte des amans qui poursuivoient la chaste & vertueuse Penelope.”

What might not in this way be included within the wide-encompassing grasp of the determined Emblematist it is almost impossible to say; and therefore it ought to be no matter of surprise to find there is practically a greater extent given to the Literature of Emblems than of absolute right belongs to it. We shall not go much astray if we take Custom for our guide, and keep to its decisions as recorded in the chief catalogues of Emblem works.

SECTION II. _EMBLEM WORKS AND EDITIONS DOWN TO THE END OF THE FIFTEENTH CENTURY._

LEAVING for the most part out of view the discussions which have taken place as to the exact time and the veritable originators of the arts of printing by fixed or moveable types, and of the embellishing of books by engravings on blocks of wood or plates of copper, we are yet—for the full development of the condition and extent of the Emblem Literature in the age of Shakespeare—required to notice the growth of that species of ornamental device in books which depends upon Emblems for its force and meaning. We say advisedly “ornamental device in books,” for infinite almost are the applications of Symbol and Emblem to Architecture, Sculpture, and Painting, as is testified by the Remains of Antiquity in all parts of the world, by the Pagan tombs and Christian catacombs of ancient Rome, by nearly every temple and church and stately building in the empires of the earth, and especially in those wonderful creations of human skill in which form and colour bring forth to sight nearly every thought and fancy of our souls.

Long before either block-printing or type-printing was practised, it is well known how extensively the limner’s art was employed “to illuminate,” as it is called, the Manuscripts that were to be found in the rich abbeys or convents, and in the mansions of the great and noble. For instance, the devices in the _Dance of Macaber_, undoubtedly an Emblem Manuscript of the fourteenth century, were of painter’s workmanship, and afterwards employed by the wood-engravers to embellish type-printed volumes of a devotional character. To this Brunet, in his _Manuel du Libraire_, vol. v. c. 1557–1560, bears witness, when speaking of the printer Philip Pigouchet, and of the bookseller Simon Vostre, who “furent les premiers à Paris qui surent allier avec succès la gravure à la typographie;” and adds in a note, “La plus ancienne édition de la Danse macabre que citent les bibliographes est celle de Paris, 1484; mais, plus d’un siècle avant cette date, des miniaturistes français avaient déjà figuré, sur les marges de plusieurs Heures manuscrites, des Danses de morts, représentées et disposées à peu près comme elles l’ont été depuis dans les livres de Simon Vostre; c’est ce que nous avons pu remarquer dans un magnifique manuscrit de la seconde moitié du quatorzième siècle, enrichi de nombreuses et admirables miniatures qui, après avoir été conservé en Angleterre dans le cabinet du docteur Mead, à qui le roi Louis XV. en avait fait présent, est venu prendre place parmi les curiosités de premier ordre réunies dans celui de M. Ambr. Firmin Didot.”

_From Brunet, v. 1559._

A strictly emblematical work in English is the following, “from a finely written and illuminated parchment roll, in perfect preservation, about two yards and three quarters in length,” “~The Five Wounds of Christ~.” “~By William Billyng~;” “Manchester: Printed by R. and W. Dean, 4to, 1814.” The date is fixed by the editor, William Bateman, “between the years 1400 and 1430;” and the poem contains about 120 lines, with six illuminated devices. We give here, on page 40, in outline, the DEVICE of “_The Heart of Jesus the Well of everlasting Lyfe_.”

There follows, as to each of the Emblems, a Prayer, or Invocation; the Device in question has these lines,—

~“Hayle welle and cõdyte of eu̾lastyng lyffe Thorow launced so ferre w^tyn my lordes syde The flodys owt traylyng most aromatys Hayle prious ♥ wounded so large and wyde Hayle trusty treuloue our joy to provide Hayle porte of glorie w^t paynes alle embrued On alle I sprynglyde lyke purpul dew enhuede.”~

An Astronomical Manuscript in the Chetham Library, Manchester, the eclipses in which are calculated from A.D. 1330 to A.D. 1462, contains emblematical devices for the months of the year, and the signs of the zodiac; these are painted medallions at the beginning of each month; and to each of the months is attached a metrical line explanatory of the device.

~Januarius.~ Ouer yis feer I warme myn handes. ~Februarius.~ Wyth yis spade I delve my londes. ~Martius.~ Here knitte I my vynes in springe. ~Aprilis.~ So merie I here yese foules singe. ~Mayus.~ I am as Joly as brid on bouz. ~Junius.~ Here wede I my corn, clene I houz. ~Julius.~ Wyth yis sythe my medis I mowe. ~Augustus.~ Here repe I my corn so lowe. ~September.~ Wyth ys flayll I yresche my bred. ~October.~ Here sowe I my Whete so reed. ~November.~ Wyth ys knyf I steke my swyn. ~December.~ Welcome cristemasse Wyth ale and Wyn.

This manuscript contains, as J. O. Halliwell says of it, “an astrological volvelle—an instrument mentioned by Chaucer: it is the only specimen, I believe, now remaining in which the steel stylus or index has been preserved in its original state.”

Doubtless it is a copy of the _Kalendrier des Bergers_, which with the _Compost des Bergers_, has in various forms been circulated in France from the fourteenth century almost, if not quite, to the present day. An edition in 4to, of 144 pages, printed at Troyes, in 1705, bears the title, _Le Grand Calendrier et Compost des Bergers; composé par le Berger de la grand Montagne_.

Kindred works issued from the presses of Venice, of Nuremberg, and of Augsburg, between 1475 and 1478, in Latin, Italian, and German, and are ascribed to John Muller, more known under the name of Regiomontanus, a celebrated astronomer, born in 1436, at Koningshaven, in Franconia, and who died at Rome in 1476. One of these editions, in folio, was printed at Augsburg in 1476 by Erhard Ratdolt, being the first work he sent forth after his establishment in that city. (See _Biog. Univ._, vol. xxx. p. 381, and vol. xxxvii. p. 25.) But the most thoroughly emblematical work from Ratdolt’s press was an “~Astrolabium planũ in tabulis~,” “wrought out anew by John Angeli, master of liberal arts, MCCCCLXXXVIII.” There are 414 woodcuts, and all of them emblematical. The library at Keir contains a perfect copy, 4to, in most admirable condition. Brunet, i. c. 290, names a Venice edition in 1494, and refers to other astronomical works by the same author.

In its manuscript form, too, the celebrated “SPECULUM HUMANÆ SALVATIONIS,” _Mirror of Human Salvation_, exhibits throughout the emblem characteristics. Of this work, both as it exists in manuscript and in the earliest printed form by Koster of Haarlem, about 1430, specimens are given in “A History of the Art of Printing from its invention to its wide spread developement in the middle of the sixteenth century;” “by H. NOEL HUMPHREYS,” “with one hundred illustrations produced in Photo-lithography;” folio: Quaritch, London, 1867. Pl. 8 of Humphreys’ learned and magnificent volume exhibits “a page from a manuscript copy of the _Speculum Humanæ Salvationis_, executed previous to the printed edition attributed to Koster;” and pl. 10, “A page from the _Speculum Humanæ Salvationis_ attributed to Koster of Haarlem, in which the text is printed from moveable types.”

The inspection of these plates, and the assurance by Humphreys, p. 60, that “the illustrations, though inferior to Koster’s woodcuts, are of similar arrangement,” may satisfy us that the _Speculum Humanæ Salvationis_, and all its kindred works, in German, Dutch, and French, amounting to many editions previous to the year 1500,[35] are truly books that belong to the Emblem literature. Thus pl. 8, “though without the decorative Gothic framework which separates, and, at the same time, binds together the double illustrations of the xylographic artist,” exhibits to us the exact character of “the double pictures of the _Speculum_.” “These double pictures,” p. 60 of Humphreys, “illustrate first a passage in the New Testament, and secondly the corresponding subject of the Old, of which it is the antitype. In the present page we have Christ bearing His cross (Christus bajulat crucem) typified by Isaac carrying the wood for his own sacrifice (Isaac portat ligna sua).” “The engravings,” p. 58, “_i.e._, of Koster’s first great effort, occur at the top of each leaf, and the rest of the page is filled with two columns of text, which, in the supposed first edition, is composed of Latin verse

(or, rather, Latin prose with rhymed terminations to the lines, as the lines do not scan); and in later editions, in Dutch prose.” “This specimen,” pl. 8, p. 60, “will enable the student to understand precisely the kind of manuscript book which Koster reproduced in a cheaper form by xylography, to which he eventually allied the still more important invention of moveable types.”

From a very fine MS. copy of the _Speculum Humanæ Salvationis_, belonging to Mr. Henry Yates Thompson, our fac-simile Plates IV. and V., though on a smaller scale, present the Title and the first Pair of devices with their text. The work is in twenty-nine chapters, and to each there are four devices in four columns, with appropriate explanations in Latin verse, and at the foot of the columns are the references to the Old or the New Testament.

The manuscript entitled “~De Volueribus, sive de tribus Columbis~,”—_Concerning Birds, or the Three Doves_, in the library “du Grand Seminaire,” at Bruges, is also an emblem-book. It is excellently illuminated, and the workmanship is probably of the thirteenth century. (See the Whitney Reprint, p. xxxii.)

_Plate 4_

_Plate 5_

The illuminated _Missal_,[36] executed in 1425 for John, Duke of Bedford and regent of France, according to the account published of it by Richard Gough, 4to, London, 1794, and by others, abounds in emblem devices. It contains “fifty-nine large miniatures, which nearly occupy the page, and above a thousand small ones in circles of about an inch and half diameter, displayed in brilliant borders of golden foliage, with variegated flowers, &c. At the bottom of every page are two lines in blue and gold letters, which explain the subject of each miniature.” “The Missal,” says Dibdin, “frequently displays the arms of these noble personages,” (John, Duke of Bedford, and of his wife Jane, daughter of the Duke of Burgundy,) “and also affords a pleasing testimony of the affectionate gallantry of the pair: the motto of the former being ‘A VOUS ENTIER;’ that of the latter, ‘J’EN SUIS CONTENTE.’” Among its ornaments are emblems or symbols of the twelve months, and a large variety of paintings derived from the Sacred Scriptures, many of which possess an emblematical meaning.

Not aiming at any exhaustive method in the information we gather and impart respecting Emblem works and editions previous to the year A.D. 1500, we pass by the very numerous other instances in support of our theme which a search into manuscripts would supply. The “Block-Books,”[37] which, in the main, are especially emblematical, we next consider. We select two instances as representative of the whole set;—namely, the “BIBLIA PAUPERUM,” _Bibles of the Poor_, and the “ARS MEMORANDI,” _The Art of Remembering_.

In his “BIBLIOGRAPHICAL DECAMERON,” vol. i. p. 160, Dibdin tells us, “The earliest printed book, containing _text_ and _engravings_ illustrative of scriptural subjects, is called the _Histories of Joseph, Daniel, Judith, and Esther_. This was executed in the German language, and was printed by Pfister at Bamberg in 1462. It is among the rarest of typographical curiosities in existence.” Dibdin’s dictum is considerably modified, if not set aside, by Noel Humphreys; who, though affirming, p. 41, that “a late German edition of the _Biblia Pauperum_ has the date 1475, but that before that period editions had been printed at the regular press with moveable types, as, for instance, that of Pfister, printed at Bamberg in 1462,”—yet had previously declared, p. 39, “many suppose that Laurens Koster, of Haarlem, who afterwards invented moveable types, was one of the earliest engravers of Block-books, and that in fact the _Biblia Pauperum_ was actually his work.” “The period of its execution may probably be estimated as lying between 1410 and 1420: probably earlier, but certainly not later.”

The earliest editions of these _Biblia Pauperum_ contain forty leaves, the later editions fifty, printed only on one side. Opposite to p. 40, Noel Humphreys gives, pl. 2, “A Page from the Biblia Pauperum generally supposed to be one of the earliest block-books.”

_Plate 6_

Availing ourselves of the Author’s remarks, p. 40, we yet prefer, on account of some inaccuracies in his decyphering the Latin contractions, giving our own description of this plate. The page is in _three_ divisions, all in the Gothic decorative style, with separating archways between the subjects. In the _upper_ division, in the centre, are seated, each in his niche, “Isaya” and “Dauid.” (See Plate VI.) In the upper corners, on the right hand of the first, and on the left hand of the second, are Latin inscriptions,—the former relating to Eve’s seed bruising the serpent’s head, Genesis iii. c., and the latter to Gideon’s fleece saturated with dew, Judges vi. c. The _middle_ compartment is a triptych, consisting of Eve’s Temptation, the Annunciation by the Angel to the Blessed Virgin; and Gideon in his armour, on his knees, with his shield on the ground, watching the fleece. Over Eve’s Temptation there is a scroll issuing from Isaiah’s niche, and having this inscription: ~“Ecce virgo concipiet et pariet filium,”~—_Behold a virgin shall conceive and bear a son_, Is. vii. 14; Eve stands near the tree of life, emblematized by God the Father among the branches,—and erect before her is the serpent, almost on the tip of its tail, with its body slightly curved. In the Annunciation appears a ray of light breathed upon the Virgin from God the Father seated in the clouds, and in the ray are the dove, the emblem of the Holy Spirit, descending, and an infant Christ bearing his cross; the Angel stands before Mary addressing to her the salutation, “~Ave gratiâ plena, dominus tecum~,”—_Hail full of grace, the Lord is with thee_, Luke i. 28; and Mary, seated with a book on her knees, and her hands devoutly crossed on her breast, replies, “~Ecce, ancilla domini, fiat mihi~,”—Behold, _the handmaid of the Lord, be it unto me_, Luke i. 38. Of Gideon and the fleece little needs be said, except that over him from the niche of David issues a scroll with the words “~Descendet dominus sicut pluvia in vellus~,” in the Latin Vulgate, Ps. lxxi. 6, _i.e. The Lord shall descend as rain upon the fleece_; but in the English version, Ps. lxxii. 6, _He shall come down like rain upon the mown grass_. The Angel also addressing Gideon bears a scroll, not quite legible, but evidently meaning, “~Dominus tecum virorum fortissime~,” Judges vi. 12,—English version, _The Lord is with thee, thou mighty man of valour_. The _lower_ compartment, like the upper, has in the centre two arched niches, which contain, the one Ezekiel, the other Jeremiah; beneath Eve’s temptation and Gideon’s omen are the alliterative and rhyming couplets

~“Vipera vim perdet, Sine vi pariente puella.”~

and

~“Rore madet vellus Permansit arida tellus;”~[38]

and beneath the Annunciation, “~Virgo salutatur, Innupta manens gravidatur~.”

From Ezekiel’s niche issues the scroll, Ez. xliv. 2, “~Porta hæc clausa erit, et non aperietur;~” and from Jeremiah’s, xxxi. 22, “~Creavit dominus novum super terram, femina circumdabit virum.~”

It requires no argument to prove the emblematical nature of the _middle_ compartment of this page from the _Biblia Pauperum;_ and the texts on scrolls are but the accessories to the devices, and serve only the more clearly to mark this Block-book as an Emblem-book.

_Plate 7_

_Plate 8_

Passing by similar Block-books, as _The Book of Canticles_, and _The Apocalypse of St. John_, we will conclude the subject with a notice of Humphreys’ pl. 5, following p. 42 of his text; it is “A Subject from the Block-book entitled ‘Ars memorandi,’ executed probably at the beginning of the fifteenth century.”

“The entire work,” we are informed, p. 42, “consists of the symbols of the four evangelists, each occupying a page, and being most grotesquely treated, the bull of St. Luke and the lion of St. Mark standing upright on their hind legs. These symbols are surrounded with various objects, calculated to recall the leading events in their respective Gospels.”

But the whole passage in explanation of the Plate is so much to our purpose, that we ask pardon of the author for inserting it entire. He says:—

“The page I have selected for reproduction is the fourth ‘image or symbol’ of St. Matthew—the Angel. The objects grouped around are many of them very curious, and, without the assistance of the accompanying explanations, would certainly not serve to aid the memory of the modern Biblical students. The symbolic Angel holds in the left hand objects numbered 18, which by the explanation we learn to be the sun and moon, accompanied by an unusual arrangement of stars and planets; intended to recall the passage, ‘there were signs in the sun and moon’—_erant signa in sole et luna_. I give the text of monkish explanation in MS. No. 19, the clasped hands, represents marriage, in reference to the generations of the Ancestors of Christ as enumerated by St. Matthew. No. 20, the cockle shell and the bunch of grapes are emblems of travelling and pilgrimage, and appear to represent the flight into Egypt; 21, the head of an ass, is intended to recall the entrance of Christ into Jerusalem riding on an ass; 22, a table, with bread-knife and drinking cup, recalls the Last Supper (_Cæna magna_); and the accompanying symbol, without a number, represents the census rendered to Cæsar.”[39]

With great kindness Mr. Corser, of Stand, offered me, in the spring of 1868, the use of a very choice Block-book, soon after sold for £415, entitled _Historia S. Joan. Euangelist. per Figuras_, and which is, I believe, the very copy from which Sotheby’s specimens of the work are taken. Whether it be the “_editio princeps_,” as a former owner claimed it to be, is doubted on merely conjectural grounds; but a most precious copy it is, internally vindicating its claim to priority. The volume measures 2.82 decimetres by 2.14; or 11 inches by 8.42. There are forty-eight leaves, in perfect preservation, printed on one side. The figures, all coloured, relate either to the traditions and legends of the Evangelist, or to the visions of the Apocalypse, the former being simply pictorial, the latter emblematical.

The two Plates uncoloured (Plate VII. and Plate VIII.) very clearly show the difference between the mere drawing and the device. The pictures of the Evangelist preaching, of Drusiana being baptized, and of the search after John, have no meaning beyond the historical or legendary event;—but the two wings of an eagle given to the woman, of the angel flying with a book above the tree of life, of the dragon persecuting the woman, and of the mother-church passing into the desert: these have a meaning beyond that of the figures delineated;—they are emblematical of hidden truths;—so are all the other plates of this Block-book which represent the visions of the Apocalypse. The date is probably 1420 to 1425.

The Bodleian Library at Oxford is very rich in this particular Block-book, possessing no fewer than _three_ copies of the _History of S. John the Evangelist_. Among its treasures, however, is a MS. on the same subject, worth them all by reason of its beauty and exquisite finish, which the Block-books certainly do not claim. This MS., on fine vellum and finely drawn and illuminated, is said to have been written in the twelfth century, and to have belonged to Henry II.

But the printing with moveable types is firmly established, and Emblem-books are among its earliest productions. At Bamberg, a city on the Regnitz, near its influx into the Main, the first purely German book was printed in 1461, by the same Pfister who published an edition of the _Biblia Pauperum_, and who probably learned his art at Mayence with Guttenberg himself. The work in question was a Collection of eighty-five Fables in German, with 101 vignettes cut on wood, each accompanied by a German text of rhyming verses. The first device, says Brunet, vol. i. p. 1096, represents three apes and a tree, and the verses begin with—

“Once on a time came an ape (_gerãt_) upright.”

The colophon, or subscription, at the end informs us,

“At Bamberg this little book ended is After the birth of our Lord Jesus Christ, When one counts a thousand four hundred year, And to it, as truth, one and sixty more, On the day of holy Valentine; God shield us from the wrath divine. Amen.”

The fables were collected by Ulric Boner, a Dominican friar of Bonn, in the thirteenth or at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Their chief value is that they present the most precious remains of the Minnesingers, or German Troubadours, and possess much grace, and “une moralité piquante.” See _Biographie Universelle_, vol. v. pp. 97, 98: Paris, 1812; and vol. xxxiii. p. 584: Paris, 1823.

Of Æsop’s _Fables_ in Greek, the Milan edition, about A.D. 1480, was the earliest. There had been Latin versions, previously at Rome in 1473, at Bologna and Antwerp in 1486, and elsewhere. The German translation appeared in 1473, the Italian in 1479, the French and the English in 1484, and the Spanish in 1489. Besides these there were at least thirty other editions previous to the year 1500.

It has been doubted if Fables should be classed among the Emblem Literature,—but whether _nude_, as other emblems have been named when unclothed in the ornaments of wood or copper engravings, or _adorned_ with richly embellished devices, they are, as Whitney would name them, _naturally_ emblematical. Apart from whatever artistic skill can effect for them, they have in themselves meanings to be evolved different from those which the words convey. The Lion, the Fox, and the Ass are not simply names for the veritable animals, but emblems of different characters and qualities among the human race; they symbolize moral sentiments and actions, and when we add the figures of the creatures, though we may make pleasing and significant pictures, we do little for the real development of the emblems.

Books of Fables, however, are so numerous that they and their editors may be counted by hundreds; and as Dibdin intimates, the Bibliomaniac who had gathered up all the editions of Æsop in nearly all the languages of the civilized world, would have formed a very considerable library. Only on a few occasions therefore shall we make mention of books of Fables in our present inquiries.

We shall not however pass unnoticed, since it belongs especially to this period, the “~Dyalogus Creaturarum~,” or, _Dialogues of the Creatures_, a collection of Latin Fables, attributed in the fourteenth century to Nicolas Pergaminus, first printed at Gouda in Holland by Gerard Leeu in 1480, and at Stockholm by John Snell in 1483. (See Brunet, vol. ii. p. 674.) A French version, by Colard Mansion, was issued at Lyons in 1482, _Dialogue des Creatures moralizie_; and an English version, about 1520, by J. Rastall, “Powly’s Churche,” London, namely, “The Dialogue of Creatures moralyzed, of late translated out of latyn in to our English tonge.”

There were various editions and modifications of the work,[40] but perhaps the contrast between them cannot be better pointed out than by selecting the Fable of the Wolf and the Ass from the Gouda edition of 1480, and also from the Antwerp edition of 1584. The original edition, with the woodcut on the next page in mere outline, tells in simple Latin prose how a wolf and an ass were sawing a log of wood together. From good nature the ass worked up above, the wolf through maliciousness down below, desiring to find an opportunity for devouring the ass; therefore he complained that the ass was sending the sawdust into his eyes. The ass replied, “It is not I who am doing this,—I only guide the saw. If you wish to saw up above I am content,—I will work faithfully down below.” And so they talked on, until the wolf threatening revenge drew back, and the fissure in the beam being suddenly widened, the wedge fell upon the wolf’s head, and the wolf himself was killed.

The Antwerp edition of 1584[41] changes the simple Latin prose into the elegant Latin elegiacs of John Moerman, and the outline woodcuts of an unknown artist into the copperplate engravings of Gerard de Jode, the eldest of four generations of engravers. THE WOLF and THE ASS are made to emblematize, “scelesti hominis imago et exitus,”—_the image and end of a wicked man_. Moerman’s Latin may thus be rendered, from leaf 54, ed. 1584:—

“The Wolf and careless Ass a treaty made, Both studious with a saw a beam to rive;— The ready Ass above directs the blade, The Wolf doth down below deceit contrive. He seeks for cause the wretched Ass to slay, And cries,—‘With sawdust much thou troublest me,— The trouble check, or with these teeth, I say, My spoil to be devoured thou straight shalt be.’ To this the Ass,—‘Friend Wolf, be not annoyed; Guileless the saw I guide with might and main.’ But soon the long-eared brute would be destroyed, When falls the wedge;—ah! ’tis the Wolf is slain.”

MORAL.

“Insonti qui insidias struit, ipse perit.”

“Who for the innocent spreads snares, Himself shall perish unawares.”

“_The wicked man his nets doth spread The innocent to take the while; But who would harm his brother’s head Doth perish from his selfish guile. God will not deem him innocent, Nor raise him to the stars above, Who on unrighteous thoughts is bent, Or neighbours serves with feigned love. But after death to the fiery marsh Of Phlegethon shall he be hurled, Where Tartaræan Pluto harsh With hated sceptres rules a world_.”

As in the Blandford Catalogue, it has been usual to count among Emblem-books the “ECATONPHYLA,” printed at Venice in 1491. The French translation of 1536 describes the title as, “signifiãt centiesme amour, sciemment appropriees a la dame ayãt en elle autant damour que cent aultres dames en pouroient comprendre,” _signifying a hundredth love, knowingly appropriated to the lady having in her as much love as a hundred other ladies could possibly comprehend_. (Brunet’s _Manuel_, i. c. 131, 132.) The author of this work, of which there are several editions, was the celebrated Italian architect, Leoni-Baptista Alberti, born of a noble family of Florence in 1398, and living as some suppose up to 1480. He was a universal scholar, a doctor of laws, a priest, a painter, and a good mechanic.

We are inclined to ask whether _Gli Trionfi del Petrarcha_, printed at Bologna in 1475,—especially, when as in the Venice editions of 1500 and 1523 they were adorned by the vignettes and wood engravings of Zoan Andrea Veneziano,—whether these “Triumphs of Love, Chastity, and Death” may not, from their highly allegorical character, be included among the Emblem-books of this age?[42] The same question we might ask respecting “~Das Heldenbuch~,”—_The Book of Heroes_,—printed at Augsburg, in 1477, by Gunther Zainer, who had first been a printer at Cracow about 1465; and also concerning the “~Libri Cronicarum cũ figuris et imaginibus ab inicio mũdi~,” a large folio known as the _Chronicles of Nuremberg_, which with its 2000 fine wood engravings, attributed to Michael Wohlgemuth, was published in that city in 1493.[43]

The original “~Todtentanz~,” or _Dance of Death_, painted as a memorial of the plague which raged during the Council of Bâle, held between 1431 and 1446 (Bryan, p. 335), certainly was not the work of either of the Holbeins. There are several representations of a Death-dance in the fifteenth century, between 1485 and 1496 (Brunet, v. 873, 874); and there can be little doubt of their emblematical character. The renowned _Dance of Death_ by Hans Holbein the younger we will reserve for its proper place in the next section.

We must not however leave unmentioned _The Dance of Macaber_, especially as it is presented to us in an English form by John Lydgate, a monk of the Benedictine abbey of Bury St. Edmunds, who was born about 1375, and attained his greatest eminence about 1430. His own power for supplying the materials for an Emblem-device we observe in the lines on “_God’s Providence_.”

“God hath a thousand handés to chastise; A thousand dartés of punicion; A thousand bowés made in divers wise; A thousand arlblasts bent in his dongèon.”

For an account of Lydgate’s _Dance of Macaber_, and indeed for his version in English, we should do well to consult the remarks by Francis Douce, in Wenceslaus Hollar’s _Dance of Death_, published about the year 1790, and more particularly the remarks in Douce’s Dissertation, edition 1833.

_Plate 9_

~Stultifera Nauis.~

~Narragonice profectionis nunquam satis laudata Nauis: per Sebastianũ Brant: vernaculo vulgarique sermone & rhythmo / pro cũctorum mortaliũ fatuitatis semitas effugere cupiẽtiũ directione / speculo / cõmodoque & salute: proque inertis ignaue̦que stultitie̦ perpetua infamia / execratione / & confutatione / nuper fabricata: Atque iam pridem per Iacobum Locher / cognomẽto Philomusum: Sue̦uũ: in latinũ traducta eloquiũ: & per Sebastianũ Brant denuo seduloque reuisa / & noua quadã exactaque emendatõe elimata: atque superadditis quibusdã nouis / admirãdisque fatuorum generibus suppleta: fœlĩci exorditur principio.~

_~.1497. Nihil sine causa. Io.de.Olpe.~_

The earliest known edition of _La Danse Macabre_, originally composed in German, is dated at Paris, 1484, but before the completion of the century there were seven or eight other reprints, some with alterations and others with additions. It was a most popular work, issued at least eight or ten times during the sixteenth century, and still exciting interest.[44] At p. 39 may be seen copies of some of the devices as used by Verard.

The chief Emblem deviser and writer towards the end of the century was Sebastian Brandt, born at Strasburg in 1458, and after a life of great usefulness and honour dying at Bâle in 1520. The publication in German Iambic verse of his “~Narren Schyff~,” Bâle, Nuremberg, Rüttlingen, and Augsburg, A.D. 1494, forms quite an epoch in Emblem-book literature. Previous to A.D. 1500, _Locher_, crowned poet laureate by the Emperor Maximilian I., translated the German into Latin verse, with the title “~Stultifera Nauis~” (see Plate IX.); _Riviere_ of Poitiers, the Latin into French verse, “~La Nef des Folz du Monde~;” and _Droyn_ of Amiens, into French prose, “~La grãt Nef des Folz du Monde~.” Early in the next century, 1504, or even in 1500, there was a Flemish version; and in 1509 two English versions,—_one_ translated out of French, “THE SHYPPE OF FOOLES,” by Henry Watson, and printed by “Wynkyn de Worde, MCCCCCIX.” (see Dibdin’s _Tour_, ii. p. 103); _the other_,—“STULTIFERA NAUIS,” or “~The Shyp of Folys of the Worlde~;” “Inprentyd in the Cyte of London, by Richard Pynson, M.D.IX.” (Dibdin’s _Typ. Ant._ ii. p. 431.) This latter was “_translated out of Latin, French, and Duch into Englishe_, by Alexander Barclay, _Priest_;” and reprinted in 1570, during Shakespeare’s childhood by the “Printer to the Queenes Maiestie.” At the same time, 1570, another work by Barclay was published, which, although without devices, partakes of an allegorical or even of an emblematical character; it is _The Mirrour of good Maners_; “conteining the foure Cardinal Vertues.”

Dibdin, in his _Bibliographical Antiquarian_, iii. p. 101, mentions “a pretty little volume—‘as fresh as a daisy,’ the _Hortulus Rosarum de Valle Lachrymarum_, ‘A little Garden of Roses from the Valley of Tears’ (to which a Latin ode by S. Brandt is prefixed), printed by J. de Olpe in 1499,”—but he gives no intimation of its character; conjecturing from its title and from the woodcuts with which it is adorned, it will probably on further inquiry be found to bear an emblematical meaning.

Dibdin also, in the same work, iii. p. 294, names “a German version of the ‘HORTULUS ANIMÆ’ of S. Brant,” in manuscript; “undoubtedly,” he says, “among the loveliest books in the Imperial Library.” The Latin edition was printed at Strasburg in 1498, and is ornamented with figures on wood; many of these are mere pictures, without any symbolical meaning,—but it often is the case that the illuminated manuscripts, especially if devotional, and the early printed books of every kind that have pictorial illustrations in them, present various examples of symbolical and emblematical devices.

The last works we shall name of the period antecedent to A.D. 1501, are due to the industry and skill of John Sicile, herald at arms to Alphonso King of Aragon, who died in 1458. Sicile, it seems, prepared two manuscripts, _one_ the Blazonry of Arms,—the _other_, the Blazonry of Colours. Of the former there was an edition printed at Paris in 1495, _Le_ BLASON _de toutes Armes et Ecutz_, &c.—and of the latter at Lyons early in the sixteenth century, _Le Blason des Couleurs en Armes, Liurees et deuises_. Within an hundred years, ending with 1595, above sixteen editions of the two works were issued.

Several other authors there are belonging to the period of which we treat,—but enough have been named to show to what an extent Emblem devices and Emblem-books had been adopted, and with what an impetus the invention of moveable types and greater skill in engraving had acted to multiply the departments of the Emblem Literature. It was an impetus which gathered new strength in its course, and which, previous to Shakespeare’s youth and maturity, had made an entrance into almost every European nation. Already in 1500, from Sweden to Italy and from Poland to Spain, the touch was felt which was to awaken nearly every city to the west of Constantinople, to share in the supposed honours of adding to the number of Emblem volumes.

SECTION III. _OTHER EMBLEM WORKS AND EDITIONS BETWEEN A.D. 1500 AND 1564._

LABORIOUS in some degree is the enterprise which the title of this Section will indicate before it shall be ended. Perchance we shall have no myths to perplex us, but the demands of sober history are often more inexorable than those flexible boundaries within which the imagination may disport amid facts and fictions.

Better, as I trust, to set this period of _sixty-three_ years before the mind, it may be well to take it in three divisions: 1st, the twenty-one years before Alciatus appeared, to conquer for himself a kingdom, and to reign king of Emblematists for about a century and a half; 2nd, the twenty-one years from the appearance of the first edition of Alciat’s _Emblems_ in 1522 at Milan, until Hans Holbein the younger had introduced the _Images and Epigrams of Death_, and La Perriere and Corrozet, the one his _Theatre of good Contrivances in one hundred Emblems_, and the other his _Hecatomgraphie_, or descriptions of one hundred figures; 3rd, the twenty-one years up to Shakespeare’s birth, distinguished towards its close chiefly by the Italian writers on _Imprese_, Paolo Giovio, Vincenzo Cartari, Girolamo Ruscelli, and Gabriel Symeoni.

~Stulte̦ gustationis scapha.~

I.—_A Fool-freighted Ship_ was the title of almost the last book of the fifteenth century,—by a similar title is the Emblem-book called which was launched at the beginning of the sixteenth century; it is, “~Jodoci Badii ascē~sii Stultifere̦ nauicule̦ seu scaphe̦ Fatuarum mulierum: circa sensus quinq̃ exteriores fraude nauigantium,”—_The Fool-freighted little ships of Josse Badius ascensius, or the skiffs of Silly women in delusion sailing about the five outward senses_,—“printed by honest John Prusz, a citizen of Strasburg, in the year of Salvation M.CCCCC.II.” There was an earlier edition in 1500,—but almost exactly the same. From that before us we give a specimen of the work, _The Skiff of Foolish Tasting_. A discourse follows, with quotations from Aulus Gellius, Saint Jerome, Virgil, Ezekiel, Epicurus, Seneca, Horace, and Juvenal; and the discourse is crowned by twenty-four lines of Latin elegiacs, entitled “~Celeusma Gustationis fatue̦~,”—_The Oarsman’s cry for silly Tasting_,—thus exhorting—

“Slothful chieftains of the gullet! Offspring of Sardanapálus! In sweet sleep no longer lull it,— Rouse ye, lest good cheer should fail us. Gentle winds to pleasures calling Waft to regions soft and slow; On a thousand dishes falling, How our palates burn and glow! Suppers of Lucillus name not, Ancient faith! nor plate of veal; Ancient faith to luncheon came not Crowned with flowers that age conceal. Let none boast of pontiff’s dishes,— Nor Mars’ priests their suppers spread; Alban banquets bless our wishes,— Cæsar’s garlands deck our head. Now the dish of Æsop yielding, Apicius all his luxuries pours; And Ptolomies the sceptres wielding Richest viands give in showers.”

And so on, until in the concluding stanza Badius declares—

“If great Jove himself invited At our feasting takes his seat, Jove would say, ‘I am delighted, Not in heaven have I such meat.’ Therefore, stupids! what of summer Enters now our pinnace gay,— Onward in three hours ’twill bear us Where kingdoms blessed bid us stay.”[45]

The same work was published in another form, “La nef des folles, selon les cinq sens de nature, composé selon levangile de monseigneur saint Mathieu, des cinq vierges qui ne prindrent point duylle avec eulx pour mectre en leurs lampes:” Paris 4to, about 1501.

Of Badius himself, born in 1462 and dying in 1535, it is to be said that he was a man of very considerable learning, professor of “belles lettres” at Lyons from 1491 to 1511, when he was tempted to settle in Paris. There he established the famous Ascensian Printing Press,—and like Plantin of Antwerp, gave his three daughters in marriage to three very celebrated printers: Michel Vascosan, Robert Etienne, and Jean de Poigny. He was the author of several works besides those that have been mentioned. (_Biog. Univ._ vol. iii. p. 201.)

Symphorien Champier, Doctor in Theology and Medicine, a native of Lyons, who was physician to Anthony Duke of Lorraine when he accompanied Louis XII. to the Italian war, graduated at Pavia in 1515, and, after laying the foundations of the Lyons College of Physicians, and enjoying the highest honours of his native city, died about 1540. (Aikin’s _Biog._ ii. 579.) His medical and other works are of little repute, but among them are two or three which may be regarded as imitations of Emblem-books. We will just name,—Balsat’s work with Champier’s additions, _La Nef des Princes et des Batailles de Noblesse, &c._ (Lyons, 4to goth. with woodcuts, A.D. 1502.); also, _La Nef des Dames vertueuses cōposee par Maistre Simphoriē Champier, &c._ (Lyons, 4to goth. with woodcuts, A.D. 1503.)

“Bible figures,” too, again have a claim to notice. A very fine copy of “~Les figures du vieil Testament, & du nouuel~,” which belonged to the Rev. T. Corser, Rector of Stand, near Manchester, supplies the opportunity of noticing that it is decidedly an Emblem work. It is a folio, of 100 leaves, containing forty-one plates, of which one is introductory, and forty are on Scriptural subjects, unarranged in order either of time or place. The work was published in Paris in 1503 by Anthoine Verard, and is certainly, as Brunet declares, ii. c. 1254, “une imitation de l’ouvrage connu sous le nom de _Biblia Pauperum_.” There are forty sets of figures in triptychs, the wood engravings being very bold and good. Each is preceded or followed by a French stanza of eight lines, declaring the subject; and has appended two or three pages of Exposition, also in French. The Device pages, each in three compartments, are in Latin, and may thus be described. At the top to the left hand, a quotation from the Vulgate appropriate to the pictorial representation beneath it; in the centre two niches, of which David always occupies one, and some writer of the Old Testament the other, a scroll issuing from each niche. The middle compartment is filled by a triptych, the centre subject from the New Testament, the right and left from the Old. At the bottom are Latin verses to the right and left, with two niches in the centre occupied by biblical writers. The Latin verses are rhyming couplets, as on fol. a. iiij, beneath Moses at the burning bush, “~Lucet et ignescit, sed non rubus igne calescit~,”—_It shines and flames, but the bush is not heated by the fire_. In triptych, on p. i. _rev._ are, Enoch’s Translation, Christ’s Ascension, and the Translation of Elijah.

The Aldine press at Venice, A.D. 1505, gave the world the first printed edition of the “HIEROGLYPHICA” of Horapollo. It was in folio, having in the same volume the Fables of Æsop, of Gabrias, &c. See Leemans’ _Horapollo_, pp. xxix-xxxv. A Latin version by Bernard Trebatius was published at Augsburg in 1515, at Bale in 1518, and at Paris in 1521; and another Latin version by Phil. Phasianinus, at Bologna in 1517. Previous to Shakespeare’s birth there were translations into French in 1543, into Italian in 1548, and into German in 1554,—and down to 1616 sixteen other editions may readily be counted up.

John Haller, who had introduced printing into Cracow in 1500, published in 1507 the first attempt to teach logic by means of a game of cards; it was in Murner’s quarto entitled, “CHARTILUDIUM logice̦ seu Logica poetica vel memorativa cum jocundo Pictasmatis Exercimento,”—_A Card-game of Logic, or Logic poetical or memorial, with the pleasant Exercise of pictured Representation_. It is a curious and ingenious work, and reprints of it appeared at Strasburg in 1509 and 1518; at Paris, by Balesdens, in 1629; and again in 1650, 4to, by Peter Guischet. As an imitation of Brandt’s _Ship of Fools_, so far as it relates to the follies and caprices of mankind, mention should also be made of Murner’s “~Narren Beschwo^erung~,”—_Exorcism of Fools_,—Strasburg, 4to, 1512 and 1518; which certainly at Francfort, in 1620, gave origin to Flitner’s “NEBVLO NEBVLONVM,”—or, _Rascal of Rascals_.

“~Speculū Paciētierum~ theologycis Consolationibus Fratris Ioannis de Tambaco,”—_The Mirror of Patience with the theological Consolations of Brother John Tambaco_,—Nuremberg, MCCCCCIX., 4to, is a work of much curiousness. On the reverse of the title is an Emblematical device of Job, Job’s wife, and the Devil, followed by exhortations to patience; and on the reverse of the introduction to the second part, also an Emblematical device,—the Queen of Consolation, with her four maidens by her side, and two men kneeling before her. The chapters on consolation are generally in the form of _sermonettes_, in which the maidens, three or four, or even a dozen, expatiate on different subjects proper for reproof, exhortation, and comfort. The devices in this volume are understood to be from the pencil of Albert Durer.

This same year, 1509, witnessed two English translations, or paraphrases, of Brandt’s “~Narren Schif~,”—the one _The Shyppe of Fooles_, taken from the French by Henry Watson, and printed by De Worde;—the other rendered out of Latin, German, and French, _The Ship of Fooles_, by Alexander Barclay, and printed by Pinson. Of Watson little, if anything, is known, but Barclay is regarded as one of the improvers of the English tongue, and to him it is chiefly owing that a true Emblem-book was made popular in England.

Of the “~Dyalogus Creaturarum~,” written in the fourteenth century by Nicolas Pergaminus, and printed by Gerard Leeu, at Gouda, in 1480, an English version appeared about 1520,—“The dialogue of Creatures moralyzed, of late translated out of Latyn in to our English tonge.”

The famous preacher and the founder of the first public school in Strasburg was John Geyler, born in 1445. He was highly esteemed by the Emperor Maximilian, and after a ministry of about thirty years, died in 1510. Two Emblem-books were left by him, both published in 1511 by James Other;—the one “~Navicula sive Speculũ Fatuorum~,”—_The little Ship or Mirror of Fools_; the other, “~Navicula Penitentie~,”—_The little Ship of Penitence_. To the first there are 110 emblems and 112 devices, each having a discourse delivered on one of the Sabbaths or festivals of the Catholic Church—the text always being, _Stultorum infinitus est_,—“Infinite is the number of fools.” The second, not strictly an Emblem-book, is devoted “to the praise of God and the salvation of souls in Strasburg,” and consists really of a series of sermons for Lent and other seasons of the year, but all having the same text, _Ecce ascendimus Hierosolimam_,—“Behold we go up to Jerusalem.” There were several reprints of both the works, and two German translations; and the edition of 1520, folio, with wood engravings, is remarkable for being the first book to which was granted the “Imperial privilege.” It is said that the rhymes of Brandt’s _Ship of Fools_ which Geyler had translated into Latin in 1498, not unfrequently served him for texts and quotations for his sermons. Alas! we have no such lively preachers in these sleepy days of perfect propriety of phrase and person. Our prophets, in putting away “locusts and wild honey,” too often forget to cry, “Repent, for the kingdom of heaven is at hand.”

Next, however, to the famous preacher, we name a notorious prophet, the Abbot Joachim, who died between the years 1201 and 1202, but whose works, if they really were his, did not appear in print, until the folio edition was issued about 1475,—_Revelations concerning the State of the chief Pontiffs_. An Italian version, “PROPHETIA dello Abbate Joachimo circa li Pontefici & Re,” appeared in 1515; and another Latin edition, with wood engravings, by Marc-Antoine Raimondi, in 1516.[46] Many tales are related of the Abbot and of his followers; suffice it to say, that they maintained the Gospel of Christ would be abolished A.D. 1260; and thenceforward Joachim’s “true and everlasting Gospel” was to be prevalent in the world.

According to the Blandford _Catalogue_, p. 6, we should here insert P. Dupont’s _Satyriques Grotesques_ (Desseins Orig.), 8vo, Paris, 1513; but it may be passed over with the simplest notice.

If we judge from the wonderfully beautiful copy on finest vellum in the Hunterian Museum at Glasgow, the next Emblem-book surpasses all others we have named; it is the “~Tewrdannckh~”—or, _Dear-thought_,—usually attributed to Melchior Pfintzing, a German poet, born at Nuremberg in 1481, and who at one time was secretary to the Emperor Maximilian. The poem is allegorical and chivalric, and adorned with 118 plates, some of which are considered the workmanship of Albert Durer.[47]

The _Tewrdanck_ was intended to set forth the dangers and love adventures of the emperor himself on occasion of his marriage to the great heiress of that day, Mary of Burgundy. There are some who believe that Maximilian was the author, or at least that he sketched out the plan which Pfintzing executed. As, however, the espousals took place in 1479, before the poet was born, and Mary had early lost her life from a fall,—the probability is that the emperor supplied some of the incidents and suggestions, and that his secretary completed the work. The splendid volume was dedicated to Charles V. in 1517, and published the same year, a noble monument of typographic art.

Of a later work known under the name of “~Turnierbuch~,”—_The Tournament-book_,—by George Rüxner, namely, _Beginning, Source, and Progress of Tournaments in the German nation_ (Siemern, S. Rodler, 1530, folio, pp. 402), Brunet informs us (_Manuel_, vol. iv. c. 1471), “There are found for the most part in this edition printed at the castle of Simmern” (about twenty-five miles south of Coblentz) “in 1530, the characters already employed in the two editions of the _Tewrdannckh_ of 1517 and 1519; there may also be remarked numerous engravings on wood of the same kind as those of the romance in verse we have just cited.” The edition of 1532 “printed at the same castle,” is not in the same characters as that of 1530.

CEBES, the Theban, the disciple of Socrates, though mentioned at pp. 12, 13, must again be introduced, for an edition of his little work in Latin had appeared at Boulogne in 1497, and at Venice in 1500; also at Francfort, “by the honest men Lamperter and Murrer,” in 1507, with the letter of John Æsticampianus; the Greek was printed by Aldus in 1503, and several other editions followed up to the end of the century;—indeed there were translations into Arabic, French, Italian, German, and English.[48]

_Plate 1^b_

II.—ANDREW ALCIAT, the celebrated jurisconsult, remarkable, as some testify, for serious defects, as for his surpassing knowledge and power of mind, is characterized by Erasmus as “the orator best skilled in law,” and “the lawyer most eloquent of speech;”—of his composition there was published in 1522, at Milan, an _Emblematum Libellus_, or “Little Book of Emblems.”[49] It established, if it did not introduce, a new style for Emblem Literature, the classical in the place of the simply grotesque and humorous, or of the heraldic and mythic. It is by no means certain that the change should be named an unmixed gain. Stately and artificial, the school of Alciat and his followers indicates at every stanza its full acquaintance with mythologies Greek and Roman, but it is deficient in the easy expression which distinguishes the poet of nature above him whom learning chiefly guides: it seldom betrays either enthusiasm of genius or depth of imaginative power.

Nevertheless the style chimed in with the taste of the age, and the little book,—at least that edition of it which is the earliest we have seen, Augsburg, A.D. 1531,[50] contained in eighty-eight pages, small 8vo, with ninety-seven Emblems and as many woodcuts,—won its way from being a tiny volume of 11.5 square inches of letterpress on each of eighty-eight pages, until with notes and comments it was comprised only in a large 4to of 1004 pages with thirty-seven square inches of letter-press on each page. Thus the little one that had in it only 1012 square inches of text and picture became a mountain, a monument in Alciat’s honour, numbering up 37,128 square inches of text, picture, and comment. The _little_ book of Augsburg, 1531, may be read and digested, but only an immortal patience could labour through the entire of the _great_ book of Padua, 1621. In that interval of ninety years, however, edition after edition of the favourite emblematist appeared; with translations into French 1536, into German 1542, into Spanish and Italian in 1549, and, if we may credit Ames’ _Antiquities of Printing_, Herbert’s edition, p. 1570, into English in 1551. The total number of the editions during that period was certainly not less than 130, of seventy of which a pretty close examination has been made by the writer of this sketch. The list of editions, as far as completed, numbers up about 150, and manifests a persistence in popularity that has seldom been attained.

The earliest French translator was John Lefevre, an ecclesiastic, born at Dijon in 1493,—_Les Emblemes de Maistre Andre Alciat_: Paris, 1536. He was secretary to Cardinal Givry, whose protection he enjoyed, and died in 1565. Bartholomew Aneau, himself an emblematist, was the next translator into French, 1549; and a third, Claude Mignault, appeared in 1583. Wolfgang Hunger, a Bavarian, in 1542,[51] and Jeremiah Held of Nördlingen, were the German translators; Bernardino Daza Pinciano, in 1549, _Los Emblemas de Alciato_, was the Spanish; and Giovanni Marquale, in 1547, the Italian,—_Diverse Imprese_.

The notes and comments upon Alciat’s Emblems manifest great research and very extensive learning. Sebastian Stockhamer supplied _commentariola_, short comments, to the Lyons edition of 1556. Francis Sanctius, or Sanchez, one of the restorers of literature in Spain, born in 1523, also added _commentaria_ to the Lyons edition of 1573. Above all we must name Claude Mignault, whose praise is that “to a varied learning he joined a rare integrity.” He was born near Dijon about 1536, and died in 1606. His comments in full appeared in Plantin’s[52] Antwerp edition, 8vo, of 1573, and may be appealed to in proof of much patient research and extensive erudition. Lorenzo Pignoria, born at Padua in 1571, and celebrated for his study of Egyptian antiquities, also compiled notes on Alciat’s Emblems in MDCXIIX.[53] The results of the labours of the three, Sanchez, Mignault, and Pignorius, were collected in the Padua editions of 1621 and 1661. It is scarcely possible that so many editions should have issued from the press, and so much learning have been bestowed, without the knowledge of Alciat’s Emblems having penetrated every nook and corner of the literary world.

With a glance only at the “PROGNOSTICATIO,” of Theophrastus Paracelsus, the alchemist and enthusiast, written in 1536, and expressed in thirty-two copperplates, we pass at once to the _Dance of Death_, by Hans Holbein, which Bewick, 1789, and Douce, 1833, in London, and Schlotthauer and Fortoul, 1832, in Munich and Paris, have made familiar to English, German, and French readers. Of Holbein himself, it is sufficient here to say that he was born at Bâle in 1495, and died in London in 1543.

Mr. Corser’s copy of the first edition of the _Dance of Death_, and which was the gift of Francis Douce, Esq., to Edward Vernon Utterson, supplies the following title, “LES SIMULACHRES & HISTORIEES FACES DE LA MORT, avtant elegammēt pourtraictes, que artificiellement imaginées: A Lyon, soubz l’escu de Coloigne, M.D.XXXVIII.” The volume is a small quarto of 104 pages, unnumbered, dedicated to Madame Johanna de Touszele, the Reverend Abbess of the convent of Saint Peter at Lyons. There are forty-one emblems, each headed by a text of scripture from the Latin version; the devices follow, with a French stanza of four lines to each; and there are sundry Dissertations by Jean de Vauzelles, an eminent divine and scholar of the same city. But who can speak of the beauty of the work? The designs by Holbein are many of them wonderfully conceived,—the engravings by Hans Lützenberge, or Leutzelburger, as admirably executed.[54]

Rapidly was the work transferred into Latin and Italian, and before the end of the century at least fifteen editions had issued from the presses of Lyons, Bâle, and Cologne.

Scarcely less celebrated are Holbein’s _Historical Figures of the Old Testament_, which Sibald Beham’s had preceded in Francfort by only two years. Beham’s whole series of Bible Figures are contained in 348 prints, and were published between 1536 and 1540. Dibdin’s _Decameron_, vol. i. pp. 176, 177, will supply a full account of Holbein’s “Historiarum Veteris Instrumenti icones ad vivum expressæ una cum brevi, sed quoad fieri potuit, dilucida earundem expositione:” Lyons, small 4to, 1538. The edition of Frellonius, Lyons, 1547, is a very close reprint of the second edition, and from this it appears that the work is contained in fifty-two leaves, unnumbered, and that there are ninety-four devices, which are admirable specimens of wood-engraving. The first four are from the _Dance of Death_, but the others appropriate to the subjects, each being accompanied by a French stanza of four lines.

A Spanish translation was issued in 1543; and in 1549, at Lyons, an English version, “The Images of the Old Testament, lately expressed, set forthe in Ynglishe and Frenche, vuith a playn and brief exposition.” All the editions of the century were about twelve.

Hans Brosamer, of Fulda, laboured in the same mine, and between 1551 and 1553, copying chiefly from Holbein and Albert Durer, produced at Francfort his “~Biblische Historien kunstlich fürgemalet~,”—_Bible Histories artistically pictured_ (3 vols. in 1).

We will, though somewhat earlier than the exact date, continue the subject of Bible-Figure Emblem-books by alluding to the _Quadrins historiques de la Bible_,—“Historic Picture-frames of the Bible,”—for the most part engraved by “Le Petit Bernard,” _alias_ Solomon Bernard, who was born at Lyons in 1512. Of these works in French, English, Spanish, Italian, Latin, Flemish, and German, there were twenty-two editions printed between 1553 and 1583. Their general nature may be known from the fact that to each Scripture subject there is a device, in design and execution equally good, and that it is followed or accompanied by a Latin, Italian, &c. stanza, as the case may be. In the Italian version, Lyons, 1554, the Old Testament is illustrated by 222 engravings, and the New by ninety-five.

The first of the series appears to be _Quadrins historiques du Genèse_, Lyons, 1553; followed in the same year by _Quadrins historiques de l’Exode_. There is also of the same date (see Brunet, iv. c. 996), “The true and lyuely historyke Pvrtreatures of the woll Bible (with the arguments of eache figure, translated into english metre by Peter Derendel): Lyons; by Jean of Tournes.”

To conclude, there were _Figures of the Bible_, illustrated by French stanzas, and also by Italian and by German; published at Lyons and at Venice between 1564 and 1582. (See Brunet’s _Manuel_, ii. c. 1255.) Also Jost Amman, at Francfort, in 1564; and Virgil Solis, from 1560 to 1568, contributed to German works of the same character.

Two names of note among emblematists crown the years 1539 and 1540, both in Paris: they are William de la Perrière, and Giles Corrozet; of the former we know little more than that he was a native of Toulouse, and dedicated his chief work to “Margaret of France, Queen of Navarre, the only sister of the very Christian King of France;” and of the latter, that, born in Paris in 1510, and dying there in 1568, he was a successful printer and bookseller, and distinguished (see Brunet’s _Manuel_, ii. cc. 299–308) for a large number of works on History, Antiquities, and kindred subjects.

La Perrière’s chief Emblem-work is _Le Theatre des bons Engins, auquel sont contenus cent Emblemes_: Paris, 8vo, 1539. There are 110 leaves and really 101 emblems, each device having a pretty border. His other Emblem-works are—_The Hundred Thoughts of Love_, 1543, with woodcuts to each page; _Thoughts on the Four Worlds_, “namely, the divine, the angelic, the heavenly, and the sensible,” Lyons, 1552; and “LA MOROSOPHIE,”—_The Wisdom of Folly_,—containing a hundred moral emblems, illustrated by a hundred stanzas of four lines, both in Latin and in French.

Corrozet’s “HECATOMGRAPHIE,” Paris, 1540, is a description of a hundred figures and histories, and contains Apophthegms, Proverbs, Sentences, and Sayings, as well ancient as modern. Each page of the 100 emblems is surrounded by a beautiful border, the devices are neat woodcuts, having the same borders with La Perrière’s _Theatre of good Contrivances_. There is also to each a page of explanatory French verses.

It requires a stricter inquiry than I have yet been able to make in order to determine if Corrozet’s _Blasons domestiques_; _Blason du Moys de May_; and _Tapisserie de l’Eglise chrestienne & catholique_, bear a decided emblematical character; the titles have a taste of emblematism, but are by no means decisive of the fact.

III.—Maurice Sceve’s _Delie, Object de plus haulte Vertu_, Lyons, 1544, with woodcuts, and 458 ten-lined stanzas on love, is included in the Blandford _Catalogue_; and in the Keir Collection are both _The very admirable, very magnificient and triumphant Entry of Prince Philip of Spain into Antwerp in 1549_,[55] by Grapheus, _alias_ Scribonius; edition 1550: and Gueroult’s _Premier Livre des Emblemes_; Lyons, 1550. The same year, 1550, at Augsburg, has marked against it “~Geschlechtes Buch~,”—_Pedigree-book_,—which recurs in 1580.

Claude Paradin, the canon of Beaujeu, a small town on the Ardiere, in the department of the Rhone, published the first edition of his simple but very interesting _Devises heroiques_, with 180 woodcuts, at Lyons in 1557. It was afterwards enlarged by gatherings from Gabriel Symeoni and other writers; but, either under its own name or that of _Symbola heroica_ (edition 1567) was very popular, and before 1600 was printed at Lyons, Antwerp, Douay, and Leyden, not fewer than twelve times. The English translation, with which it is generally admitted that Shakespeare was acquainted, was printed in London, in 12mo, in 1591, and bears the title, _The Heroicall Devises of M. Clavdivs Paradin, Canon of Beauieu_, “Whereunto are added the Lord Gabriel Symeons and others. Translated out of Latin into English by P.S.”

To another Paradin are assigned _Quadrins historiques de la Bible_, published at Lyons by Jean de Tournes, 1555; and of which the same publisher issued Spanish, English, Italian, German, and Flemish versions.

The rich Emblem Collection at Keir furnishes the first edition of each of Doni’s three Emblem-works, in 4to, printed by Antonio Francesco Marcolini at Venice in 1552–53; they are: 1. “I MONDI,”—_i.e._, _The Worlds, celestial, terrestrial, and infernal_,—2 parts in 1, with woodcuts. 2. “I MARMI,”—_The Marbles_,—4 parts in 1, a collection of pleasant little tales and interesting notices, with woodcuts by the printer; who also, according to Bryan, was an engraver of “considerable merit.” 3. “LA MORAL FILOSOFIA,”—_Moral Philosophy drawn from the ancient Writers_,—2 parts in 1, with woodcuts. In it are abundant extracts from the ancient fabulists, as Lokman and Bidpai, and a variety of little narrative tales and allegories.

Of an English translation, two editions appeared in London in 1570 and 1601, during Shakespeare’s lifetime; namely, “~The Morall Philosophie~ of Doni, englished out of italien by sir Th. North,”[56] 4to, with engravings on wood.

Under the two titles of “PICTA POESIS,” and “LIMAGINATION POETIQUE,” Bartholomew Aneau, or Anulus, published his “exquisite little gem,” as Mr. Atkinson, a former owner of the copy which is now before me, describes the work. It appeared at Lyons in 1552, and contains 106 emblems, the stanzas to which, in the Latin edition, are occasionally in Greek, but in the French edition, “vers François des Latins et Grecz, par l’auteur mesme d’iceux.”

Achille Bocchi, a celebrated Italian scholar, the founder, in 1546, of the Academy of Bologna, Virgil Solis, of Nuremberg, an artist of considerable repute, Pierre Cousteau, or Costalius, of Lyons, and Paolo Giovio, an accomplished writer, Bishop of Nocera, give name to four of the Emblem-books which were issued in the year 1555. That of Bocchius is entitled “SYMBOLICARVM QVAESTIONVM, LIBRI QVINQVE,” Bononiæ, 1555, 4to; and numbers up 146, or, more correctly, 150 emblems in 340 pages: the devices are the work of Giulio Bonasone, from copper-plates of great excellence. In 1556, _Bononiæ_ Sambigucius put forth _In Hermathenam Bocchiam Interpretatio_, which is simply a comment on the 102nd emblem of Bocchius. Virgil Solis published in 4to, at Nuremberg, the same year, “LIBELLUS Sartorum, seu Signorum publicorum,”—_A little Book of Cobblers, or of public Signs_. Cousteau’s “PEGMA,”[57] which some say appeared first in 1552, is, as the name denotes, a _Structure_ of emblems, ninety-five in number, with _philosophical narratives_,—each page being surrounded by a pretty border. And Giovio’s “DIALOGO dell’ Imprese Militari et Amore,”—_Dialogue of Emblems of War and of Love_; or, as it is sometimes named, “RAGIONAMENTO, _Discourse concerning the words and devices of arms and of love, which are commonly named Emblems_,”—is probably the first regular treatise on the subject which had yet appeared, and which attained high popularity.

Its estimation in England is shown by the translation which was issued in London in 1585, entitled, “THE Worthy tract of Paulus Iouius, contayning a Discourse of rare inuentions, both Militarie and Amorous, _called Imprese. Whereunto is added_ a Pre_face_ _contay_-ning the Arte of composing them, with _many other notable deuises_. _By Samuell Daniell late Student_ in Oxenforde.”

Intimately connected with Giovio’s little work, indeed often constituting parts of the same volume, were Ruscelli’s “DISCORSO” on the same subject, Venice, 1556; and Domenichi’s “RAGIONAMENTO,” also at Venice, in 1556. From the testimony of Sir Egerton Brydges (_Res Lit._), “Ruscelli was one of the first literati of his time, and was held in esteem by princes and all ranks of people.”

Very frequently, too, in combination with Giovio’s Dialogue on Emblems, are to be found Ruscelli’s “IMPRESE ILLVSTRI,” Venice, 1566; or Symeoni’s “IMPRESE HEROICHE ET MORALI,” Lyons, 1559; and “SENTENTIOSE IMPRESE,” Lyons, 1562.

Roville’s Lyons edition, of 1574, thus unites in one title-page Giovio, Symeoni, and Domenichi, “DIALOGO DELLIMPRESE MILITARI ET AMOROSE, De Monsignor Giouio Vescouo di Nocera _Et del S. Gabriel Symeoni Fiorentino_, Con vn ragionamento di M. Lodouico Domenichi, nel medesimo soggetto.”

Taking together all the editions in Italian, French, and Spanish, of these four authors, single or combined, which I have had the opportunity of examining, there are no less than _twenty-two_ between 1555 and 1585, besides five or six other editions named by Brunet in his _Manuel du Libraire_. Roville’s French edition, 4to, Lyons, 1561, is by Vasquin Philieul, “Dialogve des Devises d’Armes et d’Amovrs dv S. Pavlo Iovio, _Auec vn Discours de M. Loys Dominique_—et _les Deuises Heroiques et Morales du Seigneur Gabriel Symeon_.”

At this epoch we enter upon ground which has been skilfully upturned and cultivated by Claude Francis Menestrier, born at Lyons in 1631, and “distinguished by his various works on heraldry, decorations, public ceremonials, &c.” (Aikin’s _Gen. Biog._ vii. p. 41.) In his “PHILOSOPHIA IMAGINUM,”—_Philosophy of Images_,—an octavo volume of 860 pages, published at Amsterdam, 1695, he gives, in ninety-four pages, a “JUDICIUM,” _i.e._, _a judgment respecting all authors who have written on Symbolic Art_; and of those Authors whom we have named, or may be about to name, within the Period to which our Sketch extends, he mentions that he has examined the works of

A.D. 1555.[58] _Paulus Jovius_, p. 1. 1556. _Ludovicus Dominicus_, p. 3. ” _Hieronymus Ruscellius_, p. 4. 1561. _Alphonsus Ulloa_, ibid. 1562. _Scipio Amiratus_, p. 5. 1571. _Alexander Farra_, p. 6. ” _Bartholoæmus Taëgius_, p. 7. 1574. _Lucas Contile_, p. 9. 1577. _Johannes Andreas Palatius_, p. 10. 1578. _Scipio Bergalius_, p. 12. 1580. _Franciscus Caburaccius_, p. 12. 1588. _Abrahamus Fransius_, p. 15. 1591. _Julius Cæsar Capacius_, ibid. ” _D. Albertus Bernardetti_, p. 17. 1594. _Torquatus Tassus_, p. 14. 1600. _Jacobus Sassus_, p. 18. 1601. _Andreas Chioccus_, ibid. 1612. _Hercules Tassus_, p. 19. ” _P. Horatius Montalde_, p. 23. ” _Johannes Baptista Personé_, ib. 1620. _Franciscus d’Amboise_, ibid.

It may also be gathered from the “JUDICIUM” that Menestrier had read with care what had been written on Emblems by the following authors:—

A.D. 1551. _Gabriel Simeoni_, p. 63. 1557. _Claudius Paradinus_, p. 68. 1562. _Mauritius Sevus_, p. 55. 1565. _J. Baptista Pittonius_, p. 70. 1573. _Claudius Minos_, p. 54. 1588. _Bernardinus Percivalle_, p. 64. ” _Principius Fabricius_, p. 76. 1600. _Johannes Pinedi,_ p. 60. 1609. _Jacobus Le Vasseur_, p. 91. 1613. _J. Franciscus de Villava_, p. 55.

Excluding the editions before enumerated, the books of emblems which I have noted from various sources as assigned to the authors in the above lists from Menestrier, amount to from _twenty-five_ to _thirty_, with the titles of which there is no occasion to trouble the reader.

Returning from this digression, Vincenzo Cartari should next be named in order of time. At Venice, in 1556, appeared his “IMAGINI DEI _Dei degli Antichi_,”—_Images of the Gods of the Ancients_,—4to, of above 500 pages. It contains an account of the Idols, Rites, Ceremonies, and other things appertaining to the old Religions. It was a work often reprinted, and in 1581 translated into French by Antoine du Verdier, the same who, in 1585, gave in folio a Catalogue of all who have written or translated into French up to that time.

A folio of 1100 pages, which within the period of our sketch was reprinted four times, issued from Bâle in 1556; it is, “HIEROGLYPHICA,”—_Hieroglyphics_, or, _Commentaries on the Sacred Literature of the Egyptians_,—by John Pierius Valerian, a man of letters, born in extreme poverty at Belluno in 1477, and untaught the very elements of learning until he was fifteen. (Aikin’s _Gen. Biog._ ix. 537.) He died in 1558. As an exposition of the Egyptian hieroglyphics, his very learned work is little esteemed; but it contains emblems innumerable, comprised in fifty-eight books, each book dedicated to a person of note, and treating one class of objects. The devices—small woodcuts—amount to 365.

Etienne Jodelle, a poet, equally versatile whether in Latin or in French, was skilled in the ancient languages, and acquainted with the arts of painting, sculpture, and architecture, as well as dexterous in the use of arms. He published, in 1558, a thin quarto “RECUEIL,” or _Collection_ of the inscriptions, figures, devices, and masks ordained in Paris at the Hôtel de Ville. The same year, and again in 1569 and 1573, appeared the large folio volume, in five parts, “AUSTRIACIS GENTIS IMAGINES,”—_Portraits of the Austrian family_,—full lengths, engraved by Gaspar ab Avibus, of Padua. At the foot of each portrait are a four-lined stanza, a brief biographical notice, and some emblematical figure. Of similar character, though much inferior as a work of art, is Jean Nestor’s HISTOIRE _des Hommes illustres de la Maison de Medici_; a quarto of about 240 leaves, printed at Paris in 1564. (See the Keir _Catalogue_, p. 143.) It contains “twelve woodcuts of the emblems of the different members of the House of Medici.”

Hoffer’s “ICONES CATECHESEOS,” or _Pictures of instruction_, and of virtues and vices, illustrated by verses, and also by seventy-eight figures or woodcuts, was printed at Wittenberg in 1560. The next year, 1561—if not in 1556 (see Brunet’s _Manuel_, vol. ii. cc. 930, 931)—John Duvet, one of the earliest engravers on copper in France, at Lyons, published in twenty-four plates, folio, his chief work, “LAPOCALYPSE FIGUREE;” and in 1562, at Naples, the Historian of Florence, Scipione Ammirato, gave to the world “IL ROTA OVERO DELL’ IMPRESE,” or, _Dialogue of the Sig. Scipione Ammirato_, in which he discourses of many emblems of divers excellent authors, and of some rules and admonitions concerning this subject written to the Sig. Vincenzo Carrafa.

Were it less a subject of debate between Dutch and German critics as to the exact character of the “SPELEN VAN SINNE,”[59] which were published by the Chambers of Rhetoric at Ghent in 1539, and by those of Antwerp in 1561 and 1562 (see Brunet’s _Manuel_, vol. v. c. 484), we should claim these works for our Emblem domain. But whether claimed or not, the exhibitions and amusements of the Chambers of Rhetoric, especially at their great gatherings in the chief cities of the Netherlands, were often very lively representations by action and accessory devices of dramatic thought and sentiment, from “King Herod and his Deeds,” “enacted in the Cathedral of Utrecht in 1418,” to what Motley, in his _Dutch Republic_, vol. i. p. 80, terms the “magnificent processions, brilliant costumes, living pictures, charades, and other animated, glittering groups,”—“trials of dramatic and poetic skill, all arranged under the superintendence of the particular association which in the preceding year had borne away the prize.”

“The Rhetorical Chambers existed in the most obscure villages” (Motley, i. p. 79); and had regular constitutions, being presided over by officers with high-sounding titles, as kings, princes, captains, and archdeacons,—and each having “its peculiar title or blazon, as the Lily, the Marigold, or the Violet, with an appropriate motto.” After 1493 they were “incorporated under the general supervision of an upper or mother-society of Rhetoric, consisting of fifteen members, and called by the title of ‘Jesus with the balsam flower.’”

As I have been informed by Mr. Hessells, Siegenbeek, in his _Geschiedenis der Nederlandsche Letterkunde_, says,—“Besides the ordinary meetings of the Chambers, certain poetical feasts were in vogue among the Rhetor-gevers, whereby one or other subject, to be responded to in burdens or short songs (_liedekens_), according to the contents of the card, was announced, with the promise of prizes to those who would best answer the proposed question. But the so-called _Entries_ deserve for their magnificence, and the diversity of poetical productions which they give rise to, especially our attention.

“It happened from time to time that one or other of the most important Chambers sent a card in rhyme to the other Chambers of the same province, whereby they were invited to be at a given time in the town where the senders of the card were established, for the sake of the celebration of a poetical feast. This card contained further everything by which it was desired that the Chambers, which were to make their appearance, should illustrate this feast, viz., the performance of an allegorical play (_zinnespel_) in response to some given question;[60] the preparation of _esbatementez_ (drawings), _facéties_ (jests), prologues; the execution of splendid entries and processions; the exhibitions of beautifully painted coats of arms, &c. These entries were of two kinds, _landiuweelen_, and _haagspelen_>;—the _landjewels_ were the most splendid, and were performed in towns; the _hedge-plays_ belonged properly to villages, though sometimes in towns these followed the performance of a landjewel.” Originally, _landjewel_ meant a prize of honour of the land; called also _landprys_ (land-prize).

Such were the periodic jubilees of a neighbouring people, their “land-jewels,” as they were termed, when the birthtime of our greatest English dramatist arrived. And as we mark the wide and increasing streams of the Emblem Literature flowing over every European land, and how the common tongue of Rome gave one language to all Christendom, can we deem it probable that any man of genius, of discernment, and of only the usual attainments of his compeers, would live by the side of these streams and never dip his finger into the waters, nor wet even the soles of his feet where the babbling emblems flowed?

Some there have been to maintain that Shakespeare had visited the Netherlands, or even resided there; and it is consequently within the limits of no unreasonable conjecture that he had seen the _landjewels_ distributed, and at the sight felt himself inspirited to win a nobler fame.

SECTION IV. _EMBLEM WORKS AND EDITIONS BETWEEN A.D. 1564 AND A.D. 1616._

IN the year at which this Section begins, Shakespeare was born, and for a whole century the Emblem tide never ebbed. There was an uninterrupted succession of new writers and of new editions. Many eminent names have appeared in the past, and names as eminent will adorn the future.

The fifty years which remain to the period comprised within the limits of this Sketch of Emblem Literature we divide into two portions of twenty-five years each: 1st, up to 1590, when Shakespeare had fairly entered on his dramatic career; and 2nd, from 1590 to 1615, when, according to Steevens (edition 1785, vol. i. p. 354), his labours had ended with _The Twelfth Night, or, What You Will_. As far as actual correspondences between Shakespeare and the Emblem Writers demand, our Sketch might finish with 1610, or even earlier: for some time will of necessity intervene, after a work has been issued, before it will modify the thoughts of others, or enter into the phrases which they employ. However, there is nothing very incongruous in making this Sketch and the last of Shakespeare’s dramas terminate with the same date.

I.—In 1564, at Rome, in 4to, the distinguished Latinist, Gabriel Faerno’s Fables were first printed, 100 in number;—it was three years after his death. The plates are from designs which Titian is said to have drawn. Our English Whitney adopts several of Faerno’s Fables among his Emblems, and on this authority we class them with books of Emblems. From time to time, as late as to 1796, new editions and translations of the Fables have been issued. A copy in the Free Library, Manchester, “Romæ Vincentius Luchinus, 1565,” bears the title, _Fabvlae Centvm ex antiqvis avctoribvs delectae, et a Gabriele Faerno, Cremonensi carminibvs explicatae_.

Virgil Solis, a native of Nuremberg, where he was born in 1514, and where he died in 1570; and Jost Amman, who was born at Zurich in 1539, but passed his life at Nuremberg, and died there in 1591, were both artists of high repute, and contributed to the illustration of Emblem-works. The former, between 1560 and 1568, produced 125 _New Figures for the New Testament_, and _An Artistic little Book of Animals_; and the latter, from 1564 to 1586, contributed very largely to books of _Biblical Figures_, of “Animals,” of “Genealogies,” of “Heraldry,” and of the _Habits_ and _Costumes_ of All Ranks of the _Clergy of the Roman Church_, and of _Women_ of every “Condition, profession, _and age_,” throughout the nations of Europe.

From the press of Christopher Plantin, of Antwerp, there issued nearly fifty editions of Emblem-books between 1564 and 1590. Of these, one of the earliest was, “EMBLEMATA CVM ALIQVOT NVMMIS ANTIQVIS,”—_Emblems with some ancient Coins_,—4to, 1564, by the Hungarian, John Sambucus, born at Tornau in 1531. A French version, _Les Emblemes de Jehan Sambucus_, issued from the same press in 1567. Among Emblematists, none bears a fairer name as “physician, antiquary, and poet.” According to De Bry’s _Icones_, pt. iii., ed. 1598, pp. 76–83, he obtained the patronage of two emperors, Maximilian II. and Rudolph II., under whom he held the offices of counsellor of state and historian of the empire. To him also belonged the rare honour of having his work commented on by one of the great heroes of Christendom, Don John of Austria, in 1572.

_Les Songes drolatiqves de Pantagrvel_, by Rabelais, appeared at Paris in 1565, but its emblematical character has been doubted. Not so, however, the ten editions of the “EMBLEMATA” of _Hadrian Junius_, a celebrated Dutch physician, of which the first edition appeared in 1565, and justly claims to be “the most elegant which the presses of Plantin had produced at this period.”

We may now begin to chronicle a considerable number of works and editions of Emblems by ITALIAN writers, which, to avoid prolixity and yet to point out, we present in a tabulated form, giving only the earliest editions:—

Pittoni’s _Imprese di diversi sm.fol. Venice 1566 principi, duchi, &c._ _k._[61]

Troiano’s _Discorsi delli triomfi, 4to Monica 1568 giostre, &c._ _k._

Rime _Rime de gli Academici 4to Brescia 1568 occvlti, &c._ _k._

Farra’s _Settenario dell’ humana ... ... 1571 riduttione_ _v._

Dolce’s _Le prime imprese del 4to Venice 1572 conte Orlando_ _v._

” _Dialogo_ 8vo Venice 1575 _k._

Contile’s _Ragionamento—sopra la Fol. Pavia 1574 proprieta delle Imprese, _k._ &c._

Fiorino’s _Opera nuova, &c._ 4to Lyons 1577 _k._

Palazza’s _I Discorsi—Imprese, &c._ 8vo Bologna 1577 _k._

Caburacci’s _Trattato,—dove si 4to Bologna 1580 dimostra il vero e novo _k._ modo di fare le Imprese._

Guazzo’s _Dialoghi piacevoli_ 4to Venice 1585 _k._

Camilli’s _Imprese—co i discorsi, et 4to Venice 1586 con le figure_ _k._

Cimolotti’s _Il superbi_ 4to Pavia 1587 _k._

Fabrici’s _Delle allusioni, imprese 4to Roma 1588 & emblemi sopra la vita, _k._ &c., di Gregorio XIII._

Rinaldi’s _Il mostruosissimo_ 8vo Ferrara 1588 _k._

Porro’s _Il primo libro_ 4to Milano 1589 _k._

Pezzi’s _La Vigna del 4to Venetia 1589 Signore—Sacramenti, _t._ Paradiso, Limbo, &c._

Bargagli’s _Dell’ Imprese_ 4to Venetia 1589 _v._

So, briefly, in the order of time, may we name several of the French, Latin, and German Emblem-writers of this period, together with the Spanish and English:—

FRENCH.

Grevin’s _Emblemes d’Adrian La 16mo Anvers 1568 Jeune_ _v._

Vander _Theatre ... les 8vo Londres 1568 Noot’s inconueniens et miseres _v._ qui suiuent les mondains et vicieux, &c._

De _Emblêmes ou devises 4to Lyon 1571 Montenay’s chrestiennes_ _k._

Chartier’s _Les Blasons de vertu par 4to Aureliæ 1574 vertu_ _v._

Droyn’s[62] _La Grand nef des fols du fol. à Lyon 1579 monde_ _c._

Goulart’s _Les Vrais Pourtraits des 4to Genue 1581 Hommes illustres._ _k._

Verdier’s _Les images des anciens 4to Lyon 1581 dieux (par V. Cartari)._ _v._

Anjou _La joyeuse et magnif. fol. à Anvers 1582 entrée de Mons. _k._ Françoys, duc de Brabant, Anjou, &c., en ville d’Anvers._

L’Anglois _Discours des hierog. 4to Paris 1583 égyptiens, emblêmes, _k._ &c._

Messin _Emblêmes latins de J.J. 4to Metis 1588 Boissard, avec _c._ l’interpretation françoise_.

Of these works, Vander Noot’s was translated into English, says Brunet, (v. c. 1072,) by Henry Bynneman, 1569, and is remarkable for containing (see _Ath. Cantab._ ii. p. 258) certain poems, termed sonnets, and epigrams, which Spenser wrote before his sixteenth year. Mademoiselle Georgette de Montenay was a French lady of noble birth, and dedicated her 100 Emblems “to the very illustrious and virtuous Princesse, Madame Jane D’Albret, Queen of Navarre.” Chartier, a painter and engraver, flourished about 1574; L’Anglois is not mentioned in the _Hieroglyphics_ of Dr. Leemans, nor do I find any notice of Messin.

LATIN.

Schopperus Πανοπλία, _omnium 8vo Francof 1568 illiberalium _v._ mechanicarum, &c._

” _De omnibus illiberalibus 8vo Francof 1574 sive mechanicis _t._ artibus._

Arias _Humanæ salutis monumenta, 4to Antverpiæ 1572 Montanus &c._ _k._

Sanctius _Commentaria in A. Alciati 8vo Lugduni 1573 Emblemata._ _k._

Furmerus _De rerum usu et abusu_ 4to Antverpiæ 1575 _t._

Lonicer, Ph. _Insignia sacræ Cæsareæ, 4to Francof 1579 maj. &c._ _k._

Estienne, _Anthologia gnomica_ 8vo Francof 1579 Henri _k._

Freitag _Mythologia ethica_ 4to Antverpiæ 1579 _t._

Microcosm Μικροκοσμος, _parvus 4to ... 1579 mundus, &c._ _v._

ΜΙΚΡΟΚΟΣΜΟΣ _Parvus Mundus_ 4to Antverpiæ 1592 _k._

Beza _Icones—accedunt 4to Genevæ 1581 emblemata_ _c._

Hesius, G. _Emblemata sacra_ 4to Francof 1581 _v._

Reusner _Emblemata—partim ethica 4to Francof 1581 et physica, &c._ _k._

” _Aureolorum Emblem. liber 8vo Argentor 1591 singularis._ _t._

Lonicer, _Venatus et Aucupium 4to Francof 1582 J.A. Iconibus artif._ _c._

Moherman _Apologi Creaturarum_ 4to Antverpiæ 1584 _t._

Emblemata _Emblemata Evangelica ad fol. ... 1585 XII. signa, &c._ _k._

Bol. _Emblemata Evang. ad. XII. 4to Francof 1585 Signa cœlestia._ _v._

Hortinus _Icones operum, &c._ 4to Romæ 1585 _k._

Modius _Liber—ordinis 8vo Francof 1585 Ecclesiastici origo, _t._ &c._

” _Pandectæ triumphales, fol. Francof 1586 &c._ _k._

Fraunce _Insignium, Armorum, 4to Londini 1588 Emblematum, Hierogl., _t._ &c._

Zuingerus _Icones aliquot clarorum 8vo Basileæ 1589 Virorum, &c._ _t._

Cælius _Emblemata Sacra_ 8vo Romæ 1589 (S.S.) _v._

Hortinus _Emblemata Sacra_ 4to Trajecti 1589 _v._

Camerarius _Symbolorum et Emblematum, 4to Norimberg 1590 &c._ _k._

Arias Montanus, born in Estremadura in 1527, was one of the very eminent scholars of Spain; Furmerus, a Frieslander, flourished during the latter half of the sixteenth century, and his work was translated into Dutch by Coörnhert in 1585; Henri Estienne, one of the celebrated printers of that name, was born in Paris in 1528, and died at Lyons in 1598; a list of his works, many of them of high scholarship, occupies eight pages in Brunet’s _Manuel du Libraire_. The name of Beza is of similar renown;—both Etienne and he had to seek safety from persecution; and when Etienne’s effigy was being burnt, he pleasantly said “that he had never felt so cold as on the day when he was burning.” Laurence Haechtanus was the author of the _Parvus Mundus_, 1579, which Gerardt de Jode _den liefhebbers der consten_, the lover of art, has so admirably adorned. Nicolas Reusner was a man of extensive learning, to whom the emperor Rudolph II. decreed the poetic crown. Francis Modius was a Fleming, a learned jurisconsult and Latinist, who died at Aire in Artois, in 1597, at the age of sixty-one; Theodore Zuinger was a celebrated physician of Bâle; and Joachim Camerarius, born at Nuremberg in 1534, also a celebrated physician, one of the first to form a botanical garden, “attained high reputation in his profession, and was consulted for princes and persons of rank throughout Germany.”

An edition of a work reputed to be emblematic belongs to this period—to 1587; it is the _Physiologist_, by S. Epiphanius, to whom allusion has been made at p. 28.

GERMAN.

Stimmer _Neue Kunstliche Figuren 4to Besel 1576 Biblischen, &c._ _t._

Feyrabend _Stam und Wapenbuch_ 4to Franckfurt 1579 _k._

Schrot _Wappenbuch_ 8vo Munich 1581 _k._

Lonicer, J. _Stand und Orden der 4to Francfurt 1585 A. heiligen Römischen _v._ Catholischen Kirchen._

Clamorinus _Thurnier-buch_ 4to Dresden 1590 _k._

Tobias Stimmer was an artist, born at Schaffhausen in 1544, and in conjunction with his younger brother, John Christopher Stimmer, executed part of the woodcuts in the Bible of Basle, 1576 and 1586. The younger brother also prepared the prints for a set of Emblems, _Icones Affabræ_, published at Strasburg in 1591. Sigismund Feyrabend is a name of great note as a designer, engraver on wood, and bookseller, at Francfort, towards the end of the sixteenth century. Who Martin Schrot was, does not appear from the _Biographie Universelle_; and Clamorinus may probably be regarded as only the editor of a republication of Rüxner’s _Book of Tournaments_ that was printed in 1530.

DUTCH OR FLEMISH.

Van Ghelen Flemish translation, ... Anvers 1584 _Navis stultorum._ _v._

Coörnhert _Recht Ghebruyck ende 4to Leyden 1585 Misbruyck van tydlycke _v._ Have._

SPANISH.

Manuel _El conde Lucanor_ 4to Sevilla 1575 (apologues & fables). _v._

Boria _Emprese Morales_ 4to Praga 1581 _k._

Guzman _Triumphas morales_ 8vo Medina 1587 (nueuamente corregidos). _t._

Horozco _Emblemas Morales_ 8vo Segovia 1589 _t._

Don Juan Manuel was a descendant of the famous Alphonso V. His work consists of forty-nine little tales, with a moral in verse to each. It is regarded, says the _Biog. Univ._ vol. xxvi. p. 541, “as the finest monument of Spanish literature in the sixteenth century.” There are earlier editions of Francisco de Guzman’s _Moral Triumphs_, as at Antwerp in 1557, but the edition above named claims to be more perfect than the others. Horozco y Covaruvias was a native of Toledo, and died in 1608; one of his offices was that of Bishop of Girgenti in Sicily. In 1601 he translated his Emblems into Latin, and printed it under the title of _Symbolæ Sacræ_.

ENGLISH.

Bynneman’s _Translation of Vander 8vo London 1569 Noot’s Theatre._ _v._

North _The Morall Philosophie of 4to London 1570 Doni_ _v._

Daniell _The worthy tract of 8vo London 1585 Paulus Jovius, &c._ _k._

Whitney _A Choice of Emblemes, 4to Leyden 1586 &c._ _k._

Henry Bynneman, whose name is placed before the version of Vander Noot’s _Theatre_, is not known with any certainty to have been the translator. He was a celebrated printer in London from about 1566 to 1583. Sir Thomas North, to whose translation of Plutarch, Shakespeare was largely indebted, was probably an ancestor of the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal under Charles II. Samuel Daniell enjoyed considerable reputation as a poet, and on Spenser’s death in 1598, was appointed poet-laureate to the Queen. Of Whitney it is known that he was a scholar of Oxford and of Cambridge, and that his name appears on the roll of the university of Leyden. He was a native of Cheshire, and died there in 1601. It may be added that an edition of Barclay’s _Ship of Fooles_ was in 1570 “Imprinted at London in Paules Churchyarde by John Cawood Printer to the Queenes Maiestie.”

Thus, in the period between Shakespeare’s birth and his full entry on his dramatic career, we have named above sixty persons, many of great eminence, who amused their leisure, or indulged their taste, by composing books of Emblems; had we named also the editions of the same authors, within these twenty-five years, they would have amounted to 156, exclusive of many reprints from other authors who wrote Emblems between A.D. 1500 and A.D. 1564.

II.—Shakespeare’s Dramatic Career comprises another period of twenty-five years,—from 1590 to 1615. From the necessity of the case, indeed, few, if any of the Emblem writers and compilers towards the end of the time could be known to him, and any correspondence between them in thoughts or expressions must have been purely accidental. For the completion of our Sketch, however, we proceed to the end of the period we had marked out. And to save space, and, we hope, to avoid tediousness, we will continue the tabulated form adopted in the last Section.

ITALIAN.

Bernardetti _Giornata prima dell’ ... ... about Imprese_ 1592 _v._

Capaccio _Delle Imprese trattato, 4to Napoli 1594 in tre libri diviso._ _k._

Tasso _Discorsi del Poeme_ 4to Napoli 1594 _k._

Porri _Vaso di verita ... dell’ 4to Venetia 1597 antichristo_ _v._

Dalla Torre _Dialogo_ 4to Trivegi 1598 _k._

Caputi _La Pompa_ 4to Napoli 1599 _k._

Zoppio _La Montagna_ 4to Bologna 1600 _k._

Belloni _Discorso_ 4to Padova 1601 _k._

Chiocci _Delle imprese, e del vero ... ... 1601 modo di formarle._ _v._

Pittoni _Imprese di diversi fol. Venezia 1602 principi, &c._ _v._ (reprint).

Ripa _Iconologia, &c., 4to Roma 1603 Concetti, Emblemi, ed _k._ Imprese._

” ” ” ” 4to Siena 1613 _t._

Vænius _Amorum Emblemata_, in obl. Antverp 1608 Latin, English, and 4to _k.t._ Italian.

Glissenti _Discorsi morali ... 4to Venetia 1609 contra il dispiacer del _v._ morire, &c._

Giulio Cesare Capaccio, besides his Neapolitan History, and one or two other works, is also the author of _Il Principe_, Venetia, 1620, a treatise on the Emblems of Alciatus, with more than 200 political and moral notices. Torquato Tasso is a name that needs no praise here. Of Alessio Porri I have found no other mention; and I may say the same of Gio. Dalla Torre, of Ottavio Caputi, and of Gio. Belloni. Melchior Zoppio, born in 1544 at Bologna (_Biog. Univ._ vol. lii. p. 430), was one of the founders of the Academia di Gelati, in his native town. Battisti Pittoni was a painter and engraver, who flourished between 1561 and 1585. The extensive work of Cesare Ripa of Perugia, which has passed through about twenty editions in Italian, Latin, Dutch, Spanish, German, and English, is alphabetically arranged, and treats of nearly 800 different subjects, with about 200 devices. Otho van Veen, or Vænius, belongs to Holland, not to Italy,—and his name appears here simply because his _Emblems of Love_ were translated into Italian. Fabio Glissenti in 1609 introduced into his work (Brunet, iii. c. 256, 7) twenty-four of the plates out of the forty-one which adorned an Italian edition of the _Images of Death_ in 1545.

FRENCH.

Desprez _Théatre des animaux ... 4to Paris 1595 actions de la vie _v._ humaine._

Boissart _Mascarades recueillies_, 4to ... 1597 Geyn (J. de) Opera. _v._

Emblesmes _Emblesmes sus les 12mo Mildelbourg 1605 Actions—du Segnor _k._ Espagnol._

Hymnes _Hymnes des vertus ... par 8vo Lyon 1605 belles et délicates _v._ figures._

Vænius _Amorum Emblemata_ 4to Antverpiæ 1608 (Latin,Italian, and _v._ French).

Vasseur _Les Devises des Empereurs 8vo Paris 1608 Romains, &c._ _t._

” _Les Devises des Rois de ... Paris 1609 France._ _v._

Valence _Emblesmes sur les 8vo ... 1608 Actions—du Segnor _k._ Espagnol._

Rollenhagen _Les Emblemes ... mis en 4to Coloniæ 1611 vers françois._ _v._

Dinet _Les cinq Livres des 4to Paris 1614 Hiéroglyphiques._ _v._

De Bry _Pourtraict de la 4to Francfort 1614 Cosmographie morale._ _v._

Robert Boissart, a French engraver (Bryan, p. 90) flourished about 1590, and is said to have resided some time in England. Of Vænius, so well known, there is no occasion to speak here. Jacques de Vasseur was archdeacon of Noyon, celebrated as the birth-place of Calvin, and in 1608 also published another work in French verse, _Antithises, ov Contrepointes du Ciel & de la Terre_. Desprez and Valence are unknown save by their books of Emblems. Pierre Dinet is very briefly named in _Biog. Univ._ vol. ii. p. 371; and Rollenhagen and De Bry will be mentioned presently.

LATIN.

Callia _Emblemata sacra, e libris 32mo Heidelbergæ 1591 Mosis excerpta._ _k._

Borcht _P. Ovidii Nasonis obl. 16mo 1591 Metamorphoses._ Antverpiæ _t._

Stimmer _Icones Affabræ_ ... Strasburg 1591 _v._

Mercerius _Emblemata_ 4to Bourges 1592 _t._

De Bry _Emblemata nobilitate et obl. Francof 1592 vulgo scitu digna._ 4to _v._

” _Emblemata secularia_ 4to ” 1593 _v._

Freitag _Viridiarium Moralis Phil. 4to Coloniæ 1594 per fabulas, &c._ _k._

Taurellius _Emblema physico-ethica, 8vo Norimbergæ 1595 &c._ _k._

Boissard _Theatrum vitæ Humanæ_ 4to Metz 1596 _t._

Franceschino _Hori Apollinis selecta 16mo Romæ 1597 hieroglyphica._ _v._

Le Bey de _Emb. a J. Boissard 4to Francof 1596 Batilly. delineata, &c._ _t. k._

Altorfinæ _Emb. anniversaria 4to Norimbergæ 1597 Academiæ Altorfinæ._ _k.c.t._

David _Virtutis spectaculum_ 4to Francof 1597 _v._

” _Veridicus christianus_ 4to Antverpiæ 1601 _t. k._

David _Occasio arrepta, 4to Antverpiæ 1605 neglecta, &c._ _c. t._

” _Pancarpium Marianum_ 8vo ” 1607 _t._

” _Messis myrrhæ et 8vo ” 1607 aromatum, &c._ _v._

” _Paradisus sponsi et 8vo ” 1607 sponsæ, &c._ _k._

” _Dvodecim Specvla, &c._ 8vo ” 1610 _t. k._

Sadeler, Æg. _Symbola Divina et Humana fol. Prague 1600 Pontif. Imper., &c._ _k._

” _Symb. Div. et. Hum., fol. Francof 1601, 2, &c.;Isagoge Jac. 3 _k._ Typotii._

Passæus _Metamorphoseωn obl.4to ... 1602 Ouidianarum typi, &c._ _t._

Epidigma _Emblematum Philomilæ 4to ... 1603 Thiloniæ Epidigma._ _v._

Vænius _Horatii Emblemata, 4to Antuerp 1607 imaginibus_ (ciii.) _in _k._ æs incisis._

” _Amorvm Emblemata, Figvris 4to Antuerpiæ 1608 æneis incisa._ _t. k._

” _Amoris Divini Emblemata_ 4to Antuerpiæ 1615 _t._

Pignorius _Vetustissimæ tabulæ æneæ 4to Venetia 1605 sacris Ægyptiorum _v._ simulacris cœlatæ explicatio._

” _Characteres Ægyptii ... 4to Francofurti 1608 per Jo. Th. et Jo. Isr. _v._ de Bry._

Sadeler, Æg. _Theatrum morum. Artliche 4to Pragæ 1608 gespräch der Thier met wahren Historien, &c._

Broecmer _Emblemata moralia et 4to Arnhemi 1609 œconomica._ _t._

Aleander _Explicatio antiquæ Fabulæ 4to Romæ 1611 marmoreæ Solis effigie, _k._ symbolisque exsculptæ, &c._

Rollenhagen _Nvclevs Emblematum 4to Coloniæ 1611–13 selectissimorum._ _c. t._

” ” ” ” 4to Arnhemi 1615 _k._

Hillaire _Specvlvm 4to Traject. 1613 Heroicvm—Homeri—Iliados._ Bat. _c._

À Bruck _Emblemata moralia et 4to Argentinæ 1615 bellica_ _v._

Peter Vander Borcht, born at Brussels about A.D. 1540, engraved numerous works, and among them 178 prints for this edition of Ovid. The Stimmers have been mentioned before, p. 90. Jean Mercier, born at Uzès in Languedoc, wrote the Latin version of the _Hieroglyphics_ of Horapollo, Paris, 1548,—but probably it was his son Josias whose Emblems are mentioned under the year 1592, and who dates them from Bruges. Theodore De Bry, born at Liege in 1528 (Bryan, p. 119), carried on the business of an engraver and bookseller in Francfort, where he died in 1598. He was greatly assisted by his sons John Theodore and John Israel. _The Procession of the Knights of the Garter in 1566_, and that at the _Funeral of Sir Philip Sidney_, are his workmanship. Nicolas Taurellius was a student, and afterwards professor of Physic and Medicine in the University of Altorf in Franconia. An oration of his appears in the _Emblemata Anniversaria_ of that institution. He was named “the German Philosopher.” Denis le Bey de Batilly appears to have been royal president of the Consistory of Metz. John David, born at Courtray in Flanders, in 1546, entered the Society of the Jesuits, and was rector of the colleges of Courtray, Brussels, and Ghent; he died in 1613. Ægidius Sadeler, known as the Phœnix of engravers, was a native of Antwerp, born in 1570, the nephew and disciple of the two eminent engravers John and Raphael Sadeler. He enjoyed a pension from three successive emperors, Rodolphus II., Matthias, and Ferdinand II. Of Crispin de Passe, born at Utrecht about 1560, Bryan (p. 548) says, “He was a man of letters, and not only industrious to perfect himself in his art, but fond of promoting it.” His works were numerous, and have examples in the Emblem-books of his day. Otho van Veen, of a distinguished family, was born at Leyden in 1556. After a residence of seven years in Italy, he established himself at Antwerp, and had the rare claim to celebrity that Rubens became his disciple. In his Emblem-works the designs were by himself, but the engravings by his brother Gilbert van Veen. (Bryan, p. 853, 4.) Lawrence Pignorius, born at Padua, 1571, and educated at the Jesuits’ school and the university of that city, gained a high reputation by several learned works, and especially by those on Egyptian antiquities. He died of the plague in 1631. The work of Richard Lubbæus Broecmer, is little more than a reprint of one by Bernard Furmer, in 1575, _On the Use and Abuse of Wealth_. Jerome Aleander, nephew of one of Luther’s stoutest opponents, the Cardinal Aleander, was of considerable literary reputation at Rome, being a member of the society of Humourists, established in that city,—his death was in 1631. According to Oetlinger’s brief notice, _Bibliog. Biograph. Univ._, Gabriel Rollenhagen, of Magdeburg, was a German schoolmaster, born in 1542, and dying in 1609; his _Kernel of Emblems_ is well illustrated by Crispin de Passe. The same “excellent engraver” adorned _The Mirror of Heroes_, founded on Homer’s _Iliad_ by “le sieur de la Rivière, Isaac Hillaire.” Both Latin and French verses are appended to the Emblems, and at their end are curious “Epitaphs on the Heroes who fell in the Trojan war,” too late, it is to be feared, to afford any gratification to their immediate friends. To Jacobus à Bruck, surnamed of Angermunde, a town of Brandenberg, there belongs another Emblem-book, _Emblemata Politica_, Cologne, 1618. In it are briefly demonstrated the duties which belong to princes; it is dedicated “to his most merciful Prince and Lord, the Emperor Matthias I., ‘semper Augusto.’”

GERMAN.

De Bry _Emblemata 4to Francofurti 1596 Secvlaria—rhythmis _v._ Germanicis, &c._

” ” ” ” 4to Oppenhemii 1611 _t._

Boissard _Shawspiel Menschliches 4to Franckf. 1597 Lebens_ _v._

Sadeler _Theatrum morum. Artliche 4to Praga 1608 gespräch der Thier, &c._ _v._

DUTCH OR FLEMISH.

David _Christelücke_ 4to Antuerp 1603 _k._

Vænius _Zinnebeelden der 4to Amstel. 1603 Wereldtsche Liefde._ _v._

À Ganda _Spiegel van de obl. Amsterod. 1606 doorluchtige,&c., 4to _t._ Vrouwen._

” _Emblemata Amatoria Nova_ obl. Lugd. Bat. 1613 4to _k._

Moerman _De Cleyn Werelt ... 4to Amstelred. 1608 metover schoone _k._ Const-platen._

Ieucht _Den nieuwen Ieucht obl. ... 1610 spieghel ... C. de 4to _t._ Passe._

Embl. Amat. _Afbeeldinghen, &c._ obl. Amsterd. 1611 4to _k._

Gulden _Den Gulden Winckel der 4to Amsterdam 1613 Konstliev ende _k._ Nederlanders Gestoffeert._

Bellerophon _Bellerophon, of Lust tot 4to Amsterdam 1614 Wysheyd._ _k._

Visscher _Sinnepoppen_ (or Emblem 12mo Amsterdam 1614 Play) _van Roemer _k._ Visscher._

De Bry, Sadeler, David, and Vænius have been mentioned in page 96. Theocritus à Ganda is known for this work, _The Mirror of virtuous Women_, for which Jost de Hondt executed the fine copper-plates that accompany it; and also for _Emblemata Amatoria Nova_, published at Amsterdam in 1608, and at Leyden in 1613. _The Little World_, by Jan Moerman, is of the same class with _Le Microcosme_, Lyons, 1562, by Maurice de Sceve; or with “ΜΙΚΡΟΚΟΣΜΟΣ,” Antwerp, 1584 and 1594, and which Sir Wm. Stirling-Maxwell attributes to Henricus Costerius of Antwerp. _The New Mirror of Youth_, 1610; _The Delineations_, 1611; _The golden Ship of the Art-loving Netherlander finished_, 1613; and _Bellerophon, or Pleasure of Wisdom_, 1614; are all anonymous. Roemer van Visscher, born at Amsterdam in 1547 (_Biog. Univ._ vol. xlix. p. 276), is of high celebrity as a Dutch poet,—with Spiegel and Coörnhert, he was one of the chief restorers of the Dutch language, and an immediate predecessor of the two illustrious poets of Holland, Cornelius van Hooft and Josse du Vondel.

SPANISH.

De Soto _Emblemas Moralizadas_ 8vo Madrid 1599 _t. k._

Vænius _Amorum emblemata._ (Latin 4to Antuerpiæ 1608 and Spanish verses). _v._

” _Amoris divini 4to ” 1615 Emb....hispanicè, &c._ _t._

Orozco _Emblemas Morales_ 4to Madrid 1610 _t. k._

Villava _Empresas Espirituales y 4to Baeça 1613 Morales_ _k._

Hernando de Soto was auditor and comptroller for the King of Spain in his house of Castile. At the end are stanzas of three verses each, in Latin and Spanish on alternate pages, “to our Lady the Virgin.” Don Sebastian de Couarrubias Orozco was chaplain to the King of Spain, schoolmaster and canon of Cuenca, and adviser of the Holy Office. Both Soto and Orozco dedicate their works to Don Francisco Gomez de Sandoual, Duke of Lerma. Juan Francisco de Villava dedicates his first Emblem “to the Holy and General Inquisition of Spain.” Neither of the three names occurs in the Biographies to which I have access.

ENGLISH.

P. S. _The Heroicall Devises of 8vo London 1591 M. Clavdivs Paradin._ _c._

Wyrley _The true use of Armorie, 4to London 1592 shewed by historic, and _v._ plainly proved by example._

Willet _Sacrorvm Emblematvm 4to Cambridge 1598 Centvria vna, &c. A _v._ Century of Sacred Emblems._

Crosse _Crose his Covert, or a MS. About Prosopopœicall 1600 Treatise._ _c._

Vænius _Amorum Emblemata_ (Latin, 4to Antverpiæ 1608 English, and Italian). _k. t._

Guillim _A Display of Heraldry_ fol. London 1611 _k._

Peacham _Minerva Britanna, or a 4to London 1612 Garden of Heroical _c. t. Deuises, &c._ k._

Yates, MS. _The Emblems of Alciatus MS. About in English verse._ 1610 _t._

William Wyrley’s _True use of Arms_, was reprinted in 1853. In _Censura Lit._, i. p. 313, Samuel Egerton Brydges gives a pleasing account of the character of Andrew Willet, whom Fuller ranks among England’s worthies (vol. i. p. 238). Of John Crosse himself, nothing is known, but his MS. is certainly not later than Elizabeth’s reign, for the royal arms, at p. 33, are of earlier date than the accession of the Stuarts; and the allusion to the Belgian dames, pp. 2–6, agrees with her times. The work contains 120 shields and devices, and was lent me by my very steadfast friend in Emblem lore, Mr. Corser of Stand. At pp. 10 and 37, it is said,—

“In Troynovant a famous schoole was founde By famous Citizens; whilome the grounde Of noble Boone;”—

and

“To traine vp youth in tongues fewe might compare With Mulcaster, whose fame shall never fade.”

Now it was in 1561 Richard Mulcaster, of King’s College, Cambridge, and of Christchurch, Oxford, was appointed head master of Merchant-Taylor’s School in London, then just founded. (Warton, iii. 282.) Thus it is shown to be very probable that _Crosse his Covert_ may take date not later than A.D. 1600. It may be added that at the end of the MS. the figure of Fortune, or Occasion, on a wheel, is almost a fac-simile from Whitney’s Device, p. 181, which was itself struck from the block (Emb. 121. p. 438) of Plantin’s edition of Alciatus, MDLXXXI. John Guillim’s work on _Heraldry_ passed through five editions previous to that of Capt. John Logan, in 1724; the original folio is one of the book-treasures at Keir. Henry Peacham, _M^r. of Artes_, as he terms himself, was a native of Leverton in Holland, in the county of Lincoln, and a student under “the right worshipfull Mr. D. Laifeild,” in Trinity College, Cambridge. He has dedicated his work “to the Right High and Mightie Henrie, Eldest Sonne of our Soveraigne Lord the King.”

Singular it is, that except the MS. which belonged to the late Joseph B. Yates, of Liverpool, there is not known to exist any translation into English of the once famous _Emblems of Alciatus_. That MS. (see _Transact. Liverpool L. and P. Society, Nov. 5, 1849_) “appears to be of the time of James the First.” The Devices are drawn and coloured, and have considerable resemblance to those in Rapheleng’s edition of Alciatus, 1608. As a specimen we add the translation of Emblem XXXIII. p. 39, “Signa fortium.”

“O Saturn’s birde! what cause doth thee incyte Upon Aristom’s tombe so highe to sitt? ‘As I all other birds excell in mighte— So doth Aristom, Lords, in strength and witt. Let fearful Doves on cowards’ tombs take rest— We Eagles stoute to stoute men give a crest.’”

How pleasant to feel that this Sketch of Emblem-books and their authors, previous to and during the times of Shakespeare, has been brought to an end. “Vina coronant,” _fill a bumper_, “let the sparkling glass go round.”

The difficulty really has been to compress. The materials collected were most abundant. From curiously or artistically arranged title pages,—from various dedications,—from devices admirably designed or of wondrous oddity,—and from the countless collateral subjects among which the Emblem writers and their commentators disported themselves, the temptations were so rich to wander off here and there, that it was necessary continually to remember that it was a veritable sketch I was engaged on and not a universal history. I lashed myself therefore to the mast and sailed through a whole sea of syrens, deaf, though they charmed ever so sweetly to make me sing with them of emperors and kings, of popes and cardinals, of the learned and the gay, who appeared to believe that everyone’s literary salvation depended on the contrivance of a device and the interpretation of an emblem.

Had I known where to refer my readers for a general view of my subject, either brief or prolix, I should have spared myself the labour of compiling one. The results are, that, previous to the year 1616, the Emblem Literature of Europe could claim for its own at least 200 authors, not including translators, and that above 770 editions of original texts and of versions had issued from the press.[63]

If Shakespeare knew nothing of so wide-spread a literature it is very wonderful; and more wondrous far, if knowing, he did not inweave some of the threads into the very texture of his thoughts.

In this Sketch of Emblem writers, it will be perceived, though their names are seldom heard of except among the antiquaries of letters, that, as a class, they were men of deep erudition, of considerable natural power, and of large attainments. To the literature of their age they were as much ornaments as to the literature of our modern times are the works, illustrated or otherwise, with which our hours of leisure are wont to be both amused and instructed. No one who is ignorant of them can possess a full idea of the intellectual treasures of the more cultivated nations of Europe about the period of which the works of Alciatus and of Giovio are the types. We may be learned in its controversies, well read in its ecclesiastical and political history, intimate even with the characters and pursuits of its great statesmen and sovereigns, and strong as well as enlightened in our admiration of its painters, statuaries, poets, and other artistic celebrities, but we are not baptized into its perfect spirit unless we know what entertainment and refreshing there were for men’s minds when serious studies were intermitted and the weighty cares and business of life for a while laid aside.

Take up these Emblem writers as great statesmen and victorious commanders did; read them as did the recluse in his study and the man of the world at his recreation; search into them as some did for good morals suitable to the guidance of their lives, and as others did for snatches of wit and learning fitted to call forth their merriment; and see, amid divers conceits and many quaintnesses, and not a few inanities and vanities, how richly the fancy was indulged, and how freely the play of genius was allowed; and then will you be better prepared to estimate the whole literature of the nations of that busy, stirring time, when authorities were questioned that had reigned unchallenged for centuries, and men’s minds were awakened to all the advantages of learning, and their tastes formed for admiring the continually varying charms of the poet’s song and the artist’s skill.

True; those strange turns of thought, those playings upon mere words, those fanciful dreamings, those huntings up and down of some unfortunate idea through all possible and impossible doublings and windings, are not approved either by a purer taste, or by a better-trained judgment. We have outgrown the customs of those logo-maniacs, or word-worshippers, whom old Ralph Cudworth, in his _True Intellectual System of the Universe_, p. 67, seems to have had in view, when he affirms, “that they could not make a Rational Discourse of anything, though never so small, but they must stuff it with their Quiddities, Entities, Essences, Hæcceities, and the like.”

But at the revival of literature, when the ancient learning was devoured without being digested, and the modern investigations were not always controlled by sound discretion,—when the child was as a giant, and the giant disported himself in fantastic gambols,—we must not wonder that compositions, both prose and poetic, were perpetrated which receive unhesitatingly from the higher criticism the sentence of condemnation. But in condemning let not the folly be committed of despising and undervaluing. We may devotedly love our more advanced civilization, our finer sensibilities, and our juster estimate of what true taste for the beautiful demands, and yet we may accord to our leaders and fathers in learning and refinement the no unworthy commendation, that, with their means and in their day, they gave a mighty onward movement to those literary pursuits and pleasures in which the powers of the fancy heighten the glow of our joy, and the resources of accurate knowledge bestow an abiding worth upon our intellectual labours.

Footnote 35:

See Brunet’s _Manuel du Libraire_, vol. v. col. 476–483, and col. 489; also vol. iv. col. 1343–46.

Footnote 36:

Sold at the Duchess of Portland’s sale in 1789 to Mr. Edwards for £215,—and at his sale in 1815 to the Duke of Marlborough for £637 15_s._ See Dibdin’s “_Bibliomania_,” ed. 1811, p. 253; and Timperley’s _Dictionary of Printers and Printing_, ed. 1839, p. 93.

Footnote 37:

One of the earliest and most curious of the Block-books, _Biblia Pauperum_, has been reproduced in fac-simile by Mr. J. Ph. Berjeau, from a copy in the British Museum.

Footnote 38:

Mr. Humphreys reads “Pluviam sicut arida tellus;” but in this, as in two or three other instances in this pl. 2, and p. 40, a botanical lens will show that the readings are those which I have given. I desire here to express to him my obligation for the courteous permission to make use of pl. 2, p. 40, of his work, for a photolith (see Plate VI.), to illustrate my remarks.

Footnote 39:

To follow out the subject of the _Biblia Pauperum_, or of Block-books in general, the Reader may consult Sotheby’s _Principia typographica, The Block-Books_, &c., 3 vols. 4to, London, 1858; Dibdin’s _Bibliotheca Spenseriana_, 4 vols. London, 1814, 1815; or Berjeau’s _Biblia Pauperum_, a fac-simile with an historical introduction, 4to: Trübner, London, 1859.

Footnote 40:

As in Nourry’s Lyons editions of 1509 and 1511, where the title given is, “~Destructoriũ vitiorum ex similitudinũ creaturarum exemplorũ appropriatiõe per modum dialogi~,” &c.; lge. 4to, in the Corser Library, from which we take—~De Sole et Luna~.

Footnote 41:

The Title is “APOLOGI CREATVRARVM;” “Vtilia prudenti, imprudenti futilia. _G. de Jode excu._ 1584.”

Footnote 42:

An English translation, with wood engravings, appeared about the time of Shakespeare’s birth, it may be a few years earlier:—_The Tryumphes of Fraunces Petrarche_, “translated out of Italian into English by Hẽrye Parker knyght, lorde Morley,” sm. 4to.

Footnote 43:

See Brunet’s _Manuel_, iii. c. 85, and i. c. 1860; _Biog. Universelle_, “Zainer;” Timperley’s _Dictionary of Printers_, p. 197; and Bryan’s _Dict. of Engravers_, p. 918.

Footnote 44:

Langlois in his _Essai_, pp. 331–340, names thirty-two editions previous to A.D. 1730.

Footnote 45:

Be lenient, gentle Reader, if you chance to compare the above translation with the original; for even should you have learned by heart the two very large 4to volumes of Forcellini’s _Lexicon of all Latinity_, I believe you will find some nuts you cannot crack in the Latin verses of Jodocus Badius.

Footnote 46:

For a very good account of Joachim’s supposed works, consult a paper in _Notes and Queries_, September, 1862, pp. 181–3, by Mr. Jones, the excellent Librarian of the Chetham Library, Manchester; and for an account of the man, Aikin’s _General Biography_, v. pp. 478–80.

Footnote 47:

The “~Ehrenpforte~,” or _Triumphal Arch_, about 1515, and the “~Triumphwagen~,” or _Triumphal Car_, A.D. 1522, both in honour of Maximilian I., are among the noblest of Durer’s engravings; but the _Biographie Universelle_, t. 33, p. 582, attributes the engravings in the “~Tewrdannckh~” to Hans Shaeufflein the younger, who was born at Nuremberg about 1487; and with this agrees Stanley’s _Dict. of Engravers_, ed. 1849, p. 705. There are other works by Durer which, it may be, should be ranked among the Emblematical, as _Apocalypsis cum Figuris_, Nuremberg, 1498; and _Passio Domini nostri Jesu_, 1509 and 1511. It is, however, now generally agreed that Durer designed, but did not engrave, on wood. See Stanley, p. 224.

Footnote 48:

Belonging to one of the earlier editions, or else as an Imagination of the Tablet itself, is a wonderfully curious woodcut, in folio, of which our Plate 1. _b_ is a smaller fac-simile.

Footnote 49:

The title is rather conjectured than ascertained, for owing, as it is said, to Alciat’s dissatisfaction with the work, or from some other cause, he destroyed what copies he could, and not one is now of a certainty known to exist. For solving the doubt, the Editor of the Holbein Society of Manchester has just issued a note of inquiry to the chief libraries of Europe, _Enquête pour découvrir la première Edition des Emblêmes d’André Alciat, illustre Jurisconsulte Italien_. Milan, A.D. 1522.

Footnote 50:

A copy was in the possession of the Rev. Thos. Corser, and has passed through the hands of Dr. Dibdin and Sir Francis Freeling; also another copy is at Keir, Sir William Stirling Maxwell’s; both in admirable condition.

Footnote 51:

CLARISSIMI VIRI D. ANDREÆ AL_ciati Emblematum libellus, uigilanter recognitus, et iã recens per Wolphgangum Hungerum Bauarum, rhythmis Germanicis uersus._ PARISIIS, _apud Christianum Wechelum, &c., Anno_ M.D.XLII.

Footnote 52:

“OMNIA ANDREÆ ALCIATI V. C. EMBLEMATA. Adiectis commentariis, &c. Per Clavdivm Minoim Diuionesem. ANTVERPIÆ, Ex officina Christophori Plantini, Architypographi Regij, M.D.LXXIII.;” also, “Editio tertia multo locupletior,” M.D.LXXXI.

Footnote 53:

“Emblemata v. Cl. Andreæ Alciati—_notulis extemporarijs Laurentij Pignorij Patauini. Patauij, apud Pet. Paulum Tozzium_, M.DCXIIX,” sm. 8vo.

Footnote 54:

The Holbein Society of Manchester have just completed, May, 1869, a Photo-lithographic Reprint of the whole work, with an English Translation, Notes, &c., by the Editor, Henry Green, M.A.

Footnote 55:

_La tres admirable, &c., entrée du Prince Philipe d’Espaignes—en la ville d’Anvers, anno 1549._ 4to, Anvers, 1550.

Footnote 56:

North’s translation of Plutarch’s _Lives_, we may remark, was the great treasury to which Shakespeare often applied in some of his Historical Dramas; and we may assume that other productions from the same pen would not be unknown to him.

Footnote 57:

“PETRI COSTALII PEGMA _Cum narrationibus philosophicis_.” 8vo, LVGDVNI, 1555.

“LE PEGME DE PIERRE COVSTAV auec les Narr. philosophiqves.” 8vo, A Lyon, M.D.LX.

Footnote 58:

The dates have been added to Menestrier’s list.

Footnote 59:

A friend, Mr. Jan Hendrik Hessells, now of Cambridge, well acquainted with his native Dutch literature, informs me the “_Spelen van Sinnen_ (Sinnespelen, Zinnespelen) were thus called because allegorical personifications, _Zinnebeildige personen_ (in old Dutch, _Sinnekens_), for instance reason, religion, virtue, were introduced.” They were, in fact, “allegorical plays,” similar to the “Interludes” of England in former times.

Footnote 60:

As “Wat den mensch aldermeest tot’ conste verwect?”—_What most of all awakens man to art?_

Footnote 61:

The works to which a _k_ is appended are all in the very choice and yet most extensive collection of Emblem-books at Keir, made by the Author of _The Cloister Life of Charles V._, Sir William Stirling Maxwell, Bart.; _c_, in the Library formed by the Rev. Thomas Corser, Rector of Stand, near Manchester; _t_, in that of Henry Yates Thompson, Esq., of Thingwall, near Liverpool. I have had the opportunity, most kindly given, of examining very many of the Emblem-works at Keir, and nearly all of those at Stand and Thingwall. The three collections contained at the time of my examination of them 934, 204, and 248 volumes, in the whole 1386 volumes. Deducting duplicates, the number of distinct editions in the three libraries is above 900. Where I have placed a _v_, it denotes that the sources of information are various, but those sources I possess the means of verifying. I name these things that it may be seen I have not lightly nor idly undertaken the sketch which I present in these pages.

Footnote 62:

First printed at Lyons in 1498.

Footnote 63:

Since the above was written I have good reasons for concluding that the fact is very much understated. I am now employed, as time allows, in forming an Index to my various notes and references to Emblem writers and their works: the Index so far made comprises the letters A, B, C, D (very prolific letters indeed), and they present 330 writers and translators, and above 900 editions.