Emblematum Libellus
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Authors
Alciati, Andrea
Issue Date
1980
Volume
Issue
Type
Book, Whole
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Abstract
Here is a newly published version of a book first published by the WBG in 1967. The cover is now yellow cloth instead of tan cloth. The book is slimmer. The reproductions seem sharper. An ISBN has been added, though WBG's own Bestellnummer of 4022-8 remains. Otherwise this edition remains identical with the earlier one. I wrote then about my first chance to look more carefully into Alciato. I seem to read that the original book of his that began the whole emblem movement was published in 1531. Perhaps it was a more modest book than this 1542 edition. Here we have one hundred and fifteen emblems, beginning on 18 and ending on 253. There is no apparent index. A typical pair of pages features on the left, a page number and standard page title (And. Alc. Emblem. Lib.); a short title phrase and emblem number; an image regularly about 2½ x 2¾; and a Latin poem of six or eight lines. The right hand page has a regular page title (Das buechle der verschroten werck.), a German title and emblem number; and a German poem of about eight lines. Fable motifs occur but do not dominate. Emblem XXII is about the blind carrying the lame. Emblem XXXV -- non tibi, sed religioni -- is the fable of the ass carrying a religious image. He thinks that the people are honoring him. Emblem XLVIII shows the fox contemplating a human face and is titled Mentem, non formam plus pollere. Emblem LI shows an ass carrying great food but stopping to eat a thistle. Emblem LIIII presents the beetle that got revenge on the eagle by getting all his eggs broken. Emblem LV presents the captured soldier-trumpeter who claimed -- without success -- that he had hurt no one. Emblem LVIII (misnumbered on the right page as LVII) is 2P. In Emblem LXXXIII, a man aiming his bow at a flying crane is killed by a snake: Qui alta contemplantur cadere. Emblem LXXXIIII, Impossibile, is about washing an Ethiopian white. Emblem LXXXVI has a curious mouse caught by an oyster that has clapped shut around him. In Emblem XCI (misprinted CXI), a goat has to suckle a young wolf and knows that this will not end well.
Description
Citation
Publisher
Christian Wechel/Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft
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Volume
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PubMed ID
DOI
Identifier
10249 (Access ID)