A Choice of Emblemes

Abstract

First published in Leyden in 1586 by Geffrey Whitney. This is the reissue in London in 1866, edited by H. Green. See my 1967 reprint of this reissue. This is a major inventory of emblems, including some 247 emblems and 92 dedications. There are significant essays and notes on the emblems after the inventory Do not overlook the T of C on ix. The first collection of emblems was Andreas Alciati's Emblemata published in Augsburg in 1531. Apparently, some three hundred emblem books were published between 1531 and 1700. On lxxxv one finds Whitney's helpful index of motives, Latin and English. His work is an anthology culled from a number of emblem books. For good examples of both text and image see The Goat and the Wolf Whelp (49) and Anellus' Wife (80). I have been amazed at how many fable motifs and fables show up in this work. In all, I find some fifty-three of these emblems using fables and fable-motifs. See my handwritten notes on them at the back of the 1967 reproduction. Typical non-fables are on 172, where a candle, book, and hour-glass help to warn us to use the time, and on 181, which shows the traits of occasio, which I take to indicate especially opportunity. Horace, Ovid, and Livy seem to be the ancient authors most frequently referred to. The second part (beginning on 105) seems to offer famous Romans as subjects up to 117. After working my way, somewhat laboriously, through the 1967 reproduction, I was pleasantly surprised to find this volume waiting for me at a San Mateo bookfair.