Emblematum Libellus

Abstract

This is my first chance to look more carefully into Alciato. This volume itself is one of many good books I found at Wirthwein. I had not known that the Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft had done a reprint of Alciato's book of emblems. 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.