This study reexamines the invention of the emblem book and discusses the novel textual and pictorial means that applied to the task of transmitting knowledge. It offers a fresh analysis of Alciato’s Emblematum liber, focusing on his poetics of the emblem, and on how he actually construed emblems. It demonstrates that the “father of emblematics” had vernacular forebears, most importantly Johann von Schwarzenberg who composed two illustrated emblem books between 1510 and 1520.

The study sheds light on the early development of the Latin emblem book 1531–1610, with special emphasis on the invention of the emblematic commentary, on natural history, and on advanced methods of conveying emblematic knowledge, from Junius to Vaenius.

Table of Contents:
Acknowledgements Preface List of Illustrations PART 1: Alciato 1 The Emblematization of Nature, and the Poetics of Alciato’s Epigrams  1 Introduction  2 Curiosities of Natural History  3 Ekphrases of Works of Art  4 Animal Poems, Drawn from the Greek Anthology, and the Aesopean Tradition  5 Emblematic Constructions Based on Ovid’s Metamorphoses  6 The Description of Character Types through the Emblematization of Animals  7 In Conclusion PART 2: Vernacular Forerunners of Alciato’s Emblematum Liber 2 A Manuscript Emblem Book before Alciato: Johann von Schwarzenberg’s Mirror of Religious Virtue (Memorial der Tugent, ca. 1510–1512)  1 Introduction  2 Schwarzenberg’s Ideas about the Combination of Text and Image – Congruences with the Emblematum Liber  3 The Dichotomous Structure of Schwarzenberg’s Emblems: Res significantes and res significatae  4 Variations of the Dichotomous Structure  5 A Catholic Emblem Book  6 In Conclusion: The Transmission of Knowledge in Schwarzenberg’s Emblematic Constructions 3 A Printed Emblem Book before Alciato: Johann von Schwarzenberg’s Emblematization of Cicero’s De officiis as a Mirror of Political Virtue  1 A Printed Emblem Book before Alciato’s Emblematum Liber  2 The Genesis of the Emblematic De officiis  3 The Transformation of De officiis into an Emblematic and Christian Mirror of Princes  4 Emblematic Means for the Philosophical Education of Laymen: Proverbs, Similes, Moral Conclusions  5 Political Realism – A Kind of Machiavellization of De officiis avant la lettre?  6 Emblems Against Tyranny  7 In Conclusion PART 3: The Emblematic Commentary as a Means of Transmitting Knowledge 4 The Transformation of the Emblem Book into an Encyclopaedia: Stockhamer’s Commentary on Alciato (1551/1556)  1 Introduction: The Impact of a Commentary on the Genre of the Emblem Book  2 Stockhamer’s Commentary on Alciato and His Humanist Learning  3 Stockhamer’s Commentary and the Transmission of Knowledge: The Construction of an Encyclopaedic Compendium  4 The Emblematic Commentary as a Combination of Various Types of Encyclopaedia’s: Natural History, Etymology, Mythology, Grammar, and Collections of Proverbs  5 Conclusion 5 The Game of Emblematic Interpretation and Emblematic Authorship: Hadrianus Junius’ Emblemata (1565)  1 Introduction  2 The Enigmatic Structure of the Emblems, and the Enigma of the Author’s Self-Commentary  3 Potential Models for Junius’ Commentary?  4 The Function of Junius’ Commentary: Authorization of Emblematic Interpretations, Transmission of Emblematic Knowledge, and Collection of Commonplaces  5 The Game of Emblematic Interpretation and Emblematic Authorship PART 4: Advanced Emblematic Transmission of Knowledge 6 Early Modern Zoology as a Mirror of Princes: Joachim Camerarius’ Quadrupedes (1595)  1 Introduction  2 The Structure of Camerarius’ Emblem Books: What is the Status of the “Commentary”?  3 The Transmission of Knowledge in the Book on the Quadrupeds: Zoology and Political Education  4 Camerarius’ Emblems and University Education  5 The Printed Emblem Book and the Manuscript  6 The Emblematic Construction of a “Plinian” Animal: The Rhino  7 Curious Animal Behaviour: The Leopard’s Trick as a Political Lesson  8 The Zoological and Emblematic Construction of an Animal without Pliny: The Opossum of the New World  9 The Zoological and Emblematic Construction of an Animal without Written Sources: The ‘Suhak’ (Saiga)  10 Conclusion 7 The Transmission of Knowledge via Pictorial Figurations: Vaenius’ Emblemata Horatiana (1607) as a Manual of Ethics  1 Introduction  2 The Emblemata Horatiana: A Mirror of Princes? A Neostoic Manifesto?  3 The Pictorial Transmission of Typically ‘Horatian’ Ethics: The Use of Personifications, Mnemonic Landscapes, and Geometrical Figurations  4 Personifications, Dichotomous Constructions and Moments of Decision  5 Horace’s Aurea mediocritas: Geometrical Figurations, Mnemonic Landscapes and Middle Positions  6 Vaenius’ Personifications: The Rhetoric of Living Images  7 The Transmission of Proverbial Wisdom: Scenes of Everyday Life, Paintings within Paintings, and Other Figurations Bibliography Index Nominum