In post-medieval Europe, Andrea Alciati's Emblematum liber (1531) was an essential part of the library of nearly every writer and artist. Scholars depended upon it to interpret contemporary art and literature, while artists and writers turned to it to invest their work with an understood didactic sense. Alciati initiated a literary fashion; hundreds of subsequent emblem books followed his prestigious example.
This modern edition of the Emblematum liber provides the original Latin texts, English translations, and the illustrations belonging to each of the 212 emblems. The editor's introduction explains both the historical importance and the cultural contexts of Alciati's emblem book, as well as its innumerable artistic applications. An appendix includes a formerly suppressed emblem, "Adversus Natural Peccantes," along with relevant commentary written by Johann Thuilius in 1612. An extensive bibliography points the student to published scholarly research specifically dealing with the emblems' artistic applications.
This new edition of Alciati's work is an essential tool for modern students of the liberal arts.