The Invention of the Emblem Book and the Transmission of Knowledge, ca. 1510–1610

Karl Enenkel is Professor of Medieval Latin and Neo-Latin at the University of Münster. Previously he was Professor of Neo-Latin at the University of Leiden. He has published widely on international humanism, early modern culture, paratexts, literary genres 1300–1600, Neo-Latin emblems, word and image relationships, and the history of scholarship and science.

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