Shakespeare and the Emblem Writers

Section IV Emblem Works and Editions Between A.D. 1564 and A.D. 1616.

IN the year at which this Section begins, Shakespeare was born, and for a whole century the Emblem tide never ebbed. There was an uninterrupted succession of new writers and of new editions. Many eminent names have appeared in the past, and names as eminent will adorn the future.

The fifty years which remain to the period comprised within the limits of this Sketch of Emblem Literature we divide into two portions of twenty-five years each: 1st, up to 1590, when Shakespeare had fairly entered on his dramatic career; and 2nd, from 1590 to 1615, when, according to Steevens (edition 1785, vol. i. p. 354), his labours had ended with The Twelfth Night, or, What You Will. As far as actual correspondences between Shakespeare and the Emblem Writers demand, our Sketch might finish with 1610, or even earlier: for some time will of necessity intervene, after a work has been issued, before it will modify the thoughts of others, or enter into the phrases which they employ. However, there is nothing very incongruous in making this Sketch and the last of Shakespeare’s dramas terminate with the same date.

I.—In 1564, at Rome, in 4to, the distinguished Latinist, Gabriel Faerno’s Fables were first printed, 100 in number;—it was three years after his death. The plates are from designs which Titian is said to have drawn. Our English Whitney adopts several of Faerno’s Fables among his Emblems, and on this authority we class them with books of Emblems. From time to time, as late as to 1796, new editions and translations of the Fables have been issued. A copy in the Free Library, Manchester, “Romæ Vincentius Luchinus, 1565,” bears the title, Fabvlae Centvm ex antiqvis avctoribvs delectae, et a Gabriele Faerno, Cremonensi carminibvs explicatae.

Virgil Solis, a native of Nuremberg, where he was born in 1514, and where he died in 1570; and Jost Amman, who was born at Zurich in 1539, but passed his life at Nuremberg, and died there in 1591, were both artists of high repute, and contributed to the illustration of Emblem-works. The former, between 1560 and 1568, produced 125 New Figures for the New Testament, and An Artistic little Book of Animals; and the latter, from 1564 to 1586, contributed very largely to books of Biblical Figures, of “Animals,” of “Genealogies,” of “Heraldry,” and of the Habits and Costumes of All Ranks of the Clergy of the Roman Church, and of Women of every “Condition, profession, and age,” throughout the nations of Europe.

From the press of Christopher Plantin, of Antwerp, there issued nearly fifty editions of Emblem-books between 1564 and 1590. Of these, one of the earliest was, “Emblemata cvm aliqvot Nvmmis antiqvis,”—Emblems with some ancient Coins,—4to, 1564, by the Hungarian, John Sambucus, born at Tornau in 1531. A French version, Les Emblemes de Jehan Sambucus, issued from the same press in 1567. Among Emblematists, none bears a fairer name as “physician, antiquary, and poet.” According to De Bry’s Icones, pt. iii., ed. 1598, pp. 76–83, he obtained the patronage of two emperors, Maximilian II. and Rudolph II., under whom he held the offices of counsellor of state and historian of the empire. To him also belonged the rare honour of having his work commented on by one of the great heroes of Christendom, Don John of Austria, in 1572.

Les Songes drolatiqves de Pantagrvel, by Rabelais, appeared at Paris in 1565, but its emblematical character has been doubted. Not so, however, the ten editions of the “Emblemata” of Hadrian Junius, a celebrated Dutch physician, of which the first edition appeared in 1565, and justly claims to be “the most elegant which the presses of Plantin had produced at this period.”

We may now begin to chronicle a considerable number of works and editions of Emblems by Italian writers, which, to avoid prolixity and yet to point out, we present in a tabulated form, giving only the earliest editions:—

Pittoni’s	Imprese di diversi principi, duchi, &c.	sm.fol.	Venice	1566 k.[61]
Troiano’s	Discorsi delli triomfi, giostre, &c.	4to	Monica	1568 k.
Rime	Rime de gli Academici occvlti, &c.	4to	Brescia	1568 k.
Farra’s	Settenario dell’ humana riduttione	...	...	1571 v.
Dolce’s	Le prime imprese del conte Orlando	4to	Venice	1572 v.
”	Dialogo	8vo	Venice	1575 k.
Contile’s	Ragionamento—sopra la proprieta delle Imprese, &c.	Fol.	Pavia	1574 k.
Fiorino’s	Opera nuova, &c.	4to	Lyons	1577 k.
Palazza’s	I Discorsi—Imprese, &c.	8vo	Bologna	1577 k.
Caburacci’s	Trattato,—dove si dimostra il vero e novo modo di fare le Imprese.	4to	Bologna	1580 k.
Guazzo’s	Dialoghi piacevoli	4to	Venice	1585 k.
Camilli’s	Imprese—co i discorsi, et con le figure	4to	Venice	1586 k.
Cimolotti’s	Il superbi	4to	Pavia	1587 k.
Fabrici’s	Delle allusioni, imprese & emblemi sopra la vita, &c., di Gregorio XIII.	4to	Roma	1588 k.
Rinaldi’s	Il mostruosissimo	8vo	Ferrara	1588 k.
Porro’s	Il primo libro	4to	Milano	1589 k.
Pezzi’s	La Vigna del Signore—Sacramenti, Paradiso, Limbo, &c.	4to	Venetia	1589 t.
Bargagli’s	Dell’ Imprese	4to	Venetia	1589 v.

So, briefly, in the order of time, may we name several of the French, Latin, and German Emblem-writers of this period, together with the Spanish and English:—

French.
Grevin’s	Emblemes d’Adrian La Jeune	16mo	Anvers	1568 v.
Vander Noot’s	Theatre... les inconueniens et miseres qui suiuent les mondains et vicieux, &c.	8vo	Londres	1568 v.
De Montenay’s	Emblêmes ou devises chrestiennes	4to	Lyon	1571 k.
Chartier’s	Les Blasons de vertu par vertu	4to	Aureliæ	1574 v.
Droyn’s[62]	La Grand nef des fols du monde	fol.	à Lyon	1579 c.
Goulart’s	Les Vrais Pourtraits des Hommes illustres.	4to	Genue	1581 k.
Verdier’s	Les images des anciens dieux (par V. Cartari).	4to	Lyon	1581 v.
Anjou	La joyeuse et magnif. entrée de Mons. Françoys, duc de Brabant, Anjou, &c., en ville d’Anvers.	fol.	à Anvers	1582 k.
L’Anglois	Discours des hierog. égyptiens, emblêmes, &c.	4to	Paris	1583 k.
Messin	Emblêmes latins de J.J. Boissard, avec l’interpretation françoise.	4to	Metis	1588 c.

Of these works, Vander Noot’s was translated into English, says Brunet, (v. c. 1072,) by Henry Bynneman, 1569, and is remarkable for containing (see Ath. Cantab. ii. p. 258) certain poems, termed sonnets, and epigrams, which Spenser wrote before his sixteenth year. Mademoiselle Georgette de Montenay was a French lady of noble birth, and dedicated her 100 Emblems “to the very illustrious and virtuous Princesse, Madame Jane D’Albret, Queen of Navarre.” Chartier, a painter and engraver, flourished about 1574; L’Anglois is not mentioned in the Hieroglyphics of Dr. Leemans, nor do I find any notice of Messin.

Latin.
Schopperus	Πανοπλία, omnium illiberalium mechanicarum, &c.	8vo	Francof	1568 v.
”	De omnibus illiberalibus sive mechanicis artibus.	8vo	Francof	1574 t.
Arias Montanus	Humanæ salutis monumenta, &c.	4to	Antverpiæ	1572 k.
Sanctius	Commentaria in A. Alciati Emblemata.	8vo	Lugduni	1573 k.
Furmerus	De rerum usu et abusu	4to	Antverpiæ	1575 t.
Lonicer, Ph.	Insignia sacræ Cæsareæ, maj. &c.	4to	Francof	1579 k.
Estienne, Henri	Anthologia gnomica	8vo	Francof	1579 k.
Freitag	Mythologia ethica	4to	Antverpiæ	1579 t.
Microcosm	Μικροκοσμος, parvus mundus, &c.	4to	...	1579 v.
ΜΙΚΡΟΚΟΣΜΟΣ	Parvus Mundus	4to	Antverpiæ	1592 k.
Beza	Icones—accedunt emblemata	4to	Genevæ	1581 c.
Hesius, G.	Emblemata sacra	4to	Francof	1581 v.
Reusner	Emblemata—partim ethica et physica, &c.	4to	Francof	1581 k.
”	Aureolorum Emblem. liber singularis.	8vo	Argentor	1591 t.
Lonicer, J.A.	Venatus et Aucupium Iconibus artif.	4to	Francof	1582 c.
Moherman	Apologi Creaturarum	4to	Antverpiæ	1584 t.
Emblemata	Emblemata Evangelica ad XII. signa, &c.	fol.	...	1585 k.
Bol.	Emblemata Evang. ad. XII. Signa cœlestia.	4to	Francof	1585 v.
Hortinus	Icones operum, &c.	4to	Romæ	1585 k.
Modius	Liber—ordinis Ecclesiastici origo, &c.	8vo	Francof	1585 t.
”	Pandectæ triumphales, &c.	fol.	Francof	1586 k.
Fraunce	Insignium, Armorum, Emblematum, Hierogl., &c.	4to	Londini	1588 t.
Zuingerus	Icones aliquot clarorum Virorum, &c.	8vo	Basileæ	1589 t.
Cælius (S.S.)	Emblemata Sacra	8vo	Romæ	1589 v.
Hortinus	Emblemata Sacra	4to	Trajecti	1589 v.
Camerarius	Symbolorum et Emblematum, &c.	4to	Norimberg	1590 k.

Arias Montanus, born in Estremadura in 1527, was one of the very eminent scholars of Spain; Furmerus, a Frieslander, flourished during the latter half of the sixteenth century, and his work was translated into Dutch by Coörnhert in 1585; Henri Estienne, one of the celebrated printers of that name, was born in Paris in 1528, and died at Lyons in 1598; a list of his works, many of them of high scholarship, occupies eight pages in Brunet’s Manuel du Libraire. The name of Beza is of similar renown;—both Etienne and he had to seek safety from persecution; and when Etienne’s effigy was being burnt, he pleasantly said “that he had never felt so cold as on the day when he was burning.” Laurence Haechtanus was the author of the Parvus Mundus, 1579, which Gerardt de Jode den liefhebbers der consten, the lover of art, has so admirably adorned. Nicolas Reusner was a man of extensive learning, to whom the emperor Rudolph II. decreed the poetic crown. Francis Modius was a Fleming, a learned jurisconsult and Latinist, who died at Aire in Artois, in 1597, at the age of sixty-one; Theodore Zuinger was a celebrated physician of Bâle; and Joachim Camerarius, born at Nuremberg in 1534, also a celebrated physician, one of the first to form a botanical garden, “attained high reputation in his profession, and was consulted for princes and persons of rank throughout Germany.”

An edition of a work reputed to be emblematic belongs to this period—to 1587; it is the Physiologist, by S. Epiphanius, to whom allusion has been made at p. 28.

German.
Stimmer	Neue Kunstliche Figuren Biblischen, &c.	4to	Besel	1576 t.
Feyrabend	Stam und Wapenbuch	4to	Franckfurt	1579 k.
Schrot	Wappenbuch	8vo	Munich	1581 k.
Lonicer, J. A.	Stand und Orden der heiligen Römischen Catholischen Kirchen.	4to	Francfurt	1585 v.
Clamorinus	Thurnier-buch	4to	Dresden	1590 k.

Tobias Stimmer was an artist, born at Schaffhausen in 1544, and in conjunction with his younger brother, John Christopher Stimmer, executed part of the woodcuts in the Bible of Basle, 1576 and 1586. The younger brother also prepared the prints for a set of Emblems, Icones Affabræ, published at Strasburg in 1591. Sigismund Feyrabend is a name of great note as a designer, engraver on wood, and bookseller, at Francfort, towards the end of the sixteenth century. Who Martin Schrot was, does not appear from the Biographie Universelle; and Clamorinus may probably be regarded as only the editor of a republication of Rüxner’s Book of Tournaments that was printed in 1530.

Dutch or Flemish.
Van Ghelen	Flemish translation, Navis stultorum.	...	Anvers	1584 v.
Coörnhert	Recht Ghebruyck ende Misbruyck van tydlycke Have.	4to	Leyden	1585 v.
Spanish.
Manuel	El conde Lucanor (apologues & fables).	4to	Sevilla	1575 v.
Boria	Emprese Morales	4to	Praga	1581 k.
Guzman	Triumphas morales (nueuamente corregidos).	8vo	Medina	1587 t.
Horozco	Emblemas Morales	8vo	Segovia	1589 t.

Don Juan Manuel was a descendant of the famous Alphonso V. His work consists of forty-nine little tales, with a moral in verse to each. It is regarded, says the Biog. Univ. vol. xxvi. p. 541, “as the finest monument of Spanish literature in the sixteenth century.” There are earlier editions of Francisco de Guzman’s Moral Triumphs, as at Antwerp in 1557, but the edition above named claims to be more perfect than the others. Horozco y Covaruvias was a native of Toledo, and died in 1608; one of his offices was that of Bishop of Girgenti in Sicily. In 1601 he translated his Emblems into Latin, and printed it under the title of Symbolæ Sacræ.

English.
Bynneman’s	Translation of Vander Noot’s Theatre.	8vo	London	1569 v.
North	The Morall Philosophie of Doni	4to	London	1570 v.
Daniell	The worthy tract of Paulus Jovius, &c.	8vo	London	1585 k.
Whitney	A Choice of Emblemes, &c.	4to	Leyden	1586 k.

Henry Bynneman, whose name is placed before the version of Vander Noot’s Theatre, is not known with any certainty to have been the translator. He was a celebrated printer in London from about 1566 to 1583. Sir Thomas North, to whose translation of Plutarch, Shakespeare was largely indebted, was probably an ancestor of the Lord Keeper of the Great Seal under Charles II. Samuel Daniell enjoyed considerable reputation as a poet, and on Spenser’s death in 1598, was appointed poet-laureate to the Queen. Of Whitney it is known that he was a scholar of Oxford and of Cambridge, and that his name appears on the roll of the university of Leyden. He was a native of Cheshire, and died there in 1601. It may be added that an edition of Barclay’s Ship of Fooles was in 1570 “Imprinted at London in Paules Churchyarde by John Cawood Printer to the Queenes Maiestie.”

Thus, in the period between Shakespeare’s birth and his full entry on his dramatic career, we have named above sixty persons, many of great eminence, who amused their leisure, or indulged their taste, by composing books of Emblems; had we named also the editions of the same authors, within these twenty-five years, they would have amounted to 156, exclusive of many reprints from other authors who wrote Emblems between A.D. 1500 and A.D. 1564.

II.—Shakespeare’s Dramatic Career comprises another period of twenty-five years,—from 1590 to 1615. From the necessity of the case, indeed, few, if any of the Emblem writers and compilers towards the end of the time could be known to him, and any correspondence between them in thoughts or expressions must have been purely accidental. For the completion of our Sketch, however, we proceed to the end of the period we had marked out. And to save space, and, we hope, to avoid tediousness, we will continue the tabulated form adopted in the last Section.

Italian.
Bernardetti	Giornata prima dell’ Imprese	...	...	about 1592 v.
Capaccio	Delle Imprese trattato, in tre libri diviso.	4to	Napoli	1594 k.
Tasso	Discorsi del Poeme	4to	Napoli	1594 k.
Porri	Vaso di verita... dell’ antichristo	4to	Venetia	1597 v.
Dalla Torre	Dialogo	4to	Trivegi	1598 k.
Caputi	La Pompa	4to	Napoli	1599 k.
Zoppio	La Montagna	4to	Bologna	1600 k.
Belloni	Discorso	4to	Padova	1601 k.
Chiocci	Delle imprese, e del vero modo di formarle.	...	...	1601 v.
Pittoni	Imprese di diversi principi, &c. (reprint).	fol.	Venezia	1602 v.
Ripa	Iconologia, &c., Concetti, Emblemi, ed Imprese.	4to	Roma	1603 k.
”	” ” ”	4to	Siena	1613 t.
Vænius	Amorum Emblemata, in Latin, English, and Italian.	obl. 4to	Antverp	1608 k.t.
Glissenti	Discorsi morali... contra il dispiacer del morire, &c.	4to	Venetia	1609 v.

Giulio Cesare Capaccio, besides his Neapolitan History, and one or two other works, is also the author of Il Principe, Venetia, 1620, a treatise on the Emblems of Alciatus, with more than 200 political and moral notices. Torquato Tasso is a name that needs no praise here. Of Alessio Porri I have found no other mention; and I may say the same of Gio. Dalla Torre, of Ottavio Caputi, and of Gio. Belloni. Melchior Zoppio, born in 1544 at Bologna (Biog. Univ. vol. lii. p. 430), was one of the founders of the Academia di Gelati, in his native town. Battisti Pittoni was a painter and engraver, who flourished between 1561 and 1585. The extensive work of Cesare Ripa of Perugia, which has passed through about twenty editions in Italian, Latin, Dutch, Spanish, German, and English, is alphabetically arranged, and treats of nearly 800 different subjects, with about 200 devices. Otho van Veen, or Vænius, belongs to Holland, not to Italy,—and his name appears here simply because his Emblems of Love were translated into Italian. Fabio Glissenti in 1609 introduced into his work (Brunet, iii. c. 256, 7) twenty-four of the plates out of the forty-one which adorned an Italian edition of the Images of Death in 1545.

French.
Desprez	Théatre des animaux... actions de la vie humaine.	4to	Paris	1595 v.
Boissart	Mascarades recueillies, Geyn (J. de) Opera.	4to	...	1597 v.
Emblesmes	Emblesmes sus les Actions—du Segnor Espagnol.	12mo	Mildelbourg	1605 k.
Hymnes	Hymnes des vertus... par belles et délicates figures.	8vo	Lyon	1605 v.
Vænius	Amorum Emblemata (Latin,Italian, and French).	4to	Antverpiæ	1608 v.
Vasseur	Les Devises des Empereurs Romains, &c.	8vo	Paris	1608 t.
”	Les Devises des Rois de France.	...	Paris	1609 v.
Valence	Emblesmes sur les Actions—du Segnor Espagnol.	8vo	...	1608 k.
Rollenhagen	Les Emblemes... mis en vers françois.	4to	Coloniæ	1611 v.
Dinet	Les cinq Livres des Hiéroglyphiques.	4to	Paris	1614 v.
De Bry	Pourtraict de la Cosmographie morale.	4to	Francfort	1614 v.

Robert Boissart, a French engraver (Bryan, p. 90) flourished about 1590, and is said to have resided some time in England. Of Vænius, so well known, there is no occasion to speak here. Jacques de Vasseur was archdeacon of Noyon, celebrated as the birth-place of Calvin, and in 1608 also published another work in French verse, Antithises, ov Contrepointes du Ciel & de la Terre. Desprez and Valence are unknown save by their books of Emblems. Pierre Dinet is very briefly named in Biog. Univ. vol. ii. p. 371; and Rollenhagen and De Bry will be mentioned presently.

Latin.
Callia	Emblemata sacra, e libris Mosis excerpta.	32mo	Heidelbergæ	1591 k.
Borcht	P. Ovidii Nasonis Metamorphoses.	obl.	16mo Antverpiæ	1591 t.
Stimmer	Icones Affabræ	...	Strasburg	1591 v.
Mercerius	Emblemata	4to	Bourges	1592 t.
De Bry	Emblemata nobilitate et vulgo scitu digna.	obl. 4to	Francof	1592 v.
”	Emblemata secularia	4to	”	1593 v.
Freitag	Viridiarium Moralis Phil. per fabulas, &c.	4to	Coloniæ	1594 k.
Taurellius	Emblema physico-ethica, &c.	8vo	Norimbergæ	1595 k.
Boissard	Theatrum vitæ Humanæ	4to	Metz	1596 t.
Franceschino	Hori Apollinis selecta hieroglyphica.	16mo	Romæ	1597 v.
Le Bey de Batilly.	Emb. a J. Boissard delineata, &c.	4to	Francof	1596 t. k.
Altorfinæ	Emb. anniversaria Academiæ Altorfinæ.	4to	Norimbergæ	1597 k.c.t.
David	Virtutis spectaculum	4to	Francof	1597 v.
”	Veridicus christianus	4to	Antverpiæ	1601 t. k.
David	Occasio arrepta, neglecta, &c.	4to	Antverpiæ	1605 c. t.
”	Pancarpium Marianum	8vo	”	1607 t.
”	Messis myrrhæ et aromatum, &c.	8vo	”	1607 v.
”	Paradisus sponsi et sponsæ, &c.	8vo	”	1607 k.
”	Dvodecim Specvla, &c.	8vo	”	1610 t. k.
Sadeler, Æg.	Symbola Divina et Humana Pontif. Imper., &c.	fol.	Prague	1600 k.
”	Symb. Div. et. Hum., &c.;Isagoge Jac. Typotii.	fol.	Francof	1601, 2, 3 k.
Passæus	Metamorphoseωn Ouidianarum typi, &c.	obl.4to	...	1602 t.
Epidigma	Emblematum Philomilæ Thiloniæ Epidigma.	4to	...	1603 v.
Vænius	Horatii Emblemata, imaginibus (ciii.) in æs incisis.	4to	Antuerp	1607 k.
”	Amorvm Emblemata, Figvris æneis incisa.	4to	Antuerpiæ	1608 t. k.
”	Amoris Divini Emblemata	4to	Antuerpiæ	1615 t.
Pignorius	Vetustissimæ tabulæ æneæ sacris Ægyptiorum simulacris cœlatæ explicatio.	4to	Venetia	1605 v.
”	Characteres Ægyptii... per Jo. Th. et Jo. Isr. de Bry.	4to	Francofurti	1608 v.
Sadeler, Æg.	Theatrum morum. Artliche gespräch der Thier met wahren Historien, &c.	4to	Pragæ	1608
Broecmer	Emblemata moralia et œconomica.	4to	Arnhemi	1609 t.
Aleander	Explicatio antiquæ Fabulæ marmoreæ Solis effigie, symbolisque exsculptæ, &c.	4to	Romæ	1611 k.
Rollenhagen	Nvclevs Emblematum selectissimorum.	4to	Coloniæ	1611–13 c. t.
”	” ” ”	4to	Arnhemi	1615 k.
Hillaire	Specvlvm Heroicvm—Homeri—Iliados.	4to	Traject. Bat.	1613 c.
À Bruck	Emblemata moralia et bellica	4to	Argentinæ	1615 v.

Peter Vander Borcht, born at Brussels about A.D. 1540, engraved numerous works, and among them 178 prints for this edition of Ovid. The Stimmers have been mentioned before, p. 90. Jean Mercier, born at Uzès in Languedoc, wrote the Latin version of the Hieroglyphics of Horapollo, Paris, 1548,—but probably it was his son Josias whose Emblems are mentioned under the year 1592, and who dates them from Bruges. Theodore De Bry, born at Liege in 1528 (Bryan, p. 119), carried on the business of an engraver and bookseller in Francfort, where he died in 1598. He was greatly assisted by his sons John Theodore and John Israel. The Procession of the Knights of the Garter in 1566, and that at the Funeral of Sir Philip Sidney, are his workmanship. Nicolas Taurellius was a student, and afterwards professor of Physic and Medicine in the University of Altorf in Franconia. An oration of his appears in the Emblemata Anniversaria of that institution. He was named “the German Philosopher.” Denis le Bey de Batilly appears to have been royal president of the Consistory of Metz. John David, born at Courtray in Flanders, in 1546, entered the Society of the Jesuits, and was rector of the colleges of Courtray, Brussels, and Ghent; he died in 1613. Ægidius Sadeler, known as the Phœnix of engravers, was a native of Antwerp, born in 1570, the nephew and disciple of the two eminent engravers John and Raphael Sadeler. He enjoyed a pension from three successive emperors, Rodolphus II., Matthias, and Ferdinand II. Of Crispin de Passe, born at Utrecht about 1560, Bryan (p. 548) says, “He was a man of letters, and not only industrious to perfect himself in his art, but fond of promoting it.” His works were numerous, and have examples in the Emblem-books of his day. Otho van Veen, of a distinguished family, was born at Leyden in 1556. After a residence of seven years in Italy, he established himself at Antwerp, and had the rare claim to celebrity that Rubens became his disciple. In his Emblem-works the designs were by himself, but the engravings by his brother Gilbert van Veen. (Bryan, p. 853, 4.) Lawrence Pignorius, born at Padua, 1571, and educated at the Jesuits’ school and the university of that city, gained a high reputation by several learned works, and especially by those on Egyptian antiquities. He died of the plague in 1631. The work of Richard Lubbæus Broecmer, is little more than a reprint of one by Bernard Furmer, in 1575, On the Use and Abuse of Wealth. Jerome Aleander, nephew of one of Luther’s stoutest opponents, the Cardinal Aleander, was of considerable literary reputation at Rome, being a member of the society of Humourists, established in that city,—his death was in 1631. According to Oetlinger’s brief notice, Bibliog. Biograph. Univ., Gabriel Rollenhagen, of Magdeburg, was a German schoolmaster, born in 1542, and dying in 1609; his Kernel of Emblems is well illustrated by Crispin de Passe. The same “excellent engraver” adorned The Mirror of Heroes, founded on Homer’s Iliad by “le sieur de la Rivière, Isaac Hillaire.” Both Latin and French verses are appended to the Emblems, and at their end are curious “Epitaphs on the Heroes who fell in the Trojan war,” too late, it is to be feared, to afford any gratification to their immediate friends. To Jacobus à Bruck, surnamed of Angermunde, a town of Brandenberg, there belongs another Emblem-book, Emblemata Politica, Cologne, 1618. In it are briefly demonstrated the duties which belong to princes; it is dedicated “to his most merciful Prince and Lord, the Emperor Matthias I., ‘semper Augusto.’”

German.
De Bry	Emblemata Secvlaria—rhythmis Germanicis, &c.	4to	Francofurti	1596 v.
”	” ” ”	4to	Oppenhemii	1611 t.
Boissard	Shawspiel Menschliches Lebens	4to	Franckf.	1597 v.
Sadeler	Theatrum morum. Artliche gespräch der Thier, &c.	4to	Praga	1608 v.
Dutch or Flemish.
David	Christelücke	4to	Antuerp	1603 k.
Vænius	Zinnebeelden der Wereldtsche Liefde.	4to	Amstel.	1603 v.
À Ganda	Spiegel van de doorluchtige,&c., Vrouwen.	obl. 4to	Amsterod.	1606 t.
”	Emblemata Amatoria Nova	obl. 4to	Lugd. Bat.	1613 k.
Moerman	De Cleyn Werelt... metover schoone Const-platen.	4to	Amstelred.	1608 k.
Ieucht	Den nieuwen Ieucht spieghel... C. de Passe.	obl. 4to	...	1610 t.
Embl. Amat.	Afbeeldinghen, &c.	obl. 4to	Amsterd.	1611 k.
Gulden	Den Gulden Winckel der Konstliev ende Nederlanders Gestoffeert.	4to	Amsterdam	1613 k.
Bellerophon	Bellerophon, of Lust tot Wysheyd.	4to	Amsterdam	1614 k.
Visscher	Sinnepoppen (or Emblem Play) van Roemer Visscher.	12mo	Amsterdam	1614 k.

De Bry, Sadeler, David, and Vænius have been mentioned in page 96. Theocritus à Ganda is known for this work, The Mirror of virtuous Women, for which Jost de Hondt executed the fine copper-plates that accompany it; and also for Emblemata Amatoria Nova, published at Amsterdam in 1608, and at Leyden in 1613. The Little World, by Jan Moerman, is of the same class with Le Microcosme, Lyons, 1562, by Maurice de Sceve; or with “ΜΙΚΡΟΚΟΣΜΟΣ,” Antwerp, 1584 and 1594, and which Sir Wm. Stirling-Maxwell attributes to Henricus Costerius of Antwerp. The New Mirror of Youth, 1610; The Delineations, 1611; The golden Ship of the Art-loving Netherlander finished, 1613; and Bellerophon, or Pleasure of Wisdom, 1614; are all anonymous. Roemer van Visscher, born at Amsterdam in 1547 (Biog. Univ. vol. xlix. p. 276), is of high celebrity as a Dutch poet,—with Spiegel and Coörnhert, he was one of the chief restorers of the Dutch language, and an immediate predecessor of the two illustrious poets of Holland, Cornelius van Hooft and Josse du Vondel.

Spanish.
De Soto	Emblemas Moralizadas	8vo	Madrid	1599 t. k.
Vænius	Amorum emblemata. (Latin and Spanish verses).	4to	Antuerpiæ	1608 v.
”	Amoris divini Emb....hispanicè, &c.	4to	”	1615 t.
Orozco	Emblemas Morales	4to	Madrid	1610 t. k.
Villava	Empresas Espirituales y Morales	4to	Baeça	1613 k.

Hernando de Soto was auditor and comptroller for the King of Spain in his house of Castile. At the end are stanzas of three verses each, in Latin and Spanish on alternate pages, “to our Lady the Virgin.” Don Sebastian de Couarrubias Orozco was chaplain to the King of Spain, schoolmaster and canon of Cuenca, and adviser of the Holy Office. Both Soto and Orozco dedicate their works to Don Francisco Gomez de Sandoual, Duke of Lerma. Juan Francisco de Villava dedicates his first Emblem “to the Holy and General Inquisition of Spain.” Neither of the three names occurs in the Biographies to which I have access.

English.
P. S.	The Heroicall Devises of M. Clavdivs Paradin.	8vo	London	1591 c.
Wyrley	The true use of Armorie, shewed by historic, and plainly proved by example.	4to	London	1592 v.
Willet	Sacrorvm Emblematvm Centvria vna, &c. A Century of Sacred Emblems.	4to	Cambridge	1598 v.
Crosse	Crose his Covert, or a Prosopopœicall Treatise.	MS.		About 1600 c.
Vænius	Amorum Emblemata (Latin, English, and Italian).	4to	Antverpiæ	1608 k. t.
Guillim	A Display of Heraldry	fol.	London	1611 k.
Peacham	Minerva Britanna, or a Garden of Heroical Deuises, &c.	4to	London	1612 c. t. k.
Yates, MS.	The Emblems of Alciatus in English verse.	MS.		About 1610 t.

William Wyrley’s True use of Arms, was reprinted in 1853. In Censura Lit., i. p. 313, Samuel Egerton Brydges gives a pleasing account of the character of Andrew Willet, whom Fuller ranks among England’s worthies (vol. i. p. 238). Of John Crosse himself, nothing is known, but his MS. is certainly not later than Elizabeth’s reign, for the royal arms, at p. 33, are of earlier date than the accession of the Stuarts; and the allusion to the Belgian dames, pp. 2–6, agrees with her times. The work contains 120 shields and devices, and was lent me by my very steadfast friend in Emblem lore, Mr. Corser of Stand. At pp. 10 and 37, it is said,—

“In Troynovant a famous schoole was founde

By famous Citizens; whilome the grounde

Of noble Boone;”—

and

“To traine vp youth in tongues fewe might compare

With Mulcaster, whose fame shall never fade.”

Now it was in 1561 Richard Mulcaster, of King’s College, Cambridge, and of Christchurch, Oxford, was appointed head master of Merchant-Taylor’s School in London, then just founded. (Warton, iii. 282.) Thus it is shown to be very probable that Crosse his Covert may take date not later than A.D. 1600. It may be added that at the end of the MS. the figure of Fortune, or Occasion, on a wheel, is almost a fac-simile from Whitney’s Device, p. 181, which was itself struck from the block (Emb. 121. p. 438) of Plantin’s edition of Alciatus, MDLXXXI. John Guillim’s work on Heraldry passed through five editions previous to that of Capt. John Logan, in 1724; the original folio is one of the book-treasures at Keir. Henry Peacham, M^r. of Artes, as he terms himself, was a native of Leverton in Holland, in the county of Lincoln, and a student under “the right worshipfull Mr. D. Laifeild,” in Trinity College, Cambridge. He has dedicated his work “to the Right High and Mightie Henrie, Eldest Sonne of our Soveraigne Lord the King.”

Singular it is, that except the MS. which belonged to the late Joseph B. Yates, of Liverpool, there is not known to exist any translation into English of the once famous Emblems of Alciatus. That MS. (see Transact. Liverpool L. and P. Society, Nov. 5, 1849) “appears to be of the time of James the First.” The Devices are drawn and coloured, and have considerable resemblance to those in Rapheleng’s edition of Alciatus, 1608. As a specimen we add the translation of Emblem XXXIII. p. 39, “Signa fortium.”

“O Saturn’s birde! what cause doth thee incyte

Upon Aristom’s tombe so highe to sitt?

‘As I all other birds excell in mighte—

So doth Aristom, Lords, in strength and witt.

Let fearful Doves on cowards’ tombs take rest—

We Eagles stoute to stoute men give a crest.’”

How pleasant to feel that this Sketch of Emblem-books and their authors, previous to and during the times of Shakespeare, has been brought to an end. “Vina coronant,” fill a bumper, “let the sparkling glass go round.”

The difficulty really has been to compress. The materials collected were most abundant. From curiously or artistically arranged title pages,—from various dedications,—from devices admirably designed or of wondrous oddity,—and from the countless collateral subjects among which the Emblem writers and their commentators disported themselves, the temptations were so rich to wander off here and there, that it was necessary continually to remember that it was a veritable sketch I was engaged on and not a universal history. I lashed myself therefore to the mast and sailed through a whole sea of syrens, deaf, though they charmed ever so sweetly to make me sing with them of emperors and kings, of popes and cardinals, of the learned and the gay, who appeared to believe that everyone’s literary salvation depended on the contrivance of a device and the interpretation of an emblem.

Had I known where to refer my readers for a general view of my subject, either brief or prolix, I should have spared myself the labour of compiling one. The results are, that, previous to the year 1616, the Emblem Literature of Europe could claim for its own at least 200 authors, not including translators, and that above 770 editions of original texts and of versions had issued from the press.^[63]

If Shakespeare knew nothing of so wide-spread a literature it is very wonderful; and more wondrous far, if knowing, he did not inweave some of the threads into the very texture of his thoughts.

In this Sketch of Emblem writers, it will be perceived, though their names are seldom heard of except among the antiquaries of letters, that, as a class, they were men of deep erudition, of considerable natural power, and of large attainments. To the literature of their age they were as much ornaments as to the literature of our modern times are the works, illustrated or otherwise, with which our hours of leisure are wont to be both amused and instructed. No one who is ignorant of them can possess a full idea of the intellectual treasures of the more cultivated nations of Europe about the period of which the works of Alciatus and of Giovio are the types. We may be learned in its controversies, well read in its ecclesiastical and political history, intimate even with the characters and pursuits of its great statesmen and sovereigns, and strong as well as enlightened in our admiration of its painters, statuaries, poets, and other artistic celebrities, but we are not baptized into its perfect spirit unless we know what entertainment and refreshing there were for men’s minds when serious studies were intermitted and the weighty cares and business of life for a while laid aside.

Take up these Emblem writers as great statesmen and victorious commanders did; read them as did the recluse in his study and the man of the world at his recreation; search into them as some did for good morals suitable to the guidance of their lives, and as others did for snatches of wit and learning fitted to call forth their merriment; and see, amid divers conceits and many quaintnesses, and not a few inanities and vanities, how richly the fancy was indulged, and how freely the play of genius was allowed; and then will you be better prepared to estimate the whole literature of the nations of that busy, stirring time, when authorities were questioned that had reigned unchallenged for centuries, and men’s minds were awakened to all the advantages of learning, and their tastes formed for admiring the continually varying charms of the poet’s song and the artist’s skill.

True; those strange turns of thought, those playings upon mere words, those fanciful dreamings, those huntings up and down of some unfortunate idea through all possible and impossible doublings and windings, are not approved either by a purer taste, or by a better-trained judgment. We have outgrown the customs of those logo-maniacs, or word-worshippers, whom old Ralph Cudworth, in his True Intellectual System of the Universe, p. 67, seems to have had in view, when he affirms, “that they could not make a Rational Discourse of anything, though never so small, but they must stuff it with their Quiddities, Entities, Essences, Hæcceities, and the like.”

But at the revival of literature, when the ancient learning was devoured without being digested, and the modern investigations were not always controlled by sound discretion,—when the child was as a giant, and the giant disported himself in fantastic gambols,—we must not wonder that compositions, both prose and poetic, were perpetrated which receive unhesitatingly from the higher criticism the sentence of condemnation. But in condemning let not the folly be committed of despising and undervaluing. We may devotedly love our more advanced civilization, our finer sensibilities, and our juster estimate of what true taste for the beautiful demands, and yet we may accord to our leaders and fathers in learning and refinement the no unworthy commendation, that, with their means and in their day, they gave a mighty onward movement to those literary pursuits and pleasures in which the powers of the fancy heighten the glow of our joy, and the resources of accurate knowledge bestow an abiding worth upon our intellectual labours.