Emblem Books

Emblem books were often used as source material by artists from the sixteenth through the nineteenth centuries.

Overviews and Dictionaries

Heckscher, W. S. and K. Worth, "Emblem, Emblembuch," in O. Schmitt, Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte, 1937-79. Volume 5, 85-228. This article is a book-length survey of the emblem literature of Western Europe. Classed bibliography with references to related sources. N6861.R3 4th floor reading room

Henkel, A., and A. Schone. Emblemata: Hanbuch zur Sinnbildkunst des XVI und XVII Jahrhunderts. Stuttgart, 1967.
A useful dictionary of emblematic subjects classified by type, with many illustrations from original emblem books, and several indices. f N7740.H51 Special Collections Reference

Pratz, M. "Emblems and Insignia, Medieval through Modern West," in Encyclopedia of World Art New York, 1961. Volume IV, col. 724-732. N31.E58 copies in the 4th and 1st floor reading rooms

Praz, M. Studies in Seventeenth-Century Imagery. 2nd ed. Rome, 1964. N7740.P881 4th floor reading room
The basic survey of emblems, accompanied by a bibliography of all emblem books and their various editions known to the author.

 

Early Works--two major sources

Alciati, Andrea, Emblematum liber secundus: qui est eorum quæ nullusdum commentariis illustrauit. Parisiis: Ex Typographia Thomæ Richardi, sub Bibliis aureis è regione collegij. Rhemensis, 1565. Special Collections PA6279.A9 1577. University of Chicago also has a reprint of the 1542 text, PN6349.A34; a reprint of the 1621 edition, PN6349.A36 1621; and an electronic version of the 1551 text.

Ripa, Cesare, Iconologia. Not strickly an emblem book, but an exhaustive catalogue of allegorical figures described with their attributes. The Iconologia was popular in the seventeenth century, and was reprinted in many editions.. The University of Chicago has the 1618 edition (Special Collections N7740.R58); the1709 English edition (Special Collections N7740.R583); a reprint of the 1644 N7740.R585 1644a 4th floor reading room; and several other editions, including an electronic version which is an eighteenth-century adaptation.

Cesare Ripa: Baroque and Rococo Pictorial Imagery. The 1758-60 Hertel edition of Ripa's 'Iconologia.' with an introduction., translations, and 200 commentaries by Edward A. Maser (New York: Dover, 1971), differs markedly from Ripa's own work. It is an English translation of a German edition which greatly altered Ripa's work. Illustrations were chosen from various editions of Iconologia and the long descriptive texts have been eliminated. N7740.R582

To locate other emblem books, try these subject phrases in the "BROWSE" search:

Emblems--early works to 1800
Allegories--early works to 1800
Emblem books
Symbolism--early works to 1800.

 

Bibliographies

Landwehr, Emblem and Fable Books Printed in the Low Countries 1542-1813: A Bibliography. Utrecht, 1988. Z1021.3.L248 1988 3rd floor reading room

Landwehr, French, Italian, Spanish and Portuguese Books of Devices and Emblems, 1534-1827: A Bibliography. Utrecht, 1976. Z1021.3.L25

Landweher, German Emblem Books, 1531-1888, A Bibliography. Utrecht, 1972. Z1021.3.L26