Whitney, 1586.
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,—