Shakespeare and the Emblem Writers / an exposition of their similarities of throught and expression, preceded by a view of emblem-literature down to A.D. 1616

by Henry Green

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.