SECTION IV. EMBLEM WORKS AND EDITIONS BETWEEN A.D. 1564 AND A.D. 1616. N 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, Fabulae Centum ex antiquis auctoribus delectae, et a Gabriele Faerno, Cremonensi carminibus 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 Fehan 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 drolatiques 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.* Troiano's Discorsi delli triomfi, giostre, &c. 4to Monica. 1568 k. ... 4to Venice 8vo Venice. 1575 k. Fol. Pavia 1574 k. The works to which a k is appended are all in the very choice and yet most extensive collection of Emblem-books at Keir, made by the Author of The Cloister Life of Charles V., Sir William Stirling Maxwell, Bart. ; c, in the Library formed by the Rev. Thomas Corser, Rector of Stand, near Manchester; 7, in that of Henry Yates Thompson, Esq., of Thingwall, near Liverpool. I have had the opportunity, most kindly given, of examining very many of the Emblem-works at Keir, and nearly all of those at Stand and Thingwall. The three collections contained at the time of my examination of them 934, 204, and 248 volumes, in the whole 1386 volumes. Deducting duplicates, the number of distinct editions in the three libraries is above 900. Where I have placed a v, it denotes that the sources of information are various, but those sources I possess the means of verifying. I name these things that it may be seen I have not lightly nor idly undertaken the sketch which I present in these pages. Camilli's.. Imprese-co i discorsi, et con le figure 4to Venice. 1586 k. Delle allusioni, imprese & emblemi Il mostruosissimo Porro's. Il primo libro 8vo Ferrara. 1588 k. 4to Milano. 1589 k. Pezzi's . La Vigna del Signore-Sacramenti, 4to Venetia. 1589 t. 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 De Montenay's Emblêmes ou devises chrestiennes . Chartier's . Droyn's* 16mo Anvers. 1568 v. 8vo Londres. 1568 v. 4to 4to Lyon. 1571 k. Les images des anciens dieux (par 4to Lyon 1581 v. La joyeuse et magnif. entrée de L'Anglois . . Discours des hierog. égyptiens, em fol. à Anvers 1582 k. blêmes, &c. Emblêmes latins de J. J. Boissard, 4to Metis 1588 c. avec l'interpretation françoise. 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 * First printed at Lyons in 1498. ? 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. Пavorλla, omnium illiberalium 8vo Francof. . . 1568 v. mechanicarum, &c. |