Joannes Sambucus and the Learned Image - The Use of the Emblem in Late-Renaissance Humanism

The emblem is one of the most remarkable literary inventions of Renaissance humanism. The symbolic imagery presented in these Neo-Latin emblem books constituted an important influence on many areas in early modern literature and art. This volume provides the first comprehensive study of Sambucus' influential "Emblemata (first published by Christopher Plantin, Antwerp, 1564). It reconstructs the cultural-historical contexts in which it was produced, thus reconsidering the social and commercial functions of the humanist emblem. Accompanied by a detailed analysis of individual emblems, it takes into account the emblems' classical intertextuality and the relationship between word and image. This study shows how the emblematic practice can differ from contemporary symbol and emblem theories, which have often coloured modern interpretations of the genre.

About the author

Arnoud S.Q. Visser, Ph.D. (2003), Leiden University, is a Leverhulme fellow in the School of Classics, University of St Andrews. He has published on Renaissance emblems and edited, together with Karl Enenkel, Mundus Emblematicus. Studies in Neo-Latin Emblem Books (2003).

Product details

• Authors: Arnoud Visser
• Publisher: Brill
• Languages: English, Latin, Ancient Greek
• Product format: Hardback
• Released: 03.12.2004
• EAN: 9789004138667
• ISBN: 978-90-04-13866-7
• No. of pages: 328
• Dimensions: 166 mm x 246 mm x 26 mm
• Weight: 712 g
• Series: Brill's Studies in Intellectua
• Subjects: Humanities, art, music > Art > Interior design, design; Social sciences, law, business > Social sciences (general)