VMs: German Emblem Books

[Wdimitr@xxxxxxx]

I thought that the following resource might interest at least a few people on 
this list. 

Rgds,

Bill Dimitroff


...

"Emblem books can possibly be looked upon as the multi-medial publications of 
the 17th and 18th centuries. They are books that link together three 
constitutive elements â a motto, a woodcut or engraving and an explanatory poem. A 
single book may have any number of emblems, ranging from just ten to almost 
1,500. An emblem is more than the sum of its parts, because the interplay between 
text and image produces a greater meaning than any of the individual components 
can provide. Emblems were often thought to be hieroglyphs, riddles or even 
mysterious messages containing secrets. They drew on such diverse sources as the 
Bible, Classical antiquity, fables, mythology, science and medicine, and they 
reflected movements and events such as the Reformation and the Thirty Yearsâ 
War. Their interpretation and understanding relied on the wit, knowledge and 
ability of the reader to combine clues in the text and image to produce 
meaning. During the time of their original use, they were read and viewed widely by 
both the educated and uneducated classes of European society. Today, research 
in emblems is highly interdisciplinary, attracting scholars of Latin, history, 
art history, and the European vernacular languages. This unusually rich form 
of combined artistic and literary expression also appeals to religious 
scholars, philosophers, and historians of science and education."

...

DIMTI: German Emblem Books

http://images.library.uiuc.edu/projects/emblems/

The University of Illinois has amassed the largest collection of emblem
books in the United States, and beginning in 1998 it embarked on a rather
ambitious project to digitize a number of fine titles for public access via
the web. As the website notes, "Emblem books can possibly be looked upon as
the multi-medial publications of the 17th and 18th centuries." These books
link together three elements: a motto, a woodcut or engraving, and an
explanatory poem. The rather intriguing interplay between these respective
parts is complemented by the wide array of source material these works draw
upon for their inspiration, such as fables, mythology, and the Bible.
Currently, users can browse through fourteen different titles such as the
Emblemata Politica (created by Peter Isselburg in 1617) and the Mundi lapis
Lydius (created by Antoine Bourgogne in the 16th century). Each page of
these respective works has been digitally scanned, and along with high
resolution viewing, visitors can obtain detailed page descriptions as well.
The site is rounded out with a nice section that provides visitors with
information about emblems and offers some publications that have been
produced during the development of the project. [KMG]


>From The Scout Report, Copyright Internet Scout Project 1994-2003.
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