Emblemata

Emblemata

by
Andrea Alciato
Translated by Paul Summers Young

2026
Black Letter Press
257 pp
Hardcover - second edition, bound in Fedrigoni Imitlin, Ribbon marker and headbands, hotfoil on the front and spine, blind debossing on the back
New

Alciato was a jurist and writer, born in Milan in 1492, he is the founder of the school of legal humanists, but his most famous work remains the Emblemata, first published in 1531. This emblem book combines Latin verses with accompanying woodcuts creating a new genre that reached enormous popularity.

Starting as a companion to Adagia by Erasmus of Rotterdam the book became archetypal of a new way of relating art and literature through the glass of Iconography.

This edition follows the 1534 Emblematum Libellus, published in Paris by Weichel, being the first authorized version by Alciato himself. All the 113 illustrations are presented with great care in full details together with a new complete translation by Paul Summers Young.