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    A Century of Emblems
    A Century of Emblems
    A Century of Emblems
    Ebook169 pages55 minutes

    A Century of Emblems

    By G. S. Cautley

    ()

    Read preview
    LanguageEnglish
    PublisherArchive Classics
    Release dateNov 26, 2013
    A Century of Emblems

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      Book preview

      A Century of Emblems - G. S. Cautley

      The Project Gutenberg EBook of A Century of Emblems, by G. S. Cautley

      This eBook is for the use of anyone anywhere at no cost and with

      almost no restrictions whatsoever. You may copy it, give it away or

      re-use it under the terms of the Project Gutenberg License included

      with this eBook or online at www.gutenberg.net

      Title: A Century of Emblems

      Author: G. S. Cautley

      Release Date: October 6, 2011 [EBook #37648]

      Language: English

      *** START OF THIS PROJECT GUTENBERG EBOOK A CENTURY OF EMBLEMS ***

      Produced by Chris Curnow, David E. Brown and the Online

      Distributed Proofreading Team at http://www.pgdp.net (This

      file was produced from images generously made available

      by The Internet Archive)

      A CENTURY OF EMBLEMS

      Printed by R. & R. Clark, Edinburgh.

      A

      Century of Emblems

      BY

      G. S. CAUTLEY

      VICAR OF NETTLEDEN,

      AUTHOR OF 'THE AFTERGLOW,' AND 'THE THREE FOUNTAINS.'

      WITH ILLUSTRATIONS

      By the Lady Marian Alford, Rear-Admiral Lord W. Compton,

      Venble. Lord A. Compton, R. Barnes, J. D. Cooper,

      and the Author

      London

      MACMILLAN AND COMPANY

      1878

      To the Memory

      OF

      CHARLES DOUGLAS,

      MARQUIS OF NORTHAMPTON,

      THIS LITTLE BOOK,

      MAINLY DUE IN ITS PRESENT FORM TO

      HIS GENEROSITY AND COUNSEL,

      IS DEDICATED,

      IN ALL GRATEFUL AND TENDER RECOLLECTION

      BY

      THE AUTHOR.

      PREFACE.

      This small volume is the latest of above three thousand[1] of a similar kind, which, under the general title of Books of Emblems have followed in the wake of the Libellus Emblematum,[2] a work, much resembling a child's primer in outward appearance, published at Augsburg in A.D. 1532, and composed by Andrea Alciati, a famous lawyer, antiquary, and litterateur of Milan.

      This book consisted of nearly a hundred Latin Epigrams, some original, some translated or paraphrased from the Greek, and each accompanied by a rude woodcut illustration. Alciati was the first author who gave the name of Emblem to this form of expressing his ideas: and the notion for so doing was suggested by the original meaning of the word Emblem, which signifies anything inserted. The Greeks and Romans used to insert small pictures or bas-reliefs in the sides of vases, drinking-cups, and various other utensils: these little works of art were called Emblems: they were sometimes accompanied by mottoes or verses, and often made removable at pleasure, so that they formed no necessary part of the article which they adorned.

      Alciati, therefore, considering that the illustrations formed no necessary portion of his book, and that they were only inserted, as he says himself, to make his moral and philosophical teaching more attractive, gave to his collection of poems and pictures the name of Book of Emblems.

      This idea took greatly with the public of his day, and for upwards of two hundred years afterwards, and generated a class of books now reckoned among the fossils of literature, which may be dug out of ancient libraries, or procured by chance here and there through the agency of those useful purveyors, the publishers of Catalogues of second-hand works.

      Now Emblem books have had their day, and are no longer regarded as a means of instruction or delight. They have done their duty as ornamental wits and lively educators, and now make way for others more suited to the age. There will be found very few theological teachers of our day who would, like Sebastian Stockhamer,[3] not only advise a patron to have the Emblems of Alciati always at hand at home and abroad, but suggest that he should do as Alexander did with the works of Homer, sleep with them under his pillow.

      He, therefore, who ventures to put forth his own conceits, clothed in this old-fashioned dress, before the present world of critical thinkers and impatient novel readers, must apologise for his intrusion and crave indulgence. Some, perhaps, who may look into these pages, will sympathise with the Author in the pleasure he has enjoyed in following the footsteps of the ingenious Emblematists of old, and will accept the subjoined Emblem as an illustration of their common feeling upon the subject:—

      Though the new be gold, some love the old.

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