Book Description

Excerpt from Moral Emblems: With Aphorisms, Adages, and Proverbs, of All Ages and Nations Although Typification of Moral truths and Doctrines by Symbolical Images and Devices had its origin in remote antiquity, and subsequently became a favourite method of imparting counsel and instruction with the Greeks and Romans, it was not until the middle of the sixteenth century that it began to assume (first in Italy) the character of a distinct kind of literature. Towards the end of that century, the poetic genius of the erudite Andrea Alciati, of Milan, imparted so pleasing an impress to this new style of literature, as to direct thereto the attention of men of letters, with whom it soon became a favourite medium for the diffusion and popularization of moral maxims applicable to all the phases and circumstances of human life. The Emblems of Alciati, written in Latin verse, and eulogized by such men as Erasmus, Julius Scaliger, Toscan, Neander, and Borrichius, were soon translated into the Italian, French, and German languages, and became so highly esteemed, that they were publicly read in the Schools, to teach youth the Art of Emblematic writing. Thus established, as an elegant and useful method of inculcating, both by Word and Eye-pictures, the virtues of civil life; men of learning, poets, and states 0 men, in France, Holland, Germany, Spain, and England, vied with each other, as it were, throughout the seventeenth century, in the cultivation of this branch of Composition, insomuch that it had become a favourite and admired medium for 0 the diffusion of Religious, Social, and Political maxims, and maintained that position in public favour up to the end of the eighteenth century. In the seventeenth century, Printing, and its sister art Engraving, had attained in Holland to a higher grade of perfection than in any other country of Europe; and, favoured by circumstances so auxiliary to the artistic illustration of works in the then not inaptly-termed "Picture Language," the poetic genius of a Jacob Cats found, in the pencils of Jan and Adrian Van De Venne, and the burins of Matham, Pet de Jode, Verstralen, Van Bremden, and others, artistic exponents worthy of his muse, and equal to his most ardent desires. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.