11 



artists and scholars, but also by amateurs, who thus contrived 

 to occupy vacant hours, and minister rational delight to their 

 friends.* It is not certain however that the appellation of 

 Emblems was always attached to such MS. works. Indeed it 

 would appear from the preface (ad Lectorem) to the Lyons 

 edition, 1548, of Alciato's Emblems, that this eminent man 

 was the first lastingly to confer that distinctive title upon this 

 class of literary productions. 



"When the splendid discoveries of copper and wood en- 

 graving were superadded to that of printing, a noble and 

 expanded field was opened to the diffusion of Emblematic 

 writing ; yet sometime elapsed before advantage was fully 

 taken of them. At length a host of literati and engravers 

 became engaged in these fascinating publications. During 

 nearly the whole of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries 

 men of the most profound learning, and artists of the greatest 

 skill in the use of the burin, were found successively to exer- 

 cise their powers in the production of them. Of these it shall 

 be the object of the present essay to give a brief account, 

 which, although very imperfect, may perhaps meet with indul- 

 gence and excite some interest, as being the first attempt of 

 the kind ever made. Whilst the acquisition of these beauti- 

 ful and edifying volumes has never ceased to be an object with 

 the bibliographer and the man of letters, and whilst their 

 moral tendency has been acknowledged on all hands, it is 

 astonishing that no comprehensive history has yet appeared of 

 their origin, progress, and decline. The agreeable prolusions, 

 indeed, of Dr. Dibdin, in his Decameron,^ give a desultory 

 and partial sketch of the bibliographical part of the subject, 

 and of the style of art observed in some of the publications 



• In the Crevenna Library was a MS. upon vellum of the fifteenth century, 

 entitled " Emblemes Satiriques et moraux, avec leurs explications en vers Francois," 4to., 

 83 leaves. The recto of each leaf was occupied by a beautiful miniature, and the 

 other side by the explanation in eight verses. — Vide Crevenna Catalogue, No. 5319. 



A MS. collection in the possession of the writer will be noticed hereafter. 



+ Vol 1. p. 255 and seq. 



