16 



Device or Tmpresa, the Motto, the Livree, &c, were severally 

 defined, distinguished, and described — not always indeed with 

 the best success ; for the very nature of the subject gives un- 

 bounded scope to the imagination, which, not content with 

 using and combining all things existing in heaven and earth, 

 ' bodies forth and turns to shape' all the airy nothings which 

 form the subject of the poet's dreams. 



" Those who are desirous of proceeding far in the study of 

 symbolic composition, or of knowing the almost incredible 

 extent to which that study was carried during the sixteenth 

 and seventeenth centuries, would do well to consult the work 

 of Menestrier, a learned Jesuit of Lyons, called Philosophia 

 Imaginum, first pubbshed in French in the year 1682, and 

 afterwards in Latin A.r>. 1695. The author, in a copious 

 preface, analyses the treatises of nearly two hundred writers 

 (mostly Italian) who had preceded him in this department of 

 literature. Hereafter we may have occasion to refer to the 

 ample collection of symbols which constitute the larger part of 

 this laborious volume. 



** There is one class of devices which it would not be proper 

 wholly to pass over, namely, the distinguishing Marks or De- 

 vices which were adopted by the early printers — at first, in all 

 probabibty, as a matter of taste or fancy, but afterwards with 

 a view to prevent the pirating and forging of bterary produc- 

 tions, a practice which soon became very common. Such, 

 among others, were the impudent forgeries by the Lyonese 

 printers of the Principes Editiones of the Greek and Eoman 

 Classics, edited with so much labour and expense by Aldus of 

 Venice. Specimens of these ' old printers' marks' have been 

 sedulously sought after by modern collectors. Their value 

 (generally speaking) is not derived from any particular appro- 

 priateness in the designs, but they are often curious and 

 beautiful, especially those which were employed by the early 

 Parisian printers. 



" In the treatment of these subjects it may readily be ima- 



