20 



in 1613) the Device or Imprese of each contributor was given 

 in the form of an engraving. 



" The original definition of an emblem has been already 

 given. ' It is not essential/ says Petra Sancta, ' that one em- 

 blem should contain many figures, (although Lucas Contile 

 is of a different opinion,) seeing that we have the authority of 

 Alciatus, who composed several of one figure only, which were 

 not deficient either in beauty or in moral/ With regard to 

 the subject matter of the Emblem, it is said by early writers 

 to be threefold — historical, physical, and moral ; an unlimited 

 field, however, seems open to the writer — in history, in the fic- 

 tions of the poets — in apologues, hieroglyphics, and the quali- 

 ties and virtues of the whole animate and inanimate creation. 

 Latin verse was the usual vehicle employed ; but some poets 

 and scholars of eminence have written Emblems in their ver- 

 nacular tongue. The poetry should be of the epigrammatic 

 class ; it ought to correspond with the figure, and to be of 

 such extent as concisely to elucidate the meaning of the 

 figure.* 



" ' No person/ says an eloquent but enthusiastic professor 

 at Heidelburg, ' is capable of producing a good Emblem but 

 one thoroughly imbued with profound learning. To unravel 

 the intricacies of the law, or to arrest the attacks of disease 

 and death, it is requisite that the lawyer or the physician 

 apply himself to a prescribed routine of legal or of medical 

 study. But in the composition of a good Emblem every sort 

 of information must be brought into use ; the functions and 

 properties of man, of animals, and of plants, must be under- 

 stood; the occult operations of nature must be developed. 

 In this work a high and fertile genius must be exercised — 

 first, for the conception of the images, and then for gracefully 

 and learnedly illustrating the same in language. A single 

 word misplaced, or figure wrongly arranged, might mar the 



* Petra Sancta — De Symbolis Heroicis Antverpiae, 1634. 4to., p. 160. 



