Emblem Book of Andrea Alciati with Fore Edge Painting 1583. 

Size: 6 3/16 x 4 x 2 3/8 in. 

This emblem book was written by Andrea Alciati and published in  Frankfurt in 1583, thirty-three years after his death. Initially published by Heinrich Steyner in February 1531 under the title Viri Clarissimi D. Andreae Alciati Iurisconsultiss, which means The Most Illustrious Man, Andreae Alciati, Jurisconsult, the first printed edition was not authorized by Alciati. Instead, Steyner compiled the first edition in Augsburg from a manuscript of Latin poems written by Alciati, the 1531 edition was soon followed by a 1534 edition authorized by Alciati and published in Paris by Christian Wechel, it was printed in various editions after 1550, with versions appearing in Latin, French, Italian, and Spanish, and many of Alciati’s emblems are found in English in Whitney’s Choice  of Emblems (1586), published just three years after this edition.  

The first version of Alciati's emblem-book contained 104 emblems without illustrations.  It was Steyner who decided that each emblem should be illustrated, and Steyner then commissioned the engravings from an artist named Jörg Breu. The Emblemata soon grew to include over 200 individual emblems and appeared in numerous editions, and   it sparked a craze for emblems that lasted for more than two centuries 

Traditionally, emblems consisted of three parts: a brief motto in Latin (inscriptio), a symbolic picture (pictura), and a poem or verse to explain the picture (subscriptio). Steyner illustrated the text to increase readership, Alciati’s symbolic poems were meant to be decoded and convey some sort of universal truth about the world, and Steyner’s tripartite design established the genre of emblem literature.  

Alciati (1492 - 1550) was born near Milan and became  known for his emblems, but he was also a legal jurist, especially known for his interpretive work on Roman law; he taught law in both Italy and France and was held in high esteem throughout Europe.  

Alciati dedicated the book to his friend Conrad Peutinger, and it has vellum covers with three sets of horizontal lines on the spine and the three original leather straps at the edges of the spine that hold the book together, A Alciati Emblemata is on the spine, PGBS and 1600 are on the front cover (we don’t know who or what PGBS is), “1600” is probably when the vellum binding was created, there are yapps along the vertical edges of the vellum (the yapps are folds that protect the pages of the book), and there is a fore-edge painting in gilt on the vertical edge of the pages (it is “a gauffered” pattern). It   is dated 1730 in old script on the front paste-down, the title page says the book was published in Francoforti (modern day Frankfurt), it says “Postremo ab autore recognita, vivisq imaginabus artificiosissime illustrata”, which means  “Finally revised by the author, most artistically illustrated with vivid images”, the date 1583 is in Roman numerals at the bottom of the title page, followed by a circular bookplate with 1796 in script on the next page, then a seven-page epistle by Nicolaus Bassaeus dedicated to John Wolfgan from Obernhausen (Bassaeus, 1540 - 1601, was a woodcutter, printer, and publisher active in Frankfurt am Main), a six-page Index of Emblematum, Alciati  and Peutinger are mentioned at the bottom of the last page of the Index (Conradum Peutingerum), then two hand-written pages of Proverbs dated 1605, followed by the first emblem page, and it is printed mainly in Latin. There are 845 pages altogether, from the title page to the signet of Nicolaus Bassaeus at the rear, with 211 emblems, including the 14 in the Arbores (Trees) sequence at the rear as called for (CXCVIII - CCXI). Some emblems don’t have images or pictures because that’s the way the emblem pages were printed by the publisher, there are numerous blank pages to separate the emblems and 83 blank pages with messages hand-written in Latin, Greek, and Hebrew, some messages are quoted from Proverbs, Psalms, and other parts of the Bible, they were  written by different hands, and they ran up to 1622, from what we can tell.  

Frank Mowery, a world renowned bookbinding expert in Venice, Florida, examined the book and told us that there seems to be remnants of an old manuscript under the top right corner of the front paste-down as well.          

The book measures 6 3/16 x 4 x 2 3/8 inches deep and actually is in very good condition for its age - it is nearly 450 years old - we should only look so good in our old age; the three leather straps are still in place on the edges of the spine, the covers lightly soiled with a chip on the front cover where an original tab was used to enclose the book and keep it protected, the title page is somewhat loose and the rest of the pages and binding are still solid and firmly intact, there’s a tear on the edge of a blank page after emblem LVI, a chip on the handwritten page after emblem LX, and a fold on the last free endpaper at the rear.  

Only ten copies from the 1531 edition have survived in libraries, mostly in Germany, with three in the UK and one in the U.S., so early editions are extremely rare. WorldCat shows only two copies of the 1583 Frankfurt edition in Special Collections around the world: one at the University of London Senate House and the other at UCLA at Davis in Calif. 

In July 2024 Sotheby’s London put up a 1531 edition of Alciati’s Emblematum Liber for sale along with a 1521 autographed letter by Alciati, with a pre-estimate of £50,000 to £70,000, and it did not sell, and an Emblemata edition by Alciati published in Frankfurt in 1567 went up for auction as well, but did not sell. A 1583 edition that matches the one we are putting up for auction here is selling for $1800 on the rare book website we use, Alciati's emblemata books have become a cornerstone of Renaissance literature and art, and the opening bid is low to get things started.  

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