In nocte consilium studies in emblematics in honor of Pedro F. Campa 9783873204461

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SAECVLA

SPIRITALIA

ΠΝ re von Dieter ἘΠ Herausgegeben

IN NOCTE Studies in Emblematics

WuttkeΤΡ

CONSILIUM in Honor

of Pedro

F. Campa

Edited by John T. Cull and Peter M. Daly

Band 46

2011

2011 VERLAG

VALENTIN

KOERNER

- BADEN

- BADEN

VERLAG

VALENTIN

KOERNER

- BADEN

- BADEN

Cull, John T. / Peter M. Daly (Hrsg): In nocte consilium. Studies in Emblematics in Honor of Pedro F. Campa Edited by John T. Cull and Peter M.Daly. — Baden-Baden : Koerner, 2011 (Saecvla spiritalia ; Bd 46) ISBN 978-3-87320-446-1

Einbandgestaltung von Klaus D. Christof (Kitzingen) unter Verwendung des Emblems

47, Centuria III, Seite 247 aus Sebastian de Covarrubias

Emblemas morales

Horozco,

(Madrid 1610).

Gestaltung des Reihensignets von Jürgen Schulze (Gôttingen) nach dem Verlegerzeichen des Christoph Plantin in Antwerpen.

Pedro F. Alle Rechte vorbehalten © 2011

Printed in Germany

Campa

CONTENTS Preface

by Joho 1. Cull'and

HISPANIC Emblems

Peter, M. Daly necessite ARR

EMBLEMS

AND

in the Palace Plays of Calderon

IGNACIO

ARPLEANE

ss

LITERATURE

(The Symbolic

rai

Bestiary)

ss

n

An Emblematic Reading of a Regal Epistolary Exchange: Philip IV’s Letters to Sister Maria De Agreda, in the Light of Saavedra Fajardo

JOSÉ AZANZA

LOPEZ

ie 29: dune

RSR

EE

ane

Latin Authors in the Emblemas Morales of Juan de Horozco CHRISTIAN BOLIZY τες mr Cd Venus in Taurus: Epic and

The

A. DBR

pant one

15

EE

43

a

agent 87

Emblematic Astrology

in Lope de Vega’s Las almenas de Toro PREDERICK

MASE

rE

ia

cain ok

on

Heart of the King in Baltasar Gracian

ΑΠΒΟΒΑ

CLG

τ

11

νον

e

γος ἐν ETT

Zo

109

125

The Whore of Babylon: Tradition and Iconography of an Apocalyptic Motif in the Service of Modern

JOSE

TULIG

GARCIA

ARRANZ

Religious Polemics

ratioai

153

Clarifications and New Data on the Works of Juan de Horozco

RAFAEL

y Covarrubias

AIR A SERRE rime Midi orne

BIBLIOGRAPHY

AND

EMBLEM

181

THEORY

How Many Printed Emblem Books Were There? And How Many Printed Emblems Does That Represent?

PÉTER

NADIA

ee

ει

ρος

215

The Emblem Theory and Practice of Bohuslav Balbin, S.J. aes iss ssuyrcszveseay sopnensascawarahossntntsavoncessitncssasanesssornsstavtaadee Ὁ TRIES CANE ΚΟΝΈΟΝΥ

Multiple Glances at the Mundus Symbolicus by Filippo Picinelli. A Bibliographical Approach

APPENDIX

LEE CES AE PS RE à PC

239

BARBARA SKINFILL NOGAL sem

A Bibliography of the Publications of Pedro F. Campa NOÉ

EMBLEMS,

EMBLEMATIC

IMAGES, AND

NUMISMATICS

Sixteenth-Century Romayne Heads: Engravings by Virgil Solis Copied on Four Panels in the Victoria and Albert Museum

ἘΞ SANI S INEO

ΜΙΦΗΛΈΤ,

SO

VAE

rase

LORS

PRET

ne

AIO TR

A

OT,

487 .....sssesssseseseeseseeseees 493

aan PRE

αὐ.

σα

497

Β 850: ΟΦ, 507

ET

nn Ra OE

Veritas filia Dei. The Iconography of Truth Between Two Cultural Horizons

in the /thica hieropoloitica BERNAT

ANTONIO

|

VISTARINI

and TAMAS

'

SAJO

wcceeseecesseeesneees 291

Pilgrimage with the Redeemer in the Womb: St. Francis de Sales’s 1610 Meditation on the Biblical Mystery of the Visitation JOSEPH F. CHORPENNING, OSFS. ne Imagery for

a New

323

Country: The Posters of the Oui-Side

in the 1995 Quebec Referendum Campaign senenenntess 341 siemens BERNARD DESCHAMPS Aspects of the Fig Tree and its Fruit in Emblematics

RAFAEL

GARCIA

MAHIQUES

................................................................. 373

The Urban Emblems of Daniel Meisner. The Image of the City as a Treasury of Knowledge (1700) VICTOR MINGUEZ and INMACULADA RODRIGUEZ

.................. 395

The Fervent Heart: Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s Herzbiicher (Books of the Heart) SABINE

MODERSHEIM

o.eccsctccccssasssossssaccassococsncsesssssesevassnersnercenesnasonavasnces? 429

Kenny Meadows and the Emblematic Designs for Shakespeare’s Cymbeline in Robert Tyas’s ,,Shakspere for the People” Project (1839-43)

ALAN RR. YOUNG

νει λβναμλσεοα 461

It is a source of considerable pleasure to the editors of this Festschrift

that the majority of contributions come from colleagues in Spanish studies, but also that some Emblem

of the essays were

earlier presented

Sessions at Kalamazoo, which would

as papers

in the

never have come about with-

out the initiative and energy of Pedro F. Campa. Professor Cull and I wish to thank Tobias Koerner for helping to make this publication possible, and we also thank Professor Dieter Wuttke for accepting the work into his prestigious series Saecvla Spiritalia.

Articles originally submitted in Spanish have been translated into English by

John T. Cull with the collaboration of the authors.

PREFACE

Pedro

Campa

received

his first degrees

from

from Florida State University in 1964, and M.A.

Florida

(A.B cum

laude

from the same institution in

1966) and his Ph.D, from the University of Illinois, Urbana-Champaign in

1973 with a dissertation entitled “Lo medieval en la teoria literaria del Siglo de Oro” [Medieval Aspects of Golden Age Literary Theory]. During a long career at the University of Tennessee at Chattanooga

Pedro has shown dedicated service to his colleagues and university governance.

In addition to membership of grievance committees, he has been President of his university's Faculty Senate, Pedro is a bibliophile with an impressive personal library, an avid reader, and an emblem scholar. He is also something of a polyglot, fluent in English, French, Italian, and Spanish, with a good speaking ability in

Brazilian, Portuguese,

and Romanian,

and a reading knowledge

of German,

Greek, Latin, and Russian. An avid hoarder of information in the tradition of a Renaissance scholar in his studiolo, Pedro has collected an impressiv e

wealth of published knowledge, especially in the field of emblem studies. All these things came together when he decided to fill an important /acuna, a bibliography of Hispanic emblem literature. His Emblemata Hispanica. An Annotated Bibliography of Spanish Emblem Literature to the Year 1 700,

published by Duke University Press in 1990, was years in the making. It is now recognised the world over as the definitive bibliographic account of

Hispanic emblem literature. Then he published in 2001, along with a list of

the inevitable errors and omissions, a significant addenda

in Emblematica

11

(2001): 327-376. It is probably no exaggeration to say that Pedro is the best

known

scholar of Hispanic emblems

both inside and outside of Spain. His

fellow emblem scholars also appreciate Pedro for his collegiality, generosity, and mentorship. He has also assisted the editors of the journal Emblematica from the beginning, not only reading submissions, but contributing articles and

reviews himself. Pedro is one of the last renaissance men.

A man of many parts, he not

only has admirable and varied linguistic abilities, he is a good cook, under-

stands animals, and has the proverbial green thumb: his orchids are a joy to see, and an even greater joy to receive.

He may have made a name for himself with his contributions to the study of Hispanic emblems, but his interests go far beyond emblems, emblem theory, and the emblematic imagination. Pedro is currently writing among other things a book on icons, and he is interested in antiques, coins, and numismatics. Peter Daly first met Pedro Campa in May of 1980 at a meeting of the Medieval Congress at the University of Western Michigan in Kalamazoo, Michigan. Pedro had seen a copy of Daly's Literature in the Light of the Emblem, which had been published the previous year by the University of Toronto Press and he had spoken with the late Prudence Tracy, an editor with the University of Toronto Press. Pedro arranged a meeting, and soon afterwards Campa and Daly started organizing regular meetings called “Emblem Sessions” at the Kalamazoo venue. In fact Pedro was a participant at the discussions between European and North American emblem scholars who met at Kalamazoo to discuss the possibility of launching a regular Newsletter and a new journal. Emblem studies have had a regular place in the program of the Medieval Conference at Western Michigan University for well over twenty years, and over one hundred scholars from both sides of the Atlantic have presented papers there, many of which were published later in prestigious journals or books,

Pedro also accepted invitations to take part in some of the small conferences organized at McGill University in Montreal, in addition to attending many of the three-yearly conferences of the Society for Emblem Studies, and the regular Emblem Sessions at Kalamazoo. We hope that you, Pedro, will take pleasure in the variety of essays represented in this festschrift. The authors join the two editors in wishing you all the very best.

John T. Cull

College of the Holy Cross,

Worcester, Massachusetts

Peter M. Daly

McGill University, Montreal, Canada

HISPANIC EMBLEMS AND LITERATURE

Emblems in the Palace Plays of Calderén (The Symbolic Bestiary) IGNACIO

ARELLANO

Universidad de Navarra Abstract

This study of the emblematic bestiary in Calderén de la Barca’s spectacle

plays examines the presence of emblematic expression based on animal motifs in these works, and the ingenious and witty manner in which Calderon utilizes it in order to expand the moralizing possibilities. At the same time, it explores diverse ways in which these images are inserted into the text, from isolated

instances

that are often

lexicalized,

to complex

meanings

that are

integrated into the global structure of a drama, from those instances related to the universe of courtly preoccupations and values (such as heraldic materials)

to

parodic

and

playful

explorations.

What

stands

out

is the

dramatist’s tendency to elaborate images from the emblematic bestiary in forms that combine mental and verbal witticism, and his application of the

symbolic motifs to determined situations that establish ingenious correspondences (witticisms of proportion, similitude, or discordance, in Gracian’s terms).

I have previously dedicated some studies! to diverse emblematic aspects in Calderôn

de la Barca, which added

to the contributions of critics such as

Ledda, Cull, and others.2 On this occasion I would like to consider those

dramatic pieces written for representation at the royal palace, which Valbuena included under the heading of comedias novelescas y dramas mitoldgicos [novelesque comedies and mythological dramas].* The proliferation of emblematic elements, whether at the level of simple verbal reference, or actual emblematic representation on stage, would

require a lengthy study, the dimensions of which exceed the limits of what is possible here. Rodriguez de la Flor,4 among others, has pointed out the wealth of emblematic aspects of this sort in Baroque drama: 1 See Arellano, 2000, 2002. 2 See Ledda, 2004; Cull, 1992, 1993, Escudero, 2004; Trambaioli, 1997.

1994,

2000a,

2000b;

Bouzy,

1999;

Egido,

1991;

3 All quotations from Calderon cite page number only, and unless otherwise specified, proceed from Valbuena’s editions of the Complete Works, the full bibliographical reference for which is found in the list of works cited. Exceptions will identify the specific edition utilized. 4 See Rodriguez de la Flor, 1995, pp. 75-76.

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

16

Arellano: Emblems in the Palace Plays of Calderon

que El titulo préximo a la concision del lema o motto; la escenografia, do concebi texto, propio utiliza objetos a modo de simbolos; y por Ultimo el como

In this realm,

en hacen del teatro barroco un auténtico emblema vivo y puesto en accion, propia la de el que no faltaban temas, imagenes, sentencias y glosas sacadas tradiciôn emblematica. a stage the text elements emblem images,

observed in La fiera, el rayo y la piedra (The Beast, the Lightning Bolt and the

Stone, p. 1633), when Anaxarete

the majority of instances it would be superfluous to search for the concrete resources of inspiration. For that reason I will use as my reference those emblempertories that were most common, and which allow us to certify the of atic qualities of Calderén’s dramatic representations, with no pretense prove trying to establish genetic dependencies that are extremely difficult to that passages and s example the with illustrate to hope definitively. What I on. expressi artistic of type the re, follow is the general atmosphe the There are cettain emblematic categories that are common to both manifest which , ambition and power of courtly dramatic festival and dramas court, political preoccupations that connect especially with the universe of the tations interpre codified ly political whether or not one chooses to accept the that have at times been proposed for these pieces by Calderon.® s dramas, which 5 See Arellano, 2004, for a general review of the bestiary in Calderén’

theater, and complements the current study. My earlier article hardly considered courtly section brief a in except bestiary, the of in particular, it did not deal with symbolic aspects

ation In the to which I refer the interested reader for more details relating to represent in the animals of e importanc the out public playhouses, or corrales. Garcia Arranz points convery tes demonstra particular in book his 41-42; pp. 1996, emblematic repertories,

|

i

a

are es 6 See, among other fundamental studies, those of Neumeister, which those plays only consider to necessary not is It 2000. 1976, r, Neumeiste this topic, are strictly ,,à clef”

on

events

at court

and

specific political circumstances

horse, ate

to come to her rescue (p. 1694: ,,un caballo que del monte / desbocado se

eas, etc., in turn were frequently reiterated in centos, commentaries, polyanth

|

the horse, or the disobedient

despefia / con una mujer” [a horse that hurls itself headlong from a mountain, with a woman]). Princess Aminta is therefore indebted as a result of Lidoro’s act of kindness and the episode is woven into a plot of gallantry without exploring the moral symbolism of the image. The exact same model is

I will limit myself at present, and with all due modesty, to the symbolic future bestiary,> as part of an initial approach that 1 hope to complete on occasions. As I have indicated elsewhere, given the enormous extension of emblemthat in atic motifs in Calderén, often inspired by classical or biblical sources

vincingly the significant symbolic role of birds.

fall from

particularly salient images, reiterated constantly in this corpus.’? We must point out that this motif (generally described by a witness who related an action that allegedly occurs off stage, although its actual representation onstage is not unheard of) offers two modalities, only one of which is emblematic. A first variety exploits the possibilities of spectacle, and endows with a certain lustre the protagonist, almost always the savior of a damsel in distress or of some powerful individual at risk from the the wild charge of the animal. In Amado y aborrecido (Loved and Loathed) Aminta’s furious horse throws her headlong, thus giving occasion to the leading man, Lidoro,

s, una suerte de desarrollo o declaracién de los anteriores elemento

[Titles that imitate the concision of the motto of lemma; decoration that utilizes objects in a symbolic fashion; and finally, itself, conceived of as a kind of development or commentary on the already mentioned, make Baroque drama into an authentic living placed into motion, and where there is no shortage of themes, sentences and glosses taken from the emblematic tradition itself.]

the

17

that

in order to

audience than understand that these kinds of themes ate mote appropriate to a courtly

is thrown

from her mount, but is caught

safely in the arms of Pygmalion. Nevertheless, in this case we perceive a greater degree of symbolism, since the pride and harshness of Anaxarete (suggested by the violence of her horse) lead to her perdition. The second variety is the one that is properly emblematic, in which the horse expresses the blind instincts or passions of the individuals who are thrown. Unbridled horses of this sort can be found in Alciato, Covarrubias

Horozco® among others. This variety also features two distinct to date, in which the horse symbolizes the their riders; and another in which, without or passion-induced blindness, nevertheless

modalities: the one most studied moral condition and character of specifically identifying their pride expresses the ever-turning move-

ment of the wheel of fortune, which ‘overthrows’ the victims of the literal

fall, thereby linking the theme of the horse to another essential protagonist of the Calderonian symbolic universe, unstable Fortune, an agent of dis-

illusionment. In Los tres mayores prodigios (The Three Greatest Prodigies) it is Pasiphaé herself who is described by Lidoro as a horse overthrown by its irrational instincts, enamoured of a bull:

they are to the groundlings of the public playhouses.

7 For Valbuena ,,uno de los simbolos mas eficaces y distintivos del arte de este drama-

turgo” ([One of the most effective and distinctive symbols of the art of this dramatist], p. 105). Valbuena reviews some examples, especially the most famous one of Rosaura from

La vida es sueño (Life is a Dream), underscoring the symbolic sense, but as I have noted,

this kind of symbolism is not always enacted onstage. Valbuena Briones, 1977. 8 See Bernat and Cull, 1999, nos. 260, 261, 266. I offer more examples of these horses in the theater of Calderôn in Arellano, 2002.

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

18

y asi ciega ntregada a su apetito se desboca y se despena

[

desenfrenada y resuelta Irracional amor digo,

es sus entrañas revienta

dio toro y medio hombre monstruo (p. 1564) [and thus blind, yielding to her appetite, she falls unbridled and headlong {3 uncontrolled and resolute (2)

irrational love I say,

since from its its entrails bursts a half-bull, half-man, a monstet|

Later on in the same play (p. 1573) Theseus offers a horse to Ariadne and Phaidra so that they may flee from their father, an act which 15 interpreted by Ariadne in its symbolic sense: ,,pasiones / arrastradas de un caballo / sen qué poder sera décil?” [passions hauled along by a horse, under whose control will it be docile?]. Immediately, enraged by jealousy upon seeing that Theseus opts to carry Phaidra away with him, Ariadne curses them as they flee, wishing that the horse will throw them off. Without specifically developing the identification of the uncontrollable horse with passions, the description pertains without doubt to that emotive realm that encompasses all the characters in this part of the play, and it is Ariadne herself who projects her jealousy and desire for vengeance onto the image of the horse: Oh, a los dioses ruego, bruto

que con plantas tan veloces te vas alejando, que con algun pefiasco choques desbocado, y que perdiendo el atributo de noble quede en ti mas poderoso

Arellano: Emblems in the Palace Plays of Calderén

19

el resabio que lo décil.

Ni el freno obedezcas, ni

la espuela sientas inmoble ... (p. 1574) [Oh, I beseech the gods, you beast who flees with such rapid strides so very far away, that you crash into some crag unbridled, and that losing ‘your attribute of nobility, and that vicious habit has more power over you than docility. May you not obey the bridle, nor feel the spur, immovable ...] Calderôn displays a tendency towards the ingenious enrichment of a given motif, developing a series of witticisms of either discordance or proportion (in the terminology of the Jesuit Gracian),’ introducing original details into the dramatic and poetic structure of his works. Thus in Fieras

afemina amor (Love Makes Beasts Effeminate, ed. Wilson, p. 143) Iole falls

headlong, thrown by an unbridled horse amorous passion and of vengeance (see case it is Cupid himself who saves her, help to overthrow Heracles. The word witty play on the thematic elaboration:

that symbolizes the violences of the pp. 144-145), but in this particular because he is hoping that she will play underscores the paradoxical

No temas, Yole, que Amor,

aunque a otras despefia, a ti porque en su triunfo te empefies hara que no te despefies.

[Do not fear, Iole, for Love,

although it overthrows others, for you so that you may undertake its triumph, it will see that you are not overthrown.|

In El hijo del Sol, Faetén (The Son of the Sun, Phaeton, p. 1901) the sym-

bolism is quite apparent, since it corresponds to the same moral sense of the fable, just as can be seen in Alciato, emblem 56. The unbridled, wild horses manifest the rash pride of young Phaeton, unable to control them. 9 See Graciän, Agudeza y arte de ingenio.

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

20

In some plays the unbridled horse does not symbolize the irrationality of an individual so much as it does different cases of Fortune. Duelos de

amor y lealtad (Afflictions of Love and Loyalty, pp. 1460, 1471) opens with the fall of General

Toante,

thrown

by

his horse,

which

emblematizes

the

fall

from fortune, and the condition of servitude that will be imposed upon him,

,esclavo, cautivo y preso” [slave, captive and prisoner]. Something similar

happens to the Sultan of Εἰ conde Lucanor (Count Lucanor, pp. 1958-1959),

whose unbridled horse penetrates into the center of a wild labyrinth! that precipitates his fall at the end of the play, when he finds himself vanquished and a prisoner of Lucanor. From a theatrical point of view, some cases of falls that are visible onstage ate noteworthy: the most eye-catching is without doubt the instance

from Hado y divisa de Leonido y Marfisa (Fate and Device of Leonido and

Marfisa, p. 2099), with Leonido enters:

its exceptional

staging of the unbridled

horse.

atmado de todas armas, a caballo, cuyos movimiento se ejecutaron con

tal primor que la atencién engañada estaba temiéndole el despefio segun lo desbocado del bruto y lo fragoso del terreno [...] Se vio despeñar con tan propio precipicio que se volvié en lastima la admiracion ... [wearing all his armour, on horseback, whose movements were executed with such skill that the attention of the viewers was distracted, fearing that he would be thrown off due to the beast’s unbridled nature and the unevennes of the terrain (...) The spectators saw him hurled off the horse with such convincing precipitation that their admiration turned into pity ...] Another of Calderon’s favorite animals (and of Spanish Golden Age poets in general) is the fabled phoenix,'' an emblem of uniqueness, of resurrection and of immortality. There are, of course, some very conventional mentions of the phoenix to wish someone a long life (,, Vivas los años, sefiora, / de aquel pajaro de Arabia,” Duelos de amor y lealtad, (May

you live, madam, / as many years as that bird of Arabia, Afflictions of Love

and Loyaltÿ, p. 1474), but there are other, more elaborate evocations from the point of view of wit, in which the phoenix inspires witticisms of similitude (Graciän) along with other word plays. In the play that I have just mentioned, the sun itself is compared to the phoenix, in an invocation to the god Apollo that is based on contrapositions and paradoxes: 10 For the emblem of the labyrinth, see Henkel-Schéne, 1976, cols. 1200-1202. 11 On the phoenix see Valeriano, Hieroglyphica, book XX, p. 144; Horapolo, Hieroglyphica, p. 224. See also Henkel-Schône, 1976, cols. 795-96. Garcia Arranz, 1996, pp.

333-361 gathers numerous emblems and lore dealing with the phoenix.

Arellano: Emblems in the Palace Plays of Calderon

21

Oh, tu, fénix, que en blanda

hoguera de rubi,

si para morir naces

mueres pata vivir. (p. 1497) [Oh you, phoenix, in a gentle bonfire of ruby,

if you are born in order to die, you die in order to live.]

An analogous passage is found in La estatua de Prometeo (The Statue of

Prometheus, pp. 2076-2077), where a similar musical composition is glossed: No temas, no, descender, bellisimo rosicler,

que si en todo es de sentir que nazca para morir, tu mueres para nacer [...]}

No temas, no, pues adquiere nueva luz la luz que yace y tanto a todas prefiere que muere de la que nace y nace de la que muere. [Do not fear descending, no,

beautiful rosy tint of dawn, for if everything is to be rued about being born in order to die, you die in order to be born (...) Do not fear, no, since the light

lying in its grave acquires new light, and is so superior to all others that it dies from that which is being born, and is born of that which dies.] The phoenix also serves as a term of comparison for offenses wrought (Fineza contra fineza, |Kindness Against Kindness], p. 2104) and for misfortunes that keep multiplying and engendering themselves one from

another, like the phoenix or the heads of the hydra,!* with whom it is com-

pared in La puente de Mantible (The Bridge of Mantible, p. 1878):

12 In order to express love, whose fire is never extingished, Heredia uses the emblem of

22

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

que fabricé su tarea de su sustancia hilo a hilo. Pues siendo asi que a un gusano somos hoy tan parecidos que con nuestro propio afan en esos muros de Tiro

Hidras las desdichas son; mil nacen donde una muere, y en parecerse a si mismas

son ya las desdichas fénix. [Misfortunes are hydras;

nuestras carceles labramos,

a thousand are born where one dies, and in all looking identical to one another,

misfortunes are already the phoenix. ]

In this play Guido calls himself a ,,fénix de amor” [phoenix of love], p.

1883) because he dies and is reborn from his own lover’s ashes, since fire is

a well-known symbol of love. An ingenious comparison with the phoenix is established in the description of the death of Hercules (Los tres mayores prodigios, [The Three

Greatest Prodigies|, p. 1589, ,,fénix sera de su fama” [He will be a phoenix of

his fame]), who throws himself on the pyre in order to free himself from the poison of the tunic of Nessus: consumed in the flames of the bonfire, like the phoenix, he will be reborn from the ashes of the fame of his labors. Another

image

of rebirth

Arellano: Emblems in the Palace Plays of Calderén

is that of the silkworm,'3

an emblem

that

Césdroas will develop in minute detail in Duelos de amor y lealtad (Afflictions of Love and Loyalty, p. 1481) in order to incite the prisoners forced to con-

struct a fortress—to rebel and emerge from their captivity and servitude, as

the butterfly emerges from its cocoon: obligados

os hallais a reduciros a duradera prision

en tan penoso ejercicio como el gusano de seda,

e labrando de si mismo la carcel, muere encerrado en el hilado capillo Hercules and the hydra; see Bernat and Cull, 1999, no. 807. Another emblematic hydra is found in an emblem by the same author, no. 812. There are also hydras in Alciato, and

Picinelli (ΕἸ mundo simbélico. Serpientes y animales venenosos, pp. 1106).

13 For abundant documentation on emblems with the silkworm. see Picinelli, Εἰ mundo

simbélico. Serpientes y animales venenosos, pp. 247-268. Picinelli comments on examples

from Bargagli, Bovio, Marino, Caussin, Rancati, and others. Horozco Covarrubias, Pérez,

Covarrubias Horozco, Rojas offer diverse emblems of the silkworm from Spanish em-

blematics, with varying meanings of interest for the examples from Calderon. Bernat and

Cull, 1999, nos. 763, 764, 765, 766, 767, 768, 1599.

seamoslo en romper altivos de tan violenta prision las cadenas y los grillos. El gno renace con alas de si propio tan distinto que al que se encerrò gusano salir mariposa vimos? Pues spor qué, por qué nosotros con mas razon, mas instinto

no habremos de cobrar alas? [you are obligated to reduce yourselves to enduring prison

in such a painful exercise, like the silkworm,

who, creating from itself its prison, dies enclosed in the threaded hood that its labor produced from its own substance, thread by thread. Thus, being that we are today so similar to a worm,

that with our own eagerness within those walls of Tyre

we fashion our own cells,

let us also be similar in proudly breaking he chains and fetters of such a violent prison. Is he not reborn with wings of his own making, so distinct that he who entombed himself as a worm we saw emerge as a butterfly? Well then, why, why should we,

23

24

Hispanic Emblems and Literature endowed with more reason, more instinct,

not also acquire wings?]

The silkworm—that spins from its own substance the cocoon in which it dies—is Apollo, when he defends forgetfulness when confronted with love, and is rejected by Daphne, who decides to pursue the proposed

forgetfulness to the detriment of Apollo himself: ,,gusano de seda he sido, /

yo me he labrado mi muerte” [I have been a silkworm, / I have fabricated

my own death], (ΕἸ laurel de Apolo, Apollo’s Laurel, p. 1756); he is also a silk-

worm in terms of Falerina’s secrets, which die inside his breast like the worm

in its cocoon (El jardin de Falerina, {Falerina’s Garden], p. 1895), an image similar to one found in E/ conde Lucanor (Count Lucanor, p. 1987) and applied to Rosimunda. Cybele, after all, is like the silk worm in engendering Antheus from her own substance, without any father other than her mesmo

ardid” [own wiles] (,,como gusano que hila / su mesma vida de si, /

a ti te engendré”

[like the worm

that spins / its own life from itself, ἐᾷ

engendered you] Fieras afemina amor {Love Makes Beasts Effeminate|, Wilson

ed., p. 150). | In the courtly milieu the absence of the eagle was not possible, especially since it was the heraldic emblem of the House of Austria. The eagle was Jupiter’s animal and the queen of the birds, the only one able to stare

directly at the sun (La puente de Mantible |The Bridge of Mantible|, p. 1882).

Nor was it possible to be without other especially significant animals, such as the peacock or the pelican, which I will return to below when I deal with the prologue or /oa to Fieras afemina amor. The chameleon,'* which changes color and nourishes itself on the air, is an image of Echo’s face in Eco y Narciso (Echo and Narcissus, p. 1925). With each sigh (‘air’) Echo changes her appearance: porque en cada suspiro, que en efecto son aire, camale6n de amor se muda mi semblante. [because with each sigh

which in effect is air, a chameleon of love,

my face changes.]

Arellano: Emblems in the Palace Plays of Calderén

25

In Celos, aun del aire matan (Jealousy Kills, Even in the Air, Ρ- 1797) the

character Aura (‘ait’) appears in a chariot pulled by two chameleons, as part of a special effect that is visible onstage, and in a later scene (p. 1802) she appears again in one of the upper niches at the back of the stage riding a

salamander: in the play’s plot Aura (to the extent that she is air) tries to stir

up the fire of love; the poetic motif materializes in the plot and staging

when Diana’s temple bursts into flames. Diana, of course, is the enemy of

amorous passions. The salamander, capable of living in fire! or of extinguishing it with its

coldness, is utilized by Dante to refer to Irene and Aminta, who he has managed to save from a fire that these two ,tacionales salamandras”

[rational salamanders]

have

survived

(Amado

y aborrecido,

[Loved

and

Loathed], p. 1706). The butterfly, on the other hand, perishes in the flames, as is depicted in numerous emblems,!6 and becomes, among others, a symbol of the lover who burns in the fire of love, like Cephalus, who ex-

presses his love for Procris:

mariposa yo por ti de amor, no temo la lama por mas que activa

quiera abrasarme (Celos, aun del aire matan, p. 1803) [butterfly

I, out of love for you, do not fear

the flame, no matter how actively it may want to burn me (Jealousy Kills, Even in the Air)|

15 Picinelli, El mundo simbélico. Serpientes y animales venenosos, pp. 358 et alia. 16 Picinelli, El mundo simbélico. Serpientes y animales venenosos, pp. 341 et alia. The

butterfly that burns in the fire is an amorous symbol in Vaenius (Henkel-Schéne, 1976, col. 911) with the motto ,,Brevis et damnosa voluptas” [For a brief pleasure, a thousand pains]; with other meanings but with similar depictions we find the butterfly as well in

Borja, Empresas morales, pp. 66-67, also applicable in this case to love (and to other

situations in which reason is carried away by appetite): ,,el que [...] es llevado por este deseo contra lo que entiende que le conviene puede lo dar a entender con esta empresa

de la mariposa que se quema con la letra Fugienda peto, que quiere decir “Busco lo que huir debria,” porque lo mismo le acontece al que no siguiendo el partido justo de la razon

consiente en la rebelién de los apetitos” [he who is carried away by this desire, contrary

to what he knows is good for him, can be understood with this impresa of the butterfly

14 Picinelli, ΕἸ mundo simbélico. Serpientes y animales venenosos, pp. 275 et alia. In Alciato

it is a symbol of the courtly flatterer.

who is burned in the flames, with the motto Fugienda peto, which means ,,I seek out what

I should flee”, because the same thing happens to he who, by not following the just cause of reason, consents to the rebellion of the appetites].

26

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

Psyche, bogged down in an anxious love, with suspicions and feats, is like a butterfly ,,que apuestas / anda haciendo con sus alas / si se quema o no se quema” [that deliberately probes with its wings / to see whether it burns, or does not burn] (Ni Amor se libra de amor, |Nor Does Love Escape from Love, p. 1959). The meaning of rash and imprudent daring is highlighted in other cases, such as in E/ mayor encanto amor ( The Greatest Enchantment, Love, p. 1530),

where the butterfly is associated with the motif of Icarus!” in order to show the risk run by Ulysses when he embarks on an amorous relationship with the sorceress Circe: Un deseo, jay de mil, tan remontado que os6 con alto vuelo calarse entre las nubes de algun cielo donde al fuego vecino con ligereza suma, abrasada la pluma, subié deseo y mariposa vino. [A desire, oh my!, so lofty that it dared with soaring flight to penetrate the clouds of some heaven where, close to the fire,

with the greatest agility, its plumage burned, it arose as desire, and returned a butterfly.]

The butterfly and the heron (a bird that intuits which falcon is going to kill it)'8 emblematize Claridiana’s situation, between jealousy and her fears that Phoebus will fall in love with Lindabridis: Bien en los campos del viento lo dice la garza, aquella nave de pluma, que haciendo proa el pico, vela el ala, timén la cola, el pie remo, 17 Applied to astrologers, Alciato depicts Icarus fallen from the heavens; similar lessons

condemning the rash and daring can be found in emblems from the books of Corrozet, Reusner and Vaenius (Henkel-Schône, 1976, col. 1617). 18 This image is used by Mencia to express her relationship with Enrique in Εἰ médico de

su honra [The Surgeon of His Honor]. For the heron and its emblems, see Garcia Arranz,

1996, pp. 484-490.

Arellano: Emblems in the Palace Plays of Calderén

27

sulca grave, vuela altiva,

hasta que se pasa al fuego a ser mariposa en él, por vivir otro elemento, pues aunque al paso le salgan mil pajaros bandoleros que son ladrones del aire de ninguno tiene miedo sino de aquel solamente

de quien ha de ser trofeo ... (El castillo de Lindabridis, p. 2064)

[In the fields of the wind the heron says it well, that ship of feathers which, making a bow out of its beak, and a sail of its wing, a rudder of its tail, and an oar of its foot,

ploughs gravely, flies haughtily,

until it arrives at the fire, and becomes a butterfly in it,

having lived another element, for although a thousand thieving birds come to meet it, robbers of the air, she fears none of them,

except only that one whose trophy she will be ...] (The Castle of Lindabridis) The same motif appears in La puente de Mantible (The Bridge of Mantible): Dicen que la garza hermosa, rayo de pluma que herir

se atreve al sol, cuando mira

el halcon noble o bahari que la sigue, reconoce con temor cobarde y vil el pajaro a cuyas manos ha de parar o morir.

Yo, en viendo a este caballero, me turbé, temblé y temi,

porque sin duda ha de ser de tanta garza el nebli. (p. 1856)

28

Arellano: Emblems in the Palace Plays of Calderon

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

29

[They say that the beautiful heron, a lighnting bolt of feather that dares

corresponds to depictions such as those found in Ripa,*! who describes Envy as:

the noble falcon or sparrow-hawk that follows it, recognizes with base and cowardly fear the bird at whose hands it will fall or die. I, on seeing this gentleman,

Mujer delgada, vieja, fea y de livido color. Ha de tener desnudo el pecho izquierdo, mordiéndolo una sierpe [...] la serpiente [...] simboliza el remordimiento que permanentemente desgarra el corazon del envidioso ...

to wound the sun, when it looks at

[A thin woman, old, ugly and of a livid color. Her left breast should be uncovered, being with a serpent biting it (...) the serpent (...) symbolizes the remorse that permanently tears apart the heart of him who is envious ...]

was disturbed, trembled and feared,

because doubtless he will be the goshawk of such a heron.]

Another bird mentioned in an allusion that is somewhat recondite and playful is the crane: according to Brunel, the soldiers have been ,,Con las armas

en la mano,

/ marciales

grullas”

[With

their weapons

in hand,

/

On several occasions the specific reference to the fable”? of the asp sheltered in the bosom is combined with the symbolic value. Alexander reproaches Toante for what he believes to be an act of ungrateful treason in

Duelos de amor y lealtad |Afflictions of Love and Loyalty|: ,,aspid que abriga / aterido entre la hierba / simple seno para que / cobrado al calor le muerda”

[an asp sheltered / cold and stiff in the grass / by the innocent bosom

/

martial cranes] (Auristela y Lisidante, p. 2039). Why this metaphor of the cranes? Because the crane is an image of vigilance and prudence, for it sleeps clutching a stone in its foot, which drops to the ground if it falls asleep, waking it up with the noise. As Garcia Arranz points out:!?

only to bite it after reviving in the warmth], (p. 1500); and even Irifile herself characterizes her jealous thought as ,,doméstico aspid” [a domestic asp] that she herself harboured in her bosom only to poison herself (La fiera, el rayo y

La imagen de la grulla con una piedra alzada fue durante los siglos XVI y XVII uno de los simbolos animalisticos mas conocidos, reproducido con enorme frecuencia en los libros de emblemas ...

ingenious application by means of the witticisms of proportion that establish correspondences with the circumstances of the characters or details of the dramatic plot. The motif of the asp that is deaf to enchantment,” in the same way that

[The image of the crane with a stone held aloft was, during the sixteenth and

seventeenth

centuries,

one

of the best known

animalistic

symbols,

21 Ripa, Iconologia, 1, pp. 341-344. 22 It is the fable by Aesop of the peasant who shelters at his breast the frozen serpent,

Other symbolic animals that proliferate in Calderén’s plays include the varied poisonous serpents (asps, basilisks, hydras and vipers), that protagonize with great abundance the dramas of power and ambition, as well as in the Corpus Christi plays known in Spanish as autos sacramentales.” The venomous asp symbolizes any rabid and blind passion, such as jealousy (Auristela y Lisidante, p. 2033), or envy. In the series of allegorical figures

(Fear, Suspicion, Envy, Wrath) that form part of the staging of La purpura de la rosa (The Royal Purple of the Rose, p. 1775) each one bears emblematic

element

that identifies

it: Envy

carries

an

asp, which

19 See Garcia Arranz, 1996, pp. 437-469 for emblems of the crane. The quotation is

from p. 445. 20 Escudero, 2004.

it appears in emblematic repertories, is found in La puente de Mantible (The

re-

produced with enormous frequency in emblem books ...}

an

la piedra, [The Beast, the Lightning Bolt and the Stone, p. 1614). Note the

only to receive in return the ungrateful bite. See emblem

14 of book IT of Horozco’s

Emblemas morales, whose image depicts a snake half-dead from the cold, rescued by a man who draws near to the fire only to be bitten by the serpent when the heat brings it back to life. The motto is ,/ngratis servire nefas” [It is wrong to serve the ungrateful]. Other similar emblems are found in Sambucus and Reusner: Henkel-Schône, 1976, cols.

637-39.

23 The ability of the asp to close its ears to the song of the enchanter is very well known.

It covers one ear with its tail and presses the other to the ground to make itself deaf. See

Covatrubias, Tesoro de la lengua castellana, 5. v. culebra: ,Y es cosa recebida comünmente cuando los hechiceros quieren encantarla, apretar la una oreja con la tierra y cerrar la otra con la cola por no oir sus palabras segun” describe David, Psal. 55: ‘Sicut aspidis surdae et obturantes aures suas quae non exaudiet vocem incantantium et venefico incantantis sapienter’ [And it is very commonly thought that when bewitchers want to enchant it, the basilisk presses one of its eats against the ground and seals off the other with its tail, in order not to hear their words, as David describes it in Psalm 55.]. As Ripa indicates as well, Jconologta, 1, p. 272, the image is also found in Psalm 57, 5-6: ,,Furor illis secundum

30

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

Bridge of Mantible, p. 1 876), Celos aun del aire matan {Jealousy Kills, Even in the Air, p. 1793] and elsewhere as well. One of Calderén’s favorite images is that of the viper that kills its mother during birth. Characters such as Segismundo (La vida es sueño | Life is

a Dream) ot Semiramis (La hija del aire |The Daughter of the Air|) and other

similar cases, whose births foretell great upheavals and violence, kill their mother while she is giving birth* for which reason they are deemed

»vipers” (Segismundo, for example, as well as many other characters in the theater of Calderén, is called a ,,vibora humana del siglo” [human viper of

the century]). Perseus in Fortunas de Andrémeda y Perseo (Fortunes of Andro-

meda and Perseus, Maestre ed., p. 57), furious with his mother, wishes that Danaé had died upon giving birth to him: ,por qué, ya que pariendo γ

vibora, πὸ reventaste” [Why, since you were giving birth / to a viper, did your sides not burst?]; Clymene is born amidst eclipses and kills her mother during childbirth

,,bien como

vibora

humana”

[just like a human

viper],

Apolo y Climene / Apollo and Clymene, p. 1830), and Anaxarte, characterized

by her hardened nature and rejection of all amorous sentiments, initiates her cruelties by killing her mother, as if to predict her nature: ,,de suerte que racional

/ vibora humana

pudieran

/ decir que

fui” [so that a tational /

human viper they could / say I was], La fiera, el rayo y la piedra / The Beast, the Lighning Bolt and the Stone, p. 1600).

The deadliest of all serpents is the basilisk, a fabled monster with the wings of a bird, the tail of a dragon and the head of a rooster, the product of a rooster egg incubated by a serpent and whose stare and breath could cause

instantaneous death. It is called a basilisk (from basileus, king), king of the serpents, due to the crest that crowns its head Perhaps the most elaborate occurrence in the Calderonian corpus under consideration is that from

Fortunas de Andrémeda y Perseo (Fortunes of Andromeda and Perseus, (Maestte similitudinem serpentis: sicut aspidis surdae, et obturantis aures suas, Quae non exaudiet vocem incantanium: et venefici incantantis sapienter” [Their madness is according to the

likeness of a serpent: like the deaf asp that stoppeth her ears: which will not hear the voice of the charmers; nor of the wizard that charmeth wisely]. Malaxecheverria, 1986, Ρ. 184: [el âspid] tapona perfectamente sus ofdos: oprime uno contra el suelo y en el otro

mete la cola con firmeza para no ofr nada” [the asp covers its ears perfectly: it presses

one against the ground and sticks its tail firmly in the other in order to not heat anything], or pp. 185-86: ,,en cuanto oye la musica |...) obtura una de sus orejas con el

extremo de la cola y frota la otra en tierra” [as soon as it hears music it blocks one of its ears with the tip of its tail and rubs the other against the ground]. 24 This trait is attributed to the viperlings. See, for example Picinelli, E/ mundo simbélico.

Serpientes y animales venenosos, pp. 172-174.

25 This is very frequent in emblem books. For examples of basilisks and other venomous serpents in emblems, see Borja, Empresas morales, p. 352; Villava, Empresas espirituales J morales, ΤΙ, p. 47; Valeriano, Hieroglyphica, fol. 105; Henkel-Schône, 1976, cols. 627-646.

Arellano: Emblems in the Palace Plays of Calderén

31

ed., pp. 79, 129): Medusa, transformed into a fierce bandit, kills all passersby: no pasa

peregrino que no muera a su vista, racional basilisco de la selva.

[No pilgrim passes by who does not die at her sight, rational basilisk of the jungle.| Continuing with this image, Calderén establishes a subtle correspondence between the similarity of Medusa to the basilisk and the manner utilized by Perseus to kill her, causing her image to be reflected in the shieldmirror that Pallas has given him: vengo a añadirte este escudo trasparente que de Estérope y de Bronte le dio la fatiga el temple.

Experiencia es que si el fiero

basilisco a si se viere

a si se mate, porque en si su veneno vierte. [I come to give you this transparent shield

tempered by the fatigue of Sterope and Brontes.

Experience teaches that if the fierce basilisk sees itself in it, it kills itself, because

it sprays its poison on itself.] The appears The also be

basilisk that kills itself upon seeing its image reflected in a mirror in various emblems gathered by Picinelli.26 hydra, a verbal occurrence of which I have mentioned earlier, can found as part of the staging of a scene of one of Calderén’s plays,’

26 Picinelli, ΕἸ mundo simbélico. Serpientes y animales venenosos, p. 92 et alia.

32

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

accompanied by the dog Cerberus.* They were probably automatons. In

this scene from Fortunas de Andrémeda y Perseo (Fortunes of Andromeda and Perseus, Maestre ed., pp. 109-110), the beasts frighten Bato, and were con-

jured by Discord, only to disappear finally through a trapdoor representing a pit, as part of another spectacular special effect using stage machinery: Atravesaba la Hidra de una parte a otra, moviendo las cabezas de sus siete cuellos, y el Cancerbero, al contrario della, abriendo las bocas de sus tres gargantas ...

[The Hydra crossed from one side to the other, moving the heads of its seven necks, and the dog Cerberus, in the opposite direction, opening the mouths of its three throats ...} I will finish this index of venomous or lethal beasts by mentioning, without further elaboration, two fabled hybrid beasts: the siren? and the | sphinx.*? explains plays palace Calderén’s in mythology of The importance another series of emblematic attributes, including animals, that characterize

the appearances of the gods. In these cases the emblematic depictions have a real stage presence, whether they are made of paste, papier maché, or are automatons or actors in costume, depending on the circumstances. This type of representation corresponds to traditional allegories such as those that are documented, Ripa.

for example, in repertories like that of Cesare

The chariot in which Pallas, the goddess of war appears, is drawn by

two lions in Fortunas de Andrémeda y Perseo (Fortunes of Andromeda and Perseus,

Maestre

ed.,

p.

128),

animals

with

emblematic

meanings,

complemented by other attributes such as the shield with the mirror. In the same play Jupiter—although disguised as Cupid—mounts an eagle of golden feathers that descends from the uppermost parts of the theater (p. 91). These are all animals that do not require any further commentary.

27 The hydra is an indispensable scenic monster in the Corpus Christi plays, where it tends to symbolize heresy or the seven deadly sins. See Escudero, 2002. i 28 For an emblem with the dog Cerberus, see Borja, Empresas morales (Bernat and Cull,

1999, no. 1304). 29 El castillo de Lindabridis, p. 2073; El mayor encanto, amor, p. 1534; Apolo y Climene, p. 1831. For other emblems, see Bernat and Cull, 1999, nos. 1500-1505, 1645.

30 El mayor encanto, amor, p. 1518, 1543; Fortunas de Andrémeda y Perseo, p. 1658. Alciato uses it as a symbol of foolishness: it has the face of a maiden, the feathers of a bird and the feet of a lion. Bernat and Cull, 1999, no. 614.

Arellano: Emblems in the Palace Plays of Calderon

33

The goddess Cybele enters on stage in Fieras afemina amor (Love Makes Beasts Effeminate, Wilson ed., p. 149) carrying in her hand a cornucopia, and seated on a chariot drawn by four lions, accompanied by a non-specified entourage. In Ripa the chariot of the Earth (Cybele) is pulled by two lions that signify ,,el uso agricola de la siembra” [the agricultural use of sowing], because the lions erase their footprints with their tails, just as the planter covers up the seed that has been sown so that birds cannot find and eat it.31 A little later in the same play Pegasus, a winged horse, undertakes a spectacular flight to end the second act (pp. 158, 163). In the play’s prologue, or Joa, a symbolic winged horse had been introduced (doubtless the same figure that appears in the play itself) ,,cuya velocidad enfrenaba galan joven, no sin algunas señas de Mercurio (dios del ingenio), asi en el caduceo como en las plumas del capacete y los talares: jeroglifico del que osadamente en vano intenta sofrenar al vulgo” [Whose speed was reined in by a young gallant, who was not without some of Mercury’s attributes (the god of wit), such as the caduceus as well as the feathers in his helmet and on his heels: a hieroglyph of he who daringly tries to bridle the common masses, but in vain] p. 58). This Joa and other paratexts* from Fieras afemina amor (Love

Makes Beasts Effeminate) offer an extraordinary density of emblematic elements, from the painted curtain®> with Hercules and his labors to the way that the stage decoration is configured, and even including the animals that form part of the cast. In addition to the winged horse there are two statues al parecer de bronce” [that appear to be of bronze] that pet a lion and tiger, signifying ,,el valor y la osadia” [valor and dating]. The motto , Fieras afemina amor / Omnia vincit amor’ on the curtain may be intended to evoke, as Neumeister

has

pointed

out,

Alciato’s

emblem

,,Potentissimus affectus

amor“ [Love, the all-powerful emotion],*+ in which Cupid is at the reins of a chariot pulled by lions. The action of the /oa includes (as part of the staging) a red-tailed eagle wearing an imperial crown, a phoenix and a peacock. We must remember that this dramatic performance was dedicated to the birthday of queen Mariana de Austria: the eagle, as queen of the birds, represents Mariana. The phoenix is a symbol of the love that all profess for the queen and of the renovation produced by turning one year older:

31 Ripa, Jconologia, 1, pp. 175-176. 32 See Neumeister, 2000, pp. 227-277 for a lengthy commentary on these paratexts (especially the /oa and the brief dramatic piece that signals the end of the play) and on this play in general, with attention devoted to its emblematic dimensions.

33 See Egido, 1991.

34 Neumeister, 2000, p. 274.

34

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

Simbolo del amor es

el fénix, que en blanda hoguera

fuego nace, fuego muere y fuego otra vez se engendra, luego si afectos de amor son los que a todos alientan y el amor llama, que nace hija y madre de si mesma, en festejo de años nadie hay que pueda asistir como el ave que los renueva. (pp. 60-61) [A symbol of love,

the phoenix, in a gentle bonfire is born of fire, and dies in fire,

and engenders itself anew in fire, therefore if amorous passions are those that stir everyone, and love is a flame that is born as the daughter and mother of itself, in a birthday celebration there is no better guest than the bird that renews the years.]

The peacock is interpreted in the work as a symbol of vigilance, since its fanned tail contains the eyes of Argos, and vigilance is necessary for anyone who rules: Conque en fiesta de años de quien gobierna ave que toda es ojos que asista es fuerza. [So that in a birthday celebration for one who rules, the presence of a bird that is all eyes is mandatory. |

Neumeister studies the meaning of these symbols and figures in the general overview of the interpretation that he offers for Fieras afemina amor (in a general consideration of Calderén’s mythological plays), a matter which I will not delve into here, limiting myself instead to illustrating the presence of these motifs in the emblematic bestiary, but which will need to be taken

up at some point in the future in order to properly evaluate the complex dramatic functions of these components. Let us be content for now to reproduce some of Neumeistet’s observations:

Arellano: Emblems in the Palace Plays of Calderon

35

La pictura del emblema escénico todavia permanece, como en un libro,

sin movimiento. El Hércules del telén, debido a la mirada que las figuras laterales dirigen hacia él, queda por asi decirlo encadenado al marco de la imagen. Pero su presentacién segün el modelo emblematico—inscriptio y pictura—ya anuncia el espectaculo esperado y su significado, que completarän como subscriptio la estructura emblematica [...] Calderon cumple, por una parte, con el enfoque emblematico, pero por otro lado, al reemplazar la subscriptio por una accion consistente en palabras e imagenes, la forma emblematica bâsica se disuelve en la forma mayor del drama. [The pictura of the staged emblem

remains, as in a book, motionless.

The Hercules on the curtain, due to the glances that characters on either side of the stage direct at it, is, so to speak, chained to the frame of the image.

But its presentation according to the emblematic model—inscriptio and pictura— serves to announce the awaited spectacle and its meaning, which

will complete, like a subscriptio, the emblematic structure (...) Calderon suceeds, on one hand, with his emblematic focus, but on the other hand, by

replacing the subscriptio with an action that consists of words and images, the basic emblematic form is dissolved into the larger form of the drama]

At the end of the dramatic spectacle a fourth bird is added to the initial three. It is the pelican, which emblematizes the figure of the king, Charles II, the image of God or Christ: ,,pelicano que la vida / nos da vuestro corazon” [pelican, your heart gives us life], (Wilson ed., p. 215). The basis of this image is the belief that the pelican resurrects its chicks with blood from its breast (ot nourishes them, in other versions), which transforms the bird into a symbol of Christ, and in this case, of the king. If the mythological fables manifest a presence characteristic of animals associated with the gods, the plays that Valbuena terms novelesque or chivalresque are characterized by animals with heraldic reminiscences, such as the golden lion of Leonido’s impresa (Hado y divisa de Leonido y Marfisa / Fate and Device of Leonido and Marfisa,, pp. 2101, 2106) or those that playfully describe Malandrin in El castillo de Lindabridis / The Castle of 35 Neumeister, 2000, pp. 237-238.

36 According to the Physiologus, the pelican itself, irritated by the blows inflicted by its chicks, kills them, but repents her actions immediately. The chicks remain dead for three days, but then the mother brings them back to life by sprinkling blood from her breast on them (this is a Christological symbol). According to other versions, she nourishes the

chicks with her blood. On the pelican, see: Malaxecheverria, 1986, pp. 52-56; Portier, 1984; Sanchez Lopez, 1991; Garcia Arranz, 1996, pp. 627-56; Henkel-Schône, 1976, cols.

811-813. And especially, for the motif of the pelican’s piety, see Daly, 2005, to whom I am grateful for his clarification of some of the concrete details of this symbolism.

36

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

Lindabridis (pp. 2091-2092), a pretext as well for new mental and verbal

witticisms. Among the imprese that the knights of a tournament display, there are some that touch on the bestiary tradition: the knight who hosts the tournament bears as his impresa a dolphin that saves a drowning man in a storm, an image of the knight himself: La letra en su nombre dice,

como que al delfin le habla,

Arellano: Emblems in the Palace Plays of Calderén

,1 do not know which color is mine for he has no color at all

who sustains himself on air”?

And an adventurer features as his impresa a viper that bites itself, with

the epigram:

,temeroso voy del-fin”

jOh qué veneno tan fuerte; por vivir me doy la muerte!

["}

in order to live I kill myself]

que brevemente declara que en tempestades de honor

[Oh what strong venom;

no sabe el fin que le aguarda.

The emblematic elements in Calderdén’s plays of courtly spectacle display, in conclusion, a series of noteworthy functions, from isolated oc-

[The epigram in its wording tells,

currences, frequently lexicalized, to complex

how he speaks to the dolphin, 1 am fearful del-fin,”

which briefly declares

that in torments of honor

(...)

one does not know the end that awaits.] The pun here is not evident in English translation, for as one word,

delfin means ,,dolphin,” while the separation into two hyphenated words ,,del-fin” means ,,of the end,” which is explicated in the following verses. The Knight of Phoebus has as his impresa a chameleon ,,que sobre la

verde grama / era verde y sobre el mar / azul, colores contrarias / pues

nunca comieron juntos / los celos y la esperanza” [which in the green grass / was green, and in the sea / blue, opposing colors / since jealousy and

hope / never dined together|?7: la letra lo significa

mejor, breve, aguda y clara: , No

sé cual color es mia

que no la tiene quien del aire se mantiene” [the epigram expresses it

better, brief, witty and clear: 37 It is commonly known that green can symbolize hope and blue, jealousy. See on color symbolism: Kenyon,

1915; Morley, 1917; Fichter, 1927; Buceta,

37

1933.

meanings

that are integrated

into the global structure of a drama, from those examples that refer to the universe of courtly preoccupations and values (such as the heraldic materials) to the parodic and playful explorations. What stands out is Calderén’s tendency to insert emblematic allusion into forms of mental and verbal witticisms, applying the symbolic motifs to particular situations that establish ingenious correspondences (witticisms of proportion, similitude or discordance, in Gracian’s terms).

The variety, abundance and development of these elements confirms once again the dramatist’s ability to integrate, in an admirable aesthetic synthesis, all sorts of cultural components, among them the symbolic forms of expression that were so fully developed in the Spanish Golden Age, but which rarely attained the perfection and complexity observed in the works of Calderén.

Arellano: Emblems in the Palace Plays of Calderon

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

38 WORKS

___. Obras completas. 1987.

CITED

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Cull, John. ,,Emblematics in Calderén’s El médico de su honra.” Bulletin of the

Calderén.” In Calderén 2000. Actas del congreso internacional IV Centenario

Comediantes 44, 1 (1992): 113-131.

del nacimiento de Calderén. Ed. 1. Arellano. Kassel: Reichenberger, 2002, II. 21-34.

___ ,,Calderén’s Snakes. Emblems, (1993): 97-110.

,,Elementos emblemäticos en las comedias religiosas de Calderén.” In

Calderén: una lectura desde el Siglo XXI. Ed. M. Gomez y Patiño. Alicante:

Instituto Alicantino de Cultura Juan Gil-Albert, 2000, 219-248.

Bernat

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Borja, Juan

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1981,

T. Cull.

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,,Calderén

the

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1680

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with

Erasmo.

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soneto

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et l’emblématique.”

del siglo XVII

Andrémeda

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y

Secular

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In Aspects du

explicativo

Perseo,

Almagro:

edicién

Museo

de

critica

y

Nacional

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la

emblemätica

en

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Siglo

Castellon: Universidad Jaume I, 2000b. 587-602.

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La

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los colores.” Bulletin Hispanique 35 (1933): 299-300. Calderén,

_.

_.

Calderén. La vida es sueno. El gran teatro del mundo. Pedro Calderén de la Barca. Coord. N. Ly. Paris: Éditions du Temps, 1999. 13-40. Buceta,

”Emblems

Azanza. Madrid: Akal, 2000a. 127-142.

Villasante.

additions, by Francisco de Borja, the author’s grandson. The first edition was published in 1581. Bouzy,

_.

Emblemdtica en el Arte y la Literatura del Siglo de Oro. Ed. R. Zafra and J.

facsimile ed. by C. Bravo

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in the

Lore and Imagery.” MIFLC Review 3

Romance Quarterly 41, 2 (1994): 79-91.

de emblemas

Enciclopedia

Briones. Madrid: Aguilar,

integrale ilustrada de I. Arellano and R. Zafra. Pamplona-Madrid: Universidad de Navarra-Iberoamericana- RAE-Centro para la edicién de los clasicos españoles, 2006.

. ,Aspectos emblematicos en los dramas de poder y de ambicion de

espanoles ilustrados. Madrid: Akal, 1999.

ed. A. Valbuena

Covarrubias, Sebastian de. Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española, ed.

Arellano, Ignacio. ,El bestiario de los dramas de Calderén.” In Siglos dorados. Homenaje a Augustin Redondo. Madrid: Castalia, 2004, I. 53-66.

_.

Dramas,

39

del Teatro,

τος Fieras afemina amor, A Critical Edition by E. M. Wilson, Kassel: Edition

Daly, Peter M. ,,The Pelican-in-her-Piety.” In Emblem Scholarship: Directions

and Developments. Ed. Peter M. Daly. Turnhout: Brepols, 2005, 83-108.

Egido, Aurora. ,,El telén como jeroglifico de La fiera, el rayo y la piedra (1690).” In Comedias y comediantes. Estudios sobre el teatro cldsico espanol. Ed.

Manuel V. Diago y Teresa Ferrer. Valencia: Universidad de Valencia, 1991, 387-405. Escudero, Juan Manuel. ,,El bestiario fantastico en los autos sacramentales

de Calderén (1: La hidra).” Calderén 1600-2000. Jornadas de investigaciôn

Reichenberger, 1984.

calderoniana. Ed. Aurelio Gonzalez. México: El Colegio de México / Fondo Eulalio Ferrer, 2002,109-128.

τς, Obras completas. Comedias, ed. À. Valbuena Briones. Madrid: Aguilar,

___.“El

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de Calderon.

Notas para un bestiario fantastico.” Revista Canadiense de Estudios Hispänicos 29.1 (2004): 129-142.

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41

Fichter, William L. ,,Color Symbolism in Lope de Vega.” Romanic Review 18 (1927): 220-231.

Ripa, Cesare. Iconologia. Transl. J Barja, and Barja, R.M. Mariño, and Garcia

Garcia Arranz, José Julio. Ornitologia emblemdtica. Caceres: Universidad de

Rodriguez de la Flor, Fernando. Emblemas, Lecturas de la imagen simbélica.

Exremadura, 1996.

Madrid: Alianza, 1995.

Gracian, Baltasar. Agudeza y arte de ingenio. Ed. E. Correa. Madrid: Castalia, 1987-1988, 2 vols.

Sanchez Lopez, José Antonio. ,,lconografia e iconologia del pelicano: un ensayo sobre la reconversiôn del concepto de filantropia.” Boletin de Arte 12

Henkel, Arthur and Schéne, Albrecht. Emblemata. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1976.

Horapolo, Hieroglyphica. Ed. J.M. Gonzalez de Zarate. Madrid: Akal, 1991.

Romero. Madrid: Akal, 1987, 2 vols.

(1991): 127-146.

Trambaioli,

Marcella.

,,Las

empresas

dramaticas

calderonianas

de

tema

Horozco y Covartubias, Juan de. Emblemas morales. Segovia: Juan de la

mitolégico sobre la educacién del perfecto principe cristiano.” In Actes du Congrès International Théâtre, Musique et Arts dans les Cours Européenes de la Renaissance et du Baroque, Varsovie, 23-28 septembre 1996. Ed. K. Sabik.

Romanic

Valbuena Briones, Angel. » ΕἸ emblema simbolico de la caida del caballo.” In

Ledda, Giuseppina. ,,Varia presenza degli emblemi nella commedia aurea.”

Valeriano, Pierio. Hieroglyphica sive de sacris aegyptiorum, aliarium gentium.

Malaxecheverria, Ignacio. Bestiario medieval. Madrid: Siruela, 1986.

Villava, Francisco de. Empresas espirituales y morales. Baeza, 1613.

Cuesta, 1589,

Kenyon, Herbert. ,,Color Symbolism Review 6 (1915): 327-340.

in Early

Spanish

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Rivista di Filologia e Letterature Hispaniche 7 (2004): 255-270.

Morley, Samuel G. ,,Color Symbolism in Tirso de Molina.” Romanic Review 8 (1917): 77-81. Neumeister,

Sebastian.

,,La fiesta mitologica

en su contexto

de Calderon

histérico (Fieras afemina Amor).” In Hacia Calderén. Tercer Coloquio AngloGermano. Berlin/ New York: 1976, 156-170.

_. Mito cldsico y ostentacién. Los dramas mitolôgicos de Calderén. Kassel: Reichenberger, 2000.

Picinelli, Filippo. El mundo simbélico. Serpientes y animales venenosos. Los

insectos. Ed. E. Gomez

Bravo, R. Lucas Gonzälez,

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B. Skinfill Nogal,

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Warsaw: Editions of the University of Warsaw, 1997, 269-286.

Calderén y la comedia nueva. Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1977, 88-105.

Basil: Guarinum, 1575.

An Emblematic Reading of a Regal Epistolary Exchange: Philip IV’s Letters to Sister Maria De Agreda, in the Light of Saavedra Fajardo

JOSE AZANZA LOPEZ

Universidad de Navarra, Spain Abstract

Between 1643 and 1665 king Philip IV of Spain and Sister Maria Jesus de Agreda maintained a fertile epistolary exchange, in which the monarch manifested his thoughts on domestic and international politics, reflecting on the principal virtues that should embellish the prince, his concept of the governance of state in his relations with his ministers, the issue of counsel and the royal favourite, the acquaintance of and dealings with his subjects, his comportment towards European potentates in times of war and peace, or his trust in divine will, which sustained the Hispanic monarchy in accordance with his strong belief in providentialism. This study attempts to establish the points of contact that exist between the Empresas Poltticas of Diego Saavedra Fajardo and the ideas espoused by Philip in his letters to

Sister Maria,

and

seeks

to determine

to what

extent the theories

of the

diplomat and emblematist from Murcia (Spain) may have influenced monarch who acted conscientiously as a true Political-Christian Prince.

a

Introduction

»The King our lord passed through this place and entered our convent on July 10th, 1643, and he instructed me to write to him ...” [Pasé por este lugar y entré en nuestro convento el Rey nuestro señor, a 10 de julio de 1643, y dejome mandado que le escribiese ...|. With these words Sister Maria

Jesus

de

Agreda

initiates

her

historical

source

for

understanding

thoughts

on

correspondence

with

Philip

IV,

thus

in-

augurating a fertile epistolary relationship that constitutes an exceptional our

of

the

seventeenth

century,

a

correspondence that continued uninterrupted until the nun’s death on May 24th, 1665. Over the course of this relationship, the monarch shared his both

national

and

international

politics,

reflecting

on

the

Principal virtues that should grace a prince, on his concept of the govern-

ance of State in his relations with his ministers, the issue of counsel and the royal favorite, his familiarity and dealings with his subjects, his behavior

towards European powers in times of peace and war, or his confidence in the divine will that sustains the Hispanic monarchy in accordance with a substantial degree of political providentialism.

44

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

Many of Philip IV’s behavioral guidelines seem to conform to the traditional system of governance of the house of Austria. Nevertheless, we should point out that barely three years prior to the king’s visit to the

convent in Soria, the editio princeps of Saavedra Fajardo’s Empresas poltticas had

issued

from

the

press

of Nicolaus

Henricus

in Munich,

a work

dedicated to the education of prince Baltasar Carlos, which his father, an

erudite and intellectual man, must surely have known.! It is my intent to establish the exact points of contact between Saavedra’s imprese and the methodological approaches set out by Philip IV in his letters to Sister Maria, and to try to determine to what extent the theories of the diplomat from Murcia may have influenced a monarch who comported himself as a true Political-Christian Prince. A Providentialist Monarchy The providentialist conception of the Spanish monarchy derived from the fact that it considered itself to be blessed with God’s protection; such providentialism manifests itself on numerous occasions throughout the period, ranging from proclamations such as that approved by the Royal Council [Consejo Real] in 16442 to Philip IV’s last will and testament,’ not to mention other testimonials such as the revelations from the soul of prince

Azanza: Philip IV’s Letters to Sister Maria De Agreda

45

Baltasar Carlos to Sister Maria in 1646.4 In addition, there exists a providentionalist vision of events at the core of Philip IV’s letters that derives from the fact that the king proclaims a purely religious motivation for his politics and reiterates the insoluble union between God and the monarchy, an institution which will obtain divine favor by founding itself on religion.5 What is more, when faced with a shortage of human and economical

resources, Philip IV resorted to ,,His Divine Majesty, who will not permit

the total loss of these kingdoms” [,,Su Divina Majestad, que no ha de permitir la pérdida total de estos reinos” (12-29-1643)].6 This factor is fundamentally important if we keep in mind that, from a providentialist point of view, God punished those republics lacking in virtue. Sister Maria herself encouraged this attitude, comforting the monarch by assuring him that ,,victories do not consist in having numerically superior atmies nor an abundance of supplies, but rather in the will of the Almighty One” [no consisten las victorias en numerosos ejércitos ni abundancia de bastimentos, sino en la voluntad del Altisimo (1-21-1656)]; nevertheless, the comportment of Philip IV played a crucial role in all of this, and for that reason the

monarchy would be able to save itself, according to the nun, ,,if it finds itself

under the personal direction of a prince who, because of his Christian virtues, merits God’s protection” [si se encuentra bajo la direccién personal de un principe que, por sus virtudes cristianas, se merezca la proteccién de Dios]. The convictions of both individuals coincide fully in Saavedra’s impresa 87 which, under the motto ,,Auspice Deo” [Under God’s Auspices],

1 Philip IV’s profile as a man of letters is abundantly evident in the prologue to his translation of Guicciardini’s Historia de Italia, in which the monarch provides a gloss of his literary autobiography; these pages provide us with a sketch of his intellectual formation, of his readings and of his cultivation of the life of letters, which denote a king endowed with an exquisite quality of a learned man of culture. As the monarch himself asserted,

he was

interested

in ,,diverse

books

in all languages

and

translations

awakened and savoured the taste for good letters, and they put me in a position able to meditate on all universal matters with great sharpness” [diversos libros de lenguas y traducciones que despertaron y saborearon el gusto de las buenas letras, pusieron en estado de poder discurrir sobre todo lo universal con gran prontitud]. Villanueva (400-401).

that

to be todas y me Pérez

2 In October 1644, the Royal Council approved a proclamation that was to be read in all the churches of Castille. in which all the faithful were urged not to stop praying, ,,since it is more by spiritual than by material means that its integrity will be restored to this monarchy and it will be protected from its enemies and the rebels” [ya que es por medios espirituales, mas que materiales, como se devolverä la integridad a esta monarquia y se la guardara de los enemigos y los rebeldes]. Stradling (364). 3,1 beseech and entrust my successors to govern things more on the basis of religious considerations than out of respect for the political state; by this means they will oblige God our Lord to help and attend to them most singularly” [Ruego y encargo a mis sucesores a que gobiernen mas las cosas por consideraciones de religiôn, que no por respeto del estado politico; que con esto obligarän a Dios

particularidad los ayude y asista]. Testamento de Felipe IV (13).

nuestro Señor a que con

features the image of the spear of Romulus hurled erroneously at a boar and stuck in the ground, where it bloomed (Fig. 1), in order to show princes that neither valor nor prudence sustain monarchies, but rather divine providence;

because, as the statesman concludes, »everything depends

on that eternal

4 The revelations of the soul of prince Baltasar Carlos to Sister Maria state: ,, The house

of Austria has been selected and distinguished by God to give special protection and shelter to the Church, and through its efforts, the holy faith of the Gospels will be spread throughout the world. And for this reason His Majesty looks upon it with special love, offers it singular protection and fills it with blessings, honoring it with very great and holy subjects, and every day it receives many favors from the hand of the Almighty One, sending it healthy warnings and advice” [La casa de Austria ha sido elegida y señalada por Dios para especial ampato de la Iglesia, y que por su medio se dilate la santa fe del Evangelio por el mundo. Y por esto la mira Su Majestad con especial amor, tiene singular

Protecciôn de ella y la llena de bendiciones, honorificändola con sujetos muy grandes y Santos, y cada dia recibe muchos favores de la mano del Todopoderoso, enviändole

saludables avisos y consejos]. Epistolario espanol, vol. V. Cartas de sor Marta de Jestis de Agreda y de Felipe IV (262). 5 Agreda (44). 6 The examples of the monarch’s providentialist vision are almost endless, as can be seen in letters from: 3-25-1645; 5-151645; 6-22-1645; 6-28-1645; 2-15-1646; 7-29-1648; 1-111656; 2-1-1656; and 7-16-1657.

46

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

Providence, which efficiently moves us to take action when necessary for the disposition and effect of His divine secrets” [todo depende de aquella eterna Providencia, que eficazmente nos mueve a obrat cuando conviene para la disposicién y efecto de sus divinos secretos], ἃ posture that seems to imply a degree of determinism’ (Saavedra Fajardo, ed. Sagrario Lopez Poza, 929-935). As a result, the cause supported by the Spanish monarchy is just, since it is directed at the defense of the Catholic religion, and therefore any Spanish prince who wages a military campaign has the right to lay claim to the favor conferred by the ,,In hoc signo” [Beneath this sign], the motto of impresa 26, in which a hand holds the standard or labarum of Constantine against

the background of a battlefield; for just as the emperor added to his imperial

banner

Christ’s cross

and

monogram,

and

attained

victory,

so too must

Christian princes put their trust in divine providence when hoisting the banner of religion against their enemies. In his providentialist conception, Saavedra holds that when kings fight on behalf of the Catholic religion, they can expect a reward from heaven, which will tilt the balance in their favor in the skirmish and will guide them to victory. Philip IV himself is quite explicit in this respect, when he asserts that ,,our defense must come from the powerful hand of Our Lord” [nuestra defensa ha de venir de la poderosa mano de Nuestro Señor (2-15-1646)]; and just as the hand holds the imperial standard in Saavedra’s impresa, so too the city of Lérida was ,,conquered and

defended by His single powerful arm [conquistada y defendida por sdlo su brazo poderoso (5-29-1647)]; the assistance lent to erona was an ,,event directed only by His powerful hand” [suceso sélo encaminado de su poderosa mano (10-13-1653)]; and in Olivenza’s enterprise ,,only the hand of our Lord” [anicamente la mano de nuestro Señor (6-25-1657)] was at work. Evidently, Sister Maria agreed with this approach, for she advised the monarch to embrace Christ’s cross ,,and to triumph with this standard over

his enemies, whether visible or invisible, domestic or foreign” [y con este estandarte triunfe de los enemigos visibles e invisibles, domésticos y extraños (8-28-1648)]. In spite of everything there are times when, no matter how much you try, luck runs contrary; in these cases, one must conclude that it has been

thus ordained by providence, which lead in the final ananlysis to compliance

with divine will, event though one might not always understand God’s designs. Comportment

of this nature was a constant in Philip IV, who

7 In his Corona Gética, Saavedra than obliging God and entrusting arts” [ninguna politica mayor que de las attes humanas, el premio]. Ferrol (94-108) and Ayala (52-57).

insists on the same idea: ,,there is no politics greater the reward to His divine providence, and not to human obligar a Dios y esperar de su divina providencia y no On providentialism in Saavedra’s thought, see Murillo

Azanza: Philip IV’s Letters to Sister Maria De Agreda affirmed

that once

he had

solicited the aid of Our

47 Lord, ,,1 will always

comply fully with His holy will, firmly believing that what His Providence ordains is what is best” [en todo estaré siempre conforme con su santa voluntad, creyendo firmemente que lo que dispone su Providencia es lo major (6-8-1645)].8 The letters reveal repeated concerns about the the personal, family and political setbacks that accumulated during those years, in the face of which the monarch reacted from the providentialist perspective that led him to accept divine will both in times of prosperity as well adversity. Such is clearly the case, for example, in his letters dealing with the deaths of his wife Isabel de Borbén (11-15-1644), of his nephew, King of the Romans (9-9-1654), or of his son, Philip Prospero, an event in the face of which ,,in the midst of this great pain I have attempted to offer him up to God and conform myself to his divine will, believing truly that what his providence disposes is what is most important” [en medio de este gran dolor he procurado ofrecérselo a Dios y conformarme con su divina voluntad, creyendo verdaderamente que lo que dispone su providencia es lo que mas importa (11-8-1661)]; and in the political-military terrain, faced with the loss of Rosas (6-6-1645) and of Flix (9-4-1645), the difficult situation in Flanders (8-31-1646), or the failure in the attempt to take Arras, his reaction was that

sit is necessary to bow our heads and to accept God’s will” [es menester bajar la cabeza y conformarnos con la voluntad de Dios (9-9-1654)]. Sister Maria herself comforted the monatch on numerous occasions by reminding him that ,,the greatest relief in the face of struggles is conformity” [el mayor alivio ante los trabajos es la conformidad (10-4-1658)]. On this occasion Philip IV’s attitude towards God’s designs is reflected in Saavedra’s impresa 88, ,,Volentes trahimur” [We are drawn willingly], in which a hand emerging from a cloud holds a magnet from which a knife hangs, clinging by its tip; for just as the magnet attracts iron, overcoming the law of gravity, so too

should the prince allow himself to be guided by divine will, even though at times he may not understand it. It is useless for man to attempt to oppose those events in which divine action reveals its power, since ,,he who

lets

himself be guided suffers less than he who opposes. It is foolhardy presumption to attempt to undo God’s decrees ... and great wisdom and great piety to reconcile ourselves to that superior force that governs and guides us” [menos padece el que se deja llevar que el que se opone. Loca presuncién es intentar deshacer los decretos de Dios ... y gran sabiduria y gran piedad ajustarnos a aquella fuerza superior que nos rige y nos gobierna], as the diplomat reasoned, in a reflection that nevertheless does not renounce human free will alongside of divine providentialism (936-945). 8 Along the same lines are manifestations found in the following letters: 8-8-1645; 8-161645; 9-4-1645; 4-20-1654; and 10-10-1656.

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

with

Without doubt,

grandeur

reputation

as

Philip IV was

of spirit was

a king;

constancy

aware

something of the

that compliance

that

spirit is

enhanced

with divine will

his dignity

a fundamental

virtue

and

in a

monarch, who must never show excessive perturbation in the face of adversity nor extreme exhaltation in times of triumph. This is expressed by Saavedra both in his impresa 31 ,,Existimatione nixa” [Resting on reputation] and in number 33 ,,Siempre el mismo”, [Always the same], asserting that the prince must maintain constancy and fortitude both in prosperous fortune as well as in times of adverse fortune, for the benefit of his subjects, who gaze

upon him as a mirror of virtues. Such a notion connects well with some of the virtues (constantia, patientia, firmitas) most prized by Lipsius and his Neostoic disciples, who exerted a great influence on Saavedra? (435-443 and 450-460). This attitude is evident in many of the letters that Philip wrote, and particularly in the one he composed in Zaragoza in order to convey to

Sister Maria the death of his son Baltasar Carlos, and in which he became a

model of firmness and resignation by accepting that ,,God is exceedingly just, and thus He cannot err in anything, and although we might not be

allowed access to His secrets, we must reconcile ourselves to His holy will

and accept as infallible that everything which is wrought by His Providence is what is best” [justo es sumamente Dios, y asi no puede errar en nada, y aunque a nosotros no nos es permitido alcanzar sus secretos, debemos conformarnos con su santa voluntad y tener por infalible que lo que obra su Providencia es lo major (10-10-1646)]. Christian compliance with divine will triumphs over pain, to such an extent that the valor and grandeur of spirit with which Philip IV resigned himself to the harshest blow that providence had in store for him moved his entire Court.!°

of the ship of the monarchy

spondence of Sister Maria who, in spite of lamenting ,,the turbulent waves

that combat Monarquia

this Monarchy”

(3-8-1647)],

held

[las olas turbulentas

the

firm

conviction

que combaten

a esta

that ,,this little ship

of

Spain will never shipwreck” [esta navecilla de Espafia no ha de naufragar jamäs], beseeching the Lord to allow the monarch

to reach the safe harbour

of salvation” [el puerto seguro de la salvacién (8-10-1645)]. Saavedra also affirms, through the image of the ship combatted by contrary winds lashing the bow in impresa 36 ,,In contraria ducet” [It governs even in unfavorable conditions] that just as the expert ship’s captain in the midst of a storm steers the ship in the appropriate direction, so too the prince will govern the ship of State, making good use of the difficulties that combat him with prudence and valor.!? In governing the State, dedication and constancy in his labors becomes one of the principal qualities of the monarch. Philip IV was in fact a much more professional and responsible monarch than previously thought, and one who embodies the image of the ,,king in his cabinet” [rey en su despacho].!3 His letters constantly reiterate allusions to his indefatigable work, on which his own salvation depended, as well as that of his kingdoms. He assured Sister Marfa that ,,I refuse no task whatsoever, for, as all can

attest, I am seated continually in my seat with my papers and my pen in hand, examining and handling every single consultation presented to me in

this Court, and those dispatches that arrive from abroad” [no rehüso trabajo alguno, pues, como todos pueden decir, estoy continuamente sentado en la

silla con los papeles y la pluma en la mano, viendo y pasando por ella todas cuantas consultas se me hacen en esta Corte y los despachos que vienen de

fuera (1-30-1647)]; and years later he would confess to the nun that ,,when it

to matters

of business

I leave only very reluctantly for tomorrow

what I can accomplish today” [en el trabajo de los negocios dejo de muy was Philip IV, who,

as an

expert navigator, was entrusted with piloting it to safe harbour. The maritime simile was employed on numerous occasions by the monarch to refer to the difficulties through which his kingdom was passing. He placed

his trust always in divine intervention, which would permit that ,,from the storm that now combats us, we will arrive safely to the quietude and calm of

port” [de la borrasca que padecemos lleguemos a la quietud y sosiego del Puerto (6-9-1649)]. The notion of a storm at sea, expressed with the Spanish

terms temporal, tormenta or borrasca, that lashed at the ship of monarchy,

9 See also Lépez Poza 2004 (139-150); idem 2008 (299-312). 10 Epistolario español, vol.

49

is a constant in the epistles of Philip,!! and it appears as well in the corre-

comes

The Monarch, a Political-Christian Prince At the head

Azanza: Philip IV’s Letters to Sister Maria De Agreda

IV. Cartas de sor Marta de Jestis de Agreda y de Felipe IV (LXV1).

mala gana

pata mañana

lo que puedo

hacer hoy

(9-21-1661)].4

Without

doubt, Philip’s attitude is reflected in several of the imprese of Saavedra who,

following once again the Neostoical current, urging the prince constantly to take action, since a pusillanimous ruler would represent a great danger for 11 See the letters from: 6-11-1653; 12-17-1653; 7-22-1654; 9-9-1654; 6-9-1655; and 1-11-

1656.

12 The marine motifs that appear in imprese 36 and 37 provide Saavedra with abundant

material to express some of the abilities of the captain of the ship of state, just as it had served Lipsius, who used numerous marine metaphors. Saavedra Fajardo (84 and 471484). 13 Stradling (392). 14 Vigilance in labor is also featured in letters from: 5-15-1645; 6-17-1646; 11-14-11646;

4-3-1647; and 5-1-1647.

50 the

kingdom.!5

Therefore,

impresa

30

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

Azanza: Philip IV’s Letters to Sister Maria De Agreda

,,Fulcitur

that was common

experientiis”

[He

is

supported by experiences], clearly reveals the imperious need to act, since

not to do so indicates a lack of complete wisdom (425-434); this same idea is

reaffirmed in impresa 34 ,,Ferendum et sperandum” [Enduring and awaiting], which insists on the prince’s constant spirit in matters of work, supported by the sentence from Ecclesiastes that: ,,He who observes the winds does not sow; nor does he who ponders the clouds reap” [El que observa los vientos, no siembra; ni coge quien considera las nubes] (461465). But, without doubt, the #mpresa by Saavedra that develops this concept with the greatest clarity is number 71 ,,Labor omnia vincit” [Labor conquers all}, the pictura of which features a battering ram smasking a wall in which it has opened a breech (Fig. 2); just as the battering ram manages to topple a strong wall by repeated blows, so too the prince will overcome any obstacle by means of constancy in his toils. Saavedra could not have been more explicit in this respect when

he concluded

men,

the

but

even

more

so

for

prince

that ,,labor is necessary for all

... Ruling

is not

a profession

for

resting” [en todos los hombres es necesario el trabajo, en el principe mas ...

No es oficio de descanso el reinar] (805-811). Work understood as political effort leads Saavedra to offer the example of ants, who in the summer

fill

their granaries in order to sustain themselves in the winter; the comportment of this ,,small and wise little animal”

[pequeño

y sabio animalejo]

should

move princes ,,to supply garrisons and fortresses in a timely fashion and to prepare in winter the weapons needed to shine in the summer” [a bastecer con tiempo las plazas y fortalezas, y a prevenir en invierno las armas con que se ha de campear en verano] (808). This is proven time and again in the letters that Philip IV wrote in the winter months, a period during which ,,the clang of weapons is quiet” [el ruido de las armas esta quieto]; but this does not result in the monarch being idle, rather: ,,I attend as fervently as possible to battlefield preparations, both at sea and on land, and to stock the garrisons as abundantly as our means allow” [trato con todo calor de las prevenciones de la campaña, asi por mar como por tierra, y de poner las plazas lo mas abundantemente que los medios nos dan lugar (2-24-1647)].16 Among the duties of the monarch are travels through his dominions and becoming familiar with his subjects; after the disappearance of Olivares, Philip IV found himself for the first time facing the responsibilities of governance alone, and these new circumstances obliged him to adopt an unaccustomed regal comportment that forced him to abandon the Court and recuperate the tradition of the ,,travelling monarch”

[monarca viajero]

Between

1643

and

in the epoch 1646

his

51

of the Catholic Kings

travels

were

constant,

and Charles V.

a situation

that

the

monarch adapted to naturally, as just another part of his obligations, even though it required leaving behind the comfort of the Court and distancing himself from his family, since, in a confidence he shared with Sister Maria,

the care of my kingdoms comes before the pleasure of enjoying the company of such dearly beloved ones” [primero es el cuidado de mis reinos que el gusto de asistir con tales prendas (12-29-1643)]. The king travelled both to draw nearer to problems that needed his attention and so that his subjects sensed that he was close at hand and respectful of their rights and customs, since the monarchy at that time recommended exquisite prudence and delicacy in dealings with the diverse kingdoms; thus, during his stay in Zaragoza in 1645 he affirmed that ,,to the extent that I am able, I favor the

subjects of this Kingdom, as they themselves see quite readily” [cuanto puedo favorezco a los naturales deste Reino, como ellos mismos lo tienen bien visto ( 9-24-1645)]; and he is no less explicit nearly half a year later when he confessed to the nun that ,,it has occurred to me to travel through

Navarre in order to see and favor that kingdom” [hame parecido ir por Navarra para ver y favorecer a aquel reino (3-7-1646)]. But most of Philip’s trips have as their objective taking his place at the head of his army in the war being waged against France in Catalonia; aware of the importance of his presence, he never hesitated to run the risks associated with these trips destined to infuse courage and spirit in his troops. Thus he makes clear to Sister Maria: ,,1 have had no qualms about leaving the comfort of my home

in order to be able to see personally to the defense of these kingdoms; for in attending to this obligation, I trust that God will not abandon me” [no he reparado en dejar la comodidad de mi casa sélo por no dejar de acudir personalmente a la defensa destos reinos; pues atendiendo yo a esta obligaciôn, fio de Dios no me ha de faltar (3-25-1645); and he expressed him-

self in similar terms two years later when he related that ,,I have ordered that

my house be readied so that, if it proves to be necessary to leave quickly and

draw closer to my weapons, I can do so immediately and without worrying about the discomforts of the road at that time, because my desire is to fulfill my obligation” [yo he mandado que esté mi casa prevenida para, si fuere menester partir y acudir mas de cerca a mis armas, hacerlo luego sin reparar en las descomodidades del camino en este tiempo, porque mi deseo es cumplir con mi obligacién (6-12-1647)]. This obligation consisted of ,,inflaming with my presence all matters concerning wars” [dar calor con mi presencia a las materias de las guerras (5-23-1646)].'" The nun herself

15 Montoya Melgar (5-45).

16 Similar expressions, accompanied on many occasions by a lament for the limited

resources at the disposal of his kingdoms, are found in these letters: 12-15-11645;

1647; 2-11-1650; 12-17-1653; 12-30-1656; 12-25-1657; 1-29-1658; and 3-5-1658.

12-18-

17 He expressed himself in similar terms in several letters from the period, such as those from 3-9-1644 and 10-18-1645. Even at the very late date of 1658 the monarch was

52

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

encouraged the monarch’s decision by affirming, with regard to the relief of Lérida: ,,I see many positive things in the attendance of the regal person of Your Majesty in the city’s defense, to bring the army together” [veo muchas conveniencias en que asistiera la persona real de Vuestra Majestad en su defensa, para que el ejército se juntase (7-21-1647)]. Philip IV’s departures from the Court resulted in an entire polemic of State because they went against the opinion of some of his counsellors, who reminded him that ,,God placed the tree of life in the center of his paradise,

and the sun in de su paraiso, literary stimuli them Graciän these authors,

the center of the sky” [Dios puso el arbol de la vida en medio y el sol en medio del cielo]; but there was no shortage of that encouraged the monarch towards the battlefield, among and Quevedo.'® Saavedra followed along the same line as and in several imprese he alludes to the prince’s obligation to

travel and become familiar with his state. Thus, in impresa 52 ,,Mas que en la

tierra of the make more things

nocivo” [More dangerous than on earth] he considers the importance prince having a great familiarity with his vassals in order to be able to governance decisions correctly (620-628), an idea that he develops extensively in impresa 61 ,,Maiota minoribus consonant” [Greater ate consonant

with lesser matters], which

demands

from

the king

exquisite care in tuning the strings of his subjects, for that is the only way that he will be able to achieve perfect harmony in the governance of his kingdoms

(717-723); in addition, impresa 21 ,,Regit et corrigit” [One rules

and corrects] he insists on the idea of the prudent prince who knows well prepared to attend in person to aiding Badajoz ,,if need so dictated” [si la necesidad lo pidiere], since the preservation of the garrison was so important (7-30-1658). 18 Gracin, in his work El politico Don Fernando el Catélico, stressed the advantages of a king taking his place at the head of his army, affirming that ,,to allow soldiers to see a king is to reward

them,

and his presence

alone is worth

as much

as an entire army”

ver sus soldados un rey es premiarlos, y su presencia vale por otro ejército]. As

[el

for

Quevedo, in La Politica de Dios he defends the presence of the king, especially at moments of danger, since ,,a king who fights and labors in front of his men obliges them to be valiant” [rey que pelea y trabaja delante de los suyos, obligalos a ser valientes”; he encourages the monarch with an efficient pen: ,,Lord, if Your Majesty’s soldiers see your back, they will force your enemies to show you theirs” [Señor, si los soldados de Vuestra

Majestad ven vuestras espaldas, ellos haran que veäis las de vuestros enemigos], and he inspires him with the certainty that former victories will be repeated, ,,since with the presence of Your Majesty, who can doubt that, since the soldiers are the same, the result

will be repeated?” [pues con la presencia de Vuestra Majestad, squién duda que, siendo

Azanza: Philip IV’s Letters to Sister Maria De Agreda

53

and governs his states without any innovation of customs (356-368). But the

impresa that truly exemplifies the comportment of Philip IV is number 86 Rebus adest” [He is present at everything], whose pictura features a terrestrial sphere with its meridians and parallels, along with an oblique strip of the epicycle along which runs a sun with a face that emits rays, in order to signify that, just as the sun wanders indefatigably from one tropic to the other, thus princes should roam their states in order to attend personally to their business, both in times of peace and of war (920-928). Even the expression ,,dar calor” [to inflame, or give heat to] that we read in Philip’s letters was included by the emblematist from Murcia, for whom the monarch’s presence is the decisive factor in case of war, since he guides his vassals

and

offers

encouragement

to his

soldiers;

nevertheless,

he

should

ponder his salllies carefully, attending only those conflicts that take place within his own State or beyond only when his own State is threatened, but never distancing himself so far from his kingdom so as to put it at risk. This is precisely how Philip IV acted with respect to the war with France in Catalonia, in a situation of extreme gravity that menaced the borders of his kingdom. On his travels through his kingdoms and scenes of battle, Philip IV decided that his successor, the ill-fated prince Baltasar Carlos, should accompany him from a very early age, for he felt that it was essential for the from

future king to acquire governing experience

his eatliest childhood:

,,I

have wanted the prince to begin to see and start learning about what will be his concern after the end of my days” [He querido que empiece ya el principe a ver y ir aprendiendo lo que le ha de tocar después de mis dias}, he wrote to Sister Maria in a letter dated March 25th, Zaragoza,

1646. Without

doubt this initiative can be compared to Saavedra’s impresa 3 ,,Robur et decus” [Strength and beauty], that shows a coral branch emerging from the sea, and which hardens upon contact with the wind, in order to indicate the

need to foment in the young prince an interest in the military arts from his earliest youth, in order to get habituated to weapons and earn the good will of his soldiers, just as some historical figures did, among them Fernando el Catélico,

(212-220).

who

was

raised

among

soldiers

on

the

battlefield,

or Charles

V

But the life of the political-Christian prince cannot be solely vigilance,

toil and travels, for he must also enjoy periods of relief and rest. The monarch

himself recognized

this in his comment

to Sister Maria that ,,in

[salga el rey de su corte,

order t work more it is necessary from time to time to take some rest in the countryside” [para trabajar mas es menester tomar de cuando en cuando algun alivio en el campo (11-6-1647)]. This explains, then, his more or less

sus vasallos, satisfagalos, mirelos y consuélelos]. Arredondo Sirodey 1998 (117-151).

and even Bals4in—are mentioned in the letters periodically. The tranquility

los soldados los mismos, habran de repetir lo mismo?”.

Francisco

Manuel de Mello also

recommends that ,,the king leave his court and attend to those who cry out to him and

need him, let him go to Aragôn, let him tread the soil of Catalonia, let him show himself to his vassals, let him satisfy them, see them and console them”

acuda a los que le llaman y le han menester, llegue a Aragôn, pise Cataluña, muéstrese a Garcia Lopez (237-260).

brief respites in the Royal Country-houses—El

Escorial, Aranjuez, El Pardo

54

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

of country life, the enjoyment of the hunt, or spiritual retreat to San Lorenzo, were found to be extraordinarily pleasant by Philip IV, who nevertheless did not abandon completely his duties towards the monarchy, for

which

reason

we

can

speak

more

appropriately

of

an

,,active

rest”

[descanso activo]. And thus, the king withdrew to El Escorial ,,where there

are many good fields and hunting, which give me some diversion, but I never fail to attend to business” [donde hay muy buenos campos y caza, con que me divierto algo sin faltar a los despachos (11-2-1648)]; he enjoyed the countryside of Aranjuez, even if ,,I only stayed there briefly, in order to be able to attend more closely to the business at hand” [detüveme poco alli, por volver a asistir mas cerca a los negocios (5-10-1651)]; and he accompanied the royal family for a few days to the Pardo which, ,,since it is no more than two leagues away from here, one can enjoy the country without ignoring business” [como no esta a mas de dos leguas de aqui, se puede gozar del campo sin faltar a los negocios (1-6-1654)].!? This attitude has points of contact with Saavedra’s impresa 72 ,,Vires alit” [He nourishes his strength], in which a hand rests on the water shoot of a fountain in order to prevent the flow of water, however, because the water is stronger, it surges out from

between the hand’s fingers; rest, which reinvigorates one’s strength, is necessary in all labors, as evidenced by the water that flows with more vitality after its course is interrupted (812-818). Saavedra clarifies, however, that a prince’s rest from his labors must be such that he never loses sight of them,

just as Fernando

el Catélico

enjoyed

it, who

,,when

he went

out

hunting, always kept his ears open to the dispatches read to him by a secretary, and his eyes fixed on the flight of the herons” [cuando salia de caza, tenia los ofdos atentos a los despachos que le leia un secretario, y los

ojos al vuelo de las garzas]. Following Saavedra’s counsel, the parallelism between Philip IV and his ancestors is evident. The Art of Governing his Subjects

In the governance of his states the political-Christian prince should avail himself of his virtues, which make him a mirror and model of comportment for all his subjects. Prudence is the political virtue par excellence of the prince, manifesting itself in the majority of instances as dissimulation, by astutely hiding his actions and thoughts. The notion of dissimulation appears continually in the 19 Similar references appear continually in the correspondence from Philip TV to Sister Maria, and instensify in the final years; in addition to those letters already mentioned, other examples

can be found

in: 4-28-1648; 2-11-1650;

1-4-1651;

1-15-1652;

10-2-1652;

4-20-1654; 10-17-1655; 12-30-1656; 5-22-1657; 11-20-1657; 11-6-1658; 4-21-1659; 10-181659; 10-13-1660; and 1-22-1661.

Azanza: Philip IV’s Letters to Sister Maria De Agreda correspondence

between

Philip IV and

55

Sister Maria, inasmuch

as it is a

concept full assimilated by the monarch in his labors of governance. Thus it is readily apparent when he refers to his relationship with his ministers, a relationship in which , find myself obliged to dissemble” [me hallo obligado a disimular (9-4-1645)]; it is also evident in the difficult negotiations with the Courts of Aragon, which were reluctant to surrender to the king any kind of assistance for the war effort, and it is obvious in his repeated insistence that ,,I appease and I dissemble with them” [yo contemporizo y disimulo con ellos (6-17-1646)], and therefore ,,it is necessary to dissimulate” [es menester disimular (7-27-1646)]; or finally, with reference to the insurgencies that had arisen in Sicily and Naples, Philip’s reliance on

dissimulation is seen in his acknowledgement ,,in these tempestuous times it

is necessary to make use of dissimulation and tolerance more than force” [en estos tiempos de borrasca es menester valerse de la disimulacién y tolerancia mas que de la fuerza (8-21-1647)]. The monarch’s attitude coincides fully with that of Saavedra, who judged that all the actions of government should be accompanied by the prudence counselled by ,,reason of State” [razon de Estado]; in this context,

dissembling becomes the monarch’s greatest virtue, and Saavedra dedicates several imprese to it.2 The most significant of these is number 43, ,,Ut sciat

regnare” [So that he might know how to rule], a motto inspired by the sentence that king Louis XI of France considered to be unique in the education of his son Charles VIII?! and which features in its pictura a regal throne with the Nemean lion skin hanging from its canopy, its head crowned with serpents, to signify that in order to know how to rule, the prince needs to cover his strength and valor with prudence and dissimulation, adapting himself to the circumstances and never exceeding the

boundaries of deceit (524-532) (Fig. 3). A similar lesson is contained in imprese numbers 44 ,,Nec a quo, nec ad quem”, [Neither away from anyone nor towards anyone], in which a serpent becomes a symbol of the prince’s prudence due to its ability to move without anyone being able to predict in

which direction (533-539); and 45 ,,Non maiestate securus”, [Not secure in

majesty], in which just as the lion sleeps with its eyes half-open, thus the prince must dissimulate and make all believe that he maintains a permanent vigilance (540-544).

And

in zmprese numbers

18 ,,A Deo”,

[From

God], 22

»Praesidia maiestatis”, [Defenses of Majesty], 32 ,,Ne te quaesiveris extra”

[Do not seek yourself outside), and 49 ,,Lumine solis” [By the light of the

20 For an analysis of dissimulation as a political virtue defended in emblematic texts, see Dowling (57-69), Lépez Poza 2000 (221-233), Grande Yäñez (189-200) y Pérez Gilhou (111-118). 21

,,Qui nescit disimulare, nescit regnare”

does not know how to rule].

[He who

does not know

how

to dissimulate,

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

56

sun] Saavedra deals with the convenience to the prince of dissembling, as the diplomat from Murcia considers the need for the prince to weigh his actions and not be carried away by vengeance (329-341, 369-377, 444-449 and 579-586). Not all of those close to the monarch advised him to adopt this attitude;

and thus, the duke of Alcala announced from his viceroyalty in Naples in 1629

that ,,the time has come

to remove

the mask

of dissimulation and

confront France once and for all” [ha llegado la hora de quitarse la mascara del disimulo y vérselas de una vez pata siempre con Francia]? On the other hand,

Sister Maria

praised

the

ruler’s

prudence,

,,a virtue

which

is the

greatest and principal among the cardinal virtues” [virtud que, entre las cardinales, es la mayor y mas principal], and therefore ,,kings and princes have great need for it” [los reyes y principes la necesitan mucho]; the prudent monarch will be just, brave and pious, and ,,he will learn from the

past, put the present in good order and prepare for prudence looks at all times, past, present and future” pasado, ordena lo presente y se previene para lo futuro, a todos tiempos mira (8-14-1654)]. Without doubt, this

the future, because [se enmienda de lo porque la prudencia reflection by the nun

brings to mind Saavedra’s impresa 28 ,,Quae sint, quae

fuerint, quae mox

ventura trahantur” [What is, what has been, what soon will be], in which we see an hour-glass with a scepter around resting against it on a small hill in the center. Coiled around the scepter is a crowned serpent. The central image is reflected in two mirrors, one on each side. With this impresa Saavedra wants to convey that the actions of governance, accompanied by prudence, should be carried out while keeping in mind the past and considering the future, which are depicted by the two lateral mirrors (412418). Another of the fundamental virtues of the prince is justice. Philip IV was explicit in emphasizing the importance of justice in the governance of the monarchy, acknowledging it as ,,the corner-stone of government” [la piedra fundamental del gobierno (6-9-1646)] and ,,the foundation on which the entire governance of a monarchy rests” [la basa sobre la que carga todo el gobierno de una monarquia (4-19-1655)]. He considered the need to administer justice fairly in his kingdoms—a task that fell to the monarch and his ministers—and to succeed in the administration of both distributive as well as punitive justice (10-4-1651). Sister Maria also affirmed that his ptimary obligation as a Catholic king was to administer justice, a virtue which ,,aggrandizes regal Crowns and endows monarchs with dominion and

power”

[engrandece

las Coronas

reales y da imperio

y potestad

57

his judgement, the supreme power of the monarchy consists of the proper administration of justice, for it is not in vain that ,,true politics are founded

on the rocks of laws, and not on those of the will” [sobre las piedras de las leyes, no de la voluntad, se funda la verdadera politica], and therefore in a series of imprese he offered his advice to the prince on the application of this virtue.*> This is the case for impresa 21 ,,Regit et corrigit” [He rules and corrects], which features the reins and bridle of a horse hanging in mid-air to signify that laws must be the basis for politics and reason of State, a tie to and a bridle for the people, to rule over and correct them. Also dedicated to justice are imprese numbers 22 ,,Praesidia maiestatis” [Defenses of majesty],

alluding to the fact that justice must be accompanied

by clemency, 23

,Pretium virtutis” [The price of virtue], and 40 ,,Quae tribuunt tribuit” [He

redistributes what he is given], in which he develops his theory on distributive justice. Other references to justice can be found in imprese

numbers 58 ,,Sin pérdida de su luz” [Without loss of light], which deals with

the prince’s distribution of honors (675-684), and 59 ,,Col senno e con la mano” [With prudence and with the hand] 238, in which he insists on the need for justice for the good governance of the State (685-704). A just prince will also be one who knows how to govern by combining severity with kindness in equal parts; Philip IV acknowledged this with reference to the rebellion in Naples, when he recognized that moderation and tolerance needed to be used more than force (8-21-1647). Sister Maria herself indicated to the monarch the convenience of ,,mollifying his subjects with tenderness more than with rigor” [suavizando a los sujetos con blandura mas que con rigor (8-16-1647)]; and she urged the monarch constantly in that

direction,

suggesting

that

,he

should

govern

with

gentleness

and

strength, building and not destroying, correcting and not eradicating” [debe gobernar con suavidad y fortaleza, edificando y no destruyendo, corrigiendo y no acabando (2-15-1647)]. Saavedra Fajardo was also explicit in this respect in his impresa 38 ,,Con halago i con rigor” [With flattery and with tigor], the pictura of which features a colt that bows its head towards the hand of its trainer, who at the same time that he pets it and brushes its forelock,

threatens

it with

a raised

stick; this is how

the prince

should

educate his subjects, by combining severity with kindness, in order to inspire in them both love and fear based on respect (485-492). Charity must be added along with prudence and justice, and is a virtue that plays an important role in the values of the ruler. Philip IV himself had no

hesitation

in

affirming

that

,,the virtue

of charity

is the

basis

and

a los

monarcas (9-29-1651)]. Saavedra expressed himself along the same lines. In 22 Letter from the Duke of Alcala to Olivares, 4-27-1629. Stradling (151).

Azanza: Philip IV’s Letters to Sister Maria De Agreda

23 Saavedra detailed his doctrine on justice in the imprese numbered 21, 22 and 23,

which were among the ones that received the most modification in the second edition of the work. Saavedra Fajardo (356-387).

58

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

foundation of all others” [la virtud de la caridad es la basa y fundamento de todas las otras (7-2-1654)]. But exercising charity in the socio-economic context in which his reign developed was no easy matter, for from 1640 on, in addition to the wars abroad, he had to deal with internal peninsular conflicts, with the uprising in Catalonia and Portugal’s proclamation of independence. These uprisings meant a multiplication of the provisions necessary for his troops and made it problematical to find the means to meet expenses, leading to a declaration of bankruptcy in 1647, an event that resulted in a deluge of taxes, the number, intensity and frequency of which increased in an unstoppable manner.*+ Concern about the economic difficulties of the populace and about social peace is a constant presence in the epistolary exchange, and it echoes continually the anxiety that burdened the basic problems faced by the monarchy: war complicated the situation of the poor and menaced the established order, demanding truly inspired forms of governance. Philip IV was aware of this reality that deprived him of ,,many hours of sleep”

Azanza: Philip IV’s Letters to Sister Maria De Agreda

59

contribute; for if the burden is widespread, it will not be as bothersome”

[concurran también los ricos y poderosos; que siendo la carga general no pesara ni irritara tanto (6-1-1652)]. And she reflected at the same time on the avarice of those who insomuch

as

many

collect taxes, which

altercations

,,are not

harms

the monarch

provoked

so much

grievously,

against

Your

Majesty nor your taxes as they are against the grievous surcharges levelled by your ministers, who in order to collect two make people dole out four” [no

son movidos tanto contra Vuestra Majestad ni sus tributos, cuanto contra las

sobrecargas que agravan y echan los ministros, que para cobrar dos hacen

gastar cuatro 8-30-1647)]. These ideas are reflected in Saavedra’s impresa 67, which, beneath the motto ,,Poda y no corta” [It prunes, and does not cut] shows in its pictura a

tree from whose branches a pruning knife hangs, and beneath the tree, pruned branches lie on the ground (Fig. 4); signifying that the peasant does not fell the tree when he needs firewood, but he takes instead only the dried

from the taxes and tributes that they pay, although my desire to be able to do so is infinite” [no poder librar a los pobres de las contribuciones y tributos que pagan, aunque lo deseo infinito (7-15-1648)]. As concerns

branches so that the tree will continue to benefit him in future years. In the same way, the prince should consider the amount and the time and not exploit his kingdom foolishly with excessive taxes, and should instead hold on to his assets for times of need. The prince cannot avoid imposing taxes, because ,,there cannot be peace without weapons, nor weapons without

[cuanto es posible para el alivio de los pobres vasallos (6-12-1652)], who ,,I love as if they were my own children” [quiero como si fueran mis hijos] and who I will care for with great affection” [de los que cuidaré con todo cariño

of peace” [son los tributos precio de la paz]. But he should assess them in moderation, showing gentleness in their collection and attempting to carry

[muchas horas de sueño] and he lamented ,,not being able to free the poor

charity, he promised to do ,,as much as I can to alleviate the poor subjects”

(12-5-1661)]. Among other measures adopted, he ordered his ministers to collect taxes ,,from the poor subjects with the least harm possible” [con el

menor dafio que pudieren de los pobres vasallos (2-15-1646)], who they should treat ,,with the love and tenderness that they deserve” [con el amor y blandura que es raz6n (6-12-1652)]. Just as soon as the economic situation improved, he proceeded to alleviate his kingdom ,,from some taxes; may God grant us a period of time when I can free them from the rest” [de algunos tributos; Dios nos dé tiempo en que pueda aliviarlos de los demas

(10-2-11647)]. And he attempted to burden ,,ministers and people who we know have more wealth than they need” [ministros y personas que sabemos tienen mas hacienda de la que han menester (7-27-1650)|*> with greater taxes. Likewise, Sister Maria begged him ,,to avoid the oppression of the poor” [evite la opresién de los pobres] and that“the rich and powerful also

24 Stradling (222). 25 Already in 1627, Philip TV had affirmed before the Council of Castille that ,,it is better to burden the rich with taxes than to oppress the poor and needy subjects of Castille” [es mejor gravar con impuestos a los ricos que oprimir a los vasallos pobres y menesterosos

de Castilla]. Stradling (276-277).

salaries, nor

salaries without

taxes”

[no puede

haber

paz

sin las armas,

ni

armas sin sueldos, ni sueldos sin tributos], and therefore ,,taxes are the price

this out without avarice nor cruelty. What is more, when levying taxes, ,,the

greatest weight” [el mayor peso] fall ,,on the rich and powerful, and that peasants and craftsmen be spared the burden, because they make up the part of the republic that it is most important to support and preserve” [sobre los

ricos y poderosos, y queden aliviados los labradores y oficiales, que son la

parte que mas conviene mantener en la republica]. Saavedra does not forget to remind the prince—as did Sister Maria—that the greatest obstacle associated with taxes resided in their collectors who, in many instances, were

, businessmen and usurers who are no less effective in plundering a ship that arrives at port than a shipwreck” [negociantes y usureros que no menos despojan la nave que llega al puerto que el naufragio], and for that reason at times they do more harm than the levies themselves; because, the diplomat concludes, who

could blame towns for resenting taxes, if they have to pay

one to the prince and ten to the tax collector?” [:qué mucho que sientan los pueblos las contribuciones, si pagan uno al principe y diez a quien las cobra?] (764-773). The next value added to those previously elaborated is religiosity, both in the prince and in his subjects. In a monarchy founded on the Church—

60

Hispanic Emblems

the ,,Hic tutior” [Here is safer] of Saavedra’s

and Literature

1mpresa 25 is very explicit in

this respect—the monarch must act with firmness when it comes time to keep watch over religiosity in his kingdoms, for his safety depends on it, according to the priovidentialist vision that combines moral and political

contents;

this is true to such

that

more

an extent that Philip

IV, one

of the most

devout of the Spanish monarchs de los monarchs, did not hesitate to affirm ,the

we

offend

Our

Lord,

the

more

weapons

we

give

to our

enemies” [cuanto mas ofendemos a Nuestro Sefior mas armas damos a nuestros enemigos (3-7-1646)]. For that reason he insisted time and again on the need to ,remedy

the most notorious

excesses of the republic and the

sins of scandal” [remediar los excesos mas notorios de la republica y los pecados de escandalo (6-6-1645)]; and he wrote continually to his prelates

and ministers, urging them to ,keep vigil in order to assure that divine law is

enforced inviolately” [vigilen por que se guarde inviolablemente la (5-25-1650)} and to ,,avoid with all due care and punish with ail public and scandalous sins” feviten con todo cuidado y castiguen rigor pecados publicos y escandalosos (8-18-1655)], adopting

ley divina due rigor con todo effective

measures to this end as the ,,only means to placate the wrath of Our Lor Re fanico medio para aplacar la ira de Nuestro Señor (2-15-1646)].# Along

these lines, in #mpresa 24 , Immobilis ad immobile numen” [Unable to move against the immovable spirit], Saavedra insists on the importance of the monarch maintaining religious unity in his kingdom, asserting that ,,we see more princes overthrown by diverse opinions in religion than by weapons” [mas principes vemos despojados por las opiniones diversas de religion que por las armas]; within the framework of a Europe eaten away by heresies,

the diplomat from Murcia believed that the greatest dangers derived from

the religious excision that could arise from within the State itself. For Saavedra, religion is ,,the soul of republics” [el alma de las repüblicas”], and

it is not in vain that the Spanish monarchy is founded ,,on the pedestal of faith more than on the columns of valor” [sobre la base de la fe mas que

sobre las columnas del valor]; and for this reason he warns, in empresa 27

Specie relligionis” [Under the guise of religion], by means of the image of the Trojan horse that is harmless in appearance, of the danger discussions on religion, which should not be allowed because they would give rise to disorders and the disintegration of the monarchy”

In the final analysis, in his conduct as 2 political-Christian prince, Philip

IV always resorted to the example of his ancestors as a model to follow; he 26 Similar expressions are repeated throughout the epistolary exchange, as can be seen in letters from: 10-9-1645; 10-18-1645; 11-6-1645; 7-10-1647; 1-9-1664; 3-18-1664; and 528-1664.

27 Saavedra’s notion of religion in the service of politics is developed by Murillo Ferrol 191-213).

Azanza: Philip IV’s Letters to Sister Maria De Agreda confessed

as

much

to

Sister

Maria

when

he

promised

61 ,,to

follow

the

examples of my ancestors, who governed these kingdoms in such a just and holy manner” [seguir los ejemplares de mis antepasados, que tan justa y santamente gobernaron estos reinos (1-30-1647)]. In his letters the allusions to bygone monarchs are numerous, primarily to Charles V, whose work in defense of religion is praised (3-25-1654) and to Philip II, whose prudence

in his way of governing is exalted (1-30-1647), as well as his work in founding the Escorial Monastery (11-2-1648). Saavedra employs the same argument,

recommending

that the

prince

,,turn his eyes

to his glorious

ancestors, from king Ferdinand the Catholic to Philip II, who built the greatness of this monarchy” [vuelva los ojos a sus gloriosos progenitores, desde el rey don Fernando el Catélico hasta Filipe Segundo, que fabricaron la grandeza desta monarquia], so that ,,by means of this study of History Your Highness will be able to enter more safely the gulf of governance, utilizing as the captain of your ship the experience of the past to give you direction in the present” [con este estudio de la Historia podra V.A. entrar mas seguro en el golfo del gobierno, teniendo por piloto a la experiencia de lo pasado para la direccién de lo presente], as he indicates in impresa 28. And he expresses himself in similar terms in impresa 16 ,,Purpura iuxta purpuram” [Purple next to purple], in which we see on a table two bolts of cloth dyed purple, a symbol of regal dignity, for in order to appreciate differences,

similar

things

must

be

compared;

therefore

the

prince

must

contrast his virtues with those of his glorious ancestors, for such a comparison will be the safest teacher in order to succeed in his governance (315-321).

The System of Governance: Ministers and the Royal Favourite The system of governance occupies an important chapter in the correspondence between the king and the nun, especially in the decade of the 1640s; an interest in and concern about the correct functioning of the monarchy by means of a smoothing meshing of the gears made up of the ministers and royal favourite are a constant in the letters from these years. Our point of departure is the unquestionable reality of the need for ministers and advisers to help the monarch in his task of governing; Philip IV himself acknowledge this need by affirming that the monarchy requires ministers, both military and political, to govern it, since the King, without them, cannot attend to everything” [ministros asi militares como politicos que la gobiernen, pues el Rey, sin ellos, no puede acudir a todo (7-29-1648)].

From this initial premise, his familiarity and harmony with his ministers is fundamental

for the good governance of his realms, and thus, the king does

not hesitate to listen to them and take into account their opinions: ,,I listen

62

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

63

Azanza: Philip IV’s Letters to Sister Maria De Agreda

to all the ministers who want to speak with me, so that by getting more information I can act correctly all the better” [oigo a todos los ministros que quieren hablarme, para que tomando mas noticias se pueda acertar major (924-1645)]. He assured Sister Maria that ,,I keep my door open and do not deny entrance to anyone who wants to talk to me; and I tend to call on those ministers I trust the most to consult with them and find out the most convenient course of action” [tengo la puerta abierta y a nadie que quiere hablarme le niego la entrada; y suelo llamar a los ministros de mayor satisfacciôn mia para preguntarles y descubrir lo que tengo por conveniente (7-1-1648)].28 The nun also urged him on numerous occasions to listen in

help him with vigilance, so that their counsel may serve to be a forewarning of possible misfortunes and a provider in times of need (644-657). A sensible prince will allow himself to be warned and advised by his ministers,

opinions one tends to discover the truth better” [entre muchos y buenos pareceres se suele descubrir mejor la verdad (6-26-1648)]. But, one he had all the information at his disposal, the final decision fell solely to the monarch, a rule of conduct that Philip IV willing assumed, affirming that ,,having first heard the opinion of the ministers, in most instances 1 myself make the final resolutions, for this is just and what should be done” [habiendo oido primero el parecer de los ministros, en lo mas tomo por mi lo ultimo de las resoluciones, que esto es justo y debido hacerse”(1-9-1647)]; and a little later

make

order to succeed in his decisions, and to consider that ,,from many and good

he repeated

that ,,the final resolutions

do

not

pass

through

any

further

review, for it is my understanding that this falls to me” [las ültimas resoluciones no pasan por otra censura, pues es esto lo que yo entiendo que a mi me toca (1-30-1647)]. Saavedra shares fully this view of the system of governance, beginning

with the need for ministers to help the monarch in his labors, since ,,there is no prince so wise that he can comprehend everything with his science, nor so solicitous and hard-working that he can get everything done by himself” [πο hay principe tan sabio, que con su ciencia lo pueda alcanzar todo, ni tan solicito y trabajador, que todo lo pueda obrar por si solo]. He relates this notion in his impresa 49 ,,Lumine solis” [By the light of the sun); as a result, »a republic, just like a ship, is better governed when everyone attends to his own job” [mas bien gobernada es una repüblica cuando en ella, como en la nave, atiende cada uno a su oficio] (impresa 52). In order to succeed in his actions of governance, the monarch has the obligation to listen and to allow himself

to

be

counselled,

as

indicated

in

impresa

55

,,His

praevide

et

provide” [With them he foresees and provides for]. Here, by means of an image featuring an arm protected by armor and holding a scepter with three embedded

eyes, he conveys the meaning that the prince needs advisers to

28 In addition, in the prologue of his translation of the Historia de Italia, with respect to

his own education in the profession of being king, Philip TV assures the reader of ,,always

having my ears open to all those who might want to speak to me” [siempre los oidos

abiertos para todos los que me quisieren hablar].

for ,,princes were born powerful, but not learned. If they are willing to hear,

they will know how to rule” [los principes nacieron poderosos, pero no ensefiados. Si quisieren oft, sabrân gobernar (impresa 28)]. To this end, it is important that ,,the doors of their palaces always remain open, and that the

prince not close them” [estén siempre abiertas las puertas de los palacios, y no las cierre el principe], so that he will be able to ,,hear kindly” [oiga benignamente], Saavedra concludes in his impresa 39. The prince listens to the opinion of his ministers during the consultation, but it is he who must the

final decision.

Saavedra

summarizes

his view

this: ΤῸ

decide

everything without counsel is presumptuous temerity. To take action based wholly on the opinion of others is ignorant servitude” [Resolvello todo sin consejo es presumida temeridad. Ejecutallo todo por parecer ajeno, ignorante servidumbre], and he affirms that the prince cannot be content to remit problems to the counsel of his ministers and hope that they come up

with the solutions, for in that case he would never be able to discern if it is

the correct course of action or if he has made a mistake (493-500). Saavedra

also insists on this idea in his impresa 57 ,,Uni reddatur” [Let it be reduced to

just one], in which he compares the efficacy of the government to the complex mechanism of a table clock (663-674); for ministers are the clock’s inner wheels or gears on whose work the correct functioning of the the entire apparatus depends, but in the end it is the prince who must make the decisions, like the hand of a clock that indicates the hour.2?

Philip IV therefore assumed the full responsibility that was his as a right and as a duty from birth. But was he really a decisive and authoritative monarch when it came to making decisions? Not everyone thought so, and

there were even some who accused him of having a pusillanimous disposition, among

them

the Venetian

ambassador

Pietro Bassadona.

In his

opinion, the king seemed to be limited to an impersonal arbitration in carrying out the governance of the monarchy, reduced to being an inert instrument of his own ministers; and he availed himself, curiously, of the example of a clock in order to criticize the monarch’s lack of decisiveness,

accusing him of being moved solely by the wheels of his ministers.3 Sister 29 Epistolario español, vol. IV. Cartas de sor Maria de Jestis de Agreda y de Felipe IV (LHI-

LIV).

in un 30 ,,Questo monarca, in cui concorrono tutte le parti che si possono desiderare che modo de de’re: requisito o principalisim risoluzione, di uomo, manca totalmente

nell’orologio del suo governo fa l’unico uffizio del raggio che indica Pore, ma viene egli medesimo girato dalle ruote de’ministri, non avendo per sé stesso movimiento alcuno

...”. Epistolario español, vol. IV. Cartas de sor Maria de Jess de Agreda y de Felipe IV,

64

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

Maria was also aware of Philip’s weakness both in the spiritual realm as well as in his labors of governance, and therefore in their epistolary exchange she urged him time and again to stiffen his will in wanting to make decisions and in carrying them out. She also beseeched him to act resolutely and swiftly, since ,,when there is something that must be done sooner or later, it is better

to anticipate it and prepare for it in advance than to expose it to danger by blocking it with so many delays” [lo que se ha de hacer tarde o temprano mejor es anticiparlo y prevenirlo con tiempo, que exponerlo al peligro interponiendo tantas dilaciones (7-25-1648)].3! The firmness and swiftness in the execution of decisions that the nun requests of Philip IV can be related to Saavedra’s impresa 64 ,,Resolver i executar”

[To resolve and to

execute], in which the wheels of a scythed chariot, whose velocity depends on the speed of the knife blades on the wheels, remind the prince of the necessity of bringing together the resolution taken and its prompt execution, without any delay that might take away from its efficacy; for hesitation in

acting was perceived as a vice in great monarchies, since ,,just an hour of

inattention in fortresses destroys the vigilance and care of many years” [na hora de descuido en las fortalezas pierde la vigilancia y cuidado de muchos anos]. There should not be, therefore, any delay between the decision and its implementation, so that there is so great a correspondence between the two, Saavedra concludes, that ,,it appears as though they are governed by a single movement” [que parezca es un mismo movimiento el que los gobierna] (739-744). Returning to the figure of the ministers, it was important that they be

virtuous and watch out for the interests of the monarchy instead of their own, something that does not seem to have occurred in reality. The laments voiced by Philip IV were constant,

for he was

aware

that ,,the ministers

attend more to their own interests than they do to fulfilling the obligation of

their ministry” [los ministros atienden mas a sus intereses propios que a

cumplir con la obligacién de su ministerio” (6-6-1645)]. The majority are

guided

by ambition

and

their own

private ends”

[la ambicién

y fines

pp. LIII-LIV. In this respect, Sanchez de Toca opined that, if it was risky for the king to entrust the labor of governance to a favourite, it was no less likely to result in great

errors and governmental ungainliness to allow a will with as little firmness as that of Philip IV to be the only driving force behind the entire machinery of our State” [era no menos sujeto a grandes desaciertos y torpezas de gobierno el intentar que una voluntad sin firmeza como la de Felipe IV fuese la ünica fuerza motora de toda nuestra maquina del Estado], given the monarch’s personal inability to govern by himself. Sanchez de

Toca (179). Marafién denounced the monarch’s ,paralytical will” [voluntad paralitica] and

Azanza: Philip IV’s Letters to Sister Maria De Agreda

65

particulares (6-17-1648)], he confessed to Sister Maria, who agreed with the monarch that ,,those who govern Spain attend more to satisfying their appetites and increasing their own self-interests than to the service of God and of Your Majesty” [los que gobiernan a España atienden mas αἱ cumplimiento de sus apetitos y a los aumentos de sus intereses, que al servicio de Dios y de V.M. (7-25-1648)]. The king attempted to watch out for the exemplary conduct of his ministers, but this task proved to be extremely difficult for him, to the point that he admitted that matters weat me out more than the general affairs of the me fatigan estas cosas domésticas que las materias generales (6-17-1648)]. Without doubt, avarice was the vice most

,,these domestic Monarchy” [mas de la Monarquia common among

ministers, as Philip IV openly acknowledged when he reminded Sister Maria that ,,you will have clearly heard me complain at times while in this convent of how much effort it has cost me to keep an eye on the hands of my ministers” [bien me habréis ofdo quejar algunas veces estando en ese convento, del cuidado que me costaba mirar a las manos a los ministros (130-1647)]. The image can be conected with impresa 53 ,,Custodiunt non carpunt” [They guard without reaping benefits], which depicts statues of the god Terminus at the entrance of a garden, for just as the termini that guard gardens have no arms, thus should ministers guard the public treasury exempt from the vice of avarice, which would induce them to appropriate for themselves that which they should be protecting. Saavedra reminds the prince

that he should

avoid

the avarice of those

appropriate public goods in order to amass their own

ministers

who

tend

to

fortunes, since ,,where

greed reigns, quietude and peace are lacking, seditions and civil wars increase

and empires fall” [donde reina la codicia, falta la quietud y la paz, aumentan las sediciones y las guerras civiles y caen los imperios] (629-635). Therefore, Philip IV’s vigilance to nip in the bud the ambition of his ministers is not sutprising since, as the emblematist warns, the consequences can be disastrous. The diplomat from Murcia also refers to ministers as a model of conduct in his impresa 52 ,,Mas que en la tierra nocivo”

|More dangerous

than on earth], where he insists on the integrity of the people who occupy high positions,

for in its absence

they can cause much

harm

from

their

elevated positions (620-628). Along with the ministers, the position of royal favourite was of capital

importance in the system of governance of Philip IV. Without attempting to

exhaust the historical complexity of the isssue, it is clear that the fall of Olivares entailed a change of policy that obligated Philip IV to reconsider the relationship between the favourite and the monarch. To begin with,

his ,,paralysis of decision and of initiative” [parälisis de decision y de iniciativa]. Marañôn

Philip IV manifested very early on his objection to the position of royal

31 Reflections of this kind are also found in letters from 2-28-1646; 7-14-1646; 2-15-

intent to ,,deviate from the past path and means of governance” [apartarme

(232-234).

1647; and 8-9-1658.

q

favourite in the way that it had been envisioned up until that time, and his

66

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

del camino y modo del gobierno pasado}; to such an extent that ,,although there is no lack of people who want to show off some degree of enjoying favoritism, they are sorely deceived” [aunque no faltan personas que quieran ostentar algun valimiento, viven engañados (10-16-1643)]. The nun encouraged this attitude, recommending to the king that he govern with no other help than that of God (10-13-1643); he should never allow his inferiors to pretend to be his head nor share his power with any royal

favourite, rather he should be ,,like the sun among the stars, that attends to everuthing, influences, illuminates, and nothing stains it, offends it or

separates it from its greatness” [como sol entre las estrellas, que a todo lo atiende, influye, alumbra y nada le mancha

y le ofende, ni le aparta de su

grandeza], an argument that she would reinforce after the revelations of the soul of prince Baltasar Carlos. Nevertheless, four years later (1-30-1647), the king qualified his opinion on this matter, so that based on the experience of his ancestors

and his own

as well, he developed

an entire theory on the

system of governance that did not completely reject the position of royal

favourite, admitting that ,,such a system of governance has been in existence over the course of all Monarchies, both ancient and modern, that have ever

existed, and not a single one has been without a principal minister who has been at the service of his masters” [tal modo de gobierno ha corrido en todas cuantas Monarquias, asi antiguas como modernas, ha habido en todos los tiempos, pues en ninguna ha dejado de haber un ministro principal de quien se valen mas sus dueños]. In this he followed the example of Philip Il, defending the existence of the royal favourite, but he added two reflections

on the matter. In the first place, the choice of the favourite should fall to an upright person who has a reputation for virtues and ability to do the job,

since ,,given the fact that while we are alive be must utilize the services of

men, it seems to us pardonable to turn to those who have proven to be of complete satisfaction, provided that they are not caught doing something wrong or they are known to abuse the favors bestowed upon them” [supuesto que mientras estamos en esta vida nos hemos de servir de hombres, nos parece excusable el valernos de los que se tiene mayor

satisfacciôn, mientras no se les coge en mala letra o se sabe abusan de la

merced que se les hace]. With this in mind, the appointment of Luis de Hato

was logical, for his virtue was well-known, because ,,from the time he was 4

boy he was raised with me, and I have never observed anything unbecoming

in him, nor in his habits, nor in anything he has told me” [desde muchacho,

se crié conmigo y nunca he reconocido en él cosa fea ni en las costumbres ni en lo que me ha representado]. On the other hand, the king vowed never to loosen his grip on the reigns of decision-making, and to govern , without

giving to the minister anything more than he is due” [sin dar al ministro mas de lo que le toca]; that is to say, the figure of the royal favourite would be

67

Azanza: Philip IV’s Letters to Sister Maria De Agreda

substantially removed from the plenipotentiary nature he enjoyed in the epoch of Olivares and would no longer have absolute control of power.” In broad strokes, Philip IV’s policy with respect to the topic of the royal favourite coincides with that proposed by Saavedra Fajardo in his impresa 49 with the motto ,,Lumine solis” [By the light of the sun], which depicts a starry nocturnal sky in which shines a moon in its waning phase (Fig. 5); its meaning is that the favourite (moon) and ministers (stars) do not shine with their own light, but rather with the borrowed light of the prince (sun), who much choose his auxilaries carefully, and in whom he should not entrust governance entirely, but rather only that part that exceeds his own strength. Saavedra coincides with the king in the convenience of ,,keeping close to the prince some minister who, unencumbered with other business, while listen

and relate, acting as an intermediary between the prince and his subjects” [que se halle cerca del principe algun ministro que, desembarazado de otros

negocios, oiga y refiera, siendo como medianero entre él y los vasallos] (579-

586). Having acknowledged the need for a favourite, the emblematist, just

like the monarch,

added two further considerations on the matter: in the

first place, the prince must choose correctly, appraising the merits and loyalty of the candidate; in the second place, he must never yield him more power

than

that necessary

to carry out his tasks, ,,because

if he gives him

everything, he will be handing over to him the job of prince” [porque si todo se lo entrega, le entregarä el oficio de principe], and therefore the favourite should go about his work ,,as a shadow, and not as a body” [como

sombra, no como cuerpol.# Specifications on the proper conduct of the favourite

continue

in impresa

50 ,,lovi et fulmini”

[With Jupiter and his

lightning bolts], an authentic treatise on the position of the royal favourite that concludes with a warning to the prince on the risks entailed in this model of governance (587-609).

32 On this topic Stradling affirms that in reality, after the fall of Olivares, the royal favourite as an instrument of governance

was in effect abolished, and therefore, during

the period of Luis de Haro’s ascendancy, his ministry never met the conditions necessary

to be truly deemed a favourite, having instead more in common with the powerful royal secretaries

of the

reign

of Philip

II and

of the

so-called

,,prime

ministers”

[primeros

ministros] of the last monarch of the house of Austria than with the dominant position achieved by the only true favourites (Lerma and Olivares). Haro never enjoyed the absolute monopoly on politics displayed by the royal favourites. Stradling (371-380). of 33 As concerns this expression, we would do well to recall the phrase that forms part 1639, 17th, January on Retiro Buen the of the speech of the Conde-Duque to the Courts when he affirmed that I, as shadow and echo of His Majesty and as the dust beneath his royal feet, have no opinion but to follow his” [yo, como

sombra y eco de Su Majestad y

como polvo de sus teales pies, no tengo dictamen sino seguir el suyo]. Marañén 448).

(447-

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

68

In Philip’s system of governance we should address a final point. What role did Sister Maria de Agreda play? Several researchers who have analyzed the correspondence maintain that she acted as a favourite in the political sense of the word, insisting that the nun ruled the monarchy from her cell? If this was really the case, Philip IV would be violating the doctrine of Saavedra, who in his impresa 30 ,,Fulcitur experientiis” [He is supported by experiences] dissuades the monarch from resorting to religious people as political advisers, because secrecy is not assured with them and if they die, their papers pass to their superior; those who profess reigion therefore are only suited for spiritual counsel, and he concludes that ,they are better physicians of the spiritual than of the temporal” [mejores médicos son para lo espiritual que para lo temporal] (425-434). Without denying that Philip IV’s relationship with Sister Maria attained a political dimension, in reality it never went so far as to constitute a case of royal favoritism. The reasons why the king began his correspondence with the nun are explained in his first letter: ,,1 turn to you so that you will fulfill the promise you gave me that you would beseech God to guide my actions and my weapons” [Acudo a vos para que cumplais la palabra que me disteis de clamar a Dios para que guie mis acciones y mis armas (10-4-1643)]. From the perspective of the profoundly religious mentality of the period, Philip IV considered Sister Maria to be a valid mediator before God both in the personal as well as in the political realms, and to that end the monarch communicated to her

those issues for the success of which she should pray to the Lord.*> What is certain is that the king never directly asked her opinion on the great political problems that he had to resolve; likewise—and with just a few isolated exceptions—Sister Maria did not offer detailed advice, but rather moral support, requests for trust in divine assistance and pleas on behalf of justice in governance and moral reform in regal conduct. In fact, it is difficult

34 Such is the case with Sanchez de Toca, who affirms that with the exception of political experience, Sister Maria was endowed to a high degree with all the other qualities

that grace the good counsellor of princes (154-157). Marañôn (237-238) develops this theory abundantly, affirming that Sister Marfa was his favourite, and not only his spiritual adviser” [su valido y no sélo su espiritual consejera|, but he understood the

extreme danger of the situation in his conclusion that ,,it is frightening to consider that

the fate of an Empire like that did not depend so much on the will and criteria of the

head of State so much as on those sheets of paper that messengers brought and took between the Court and the distant convent that was the dwelling of a woman full of holiness and good intent, but who was necessarily inexpert ” [da miedo considerar que la suerte de un Imperio como aquél no dependia de la voluntad y del criterio del jefe del Estado, sino de los pliegos que llevaban y trafan los peatones desde la Corte al remoto convento en que habitaba una mujer llena de santidad y de buen deseo, pero necesatia-

mente inexperta].

35 Agreda (31-32).

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69

to find in the epistolary exchange advice that focuses on decisions of governance; and when she does dare to give her opinion, in many instances the monarch blatantly ignores it, whether it is on the topic of the royal favourite or in matters of war.36 The Military Politics of the Monarchy Each and every one of the monarch’s actions in the realm of military politics is aimed at a single primordial goal: the attainment of peace, which Philip IV considered ,,the business of business” [el negocio de los negocios” (6-1-1656)]. For that reason, he put all means at his disposal to try to achieve

such

a lofty

benefit,

,although

I may

as a result be losing

something” [aunque sea perdiendo algo de mi parte]. Philip IV—who did not hesitate to affirm that ,,if it was necessary to give my life in order to obtain the quietude of Christianity, I would willingly sacrifice it for that reason” [si mi vida fuera necesaria para conseguir la quietud de la Cristiandad, la sacrificaria de muy buena gana por ello (7-20-1645)]- manifested his commitment to personal sacrifice through the marriage of his daughter to

the French king, ,,judging that such a dear treasure would be the mediator of peace” [juzgando que tal prenda habia de ser el iris de paz (6-10-1659)]. In

his desire for peace he coincided with Sister Maria, who advocated achieving it even though it may require concessions, ,,for whatever interests you might lose being lavish in the cause of peace, God will restore to you through other means” [pues lo que fuere V.M. de prodigo dejando intereses por la paz, se los dara Dios por otros caminos (8-14-1645)].

Peace is the greatest good to which Christendom can aspire, and as such it appears throughout the epistolary exchange; but so too does war, and at a time in which the Spanish monarchy is waging battles on several fronts. One of the themes debated continuously in the correspondence is: to what extent can wars undertaken against Christian princes be justified? Philip IV answered this question with a double rationale. The first is that these wars are waged in order to achieve peace and at no time do they have a spirit of conquest or aggrandizement. The second—which he developed more in depth with respect to the confrontation with France declared openly in 1635

by means of the Manifiesto of Louis XIII—is that it is a war that he did not

initiate, and that with it, his sole intent is to recuperate that which has been unjustly usurped from him; Philip IV considered the war with France to be a just war that was imposed

upon

him, and therefore defensive,

holy and

36 See on this topic Pérez Villanueva (372), Garcia Royo (204-233) and Stradling (387-

391). The latter acknowledges nonetheless a degree of influence that Sister Maria exercised on the politics of Philip IV as concerns Portugal.

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religious” [defensiva, santa y religiosa|, as one of the propagandists deemed it.37 That is how he characterized the situation to Sister Maria when he confessed to her that he was provoked by the French king who ,,entered Flanders con strong forces, joining up with those rebels and heretics against me” [entrando en Flandes con grandes fuerzas, uniéndose con aquellos rebeldes y herejes contra mi (7-20-1645)]; later on he reaffirmed that he had acted rightly and with justice, ,,with no other intent but trying to defend the realms that God gave to me” [sin tratar de mas que de defender los reinos que Dios me dio (2-26-1648)]. Philip insisted that ,,on my part the war today cannot be unjust, even though it may be against Christian princes, since they are usurping what God gave to me, and I am trying to defend what I still have left and to recuperate what has been lost” [de mi parte no puede ser la guerra hoy injusta, aunque sea con principes cristianos, pues ellos me usurpan lo que Dios me dio, y yo trato de defender lo que me queda y cobrar lo perdido (7-15-1648)]. For all these reasons, he asked the nun to implore the Lord ,,that we may achieve the recuperation of what has been unjustly usurped in this monarchy, as well as peace for Christianity, which is all that I desire” [que consigamos la recuperacién de lo usurpado injustamente en esta monarquia y la paz de la Cristiandad, que es lo que ünicamente deseo (9-28-1650)]. The monarch’s arguments convinced Sister Maria who, in spite of declaring herself against war between Christian princes, wound up acknowledging the justice of the war with France when

she admitted that ,,in these present times the wars of your Crown are just,

since you seek peace and they will not accept it, and Your Majesty defends what is properly yours, and they want to take it away, therefore, Your Majesty may console yourself that justice is on your side” [en los tiempos presentes las guerras de su Corona son justas, pues quiere paces y no las admiten, y defiende V.M. lo que es suyo en propiedad, pues se lo quieren quitar; pues consuélese V.M. de que la justicia esta de su parte (7-10-1648)]. Philip’s

attitude

towards

matters

of war

can

be

directly

linked

to

Saavedra’s way of thinking; thus, the idea that war can only be justified to

maintain peace becomes a veritable adage repeated here and there in the imprese.# Significant in this respect is impresa 99 ,,Merces belli” [The recompense of war], in which he utilizes the image of a dead lion lying on

37 As for the war with France, Philip IV did not need to have his arm twisted, for he

considered himself to be the offended party and a victim of jealousy and unceasing

aggressions, if not from his Bourbon relatives, at least from their ministers. After all the

efforts and sacrifices made by the king and his subjects in a just war that had been imposed on them, the monarch was not inclined to reach an agreement with the enemy. In addition, France’s tendency to ally itself with the heretics was so clear that there was no other recourse but to continue resisting. Stradling (391). 38 Bouzy 2006 (141-142).

Azanza: Philip IV’s Letters to Sister Maria De Agreda

71

the ground whose mouth is used by bees to make their honeycomb in order to convey that war only makes sense in order to maintain peace. Also in impresa 59 ,,Col senno e con la mano” [With prudence and with the hand] Saavedra

reminds

the

prince

that

,,preserving

one’s

own

State

is

an

obligation” [conservar el Estado propio, es obligacién], providing that he acts rationally and with justice. There is also a close tie with impresa 74 ,,In fulcrum pacis” [In support of peace], the pictura of which depicts a lance stuck in the ground around which a vine and olive branch climb, in order to signify that the kingdom that has the reputation of being strong in war will

maintain its prosperity and peace. In the declaratio, Saavedra affirms that war

should not be actively sought out, but rather should be resorted to only out

of necessity, and it is only legitimate when

preserving one’s own

there is a just cause, such as

State or trying to recuperate

one

that has been

usurped: ,,his decision must not be based on the will, but rather on force or

need” [no ha de ser su eleccién de la voluntad, sino de la fuerza o necesidad], he concluyes (831-837). The parallelism between the thinking of the diplomat from Murcia and the monarch is clear, and to this we can add Sister Maria’s thoughts right on the verge of the Peace of the Pyrenees when she wrote: ,,No war is licit between Christian princes except a defensive war, and this must be if there is no other choice and without having begun it first” [Ninguna guerra es licita entre los principes cristianos sino la defensiva, y ésta ha de ser a mas no poder y sin haber principiado primero (4-11-1659)]. Tightly linked to the concepts of war and peace in the epistolary exchange are the terms concord and discord. The former should be sought between Christian princes in order to confront a common enemy, and the latter should be sown among enemy powers in order to debilitate their forces. In several letters from 1645 and 1663-64, Philip IV insists on concord in order to assure the union and defense of Christendom, affirming that ,,the principal point in impeding the advances of the Turks is for us, the Christian princes, to unite with one another, for without this, Christendom

will suffer” [el punto mas principal para impedir los progresos del Turco es que nos unamos los principes cristianos, pues sin esto la Cristiandad padecerä (9-4-1645)].% Such an idea is enthusiastically seconded by Sister Maria, who proposed an initiative with a crusading spirit by maintaining that

»the Catholic princes should band together, make peace with one another, and arm themselves against the heretics, abandon their particular earthly causes and defend that of God” [deben los principes catélicos unirse, hacer paces y armarse contra los herejes, dejar su propia causa terrena y defender

39 See on this topic letters from: 8-7-1645; 8-23-1645; 11-27-1663; 1-9-1664; and 3-181664,

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Hispanic Emblems and Literature

la de Dios (2-17-1656)]. The appeal to concord of both is in harmony with Saavedra’s impresa 89 ,,Concordiae cedunt” [They yield to concord], in which eight Roman soldiers employ the method of the military testudo to scale a crenellated fortress; thus the prince should learn that mutual aid and concord are capable of overcoming the greatest obstacles (942-947), On the other hand, Philip IV rejected concord when it came to the Turks, affirming that ,,we have never had peace with them, nor will I, not even with the help

of God, even if I am left with nothing but the cape draped over my shoulder” [nunca hemos tenido paz con ellos, ni con la ayuda de Dios la tendré, aunque me quede con sélo la capa en el hombro (8-23-1645)]. Philip’s attitude was in sharp contrast to that of France, which had already signed a peace agreement, for which reason Sister Maria implored divine justice to ,,bring to their knees and humilliate” [rinda y humille] the French (9-1-1645). The issue of the alliance or confederations with the heretics, utilized by France, is the subject of impresa 93 ,,Impia faedera” [Impious alliances] in which Saavedra compares proximity to the heretics with that of Vesuvius, the treacherous friend of Tyrrhenus who, deceived by its green slopes, watched as the fire from hell escaped from its entrails when least expected; ,,let the Catholic prince who is in league with the infidels expect no less” [no espere menos daños el principe catélico que se coaligare con infieles], the diplomat pronounced. He also asserted that divine justice would wind up castigating the French impudence, since ,,one can infer how irate God is against the kingdom of France because of its current confederations with heretics to oppress the House of Austria” [se puede inferir cuan enojado esta Dios contra el reino de Francia por las confederaciones presentes con herejes para oprimir la Casa de Austria] (966-972). The notion of discord is related to the disturbances of La Fronde, which

shook France between 1648 and 1653, and induced Philip IV to dream of a vigorous recuperation from his neighboring country. The monarch soon shared the news of the uprisings with Sister Maria, at the same time that he glimpsed in them a ray of hope, for ,,if this was indeed true and it were to continue, it could prove to be the means to faciltate the peace that I want so much and that we need” [si esto fuera cierto y se continuase, podia ser medio para facilitar la paz que tanto deseo y habemos menester (2-3-1649)], since ,,it would mean deriving antidote the from the poison” [fuera haber salido la triaca del veneno (2-23-1649)]. In view of the events, Philip IV tried to nourish the discords that had arisen in the core of France in order to take advantage of its debility and force it to ask for peace. He informed the nun that ,,things in France are more unsettled every day, and my army has gone in there to heat them up even more” [las cosas de Francia estan cada dia mas revueltas, y mi ejército ha entrado allé para darlas calor (8-14-1652)]; months later he indicated

that ,,the restlessness in France

continues,

and

now

it

Azanza: Philip IV’s Letters to Sister Maria De Agreda

73

seems that everything is heading in our favor to stir things up even more, and for the French to try to extinguish the flames” [las inquietudes de Francia duran, y ahora todo parece que se encamina de nuestra parte a fomentarlas y los franceses a extinguirlas (5-14-1653)]. He was confident that ,,although the people of Bordeaux have composed themselves, it appears that they are beginning to waver again with the heat with which my armada is attacking them” [aunque se compusieron los de Burdeos, parece que vuelven a titubear con el calor de mi armada que los asiste (9-3-1653)]. Sister Maria accepted the disturbances in France as the road to peace, admiring God’s hidden designs for that kingdom, ,,because there is no lash

more severe than that of domestic discords, which divide and destroy everything” [porque no hay azote mas severo que el de las discordias domésticas, que todo lo dividen y destruyen (8-24-1652)]; and she therefore implored the Lord to ,,humiliate and correct the French with the courage of our armada until they reconcile themselves to peace” [con el aliento de nuestra armada humille y corrija a los franceses hasta que se ajusten a la paz (5-23-1653)]. Philip IV’s determination to foment the discords that arose in France

can be related to Saavedra’s impresa 90 ,,Disiuntis viribus” [With strengths

divided], whose image depicts a mighty river that branches off into multiple streams, each of which is less vigorous (Fig. 6); thus, in order to annihilate an enemy power, it is wise to learn how to sow the seeds of discord and division in its breast (948-952), Saavedra approved of the tactic of introducing a certain type of discord in those kingdoms already shaken by seditions and civil wars, in order to cause division in the factions and weaken the strength of the enemy; but such a maneuver was only permissible in the context of a war where ,,the very cause that justifies the

war also justifies the discord” [la misma causa que justifica la guerra justifica también la Discordia], for on the contrary, it is a ,,despicable action of a Prince to conquer another with poison and not with the sword” [indigna accién de un principe vencer al otro con el veneno y no con la espada], and he should therefore not resort to such arts. The situation of the HispanoFrench war at that time clearly justified this tactic.” In the quest for peace between Spain and France, the Pope played a

crucial role, since it fell to him

to act as an arbiter to try to settle the

conflicts between Christian princes, just as Saavedra pointed out in his impresa 94 ,,Librata refulget” [It shines evenly], which utilizes a pontifical 40 In fact, Saavedra himself had the opportunity to confirm the efficacy of the proPagandistic system by sowing the seeds of discord as the authour of several libels written

in order to ,stir France up” [turbar a Francia], making use of an accumulation of arguments in order to rouse the French ranks and bring an end to the war against Spain.

Arredondo Sirodey 1992 (106-107). Bouzy 2007 (109-114).

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Hispanic Emblems and Literature

tiara that spreads rays, like a sun, over the terrestrial sphere, in order to

symbolize the Pope who, as the Sun of Justice, sends his light to all the world’s provinces and maintains the calm among all the kingdoms and princes of Christendom, ,,who should keep their eyes fixed always on that sun of the pontifical tiara, in order to preserve themselves in its obedience and protection” [quienes deben tener siempre puestos los ojos en ese sol de la tiara pontificia, conservandose en su obediencia y proteccién], Saavedra concludes (973-981). The desire for peace with France led Sister Maria to write a letter in 1658 to Alexander VII seeking his intervention as supreme arbiter in the dispute between the French and the Spanish, in such a way that ,Your Holiness imposes your authority as Christ’s successor and that you beg and compel the Christian princes to make peace, if you do not want to see great travails in your Church” [interponga Vuestra Santidad su autoridad de sucesor de Cristo y ruegue y compela a los principes cristianos a que hagan paces, si no quiere ver en su Iglesia grandes trabajos].*! In his response, the Pontiff seemed to be open to such a compromise when he

beseeched the nun to ,,dispose the hearts of the Christian princes so that his

efforts would be effective” [dispusiese los corazones de los principes cristianos para que sus diligencias tuviesen ejecucién]; for that reason, Sister Maria asked Philip IV months later ,,if the Pontiff is helping us to make peace and if his Holiness is actively seeking it” [si el Pontifice nos ayuda a las paces y si Su Santidad las solicita (3-14-1659)]. But the monarch, who years earlier had shown his skepticism towards papal mediation by claiming that his head takes care more of matters of State than what he should be doing” [su cabeza atiende mds a materias de Estado que a lo que debe hacer (1-9-

1647)], disappointed the nun by observing that ,,there were more words

than results, and he did not take this business as much to heart as his holy

ministry required” [eran mas las palabras que los efectos, y que no tomaba este negocio tan a pecho como era su santo ministerio (3-24-1659)|; he almost wound up justifying such behavior by affirming that the intervention

of His Holiness was not a simple matter, since if indeed ,,as head of the

Church and our Father it fell to him to correct us and to punish us with his weapons, these political issues and matters of state are very burdensome, even for the Vicar of Christ” [como cabeza de la Iglesia y nuestro Padre le tocaba corregirnos y castigar con sus armas, estas materias politicas y de estado pueden mucho, aun con el Vicario de Cristo (4-21-1659)]. That is to say, Philip IV coincides with Saavedra in acknowledging

the authority of

papal arbitrarion, although in the final analysis, and given the Pontiffs negligible involvement, he decided to act on his own, dispatching an agent

41 Epistolario español, vol. IV. Cartas de sor Maria de Jesus de Agreda y de Felipe IV

(266-268).

Azanza: Philip IV’s Letters to Sister Maria De Agreda

75

with peace proposals and the offer of the hand of his daughter to Louis XIV. Sister Maria could not hide her disappointment in this matter when she confessed to the king that ,,the complaint against Your Majesty that you did not allow His Holiness to help make peace is just” [es justa queja la de ΝΜ. de que Su Santidad no haya ayudado a las paces (5-29-1659)]. A final issue concerning military politics leads us to consider that economic resources ate as important as weapons in assuring the defense of the realms. Philip IV was aware that weapons and wealth are the two fundamental pillars needed to ensure the peace of the monarchy; this explains

his continuous

laments

over ,,the limited resources

that are not

sufficient for our defense” [el corto caudal que no alcanza para nuestra defensa (11-6-1645)], which are repeated systematically throughout the epistolary exchange with similar expressions. On this point, Sister Maria insisted that ,,superfluous expenses should be avoided” [se excusen los gastos superfluos (6-19-1649)] and ,,that other expenses less necessary be avoided to the extent possible” [se eviten cuanto sea posible otros gastos menos forzosos (12-6-1652)] so that the money could be used instead to supply garrisons and the armies. She advised the monarch that he ,,not consent to excessive expenditures and parties when there are insufficient funds to defend the Crown” [no consienta haya excesivos gastos en las fiestas cuando falta el caudal para defender la Corona (4-20-1658)]. Philip IV agreed with the nun’s proposal to reduce expenses for festivities and celebrations, promising to ,,fulfill it to the extent that I can” [ejecutarla en cuanto me fuere posible (4-29-1658). These reflections find an echo in impresa 69 ,,Ferro et auro” [With iron and with gold] the pictura of which depicts a hand resting on a terrestrial orb, clutching both a sword and a

gilded branch; for Saavedra, the world is ruled with weapons and riches, which have a mutual dependency, because ,,money is the nerve of war” [el

dinero es el nervio de la guerra]. The diplomat from Murcia affirms that the preservation of the monarchy depends on its economy, and he coincides fully with Sister Maria on the need to moderate the superfluous expenses of the Court, for ,,true greatness is not measured by how much is spent on

public festivals and ostentation, but rather by how well the fortresses are

garrisoned, and how well the armies are supplied” [la verdadera grandeza no

esta en lo que se gasta en las fiestas püblicas y en la ostentaciOn, sino en tener bien presidiadas las fortalezas y mantenidos los ejércitos] (7 82-798).

Also from the economical-military perpective, Philip IV was aware of the importance of navigation to assure dominion over the monarchy; this is clear throughout the letters, for it was a topic on which he kept Sister Maria perpetually informed, and he asked her time and again to entrust to the Lord

the successful enterprise of the fleets and galleons, especially those returning

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from the Indies, always subject to innumerable dangers.42 The nun agreed completely with the king on the need to achieve naval hegemony for, on the topic of the confrontations with the English armada, she assured him that for the preservation of this Crown it is vitally important that Your Majesty be the lord of the sea, since it will be by sea that provisions and the greatest succor of Spain will come” [pata la conservacién de esta Corona importa grandemente sea V.M. sefior del mar, pues por ella ha de venir la sustancia y el mayor socorro de España (7-6-1657)]. Maritime politics also occupies a distinguished place in Saavedra, who was fully aware that ,,our power depends on the capries of the winds and the waves” [nuestro poder esta pendiente de los atbitrios de los vientos y de las olas] and that a lack of naval dominion distances Spain from the two poles of its greatness, the Mediterranean and the Atlantic. He dedicated his impresa 68 to this theme (His polis” [With these poles]), which shows two ships whose bows support a huge terrestrial globe above the waves of the sea, signifying that sit is navigation that supports the earth with commerce and which affirms its dominions with weapons” [es la navegacién la que sustenta la tierra con el comercio y la que afirma sus dominios con las armas]; in this same impresa he exhorts the prince to found his power on naval weapons, if he wants to aspire to universal dominion and to preserve it” [en las armas navales, si quisiere aspirar al dominio universal y conservalle], since he who controls the sea can claim to be ,,arbiter of the earth” [Arbitro de la tierra] (774 vais

Azanza: Philip IV’s Letters to Sister Maria De Agreda

by heeding those who are wiser and more experienced in the law” [es dichosa la Monarquia que alcanza principe heroico en virtudes, observante en la religion cristiana, puro en su doctrina, amador de la verdad catélica, celoso en obras pias, templado en sus pasiones, fuerte y magnänimo, prudente en su valor; mostrandole en quitar de su repüblica los daños generales, en administrar justicia sin exencion, oyendo a los mas sabios y cursados en la ley (2-18-1650)]. This all led C. Seco to conclude, concerning the spiritual direction of Sister Maria, that ,,her determination was to carve

in her august confidant the ideal image of the Christian prince” [su empeño era tallar en su augusto confidente la imagen ideal del principe cristiano]. For his part, as S. Lopez Poza has observed, the very title of Saavedra’s

work—/dea de un Principe Politico Christiano representada en cien empresas—

announces that what he is presenting is a design for the paradigmatic prince, a model based on the precepts of the complicated politics of new states, that is to say, a prince prepared to exercise governance, but without forgetting the Christian precepts that oblige him to consider moral or ethical philosophy. Letters and impresa in the final analysis are aimed at the same goal, and therefore the advice offered from the silent cell of the monastery in Soria or from the extensive experience that provided a knowledge of ,,the

most principal courts of Europe” [las cortes mas principales de Europal, coincide on many occasions. Both were instrumental in fashioning the image

of the Political-Christian Prince who, based on divine providentialism, was

to steer the ship of the Spanish monarchy.

Conclusion

A reading of Philip IV’s letters reveals a monarch who acted conscientiously as a Political-Christian Prince throughout the majority of his life. Without doubt, both his epistolary relationship with Sister Maria Jesus de Agreda as well as the doctrine disseminated by Saavedra Fajardo in his Empresas poltticas must have contributed effectively to this. Sister Maria synthesized her notion of the perfect ruler when she related to Philip IV that a monarchy is indeed fortunate if it is blessed with a prince who is heroic in his virtues, observant of the Christian religion, pure in his doctrine, a lover of Catholic truth, zealous in pious works, temperate in his passions, strong

and magnanimous, prudent in his valor; displaying it by removing from his republic all general harms, by administering justice without exemptions, and 42 We can confirm this in letters from: 12-29-1643; 7-8-1645; 8-16-1645; 5-15-1647; 7-

27-1650; 7-2-1654; 7-22-1654; 8-18-1655; 8-1-1656; 8-29-1656; 12-30-1656; 3-13-1657; 418-1657; 6-25-1657; 2-10-1659; and 4-21-1659. 43 On the importance that Saavedra gives to the dominion of the sea in the system of power, see Martinez-Agullé (103-105) and P.L.G.B (133-137).

77

44 Epistolario español, vol. IV. Cartas de sor Maria de Jesus de Agreda y de Felipe IV (LX).

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Dowling, John. ,,Saavedra Fajardo, idealista y realista.” Murgetana 10 (1957):

P.L., G.B. ,,Saavedra Fajardo y la politica maritima de España.” Empresas

57-69. Epistolario español, vols.

IV y V. Cartas de sor Marta de Jesus de Agreda

y de Felipe IV. Ed. and preliminary study by Carlos Seco Serrano. Madrid: Ediciones Atlas, 1958.

Garcia Lopez, Jorge. ,,Quevedo y Saavedra: dos contornos del seiscientos.” La Perinola 2 (1998): 237-260. Garcia Royo, Luis. La aristocracia española y sor Marta Jesus de Agreda. Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 1951. Grande

Yafiez,

Miguel.

,,La

relevancia

de

la disimulacién

en

Saavedra

Fajardo.” Respublica: revista de la historia y del presente de los conceptos

poltticos 19 (2008): 189-200.

Lopez Poza, Sagrario. , El disimulo como virtud politica en los tratados emblemäticos españoles de educacién de principes.” Estudios sobre Literatura

Emblemätica Española. La Coruña: Sociedad de Cultura Valle Inclan, 2000: 221-233.

Pérez Gilhou, Dardo. ,,Saavedra Fajardo y la Razén de Estado.” Empresas

Politicas 7 (2006): 133-137.

Pérez Villanueva, Joaquin. ,Sor Maria de Agreda y Felipe IV: un epistolario

en su tiempo.” Historia de la Iglesia en Espana, t. IV. La Iglesia en la Espana de los εἰσίος XVII y XVIII. Madrid: Biblioteca de Autores Cristianos, 1979, 359-417.

Saavedra

Fajardo,

Diego.

Empresas

Politicas.

Ed.

Sagrario

Lopez

Poza.

Madrid: Ediciones Catedra, 1999.

Sanchez de Toca, Joaquin. Felipe IV y Sor Maria de Agreda. Barcelona:

Editorial Minerva, 1930.

Stradling, Robert. A. Felipe IV y el gobierno de Espana,

1621-1 665. Madrid:

Catedra, 1989.

Testamento de Felipe IV. Intro. Antonio Dominguez Ortiz. Madrid: Editora Nacional, 1982.

80

Hispanic Emblems

and Literature

Azanza:

Philip IV’s Letters to Sister Maria De Agreda

FIGURES

Figure 1 /mpresa 87. ,,Auspice Deo” [Under God’s Auspices].

Figure 2 Impresa 71. ,,Labor omnia vincit” [Labor conquers all].

81

Hispanic Emblems

82

and Literature

Azanza: Philip IV’s Letters to Sister Maria De Agreda

— r__

RE δὰ

©

+

-

ὡ τῷ +

S

ùv

g &

=

g

a €

I

°

— 6

=

S “Sp LE ὁ

Ÿ

oO 8

è G

Ξ..9

ῳΞ

80 «A,

sa

”

Figure 4 Impresa 67.

”

Poda y no corta” [It prunes, and does not cut].

84

Hispanic Emblems

Fi

and Literature

igure 5 Impresa 49. ,,Lumine solis ” [By the light of the sun].

Azanza:

”

Philip IV’s Letters to Sister Maria De Âgreda

F 7 igure 6 Impresa 90. ,Disiuncti s viribus

”

[W

ith strengths divid ed].

Latin Authors in the Emblemas Morales of Juan de Horozco CHRISTIAN BOUZY Université Blaise Pascal, Clermont-Ferrand, France Abstract

The main research focus of this study is the presence of some authors of Latin antiquity in Juan de Horozco’s Emblemas Morales: Virgil, Pliny, and Seneca. We see very clearly how the Spanish emblematist pays homage to those authors who contributed the best sources for Golden Age emblems, taking from each the quintessence of their poetic, naturalistic or ethical lesson, as dictated by the circumstances. We see that Juan de Horozco did not hesitate to translate parts of the works of these great classical authors, forging in this way not plagiarisms, but rather true pastiches by means of which the humanist expressed his profound admiration for the ideas of Latin antiquity. It is clear that Latinity, in the broadest sense of the word, is one of the greatest sources of inspiration for European emblematists in general, and Spanish emblematists in particular. Nevertheless, a more precise study of this phenomenon in the principal Spanish emblem authors has yet to be undertaken. I propose in this study a first step in this line of research, which I dedicate to Professor Pedro Campa, who is a great Hispanist who has specialized in emblems,! and at the same time, an excellent Latinist.

The work of Juan de Horozco, Emblemas Morales? a jewel of Spanish emblematics in the sixteenth century—as I have been able to demonstrate 1 Pedro Campa, Emblemata Hispanica. An Annotated Bibliography of Spanish Emblem

Literature to the Year

1700, Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1990.

2 Juan de Horozco, EMBLEMAS / MORALES DE DON IVAN / de Horozco y Couarruuias / Arcediano de / Cuellar en la santa Yglesia de / Segouia. / DEDICADAS A LA BVENA / memoria del Presidente Don Diego de Co- / uarruuias y Leyva su tio. / {author's device with the motto ,PAR SIT FORTUNA LABOR”) / CON PRIVILEGIO. / En Segouia.

/ Impresso

por

luan

de

la Cuesta.

de.

/Año

Identical

1589.

text in Juan

de

Horozco, EMBLEMAS / MORALES DE DON IVAN / DE HOROZCO Y CO- / VARRUVVIAS, ARCE- / diano de Cuellar en la santa Ygle- / sia de Segouia. / DEDICADAS A LA BVENA / memoria del Presidente Don Diego de Couarruuias / y Leyva su tio. / [printer’s device with the motto

Alonso

Rodriguez.

pagination,

,EX

ME

IPSO

RENASCOR”|

/ En Caragoça.

Por

/ A costa de Iuan de Bonilla mercader de libros [1604] same

the only differences

are the decorative

frames

or cartouches

of the en-

gravings). Véase el sitio Gallica del que tomamos la The reproduction of Horozco’s emblems,

based

on

the

Zaragoza

edition

of 1604,

are

taken

included in Gallica. Biliothéque Numérique at the following URL:

from

[http://gallica.bnf.fr/ark:/12148/bpt6k72162q.r=Horozco.langEN]

the

digital edition

88

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

on several previous occasions*—lends itself particularly well to this type of investigation. Indeed, the brother of Sebastian de Covarrubias nourished his

emblematism with the reading of more than fifty Latin authors, alluding to

them by means of abundant quotations that demonstrate his perfect mastery of Latin literature. from

The greatest Latin authors are quoted in the Emblemas Morales, ranging Virgil,

the

poet

of Mantua,

to Nero’s

tutor,

Seneca,

and

passing

through a great number of lesser known poets. Almost all of the great »genres of writing’—terms that I utilize with the meaning that they were endowed with during the Spanish Golden Age—are represented: the epic with Virgil; poetry with Ovid, Horace, Martial; history with Sallustius,

Tacitus, Suetonius, Lucan; farce and satire with Plautus and Juvenal; natural

history with Pliny and paraenetic literature with Seneca. Admittedly, some of the great authors are absent: Apuleius, Catullus, Sextus Propertius, Terence,

Tibullus, and Titus Livius. Others, like Lucretius, must have

seemed

un-

desirable to Juan de Horozco due to their excessively epicurean affinities. As for Petronius, the reasons for his absence are self-evident.

The classical Latin authors that appear with the greatest frequency in

the Emblemas Morales of Juan de Horozco are: Pliny (32 quotations), Seneca

(25 quotations), Cicero (19 quotations) and Virgil (17 quotations). Of course, quantitative criteria of this sort are only of interest if we focus our attention on how Horozco utilizes the classical authors and on the manner in which he makes use of their teachings and authority. Bearing in mind the very

broad nature of this topic and the sheer abundance of authors quoted, 1 will

concentrate here primarily on the recuperation of Virgil’s Aeneid, on Pliny’s

Natural History and on the works of Seneca. Upon

reading

the hyperbolic

commentaries

that Juan

de Horozco

devoted to the Aeneid or the Georgics, we perceive immediately the admiration that the Spanish emblematist professed for the Latin poet, referred to most of the time with the customary designation of ,,el Poeta” [the Poet]. His

admiration

knew

no

limits,

since

the Toledan

ecclesiastic

was

not

content merely to inspire himself with the work of the Mantuan poet, but rather he dared, at times, to translate literally the occasional

poetic

frag-

ment from the Aeneid. This is the case, for example, with the epigram corresponding to emblem 16 of Book II (Fig. 1) which is nothing more than

3 I will not cite the numerous studies that I have dedicated to this author. I do wish to acknowledge that my contribution to this festschrift is an attempt to develop further 4

chapter of my doctoral thesis: Recherches sur la littérature emblématique espagnole : les Emblemas Morales de Juan de Horozco y Covarrubias (1589), Thèse sous la direction de M. le Professeur André Labertit, Université des Lettres et Sciences Humaines, Strasbourg, 1990.

Bouzy: Latin Authors in the Emblemas Morales of Juan de Horozco

89

an updated translation of verses 847-853 of Book VI of the Virgilian epic, as we can see in the following example:

Excudent alii spirantia mollius aera, credo equidem, uiuos ducent de marmore uoltus, orabunt causas melius, caelique meatus describent radio, et surgentia sidera dicent: tu regere imperio populos, Romane, mement;

hae tibi erunt artes; pacisque imponere morem, parcere subiectis, et debellare superbos.+ [Muestren otros su ingenio levantado en dar vida al metal o piedra dura, midan otros el cielo, y al culpado defiendan otros de la muerte dura: mas el arte que pide el Real estado es, regir con Imperio en paz segura, Y mostrando al soberbio su potencia usar con el rendido de clemencial.°

It is not really a matter of plagiarism, but rather an instance of a pastiche since the translation acts as a rewriting; in the final analysis, by means of this modestly imitative process, the Spanish emblematist pays true homage to the Latin poet. On the other hand, and following a path previously traced out by Alciato, by the first European emblematists, and the particularly the French ones, Juan de Horozco makes use on several occasions of complete verses or hemistiches drawn from the Aeneid in order to compose some of his

mottoes. This phenomenon

can be seen in emblem 23 of Book II (Fig. 2)

where the first half of verse 620 of Book VI of the Aeneid is utilized by our author to compose a clear and strong motto that refers quite pertinently to

the iconographical

motif, in which

it is perfectly and emblematically

inscribed: ,, DISCITE IVSTITIAM MONITT’. Going beyond such loci communes, paths already well-trodden by earlier emblematistJuan s, de Horozco penetrates deeper into Virgilian thought and does not hesitate to make the most out of some of his moral ideas, developing them in the prose glosses of the emblems: 4 Publius Virgilius Maro, Eneida, Liber VI, vv. 847-853. 5 Juan de Horozoco, op. cit., Book II, fol. 31r. We respect the original orthography of the edition cited for Horozoco’s poems. English translations of the Aeneid are readily available online at such websites as the Perseus Project, the Project Gutenburg, the Theoi

Project, etc., for which reason we refrain from providing an English translation here.

90

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

Y es lo del Poeta donde dijo: la ira y el furor despeñan el sentido. Y segtin esto no pueden los que se airan administrar justicia, donde es menester el buen juicio y el consejo para entender la verdad, y juzgar conforme a ella, en que ha de faltar quien se deja vencer de la ira, pues por entonces le parece todo lo que hace [...].° [And this is just like the Poet, when he said: wrath and furor overthrow the senses. And according to this, those who anger easily cannot administer justice, where good judgment and counsel are necessary in order to understand the truth, and to judge in accordance with it, and he who allows himself to be conquered by wrath is doomed to fail, because everything he does under its influence seems to him (...)]. Stringing together in this fashion the quotations taken from the Aeneid, Juan de Horozco constructs the mythological episodes of his work one after another, endowing each one of them with a precise moral lesson, just as the Humanists tended to do. At times the emblematist, intent on stressing the moral lesson more than the poetic model, tends to rewrite certain passages of the Aeneid, thus imitating the example of his model, who knew perfectly well how to fuse tradition with innovation.’ For example, in the gloss to emblem 7 of Book III (Fig. 3), he attributes to Virgil the tale of the punishment reserved for the overly proud, just as the gods had inflicted it on Sisyphus: que ninguna cosa podia venir tan a propôsito como la fabula de que el presente emblema se ordend, acordandonos del tormento de Sisifo condenado en el infierno a que subiese un gran peñasco por una cuesta aspera.® [nothing was so fitting an example as the fable upon which the current emblem was based, recalling the torments of Sisyphus condemned in hell to climbing an enormous crag along a harsh and steep slope]. In reality, in his Book VI where he narrates the visit to hell, Virgil does

not even mention the name of Sisyphus, content instead with just a quick allusion to the punishment suffered, and insisting that it is best not to know 6 Juan de Horozco, op. cit. In the text of the glosses, the orthography has been modernized to the extent possible.

7 Robert Schilling, Tradition et innovation dans le chant VI de l'Enéide de Virgile”,

Journal des savants, Année 1980, Volume 3, Number 3, pp. 193-210. 8 Juan de Horozco, op. cit., fol. 115r.

Bouzy: Latin Authors in the Emblemas Morales of Juan de Horozco the crimes of those condemned: ,,Ne quaere doceri,

91

/ quam poenam, aut quae

forma uiros fortunaue mersit. Saxum ingens uoluunt aliî” ?

It turns out that Juan de Horozco seems to have taken his inspiration from the De rerum natura by Lucretius (vv. 995-1002), whom he does not want to mention by name for the reasons given above, Let us see how Lucretius had insisted previously on the moral lesson of the punishment of Sisyphus and then compare his verses with some from Horozco’s sonnet:

Sisyphus in vita quoque nobis ante oculos est, qui petere a populo fasces saevasque secures imbibit et semper victus tristisque recedit. Nam petere imperium, quod inanest nec datur umquam, atque in eo semper durum sufferre laborem, hoc est adverso nixantem trudere monte saxum, quod tamen e summo iam vertice rursum

volvitur et plani raptim petit aequora campi.\° [(...) un gran peñasco Sisypho porfia subir por una cuesta trabajosa Quando le falta poco (estraña cosa)

se le vuelve a caer, y su agonia

comiença con que el triste, noche y dia,

un momento siquiera no reposa. Tal es la suerte del que esta ocupado en vanas pretensiones desta vida y afana por llegar do pretende.]!!

It is true that in the same gloss another reference by Horozco evokes Ovid’s Metamorphoses (Book XIII, vv. 26 and 32), and is an exact imitation. Nevertheless, although Ovid refers to Sisyphus in several passages (Metamorphosis, IV, 460, 466; X, 44), in all instances they are mere allusions and never a complete narration of the punishment with its allegorical inter-

pretation. Besides Lucretius, the source of the true tale of the punishment

9 Publius Virgilius Maro, Eneida, Liber VI, vv. 614-616. 10 Titus Lucretius Carus, De rerum natura, vy. 995-1002. 11 Juan de Horozco, op. cit., Libro ΠῚ, fol. 115r. In English translation, the verses read:

»We have before our eyes / Here in this life also a Sisyphus / In him who seeketh of the populace / The rods, the axes fell, and evermore / Retires a beaten and a gloomy man. / For to seek after power- an empty name, / Nor given at all- and ever in the search / To

endure a world of toil, O this it is / Τὸ shove with shoulder up the hill a stone / Which

yet comes rolling back from off the top, /And headlong makes for levels of the plain.” This translation of On the Nature of Things by William E. Leonard is available online at The Internet Classics Archive: [http:/ /classics.mit.edu/ Carus/nature_things.html].

92

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

must be sought in Homer, to whom Horozco forgets to refer in the prose commentary for the same emblem. The emblematist corrects his oversight

in the final Index

that has

as its title ,,Lugares

de autores

corregidos” [Places of authors declared or corrected]. Anyone who studies closely the origin of Juan de references can see clearly that they do not intend to be and that at times the future bishop errs when he indicates Was it because he quoted from memory or because polyantheas or other similar repertories? In his first emblematic

work,

the son of Sebastian

declarados

o

Horozco’s textual scrupulously exact his precise source. he was relying on de Horozco

also

recurs to the Georgics, another renowned work by Virgil, where he found a description to his liking of life, nature, and of work, with the kind of moralistic propensity that he deemed indispensable for his ethical purpose. In his reading of this book, our future bishop’s passion for natural history found a very favorable terrain for his purpose, and facilitated his access to Virgilian auctoritas. The example of the production of silk by the silkworm is perfect for Horozco to base his naturalist exempla on Latinist authors, taking

his quotation directly from this Virgilian verse: ,, Velleraque ut foliis depectant tenuia Seres”:'2

Donde primero se usé fue en los pueblos llamados Seras en la India, 0 segun otros en la Scythia Asiatica de quien el Poeta Latino dijo que peinaban los vellones que de las de los arboles se cogian.!3 [It was first used by the people of India called Seras, or according to others, by the people of Asiatic Scythia, of whom the Latin Poet said that they combed the fleece that they gathered from the trees.]

Nevertheless, ensnared in this system of the rhetoric of quotations favored by florilegia and polyantheas, which gathered identical motifs in the same divisions in sections, Juan de Horozco, perhaps in order to show off his erudition, felt obliged to add an additional reference, one from an authot

considered to be the most competent in the realm of natural history. And

that of course was Pliny, considered to be the summa auctoritas of natural history, as Horozco himself confirms, saying: ,,Plinio en que yo no dudo” [Pliny in whom I do not doubt}:'¢

12 Publius Virgilius Maro, Georgica, Liber II, v. 121. 13 Juan de Horozco, op. cit., fol. 81v. 14 Ibidem, fol. 81v.

Bouzy: Latin Authors in the Emblemas Morales of Juan de Horozco y a esto acude lo que Plinio dice de arboles la lana que servia a la nobleza de algunos que en los mismos arboles se algodén que se podia hilar y tejerse, de llamadas Sericas por los autores de ellas.!>

los mismos, las vestiduras, cogia alguna que se harian

93

que cogian de los de donde coligen manera, como de las primeras telas

[and what Pliny has to say is applicable on these ones, who gathered from the trees the wool that served to ennoble garments, from which some conclude that from the same trees they gathered a substance somewhat like cotton, with which could be used for sewing or weaving, and of which the first fabrics called Sericas were made.] In Pliny, who continued to be one of the principal naturalist authorities in the sixteenth century (his influence in the seventeenth century can be seen in Blaise Pascal), Juan de Horozco found more than empirical scientific guarantees.'© Indeed, what stands out in the work of Pliny the Elder is an entire philosophical system founded on a certain conception of the universe. What is more, a number of stoical principles appear in this author, and thus the Historia Natural takes on a broad moral resonance that exists side by side with the emblematist’s ethical purpose. For all of these reasons, Horozco has no qualms about quoting from several books of the Treatise, concentrating his excerpta from Book VII where Pliny evokes the nature of man, from his birth to his death. Principally in the glosses, our author adapts for his own ends some of the teachings of the naturalist, but he does not hesitate to criticize Pliny when these lessons do not suit his purposes. Some of Pliny’s themes were particularly pleasing to Juan de Horozco, such as man’s original poverty, which stands in contrast to nature’s richness,

a theme that allows the emblematist to express his proponsity to see the world as a dual entity, a theme that is reiterated throughout his work: Siendo como es la naturaleza tan rica y en todas las cosas tan liberal, pone admiracién grande el ver cuanto ama en el hombre la pobreza, pues le produce en el mundo tan pobre, tan desnudo y tan menesteroso.17

15 Ibidem, fol. 81v. 16 Cf. Valérie Naas, ,,L’Histoire naturelle, œuvre scientifique?” in Actes du Colloque International Science antique, science médiévale, Mont Saint-Michel, 4-7 septembre 1998, ed. L. Callebat et O. Desbordes, Hildesheim-Zürich-New York, Olms-Weidmann, Ρ. 255-271.

17 Juan de Horozco, op. cit., fol. 47v.

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

94

great [Being as it is so rich and so liberal in all things, nature causes it since man, in poverty see to admiration when we observe how it loves needy.] so and delivers him into the world so poor, so naked These lines evoke a direct echo of the hominem

tantum nudum

et in

of Book nuda humo natali die abicit’'® with which Pliny, at the beginning of birth, moment VII, asserts the difficulty that man has in living, from the in such a harsh medium

,,la dificultad,” asking himself ,,si la naturaleza es

is a por el hombre una buena madre o una madrasta sin piedad” [if nature good mother towards man, or rather a merciless step-mother].

A quick skim of the Emblemas Morales is all that it takes to understand

Bouzy: Latin Authors in the Emblemas Morales of Juan de Horozco

95

Juan de Horozco indeed echoes Pliny when he alludes to Zoroaster in the gloss of emblem VIII of the third Book: ,Y con razon se tuvo a prodigios que Zoroastre naciese riendo, porque los demas pagan el aduana al entrar del valle de lagrimas”? [and it was rightly deemed prodigious that Zoroaster was born laughing, because everyone else pays their custom’s fee when they enter the vale of tears]. This anecdote is accompanied by other details that hint at the influence of the Latin naturalist, and which are ideally suited to the purposes of the Spanish emblematist in the confection of his emblem 19 of Book III (Fig. 4), in which he unleashes his criticism of the magical arts, whose inventor was alleged to have been Zoroaster:

for our that birth and death are are the two privileged points of interest of the taries commen the into delve to ry author. However, it is necessa was o Horozc de Juan which to extent the glosses in order to capture fully the identify to times at ng forgetti even inspired by Pliny’s Natural History, nce appeara le immutab the of g source of his quotation. Thus, when speakin

Y volviendo al Zoroastres juntamente filosofia y secretos grandes de las ciencias, se y con infamia se llam6 Magia, cumpliéndose escribe Plinio se vio en darle saltos en la

semblante” [Socrates, who was never seen happy, nor laughing, but always t with the same look on his face], Horozco alludes no doubt to this fragmen

[And returning to Zoroaster, along with what has already been said about his philosophy and great secrets of the sciences, he also practiced that science which, with evil intention and infamy was called Magic, thus fulfilling the omen of his birth, since Pliny writes that his brains jumped around in his head when re realized that he would dedicate himself to the madness of what are called the evil arts].

con igual of Socrates, ,,Socrates que jamas le viesen alegre, ni con risa antes

from the Natural History. ,,Socratem clarum sapientia eodem semper visum vultu nec aut hilaro magis aut turbato.”'°

According to Pliny, the birth of man is a phenomenon of great interest

because

it is the moment

in which

nature gives free reign to its fantasy,

engendering monsters (Naturalis Historia, Liber VII, 6). We know how , some emblematists exploited the thematics of monstrosity in their emblems were s Monster motifs. aphical iconogr ng surprisi which yielded so many also endowed with an amazing ethical potentiality2 On the other hand, birth is the moment when strange phenomena of predestination are proven and confirmed, and Pliny, in his commentary, draws on the example of great personalities such as Zoroaster, who, according to legend, was born

laughing:

Risisse eodem die quo genitus esset unum hominum accepimus Zoroastren; eidem cerebrum ita palpitasse, ut inpositam repelleret manum, futurae praesagio

scientiae?\

18 Caius Plinius Secundus, Naturalis Historia, Liber VIT, 1, 2. 19 Ibidem, Liber VII, 19, 79. au 20 See my study ,,Tératologie et emblématique: la fonction symbolique du monstre

Siècle d'Or,” in Le Monstre. Espagne & Amérique latine, Francis Desvois (dir.), Paris,

L'Harmattan, 2009, pp. 67-81, 10 ill., where I deal with the Æmblemas Morales of Sebastian of Covarrubias. 21 Caius Plinius Secundus, Naturalis Historia, Liber VII, 16, 6.

con lo ejercité la señal cabeza

que en de los

emplearse en la locura de las que se dicen artes malas.”

se ha dicho de su la que en mala parte su nacimiento, pues sesos habiendo de

Such criticism is deeply paradoxical, since it admits the success of a prodigy related to divination that a Catholic priest could not accept. Juan de Horozco, certainly, did not admit it, as proven by his energetic intervention in opposition to the so-called Libros plémbeos of Sactomonte, (the inscribed lead books and plaques allegedly found with the relics of Saint Caecilius in the catacombs beneath the Sacromonte neighborhood of Granada, Spain),

in his Tratado de la verdadera y falsa prophecta, {Treatise on True and False

Prophecy| which came out in Segovia the year before the publication of the

Emblemas Morales.24

As for the theme of death, just as Pliny evokes it in Book VII of the Natural History (VU, 32, 119; VII, 53, 180-186), Juan de Horozco—among the different manners of dying described by the Latin naturalist—retains in 22 Juan de Horozco, op. cit., fol. 118r. 23 Ibidem, fol. 140r.

24 TRATADO / DE LA VERDADERA Y FALSA / PROPHECIA. / Hecho por Don luan

de Horozco y Couarruuias / Arcediano de Cuéllar en la Santa Yglesia / de Segovia. /

[author’s device with the motto ,Par sit Fortuna Labor”|

Segovia. / Por Juan de la Cuesta. / Año. 1588.

/ CON PRIVILEGIO. / En

96

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

his memory only one type of death, that which ensues as a result of excessive rejoicing, which suffocates the heart: Negocio es claro que el corazon del hombre se inclina al gozo y al contento, de manera que las cosas que le entristecen le matan, y las que le alegran le dan vida. Y lo que se dice del contento que a muchos ha muerto [...] no es porque el alegria hace ese daño, y lo que hace el daño es lo que sucede en fiestas, donde hay concurso de mucha gente que algunos se ahogan y no lo hace el regocijo sino el aprieto y la desorden y desta manera el acudir la sangre con prisa y sin orden hace apretar al corazon de suerte que le ahoga.?° [It is a very clear matter that man’s heart is disposed towards joy and

contentment,

so that the things that sadden

him kill him, and

those that

make him happy give him life. And that which is said about the joy that has killed many (...) is not because happiness causes that problem, for what this problem in fact does is what happens in parties, where many people amass together, causing some to be overcome and suffocate, and this is not caused by rejoicing, but rather by people being tightly pressed together in close quarters and the lack of order, and in this same way, when the blood rushes

in a disorderly manner, it causes the heart to squeeze tightly so that the victim suffocates.| Horozco, whom we had come to know as a historian, geographer, naturalist, architect, and astronomer, is now a physician. Apparently, no sphere of human activity escaped his encyclopedism, worthy of the best European emblematists, and it seems that he was strongly attracted by medicine. Thus, he cites Pliny once again, with reference to the centaur Chiron, who was alleged to be the teacher of Asclepius and who certain authors considered

phytotherapy:

to be the inventor of medicine, or more

basically, of

siendo cosa cierta que [Quirén] aprovecha mucho en las [enfermedades] que nacen de alguna pasién del animo, y por haber sido gran médico, pues ensené a Esculapio, haber curado las enfermedades de los animales se le dio figura tan disforme, y también por haber habitado en los campos mucho tiempo para alcanzar el conocimiento de las hierbas.26

Bouzy: Latin Authors in the Emblemas Morales of Juan de Horozco

[being certain that (Chiron) is very useful in (those illnesses) that are born from some passion of the soul, and as a result of being such a great physician, since he taught Asclepius, and having cured the illnesses of animals, he was given such a deformed figure, and also because he lived in the fields for so long in order to acquire his knowledge of herbs.] It is clear, as the first phrase from the previous quotation reveals, that what interested Juan de Horozco profoundly—in his capacity as moralist— were the illnesses of the soul; which explains, therefore, why Seneca was his preferred author. In this eminent Latin thinker of Hispanic origin, the Spanish emblematist found a model of ethical reflection, following in this the Neostoic current with which he began his career, under the influence of the translations of Seneca by the Flemish Humanist from Antwerp, Justus Lipsius.

Throughout the Emblemas Morales, the archdeacon of Cuéllar (this was

the ecclesiastical office he held when he was composing his work), makes multiple mentions of the works of the rhetorician born in Cordoba, Spain: the tragedy Thyestes, some of his Dialogues—De ira, De tranquillitate animi,

De tranquillitate vitae—the De beneficiis, the De Clementia as well as some works now considerd apocryphal—De moribus, De morte Claudii, Proverbiis [sic]. Nevertheless, the majority of Horozco’s Senecan quotations are taken from the Ad Lucilium Epistolae morales which constitute, with their twenty

books, the very essence of Seneca’s work, and represent the best of it, due to

their paraenetic nature. Just as he did with some verses of Virgil’s Aeneid, Horozco pays a

fitting homage to Seneca by crafting an emblem (Fig. 5) whose subscriptio is

a literal translation of a fragment from the tragedy Thyestes:

Regem non faciunt opes, non vestis Tyriae color, non frontis nota Regiae, non auro nitida trabes Rex est qui posuit metus et diri mala pectoris |...] qui tuto positus loco infra se videt omnia27 27 Lucius Annaeus Seneca,

Thyestes, vv. 344-349, vv. 365-366. The English translation,

including the verses suppressed in the textual quotation, reads: ,,A king neither riches

makes, nor robes of Tyrian hue, nor crown upon the royal brow, nor doors with gold

25 Juan de Horozco, Emblemas Morales, op. cit., fol. 117v. 26 Ibidem, fol. 98v.

97

bright-gleaming; a king is he who has laid fear aside and the base longings of an evil

heart; whom ambition unrestrained and the fickle favour of the reckless mob move not,

neither all the mined treasures of the West nor the golden sands which Tagus sweeps

98

Hispanic Emblems and Literature [No haze Rey a nadie la riqueza, no de Tyro el color mas esmerado, no la insignia Real en la cabeça, no el costoso vestido recamado. Sélo aquel era Rey que con firmeza el odio y el temor ha desechado, ΕἸ que puesto en lugar seguro viene a ver debaxo quanto el mundo tiene.28

themes are fully debated. However, the moral precepts contained in the Ad

fesses in the Indice de los Lugares imitados” at the end of the work. Seneca, the most Christian of the classical Latin authors, came to be an

authority in Spanish emblem literature, driven by the model of the Stoic sage, a model which was perfectly decodified by our author, who had a deep

of the ideas and

the sententiae of Nero’s

preceptor. The

references that Horozco makes to his work are exact, the quotations are

accurate, and at times transcribed in marginal annotations, a procedure that he

does

not

utilize

in

all circumstances.

Nevertheless,

one

fact

seems

somewhat odd, and that is the nearly total absence of allusions to the De Clementia (just one quotation), a work that includes the description of an imperial power, and which could have served as a model in those passages where Horozco evokes the education of the prince. Perhaps our emblematist already intended to write in the future his own Doctrina de Principes”? and for that reason was saving the material for such an occasion.

The archdeacon of Cuéllar resorted to Seneca for inspiration repeatedly, whether to create an emblem, or to borrow such commonplace sentences as

» Quotidie morimur.” Nevertheless, the glosses constitute the place privileged by Juan de Horozco for his borrowings from Senecan teachings. Thus, in order to comment on an emblem whose fundamental theme is ingratitude or adulation, he directs his reader to the moral treatise De beneficiis where those

along in his shining bed, nor all the grain trod out on burning Libya’s threshing-floors; whom no hurtling path of the slanting thunderbolt will shake, nor Eurus, harrying the sea, nor wind-swept Adriatic’s swell, raging with cruel wave; whom no warrior’s lance not

bare steel ever mastered; who, in safety ‘stablished, sees all things beneath his feet, goes

In all of those parts of his work where he mentions Seneca, whom he characterizes as a ,,Philosopho moral” [moral Philosopher], the archdeacon of Cuéllar manifests a limitless admiration for the Latin thinker, presenting him as the conscience director par excellence. Juan de Horozco knew how to reutilize Seneca’s sentences, aphorisms, and paradoxes with great skill, that is to say, all of those enunciations of brachylogy that enter and are easily imprinted on consciences and memories. Thus we find in the emblematist’s discourse

a sort of refrain, ,como

dice Séneca”

DOCTRINA

DE / PRINCIPES

/ Enseñada

por el Sto Iob. /

Declarada a la Magd. del / Rey n° Sor. Don Philipe III / por Don luan de Horozco / y rien de Leyua / Obpo de Girgento / de su Real consejo / Juan de Herrera /

[as Seneca

says]

which

continues to be repeated in his post-emblematic commentaries, as occurs in the gloss of emblem

6 of Book

II ,,POST NUBILIA

CLARIOR’:

,,como

dice Séneca en sus epistolas. Y el mismo en otra parte dice que es una gran defensa de la flaqueza humana la necesidad””# [As Seneca says in his epistles. And he also says elsewhere that necessity is a great defense against human weakness]. If that is not enough, Juan de Horozco adds in the margin of the gloss the exact quotation taken out of Seneca, translated into Spanish in the de gloss: Trabaja en procurar que ninguna cosa hagas forzado de lo que es necesario que se haga, por que al que lo desvia y no lo quiere sera necesidad, y en el que lo quiere no lo puede haber.*! [Endeavor to avoid doing anything that you are forced to do because it is necessary to do it, so that he who turns away from it and does not want it, then it will be a need, and for him who does want it, he cannot have it.] The great Senecan themes, such as that of wealth and poverty, which appears in emblem 24 of the second Book with the figure of Diogenes in his tub, are reiterated in the same manner, by means of aphorisms introduced with a similar formula: Las cosas necesarias dice Séneca, muy poco cuidado cuestan que en lo que son deleites se trabaja, y en otra parte. Grandes riquezas son la pobreza

compuesta con la ley que la naturaleza nos puso.”

gladly to meet his fate nor grieves to die,” The translation, by Frank Justus Miller, can be found at the Classical E-Text website: [http://www.theoi.com/Text/SenecaThyestes.html] 28 Juan de Horozco, Emblemas Morales, op. cit., fol. 7r.

29 Juan de Horozco,

99

Lucilium epistolae morales are Horozco’s cleat favorites.

»Es trasladado de los versos de Séneca en la tragedia Thyestes (...)” [It is a translation of Seneca’s verses from the tragedy Thyestes], Horozco con-

knowledge

Bouzy: Latin Authors in the Emblemas Morales of Juan de Horozco

30 Juan de Horozco, Emblemas Morales, op. cit., fol. 12v. 31 /bidem. 32 Ibidem, fol. 47v.

100

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

[Those things which are necessary, Seneca says, cost very little effort, while one labors greatly for pleasures, and elsewhere he says, poverty in conjunction with the law that nature imposed upon us, is great wealth.] The theme of life and death also occupies a great deal of the emblematist’s attention. In the gloss of the emblem with the famous topos »QVOTIDIE MORIMVR,” Juan de Horozco strives to provide all possible clarifications, citing the Latin thinker indirectly: Por lo cual dijo Séneca, que aun en aquel tiempo que crecemos nuestra vida descrece. Pone un ejemplo admirable del reloj que como ahora se hace de arena, se solia hacer de agua, y se llamaba Clepsidra, donde cayendo el agua gota a gota se señalaban las horas; y aunque la postrera gota acab6 la hora, no

fue ella sola, sino todas las que antes de ella cayeron, desde la

primera que tanta parte como ella tiene en el fin que desde su principio se comenz6. Y conforme a esto mucha raz6n tiene el Séneca en lo que antes habia dicho, que cada dia morimos, y en cada dia se nos va quitando parte de la vida.33 [For that reason Seneca said that, even during the time that we grow, our life decreases. He gives the admirable example of the clock which, although now we use an hourglass with sand, it used to function with water and was called a water-clock, or Clepsydra, in which the time was indicated by the water falling drop by drop; and although the last drop that fell

Bouzy: Latin Authors in the Emblemas Morales of Juan de Horozco

[...] pues dice Séneca que el que no sabe callar no sabe hablar; y el mismo en una epistola a Lucio [sic] dice que el hablar y el andar andan a una: porque asi como el hombre grave no ha de andar apresurado y descompuesto tampoco ha de hablar aprisa y atropellado, que sin duda es indicio de poco entendimiento y de mal natural: y asi los que son sabios, son callados, y en todo procuran el sosiego y el reposo.34 [since Seneca says that he who does not know how to shut up does not

know

how

to speak;

he

himself in an epistle to Lucilius

understanding and an imperfect nature: and thus those who

silent, and in all that they do seek after calm and repose.

says

that

are wise, are

Therefore, esteemed Pedro, in order to put into practice the teachings

of Seneca and to provide you with ,,the calm and repose” that you so richly deserve after your emblematic career, and with the sincerest desire of being a silent wise man instead of a talkative fool, I put an end to my collaboration in this festschrift you have earned, but not to our friendship, which will continue along its habitual course.

the other drops that had fallen before it, from the very first one, that had just as large a role as the last one in the end result, which got its start from its very beginning. And based on this, Seneca is quite correct in what he said previously, that each day we die, and in the course of each day, part of our life is taken away.] To this detailed commentary, the emblematist adds in the margin the complete quotation from Seneca in Latin, mentioning with rigorous precision its exact source: ,,Quotidie morimur quotidie enim demitir aliqua pars vitae, & tunc quoque cum crecimos vita descrecit. Senec. li. 3. epist. 24.” In a similar manner, the gloss of emblem 9 of Book III, with its fluvial speaks and the wise man who guards silence,

Horozco offers the reader other indirect quotations taken from the epistles to Gaius Lucilius:

33 Juan de Horozco, Emblemas Morales, op. cit., fol. 18r.

and

speaking and walking walk hand in hand: because just as the grave man should not walk in a precipitous and disorderly way, neither should he speak quickly and in a stumbling way, which doubtless is an indication of limited

signalled the end of an hour, it was not just that drop alone, but rather all

allegory about the fool who

101

34 Ibidem, fol. 119r.

102

Hispanic Emblems WORKS

and Literature

septembre New York:

CITED

Primary Sources

Schilling,

Horozco, Juan de. EMBLEMAS /

MORALES DE DON IVAN

Couarruuias / Arcediano de / Cuellar en la santa

/ de Horozco y

Yglesia de / Segouia. /

DEDICADAS A LA BVENA / memoria del Presidente Don Diego de Co- / uarruuias y Leyva su tio. / [marca del autor con el lema ,,PAR SIT FORTUNA LABOR’| / CON PRIVILEGIO. / En Segouia. / Impresso por Iuan de la Cuesta. /Afio de. 1589.

_. EMBLEMAS / MORALES DE DON IVAN / DE HOROZCO Y CO- / VARRUVVIAS, ARCE- / diano de Cuellar en la santa Ygle- / sia de Segouia. / DEDICADAS A LA BVENA / memoria del Presidente Don Diego de Couarruuias

/ y Leyva su tio.

IPSO RENASCOR’|

/ {marca del impresor

con el lema ,,EX ME

/ En Çaragoça. Por Alonso Rodriguez. / A costa de

Juan de Bonilla mercader de libros [1604].

Plinius Secundus, Caius. Naturalis Historia. Liber VIL. Seneca, Lucius Annaeus.

Thyestes.

___. Ad Lucilium Epistolae Morales. Virgilius Maro Publius. Eneida, Liber VI. _.

Georgica, Liber II.

Studies Bouzy, Christian. ,,Tératologie et emblématique: la fonction symbolique du monstre au Siècle d'Or” Le Monstre. Espagne & Amérique latine. Dit. Francis Desvois.

Bouzy: Latin

Paris: L'Harmattan, 2009. 67-81.

Campa, Pedro F. Emblemata Hispanica. An Annotated Bibliography of Spanish Emblem Literature to the Year of 1700. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1990.

Naas, Valérie. L'Histoire naturelle, œuvre scientifique?” Actes du Colloque A ; = FN FR Le è Gi International Science antique, science médiévale, Mont Saint-Michel, 4-7

Authors in the Emblemas Morales of Juan de Horozco 1998. Eds. L. Callebat and O. Desbordes. Olms-Weidmann, 2000. 255-271.

Robert.

Virgile.” Journal

Tradition

et innovation

dans

des savants 3: 3 (1980): 193-210.

le chant

103

Hildesheim-Zürich-

VI

de l'Enéide de

104

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

Bouzy: Latin Authors in the Emblemas Morales of Juan de

Horozco

FIGURES

EMRLEMA.

XXIIL

Si de todes lus juczes ferumars

qual era menejierla refidencia,

con fer los que aefienden lainnocencia, de παι δεν por venture fe quexards

T'es de entender;que fife platicara aquel juste rigor de lafentencia

MueStren otrrs fu ingenio lewantado

SP)

ST

en dar Vida al metal ;0 piedra durs, midan otros el ciel , y al culpa lo defiendan otros de La muerte dura, Ma εἰ arte que pide el Real eftado ΕἸ regir com I

mpcrioen

2 mojtrando al fobersisfa ae

a

ura

Var con: Lrendido de clemencis.

del fenero Cambyfes lainfulencia de algunos malas jwex: s fe enfrenard. El qual mands que vnjuex fe de {cllaffe Vue, porque a los Viars defollans,

:

EN.

|

Ἢ

à

QI …‘}gg;.?.\îoî Boe Ὧν, rm

i

y [u piel en estrad. sfe climsffe. Donde mandd que Ve / ju que dexana

T SC ND ERD) A SHY CRIE BRD ER en lugar de fupadre fe f neaffe,

—

porque miraffe

bienlo

gu-juz eus.

e ia

' Figure | Juan de Horozoco, Emblemas Morales, Book II, emblem 16.

Figure 2 Juan de Horozoco, Emblemas Morales, Book I, emblem 23.

105

106

Hispanic Emblems

and Literature

δὴ ἡ d RER

EMBLEMA

VI:

EMBLEMA

Do ficmpre habita noche tenc} ri fa donde jamaselllanto fe dewia,

Si Zovoastres Rey fiendo enfatiads

del enemigo nuefiro fue el primera que Ὑ [δ las malas artes,biem pagada

‘Ya gran pehafto Sifypho forfis

Subir por yna cuc Sta trabaj fa. Qusncole falta poco (:Straïts cof)

quedo de fu macfire y compañero.

Pues dixen que del mifmofuc abvafado

{ele buelue a caeryy fu » gina

con fogs del inficrne Yerdaderr; Que page ha de efberar quien del fe fiz,

Comsenga,con que εἰ trist: nocke dis Yn momento fi quiera nor: pifa.

i :;« mc tes ne,

“πε

ΕΝ

Ld

—

ΧΙΧ.

fino estencrle fiempre compañia.

Tal ες la fuerte del que cjta 0. u ado en Yanaï pretenfiones dejla Vida, y ana por Uegar a do prerende, Que quando le parece que ha lle rade εἰ cajligode Dios fe Lo de rs.

fim que de fus cuydados le deSpida,

\

Q

st

RORSI BO CIAINERDERA

|E

SH

Figure 3 Juan de Horozoco, Emblemas Morales, Book II, emblem 7.

Figure 4 Juan de

Horozoco, Emblemas Morales, Book Ill, emblem 19.

El

Hispanic Emblems

and Literature

Venus in Taurus: Epic and Emblematic Astrology

in Lope de Vega’s Las almenas de Toro FREDERICK A. DE ARMAS

University of Chicago Abstract

This essay focuses on Lope’s Las almenas de Toro (The Battlements of

Toro) in order to look at the two plots of the work through astrological images. The zodiacal and planetary allusions serve both as images and as words

to be deciphered.

In this sense,

the celestial

figures

are akin

to the

very popular tradition of emblems begun by Andrea Alciato in the Renaissance. In addition, these astrological images intertwined throughout the work function as a bridge between the two actions. These images include the representation of Elvira as Venus and her city Toro as the zodiacal sign Taurus. Sancho, on the other hand, can be envisioned as a new Jupiter that would

EMBLEMA.

IIIL.

By exposing the cosmic weaves of his play, Lope fashions courtly poet who can bestow upon rulers the mantle of myth.

no la infignia Real en la cabega,

Selo τ μά Rey que con firmexs elodie y el temor ha defech sdo,

Εἰ que pueito en lugar fegure Viene

aver debaxe quanto el mundo tiene.

re VA

Le D

De SS

Sem

a

é

OS

=

NE

δὰ

4

himself as a

almenas de Toro (The Battlments of Toro), many critics briefly touch on this play since it is the only one where the Spanish playwright includes the Cid as a character,

even

though

his role is secondary.

It is also

a touchstone

for

those who want to study the importance of the romancero (ballad tradition)

SIENDO

in the shaping of Lope’s historical plays.! Early critics of this comedia already point to its merits and defects. For example, Valbuena Briones praises the fact that Lope ,,convierte en drama el tesoro épico” [converts the epic

ται τὰ πε κε πὶ πα

1 On the importance of the romancero or ballad tradition see, for example Silveira y Montes (1981) and Swislocki (1988). Silveira y Montes shows how even many small

v Ve. Ὁ

=

transforms

Although little critical attention has been devoted to Lope de Vega’s Las

noel coftofe veflide recamsdo.

μὴ

de Vega

power of Venus, while showing the influences of Mars, Jupiter, and the Sun.

mode Tyroel color mas «{merado,

A

take Elvira/Toro by deceit. Lope

history into an astrological and epic tale that weaves together instances of treacherous violence and bucolic peace, threading together emblematic passages and teichoskopic scenes. His work exalts and thus partakes of the

Nohaxe Rey a nadie ls riqueza,

Tae

somehow

5

=

ὁ os

Figure 5 Juan de Horozoco, Emblemas Morales, Book IL, emblem 4.

details derive from the ballads, including the scene when he falls in love with his own sister Elvira without knowing who she is, even though ,,Lope modifica algo la maldicion

de don Sancho a su hermana”

[Lope modifies the curse that don Sancho places on his

sister a bit] when he discovers her identity (77). In his comparative study, Lauer affirms that Lope’s play is closer to the chronicles than those of Cueva or Guillén de Castro, taking as a point of departure Alfonso el Sabio’s Primera crénica general, although he Las almenas de Toro” found in Juan de admits the importance of the ballad En

Timoneda’s Rosa española (27).

110

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

treasure into a drama] (2.343), while at the same time complains that even though

it includes the Cid as character the work

remains

,,sin un verdadero

protagonista destacable” [without a true noteworthy protagonist] (2.346). In recent years, attention has shifted to two characters that may help to fill this void. Melveena McKendrick points to the ,,beautifully equivocal portrait of Sancho IV,” showing how he is characterized as ,,insecure, duplicitous and

lacking in judgment” (37-38). For her and for Thomas Case, his foibles may reflect Philip III’s failed leadership (8-9; 213). Robert Lauer contrasts Lope’s Sancho IV with his hubristic portrayal in Juan de la Cueva and with the tyrannical, but somewhat naive figure in Guillén de Castro? Lauer finds that Lope’s characterization is masterfully complex. On the one hand, if judged from a feudal point of view he is a tyrant.> But, if his actions are studied

from the perspective of reasons of state, then they are judicious. Sancho does not wish to have a divided kingdom. For Lauer, then, he is a king and a man, tyrannical and wise, lofty and treacherous, a character that becomes ,,a

victim of his own acts” (33). Given Sancho’s flaws, Thomas Case sees in Elvira the missing protagonist. He argues that she ,,dominates both the main plot, that is, the political strife of Sancho II’s reign, and the secondary

action, the scenes that take place at don Vela’s farm” (2004). Since history says little about her, Lope is able to endow her with ,,integrity and independence of spirit” (2002). Indeed, Steven Gilman had also praised her for harmonizing opposite qualities: hombria (manliness) and beauty. Not only is Las almenas de Toro a play that has no clear protagonist, it is also a polyphonic work with its mixture of tones and genres. Case argues that: Its chief virtue is the harmonious combination of historical and epic

intrigue with an embellishment of the beatus ille motif and the burlesque dialogues in country episodes” (46). In this essay, I would like to move away

from discussions of sources, history, and protagonist, in order to look at the

two plots of the work through astrological images. Taking as a point of departure a few crucial passages from Gilman’s essay, I will contend that there are numerous astrological images intertwined throughout the work which function as a bridge between the two actions. Studying the secondary action in Lope’s play, Diego Marin concludes that most historical, legendary, 2 ,,But if Castro presents Don

Sancho as an indomitable despot, and an unfledged youth,

he adds another dimension which is lacking entirely in Cueva, namely his faith” (24). In addition, Guillén de Castro’s character is totally transformed at the end of the play: »At

this point the king becomes a saintly figure who soliloquizes in true Senecan fashion on the ephemeral nature of the world, and who dies Christ-like ...” (32).

3 ,,King Sancho of Castile is criticized for his words

characters” (28).

and deeds by most of the dramatic

4 ,,Lope celebra una mujer tan indomable como bella, tan inteligente en el exilio como valiente en la batalla” [Lope celebrates a woman who is as indomitable as she is beautiful, as intelligent in exile as she is valiant in battle] (292).

De Armas: Venus in Taurus

111

and hagiographical plays include it, while others do not.> In Las almenas de

Toro, this ,,secondary” plot is what Case calls ,,embellishments of the beatus ille motif.”

Far from

being

embellishments,

the second

plot reinforces

the

first, elevates the style to epic proportions, hints at Lope as a poet laureate and underscores the cosmic nature of the action. Written between 1610 and 1619, Lope’s play was published in the fourteenth part of his comedias in 1621. In this volume, he dedicated Las almenas de Toro to Guillén de Castro, honoring his tragedy, Dido y Eneas which he would have seen performed in Valencia in 1616 (Morley and Bruerton 275-77; Case 19). In his dedication, Lope includes a sonnet where,

among other elements, he praises Guillén de Castro’s style. The playwright’s verses sing of Dido’s beauty in such a lofty manner that even the goddess Venus will be overcome. La diosa que en la mar nacié de espuma adore por tus versos tu belleza, pues te levantan a grandeza suma (54)

[May the goddess who was born from the foam of the sea adore your beauty through your verses, since they exhalt you to the loftiest heights]

Lope, then, praises both Castro’s lofty style and Dido’s beauty at once.

It is fitting that the goddess Venus be invoked since she is Aeneas’ mother and was complicit in the passion that arose between the Trojan Hero and

the Queen of Carthage. And it is also fitting that Lope praise Castro’s style in this manner since it thus corresponds to the deity that presides over the action. Both Dido and a harmonious style are elements that derive from

Virgil’s epic, and Lope, in the same sonnet, also praises Guillén de Castro as a new Virgil and defender of Dido. This dedication, then, highlights the role of the Aeneid, with its goddess, its queen, its epic hero and its verses as a point of departure for Lope’s Las almenas de Toro.

From the very start, Lope’s drama plays with allusions to the Aeneid.

The very first line closed the doors marching her way: (v. 1). Don Diego

indicates King Sancho’s anger at the fact that Elvira has of her city, Toro, when she sees him and his army ,,¢A mi me cierra la puerta?” [She closes the door on me?| praises Elvira for her caution in closing the gates of the

5 These include: ,novelescas (con o sin fondo y elementos histéricos), mitologicas y costumbristas ... Lo que distingue a las comedias que tienen intriga secundaria de las otras es, evidentemente, su historicidad” [novelesque plays (with or without a historical back-

ground and elements), mythological plays and plays of manners ... What distinguishes the plays that have a secondary plot from the others is, clearly, their historicity] (27-28).

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Hispanic Emblems and Literature

city. She agrees, but adds: ,,Si, pero a la enemistad / abri, don Diego las puertas” [Yes, don Diego, but I opened the gates to enmity] (vv. 224-25).

The emphasis on opening and closing of the gates recalls Virgil’s poem, where the importance of the Temple of twin-headed god Janus in Rome is recalled in books one and seven. The gates were closed in time of peace and opened in times of war. Virgil praises Augustus Caesar for bringing about the pax romana and thus keeping the gates closed. In Lope’s play, Elvira expresses her belief that the closed gates will not lead to the peace she hopes, but to conflict and enmity. The

view

second

from

epic element in Lope’s

the wall. The

term,

play is the use of teichoskopia, the

as Norman

Austin

asserts

is, ,,the locus

classicus for the traditional Helen portrait” (17). It derives from the famous passage in the third book of the Iliad where Helen comes to the walls of Troy to view the deadly contest between her abductor and lover Paris and her husband

Menelaus.

Virgil followed suit, but in a different manner. He

had Dido look out from her tower to view the fleeing Aeneas with his fleet.

113

De Armas: Venus in Taurus

action and to underline how Spain’s history repeatedly reenacts the fall of

Troy and the rise of the Roman Empire. In this way, many of his plays become meditations on the imperial theme. Furthermore, by implication,

these works assert the importance of the poet in the creation of foundational and monarchical myths. At one point, in his career, Lope clearly proclaims that there would be no Augustus without Virgil. As Elizabeth Wright states, this is part of Lope’s quest for royal patronage, that

of Philip III: ,,Aeneas only stands as the founder of Rome because Virgil wrote

about

him, implying that kingly grandeur

Soon

and is amazed to see a beautiful woman on the high walls: Lope’s preserves the teichoskopia for a woman character.®

se pasea una doncella

[Along the battlements of Toro strolls a maiden but I would do better to say

message

from

the

monarch.

He

addresses

her

as ,,Hermosa

guarda

del

muro” [Beautiful guardian of the wall] (416), thus bringing to mind both Helen and Dido. It may be no coincidence that Helen’s Troy will be brought down through deceit and that Dido’s Carthage will eventually fall to the Romans. Lope’s play, then, uses epic foundational myths to enhance the 6 Of course, the ,,view from the wall” is not absent from other classical genres. In Horace’s Odes (III.2, 6-13), it appears in an epic moment when ,,the wife of a warring

tyrant and her adult daughter [are] looking from battlements anxious for their prince” (Simpson 65). Teichoskopia is also found in classical theater, where we view it, for example, in Euripides’ The Phoenissiae. Here, an old servant goes with Antigone to the highest point in the house and they watch together the army that threatens Thebes. 7 1 am adhering in this essay to a very strict definition of teichoskopia: a view from an upper wall by a woman. However, this technique has been applied to Spanish Golden Age Theater in a more general way. It can involve a man and it can simply refer to his observations from the top of a hill. On this subject see Maria Elena Arenas Cruz and Santiago

Fernândez-Mosquera.

The

first defines it as: ,,La batalla sucede en el presente y

es contada por un personaje que la esta viendo desde lejos (desde un monte, desde un muro,

desde

una

torre

o incluso

escondido).

Se

corresponde

con

lo que

la Retorica

Namaba ticoscopia” [The battle occurs in the present and is related by a character who is viewing it from afar (from a mountain, from a wall, from a tower, or even from a hiding

place). It corresponds to what Rhetoric has called teichoskopia| (250). 1 have argued that Cervantes

in Don

Quijote

uses

teichoskopia

in the

scene

where

Marcela

from a hill to witness Griséstomo’s funeral (De Armas 2008, 83-102).

looks

down

play

Por las almenas de Toro

woman

seeing King Sancho’s army and then watching the Cid who comes with a

all, to

perhaps

afterward the teichoskopia, the look, is reversed. The King arrives

pero dixera mejor quel mismo sol se pasea (vv. 532-35).

character? Elvira often looks out from the ramparts of the city, first

much,

the poetic imagination” (73).

He had deserted her after their amorous encounter, ordered to do so by Mercury as messenger of the gods. Dido shouts curses to Aeneas, carrying

her despair across the waves.® Lope’s play preserves the teichoskopia for a

owes

that the very sun itself there strolls]

The king here is rewriting a romance (ballad) as if he were its author (Gilman 293).2 While the king considers the woman on the wall to be the from an 8 I am adhering in this essay to a very strict definition of teichoskopia: a view Golden upper wall by a woman. However, this technique has been applied to Spanish to his refer simply can it and man a involve can It Age Theater in a more general way. observations from the top of a hill. On this subject see Maria Elena Arenas Cruz and Santiago Fernändez-Mosquera. The first defines it as: ,,La batalla sucede en el presente y es contada

por un personaje que la esta viendo

desde

lejos (desde un monte,

desde un

que la Retorica muro, desde una totre o incluso escondido). Se cortesponde con lo llamaba ticoscopia” [The battle occurs in the present and is related by a character who is a hiding viewing it from afar (from a mountain, from a wall, from a tower, or even from that argued have I (250). a] teichoskopi called has Rhetoric what to s place). It correspond from Cervantes in Don Quijote uses teichoskopia in the scene where Marcela looks down a hill to witness Griséstomo’s

funeral (De Armas 2008, 83-102).

that they 9 Marsha Swislocki states: ,,there is ... an awareness on the patt of the characters they which in events of out sprung has that tradition romance the of part have become are still participating ... That the characters themselves should be aware of these processes and express their awareness within the framework of the play is an example of the unique intermingling of poetry and life which is at the heart of Lope’s poetics” (92-93). See also her 1988 essay.

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Hispanic Emblems and Literature

Sun itself, his companion, Ançures, tells him that she resembles a star. Sancho accepts the response with a caveat: ,,Si es estrella, es la de Venus /

ques de los amores reyna” [If she is a star, she is that of Venus, who rules over love affairs] (vv. 548-49). Not only is the role of Venus as queen of

lovers emphasized, but also the influence of this star-planet on amorous passion (v. 553).!9 She is the sun and a star, but also a constellation: For

King Sancho, the woman on the rampart reminds him of the female figures that have been drawn in the sky: Desta que miro en el muro, digo que la sutileça con que alla la astroloxia pinta figuras diversas

able

explanation »viewing”

underneath

the

woman

the

above

image.'! as

The

if she

king,

were

an

then

is

emblematic

reading”

and

constellation.

Indeed, she is there as part of the epic device of teichoskopia. Thus, the image becomes an epic and emblematic astrological figure. Now, the king in his musings of women as celestial bodies, becomes so passionate, that he makes a truly ,,pagan” pronouncement:

[If Andromeda and Ariadne are painted as several stars, this woman must be one, Count.]

At this point King Sancho is alluding to the ancient belief that con-

[Based on the woman I am looking at on the wall. I say that the subtlety with which astrology there paints diverse figures with the blue cloak of the sky, has now made me believe that many imagined figures must actually be real. are

the very popular tradition of emblems begun by Andrea Alciato in the Renaissance. Pedro Campa explains that two of the main features of the emblem are the pictura, a woodcut or engraving and the subscriptio, the

pintan de barias estrellas, ésta sera alguna, Conde (vv. 588-90)

me ha hecho ahora que crea que muchas ymajinadas deben de ser verdaderas (vv. 580-87).

then,

115

Sia Andrémeda y a Ariana

con el manto acul del cielo,

Astrologers,

De Armas: Venus in Taurus

to

paint

diverse

stellations

such

as

Andromeda

(also

called

The

Woman

Chained)

and

Ariadne’s Crown (Corona Borealis) were formed, for the most part, through catasterisms. M R. Wright explains:

Animals and humans were allotted a specific place in the sky in a mythology known as catasterism (‘star-transformation’), in which a particular

group of stars, suggesting a certain shape, was linked to a story of an event images

on

the

blue

background of the heavens. For the king, these imagined figures must have once been real, much like the woman upon the walls, set against the sky, seems to be a constellation.

Turning the woman on the high wall into a constellation, the king is making a celestial image of her. But constellations, according to classical and Renaissance astrology, also imparted a certain influence on human beings.

Indeed, the term ,,influencia” (v. 553), is purposefully used in the text immediately before this passage in order to record the celestial influence of

the planet Venus. The type and scope of this influence is determined by astrologers as they read the heavens. Thus, the stars serve both as images and as words to be deciphered. In this sense, the celestial figures are akin to

on earth which resulted in the appearance of that constellation. Some of these stories go back to Babylonian and Egyptian sources ... but the Greek versions were collected by Eratosthenes in Alexandria ... he signs of the zodiac were all to be explained by catasterisms but with many alternative versions. (123)

Pseudo-Eratosthenes’s Catasterismi, Aratus’ Phaenomena, Germanicus’ Aratea, and Gaius Julius Hyginus’ Poetica Astronomica show how some

forty-three constellations were formed, and how the starry heavens were

populated

by

deities,

persons,

animals,

and

even

objects.

Interestingly,

Sancho has chosen as examples two very specific constellations, Andromeda

and Ariadne’s Crown. Both are northern constellations that tell the story of 11 ,,Following the publication of Alciato’s Emblematum liber, the format of the emblem

10

While

viewing

this

woman

above,

King

Sancho

beautiful soul must exist in a beautiful body (v. 570).

amd

Ançures

try

to

decide

if a

was codified as consisting of three integral parts: a motto engraving (pictura); and an epigram (subscriptio)” (Campa 14).

(inscriptio); a woodcut

or

116

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

a woman’s plight. And both myths can be found among Titian’s canvases. Given the fact that Lope de Vega often included allusions or descriptions of paintings by Titian in his plays, we should not discard the possibility that in evoking these two names he is releasing a mnemonic trigger so that his readers or audience will bring to mind the appealing images drawn by Titian, many of which were in Spain and well-known to courtiers and cognoscenti. Titian’s Perseus Liberating Andromeda was in the third and final pair of mythologies that Titian sent to Philip II. Indeed, Lope alludes to this painting in some of his works.'* Here, the nude Andromeda,

chained to a

rock seems resigned to her fate as a sea monster approaches to devour her.

But in the air above, Perseus, her savior is flying down

to kill the marine

creature. Daughter of Queen Cassiopeia of Ethiopia she came to this predicament after the Queen bragged that her daughter was more beautiful than the Nereids or sea nymphs. Andromeda thus becomes emblematic of the dangers of woman’s beauty—and beauty belongs to the realm of Venus. Sancho’s second example is even more to the point. Ariadne, daughter of King Minos, eloped with Theseus after helping him slay the Minotaur in Crete. But the ungrateful hero left her in the desolate island of Naxos. In Titian’s Bacchus and Ariadne, completed in 1522 for the Duke of Ferrara, we view Ariadne, abandoned on the island of Naxos by Theseus. On the sea, we can still see his ship departing. Ariadne has her back to us. Is she signaling to Theseus? Is she fleeing Bacchus who leaps from his chariot and moves towards her? In the sky above is a constellation. Bacchus has transformed her crown into the Corona Borealis. Ovid in his Fasti tells us that it was Ariadne herself who became the constellation, and perhaps this is what Titian is signaling.!? Richard Hinckley Allen asserts that ,,In all ages Corona has been a favorite, popularly as well as in literature” (175). It is no surprise, then, that Lope turns to Ariadne’s Crown. The play carefully unveils the

importance of this allusion. Students of myth and astrology, and there were

many in Lope’s time, would have recalled that Ariadne’s crown was given to her as a gift by the goddess Venus (Allen 174). Thus, the woman upon the 12 In La Dorotea, Fernando

makes

reference to Titian’s painting and not just to Ovid's

tale (De Armas 1978, 350). The painting may also be present in Adonis y Venus, Los

palacios de Galiana and Fébula del Perseo. According to Javier Portis and Simon Vosters, Lope may be using Rubens painting on the same topic in Amar, servir y esperar. (Portus 158; Vosters 251-56)

13 In Fasti III, vv. 459-516, Ovid tells the tale of Ariadne’s Crow. First, he asserts: ,,It

was through the fault of Theseus that Ariadne was made a goddess.” He tells how

Ariadne, abandoned by Theseus, married Bacchus. He went off to conquer India and on

his return he brought not only a large treasure but a captive woman that he fancied. Ariadne pleaded with him to remain faithful and moved by her plight he answered: ,,Let us fare together ...to heaven’s height.” Although never clearly stated, it does seem that

Bacchus places Ariadne together with a crown of nine stars in the heavens.

De Armas: Venus in Taurus

117

wall is not only Andromeda whose Venus-like beauty brought about the anger of the gods, but also Ariadne, who received Venus’s gift of a crown. And Venus, as has been noted, is one of the ways in which Sancho perceives this celestial woman that strides above. As he names these images and views a living woman, Sancho is coming dangerously close to the pagan belief that humans could become stats and that stars are divine and represent immortality.!4 Indeed, Sancho

imagines how

he would construct a chariot of silver,

with wheels of ivory and seats of gold so that she may travel appropriately

when

she becomes

Queen

of Castile. Of course, in classical mythology,

elaborate chariots made of the most precious substances were also said to convey the planetary deities through the sky. Once again, Sancho may be signaling that his lady is Venus. But this prolonged scene of imagined amorous bliss is interrupted by the Cid. He tells the king in very few words that he is watching his own sister. Sancho, who had not seen her in many years, has been deluded into imagining an incestuous relationship. During the Renaissance and early modern periods, hedonistic and permissive attitudes towards what were non-normative forms of sexuality for the period, such as sodomy, incest, irregular forms of intercourse, bacchanalian

feasts, etc. were associated with pagan antiquity and could be enjoyed through paintings which ,,hid” these elements by claiming to depict spiritual allegorizations

(Saslow

64-65;

De

Armas

2007,

241-42).

Sancho,

having

succumbed to the paganism of astrological references, antique gods and catasterisms, now reacts strongly against a further slip into the past and orders that his sister be killed with an arrow. His rage against Elvira is now at its apex. She has not only closed the doors of the city to the king, but she has also inspired a pagan passion that must be annihilated. Sancho IV’s behavior is very much the opposite of Aeneas’ reactions. When the Trojan hero beholds a woman of celestial beauty as he approaches Carthage, he does not let his passions overwhelm him. Instead, he heeds her advice and

later comes to realize that he has been speaking with his mother in disguise, the goddess Venus (1.vv 315ff). In Virgil’s epic there is no hint of incest, while in Lope’s play Venus becomes the object of Sancho’s illicit passion. The king, then, is acting in a manner inappropriate to the epic hero. When Sancho leaves the scene, the Cid countermands the order, arguing that ,,las damas / son las que tiran las flechas” [the ladies / are the ones who shoot the arrows] (vv. 670-71). While women can partake of Cupid’s arrows of love, men

should

not murder

a woman

with

an arrow.

The

first act

14 The divinity of the stars appears in Plato’s Timaeus and the Laws in later Platonic

philosophy, as well as in Aristotle’s lost dialogues. Cicero, not such a true believer, found

a place for the illustrious dead in these bodies, as exemplified in the Republic (6.16). For a fuller discussion of the divinity of the stars see Nilsson.

118

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

concludes as Sancho sets out to attack the city and calls his sister Europa, arguing that the bull has deceived her. In this word-play, the king alludes to the myth of Jupiter who abducted Europa disguised as a bull. In this case, Sancho argues that the city (Toro) is deceiving Elvira and she will lose the battle (vv. 994-95). It may be no coincidence that when Lope sent his Perseus and Andromeda to Philip II it was accompanied by a companion piece, The Rape of Europa (Panofsky 163). In

the

second

act, Bellido

Dolfo

with

the

consent

of Sancho,

will

attempt to take the city by treachery. He comes to the wall with a few soldiers, having hidden the rest of his troops, and claims to be a messenger from Zamora, bringing to Elvira a letter from her sister Urraca. Since Bellido Dolfos has carefully counterfeited her writing, Elvira believes that the letter does indeed come from her sister. When she gives the orders to open the gates, Sancho’s soldiers storm the city. An earlier mention of Ulysses, who was able to end the siege of Troy through treachery, could well serve to foretell this event and give it an epic dimension. The scene now

De Armas: Venus in Taurus

119

actions in the countryside through the use of some of the same heavenly images to describe Elvira. And if Lope is indeed creating mnemonic markers for Titian’s mythological paintings, the lengthy allusion to the tragic love of Venus and Adonis creates one more such instance. In his canvas, Titian’s

painting fuses two moments from the myth. In the front of the painting we have the leave-taking of Adonis as he wishes to go hunting, rejecting Venus’s admonitions. The sky provides a pointer for the second moment, that of tragedy: ,the chariot of Venus or Aurora appears in the sky indicating with its rays of light the direction of his [Adonis’] fatal journey” (Puttfarken 228). Some have said that this is actually Venus’s own chariot. Whatever the case, Titian has once again related the heavenly bodies to earthy occurrences, much like Lope’s play keeps associating Elvira with stars and constellations. As Ramiro/Enrique insists on knowing who his beloved star may be, Elvira gives him a cryptic reply: ,,Ramiro, yo tengo un nombre / cuyos ecos

moves to the countryside, to the secondary action. Here, Don Vela and his

tiran, matan; / viuo en un signo del çielo / de quien mi sangre me aparta” [Ramiro, 1 have a name / whose echoes shoot and kill; / I live in a sign of

Burgundy, who calls himself Ramiro. A second disguised character appears, Elvira, fleeing Toro: ,,una mujer sin decoro / que viene huyendo del toro /

this riddle: ,,!Y tiene nombre que mata, / y uiue en signos del cielo!” [And

daughter

Sancha

have

provided

hospitality

to the

disguised

Henry

of

que piensa robar a Espafia” [a woman without decorum / who comes fleeing the bull / that she intends to steal from Spain] (vv. 1648-50). The

previous allusion to the rape of Europa has now come to pass—Sancho is

Jupiter the bull who has captured the city named

after the god’s trans-

formation. While in Toro, the king worries that he has not been able to

capture Elvira, nor can he ascertain that she died in the siege, in the country-

side, a triangle of desire disrupts the peace, the beatus ille.

Act three continues to alternate between the city and the country, between the primary historical action and the secondary love intrigue. It is now clear that Henry of Burgandy (disguised as Ramiro) wishes to wed Elvira (disguised as Pascuala). While the first gradually acknowledges his royal background, Elvira refuses to reveal herself.!5 Like Sancho in the first

act, Enrique now uses astrological imagery to praise Elvira/Pascuala. Like

the king, Enrique refers to her in terms of the Sun and Venus. But instead of adding catasterisms, he also sees her as the Moon that descended to earth in order to be with Endymion. An allusion to the moon’s silver chariot (v. 2248) links this scene to the imagined chariot that Sancho was going to build

for his goddess/queen. Thus, the siege of Toro is linked to the amorous

15 After telling Elvira his name, Enrique adds: ,,No estoy, Pascuala, muy lejos / de la corona de Francia” [Pascuala, I am not very far / from the Crown of France] (vv. 2289-

90).

the heavens / from which my blood distances me] (vv. 2319-20). The jealous Sancha, who has overheard the amorous colloquy, tries to figure out

she has a name that kills, / and she lives in the signs of the heavens!] (vv. 2368-69). Don Vela aids Sancha in deciphering the statement. She must be from Toro: ,,que el toro es signo del cielo / que el sol por mayo calienta” [for the bull is a sign of the heavens / that the sun heats up in May]

vv. 2509-10). Later on, Enrique also figures out the riddle: ,,Pascuala, si en Toro uiuis, / éste es el signo del cielo” [Pascuala, if you live in Toro, / this

is a sign of the heavens] (vv. 2960-61). Lope insists over and over again on this link, letting his readers or audience know that Elvira is related to the constellation Taurus. Steven Gilman believes that this link is already suggested

in Act One when Sancho admires a celestial woman on the ramparts of Toro: ,,Elvira caminando por el muro circular es un simbolo del

ciclico viaje solar” [Elvira striding along the circular wall is a symbol of the cyclical solar journey] (296). The action in the countryside then takes place in the month of May, the month of Taurus, since it celebrates renewed

fertility (Gilman 297). And it is in the countryside where the disguised lovers

meet, reveling in the flowers of spring and foreshadowing their future marriage (Gilman 299). I would like to expand on Gilman’s important insights. As the reader or audience hears that Pascuala is from Toro and thus partakes of the zodiacal constellation Taurus, they would immediately think of the bull into which Jupiter transformed himself in order to deceive Europa. In Lope’s play the city of Toro (rather than Europa) was also taken through deceit. Bellido

120

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

Dolfos disguised himself as a messenger from Elvira’s sister so that the latter would open the gates of the city, thus making it vulnerable to Sancho’s forces. The correlation between myth and action becomes clearer if we think in terms of influence. Toro is under Taurus. As such, it is a sign of deceit, and it is through this influence that the city falls recalling the fall of Troy. If Sancho is the wily Ulysses, then Elvira must be Helen of Troy, who is undet the influence of Venus. But there are three more points that clarify why this constellation is truly important in the play. First of all, as Gilman has stated, Taurus belongs to May. It is the month of springtime, of fertility, and flowers. Its power is clearly represented in Botticelli’s Primavera, where both Venus and the goddess Flora preside over the season. Elvira is certainly Venus, but she is also Flora. In Botticelli’s painting, Zephirus raped Chloris who became Flora. In the play, Sancho cannot touch Elvira, but he does enter her and capture

her

city.

As

she

flees,

she

becomes

Flora,

a woman

of

the

countryside who is praised as the flowers of spring. She is Pascuala praised by Ramiro. Disguised nobility and amorous laments recall the pastoral romance, which is set in springtime. These romances, in turn, derive from

Virgil’s connect that his Virgilian

Eclogues. The many allusions to epic the two most important Virgilian genres. play can emulate the antique and bring genres and thus point to a poet who was

Secondly,

attempting

to elucidate

Chaucer’s

in Las almenas de Toro, It is as if Lope is boasting together the two supreme the favored of Augustus. lines: ,,And

in the sygne

of Taurus men may se / the stonys of hire coroune shyne clere,” Richard Hinckley Allen asserts that ,,.when the sun was in Taurus

the Crown

De Armas: Venus in Taurus

121

Elvira] (vv. 3014-16). Toro/Taurus becomes the locus of spring, the new kingdom of Venus on earth, a place of plenty. Angures had been correct when he first called Elvira an image of Venus,

and so had Sancho when he viewed her as the Sun. Collapsing both celestial bodies, Sancho saw her shining above her city Toro/Taurus and fell in love. But his passionate nature would only allow for a sexual union. He could not conceive of a different form of love, that of brother and sister. In rejecting his feelings, and waging war against Elvira, Sancho turned away from Venus preferring to become a new Jupiter that would somehow take the city by deceit. Although he was at first successful, he did not count on the fact that Elvira was truly a new Venus. At the end of the play she returns home to

Toro/Taurus, where she will abide with her new husband Enrique in a land

and a union that Ptolemy would label as fertile and beneficial. Here she can wear her Crown, given to her by Venus and shine in a celestial space conferred to her by Lope de Vega, who has transformed history into an astrological and epic tale that weaves together instances of treacherous violence and bucolic peace into a tragicomedy that exalts and thus partakes of the power of Venus as goddess of beauty, love, and good fortune.!6 From the union of Mars (epic struggle) and Venus (amorous pleasures), from the two actions in Lope’s play, is born Harmonia, a daughter that bestows her

gifts upon the city and its new rulers. By exposing the cosmic weaves of his play, Lope fashions himself as a courtly poet who can bestow upon rulers

the mantle of myth.

was

specially noticeable in the midnight sky” (175). The constellation of Ariadna’s

Crown

(Corona

Borealis)

shines

brightly in Taurus.

Thus,

when

Sancho

looks at the walls of the city and sees Elvira, he sees her as this shining constellation since she lives in Toro/Taurus.

Thirdly, ever since Ptolemy,

anyone with any knowledge of astrology would know that ,,To Venus which

is temperate and beneath

Mars, were given the next two signs, which are

extremely fertile, Libra and Taurus” (Ptolemy 1.17). Elvira (Venus) is thus at home when she is in Toro (Taurus). This is a position of benefic power, and, although she can be tricked, she cannot be defeated. Lope’s tragicomedy shows how Sancho, who disobeyed his father, is eventually killed by treachery, and by the very man he used to subvert Elvira’s position, Vellido Dolfo. Now that Sancho is dead, the soldiers of Toro, thinking that Elvira has also perished, want to give the city to her brother and new king, Alfonso. But a faithful knight pleads with them to wait until it is certain that the mistress of the city is dead. Elvira comes back just in time to take back

her city and Enrique proclaims: , Duque de Borgoña soy, / que con dona

Elbira estoy / casado” [I am the Duke of Burgundy, / and I am married to

16 According to Jerénimo Cortés, those born under Venus are: ;eloquentes, prudentes, dichosos, bien afortunados, gratos, amigables, justos, piadosos ...” [eloquent, prudent,

fortunate, pleasant, friendly, just, pious ...] (Hurtado Torrres 40).

ΞΡ σοι ΞΞ πο

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

122

123

Hurtado Torres, Antonio. La astrologta en la literatura del Siglo de Oro.

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Lope de Vega Carpio, Félix. A Critical and Anotated Edition of Lope de Vega Las Almenas de Toro. Ed. Thomas E. Case. Chapel Hill: North Carolina Studies in the Romance Languages and Literatures, 1971.

Gilman, Steven. ,,Las Almenas de Toro: Poesia e historia.” In Del arcipreste de Hita a Pedro Salinas. Salamanca: Ediciones Universidad de Salamanca, 2002, 289-300.

en

la Espana

de Lope

de

Vega.

Press, 1940.

Puttfarken, T. Titian and Tragic Painting. New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 2000.

Silveira y Montes de Oca, Jorge A. ,,El Romancero

y el teatro nacional

espafiol: De Juan de la Cueva a Lope de Vega.” In Lope de Vega y los origenes del teatro español. Ed. Manuel Criado de Val. Madrid: EDI-6, 1981, 73-81.

Simpson, Charles. ,, Teichoskopia and Autopatheia in Horace Odes 1-3.” Revue

Belge de Philologie et d’Histoire 70 (2001): 65-68.

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Swislocki, Marsha. Lope the ,romancero” and the ,comedia”. Dissertation. Harvard University, 1976.

. Una aproximacion al romance en Las almenas de Toro.” In Hispanic Studies in Honor of Joseph H. Silverman. Ed. Joseph V. Ricapito. Newark, DE: Juan de la Cuesta, 1988, 227-234.

Valbuena Prat, Angel. Historia de la literatura espanola. Barcelona: Editorial Gustavo Gili, 1968. 4 vols.

Virgil. Eclogues. Georgics. Aeneid. Trans. H.R. Fairclough. Cambridge: Har-

vard University Press, 1978, 2 vols.

Vosters, Simon A. Rubens y España. Estudio artistico-literario sobre la estética

del Barroco. Madrid: Catedra, 1990.

Wright. Elizabeth R. Pilgrimage to Patronage. Lope de Vega and the Court of

Philip III 1598-1621. Lewisburg: Bucknell University Press, 2001. Wright, M.R. Cosmology in Antiquity. London: Routledge, 1995.

The Heart of the King in Baltasar Gracian AURORA EGIDO Universidad de Zaragoza, Spain Abstract

This study analyzes, from a literary and iconographical point of view, the symbolic function that the ,,heart of a king” present in the works of Baltasar Graciän. The Spanish Jesuit exploited the popular cardiomorphic tradition of the motif with great frequency, applying it to politics, religion,

and moral philosophy. From the enthusiasm of his first treatise, E/ Héroe, to

the pessimism of Εἰ Criticén, Gracian addressed the need for an experienced and prudent heart, such as the one draped over the breast of Good Counsel in Cesare Ripa’s /conologia. This allegorical figure triumphed in the end over the uncontrolled heart of juvenile passions, thus assuring the fame that is possible for any man who manages to become king of himself due to his good qualities.

The symbolic history of the human heart is composed of many chapters, ranging from the cor ne edito of Pythagoras to the Hoc est corpus meum of Christ in the Eucharist. However, beyond its medical derivations and an entire tradition that constructed it as the spiritual abode of the virtues, affects and intelligence, political and religious cardio-morphism was a constant presence in the art and literature of the Spanish Golden Age.! In turn, amatory emblematics and the theology of the heart resulted in extremely diverse depictions, such as those which represented it as flaming

and winged, outside of the chest, or above the hand of Cupid, Charity or

Jesus.? Baltasar Graciän, who developed the heart motif in its charitable and

manducatory

aspects to its furthest extremes in El Comulgatorio

( The

Communion Rail), displayed in the rest of his works the other, profane side

1 Felix Andry, Recherches sur le coeur et la foie considérées aux points de vue littéraire,

médico-historique, symbolique ..., Paris: Germen Baillière, 1858; Miri Rubin, Corpus Christ. The Eucharist in Late Medieval Culture, Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1991; Richard Lewinsohn, Historia universal del corazén, Madrid: Aguilar, 1962; and, in

particular, Milad Doueihi, A Perverse History of the Human Heart, London: Harvard University Press, Cambridge Mass., 1997, pp. 64 et passim. 2 Cardiomorphic emblematics, from Alciato to Vaenius and others, is practically boundless, as evidenced by the samples reproduced on the Glasgow University Emblem Weblet. site (http//emblems.arts.gla.ac.uk) or the Emblem Project Utrecht (http//emblems. uu.nl), where the interested reader can see the emblem images analyzed in this study. For other related aspects, see V. Savuy, Le miroir du coeur, Paris: Cerf, 1989.

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Hispanic Emblems and Literature

of a symbol that he transformed into a sign of occultation, but also into a place where heroic deeds gestate? On the other hand, it is rather curious

that he distanced himself from the Schola Cordis, with the exception of the

Eucharistic treatise cited above, opting instead, even in El Criticén [The Critic|, for the variant that interpreted it as the setting for dissimulation and the dwelling-place of spiritual operations.‘ In his first treatise Εἰ Héroe [The Hero, 1637], the Jesuit attempted to curb the impetus of the affects by preaching volitional self-restraint.5 This manifests itself as a castle that one must hide away, since opening its doors would give cause to the enemy to mount an assault, bearing in mind that: »Once

the affects are known,

matter,

without

the entrances and exits of the will are also

known”’.° Therefore, the excellent hero, using his intelligence, had to avoid tempting the passions, so that nobody could decipher his feelings. It was a doubt,

of not

losing

all that

he

had

won

through

his

exploits, as happened to Alexander the Great. Now then, the vigilance over the will appropriate to ,,a silent man“ [un varén callado], was also attributed by the Jesuit to certain women, most notably Queen Isabel the Catholic, an authentic oracle of dissimulation.’ In the first two primores (the name given

3 Baltasar Gracian, Εἰ Comulgatorio, ed. Aurora Egido, Zaragoza: Institucién Fernando el Catolico, 2003; and Εἰ Comulgatorio, eds. Aurora Egido, Luis Sanchez Lailla and Miquel Batllori, Zaragoza: Prensas Universitarias de Zaragoza, 2003; and, especially, Fernando Rodriguez de la Flor, ,,El corazén celado. Baltasar Gracian y las figuras de la disimulacion

barroca”, Al margen de Baltasar Gracidn, coordinated by Aurora Egido, Boletin de la

Fundacién Federico Garcia Lorca, 29-30, (2001): 53-69. 4 On this topic in general, see: T. Accetto, Della disimulazione honesta, Torino: Eunaudi,

1997; and Giulia Pozzi, ,,Schola cordis: di metafora in metonimia,” Sull‘ordo del visible

parlare, Milan: Adelphi Ed., 1993, pp. 383-421.

5 Baltasar Gracian, Obras completas, introduction by Aurora Egido and edited by Luis Sanchez Lailla, Madrid: Espasa-Calpe, 2000, p. 9, which is the edition from which the

Spanish quotations proceed. Already by the first primor Graciän speaks of the need for the hero to hide his abilities, but it is in the second primor, ,,Hiding the will” [Cifrar la

voluntad, pp. 8 et passim], where he develops the idea of not exteriorizing the affects and

of covering up furors and passions. Bearing in mind that the liver and the cavity of the heart [la caja del coraz6n] appear as early as Homer’s epic, and that it was Aristotle who declared the heart’s omnipotence in the realm of mental operations, as R. Lewinsohn has indicated, opus cit, pp. 67-68.

Egido: The Heart of the King in Baltasar Gracian

127

to the chapters or sections, meaning ,,niceties” or ,,excellences” of The Hero, Gracian created the art of volitive occultation, while in the third

primor he goes on to extol the understanding as the seat of judgment and the ascendancy of wit, with the process culminating later on in the fourth primor, with the title ,,Heart of the King,” where

he showed

the mental

paradoxes implied in the question: ,,What does it matter for the understanding to surge forward, if the heart is left behind?” [:Qué importa que el entendimiento se adelante, si el corazon se queda? p. 13]. For him, the values of intelligence and wit were not sufficient for the constitution of the hero since exploits proceed from ,,a prodigious heart” [un prodigioso corazén] that knows how to bring them to a successful conclusion. Graciän therefore developed in his treatise a heroic vision of an anthropomorphic nature in which the heart entered into a dialectical struggle with the rest of the corporal limbs and the mental faculties, including intelligence. This matter seems to be crucial, for in spite of other heroic excellences, it is the heart, beyond a doubt, which manages to achieve the

greatest deeds. The Jesuit converts it into a sort of living microcosm, even transformed into the human stomach, and futhermore into the belly of an animal that digests everything and which is capable of doing absolutely anything in order to aggrandize exploits.? The examples adduced by Gracian include, in addition to the models of Caesar and Hadrian, the ,,arch-heart” par excellence of Alexander the Great,

which he will repeat in later works. Nor does he disdain the example of modern heroes, such as Charles VII of France, who managed to fuse the strength of the heart with that of the sword, or the example of Carlos Manuel de Saboya, who with just four of his own men was able to vanquish

four hundred enemies, proof that ,,there is no company in the most dire of

straits as that of a great heart”.!0 We

should remember that the use of

obscuro y, celando el connatural decoro, la innata majestad echaba un sello a los suspiros

en su real pecho, sin que se le oyese un ay, y un velo de tinieblas a los desmanes del semblante, primor II]. 8 ,,His is the great head of philosophers, the great tongue of orators, the breast of athletes, the arms of soldiers, feet of messengers, shoulders of porters: the great heart of

6 ,,Sabidos los afectos, son sabidas las entradas y salidas de la voluntad”. The bellicose

kings, of the divine ideas and text of Plato with which some plead in favor of intelligence” [Gran cabeza es de filésofos, gran lengua de oradores, pecho de atletas, brazos de soldados, pies de cursores, hombros de palanquines, gran corazon de reyes de las

indicated in my El dguila y la tela. Estudios sobre Santa Teresa de Jess y San Juan de la

inteligencia, p. 13]. To which he adds: ,,The offspring of a giant heart are giants” [Son gigantes los hijos de un coraz6n gigante, Ib.],

image of the heart is omnipresent in Medieval and Renaissance epic poetry as well as in the chivalric novels, Its language even found its way into the literature of mysticism, as Cruz, Barcelona: Olañeta, forthcoming.

7 The queen was thus transformed into a new Zenobia or Semiramis of preventive silence, since when she was on the verge of giving birth: ,,She enclosed herself to give

birth within the darkest closet, safeguarding her inherent decorum, her innate majesty sealed her sighs within her regal breast, so much so that not a single ay was heard, and a veil of darkness covered her facial contortions” [Encerrâbase a parir en el retrete mas

divinidades de Platon, y texto con que a favor del corazén arman algunos pleitos a la 9 ,,The heart is the stomach of fortune, that digests its extremes with equal valor” [Es el corazén estémago de la fortuna, que digiere con igual valor sus extremos, p. 13]. This is

transformed into a tolerant belly and a means by which one can overcome difficulties, developing simultaneously gigantic and magnifying images. 4 10 ,,No hay compañia en el mayor aprieto como la de un gran coraz6n”, Graciän op-

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micrcosmography in reference to the human body was very frequent in treatises on the education of princes, as is the case in those of Jeronimo Merola and Marco Antonio de Camos.!! The latter even took things a step further, comparing the image of the social and political body to that of the body of Christ.!? But perhaps the most curious aspect of the fourth primor of The Hero, and intentionally parallel in number to suggest Philip IV, is the identification of the heart with the sun itself, the familiar symbolic patrimony of the House of Austria and of monarchies in general, verbalized in the following manner: The almost eternal diamond does not shine as proudly in the midst of voracious carbuncles as an august heart acts like a sun (if we could speak thus about the sun) in the midst of the violences of a risk. [No brilla tan ufano el casi eterno diamante en medio de los voraces catbunclos como soliza (si asi puede decirse un hacer del sol) un augusto coraz6n en medio de las violencias de un riesgo, p. 14]. Once Gracian has made note of the heroic supremacy of the heart of a king as a symbol of monarchical power and control, he goes on to speak in the following primores of ,,Relevant Taste” [Gusto relevante], embodying it in the figure of Philip II, a paradigm of knowledge and practice, but also of contention. It is from that perspective that the Jesuit later sketches out

Egido: The Heart of the King in Baltasar Gracian

129

consisted of the three steps of Jesuit education: natura, ars, exercitatio, since it was necessary to add to natural gifts, acquired diligence. One more step, and ,,the excellence of the first” [la excelencia de primero, primor VII], of him who goes beyond the ordinary, will consist of the search for that which is arduous and elegant, since ,,the hero prefers plausible challenges”.!9 Of course, the ideal universality of the excellent and unique hero will fragment itself and radiate new possibilities in each and every man, since variety is at play and there are infinite ways to achieve it: In some the heart reigns, in others, the head, and it is folly for one man

to study with valor while another fights with wit.l#

The hero must also know how to play the wheel of fortune (primores X and XI), without allowing himself to be carried away by greed or fame, knowing how to earn admiration and affects by means of a universal grace

in both what he says and what he does (XII and ΧΙΠ).15 Primor XTX, ,,On

natural imperiousness” (,,Del natural imperio”), in numerical consonance, amplifies once again on the monarchical image of primor IV, embodying the cardio-morphism of the maximum hero in the image of the crown, an image that Graciän would recreate in other, later works, as the ultimate syntagma and paradigm of greatness and perfection:

,Eminence in what is best” [Eminencia en lo major, primor VI], as though it poses those men whose hearts ate both great and brimming, such as those of Tiberius

and Louis XI of France, who knew how to hide their affects. Alexander, on the other

hand, conquered a world, but he lost his good reputation to his excesses of will. He is the Jesuit’s paradigm for lexicalizing the august timbre of great hearts” [timbre augusto de grandes corazones], appropriate to the magnanimous. He also reproduces a saying of Louis XII of France that he will later repeat in E/ Discreto [The Complete Gentleman] and he summarizes primor IV of The Hero with the phrase: , These are the miracles of the heart” [Estos son los milagros del corazén]. In primor XVIII (pp. 88-89), he repeats the image of Alexander and Caesar, as though both imitated one another in their feats, with one conquering the Orient and the other the Occident. The cult of the heart of kings and princes merits its own study (R. Lewinsohn, opus εἶδ, chap. XIII), a heart which sometimes was buried separately, such as that of prince Baltasar Carlos (so venerated by Gracian) in la Seo of Zaragoza. 11 Jerénimo Merola, Republica original, sacada del cuerpo humano,

Barcelona:

Pedro

Malo, 1587. On this treatise and the works of fray Marco Antonio de Camos, see: Microcosmia y gobierno universal del hombre christiano, Barcelona, 1592; see also: R. W.

Truman, Spanish Treatises on Government, Society and Religion in the Time of Philip Il, Leiden-Boston-Cologne: 1999, pp. 186 et passim and 201 et passim. 12 R.W. Truman, opus cit., pp. 221 et passim.

13 ,,que el héroe prefiere los empeños plausibles”, Primor VIII. Empiricism was highly esteemed in the treatises on princes. See the introduction by J. A. Fernandez-Santamaria to Baltasar Alamos de Barrientos, Aforismos al Técito espanol, Madrid: Centro de Estudios Constitucionales, 1987, pp. XXX et passim, and XLVI-VII. Keeping in mind that Alamos

believed

that

politics

consists

though we can already discern in him a history, something which will appear in Gracian. 14 ,,En unos reina el corazon, en otros estudiar con el valor y pelear otro con la

of

the

understanding

of

human

affects,

al-

degree of skepticism towards the models of The Critic [El Criticén)| and other works of

la cabeza, y es punto de necedad querer uno agudeza”. Gracian utilizes once again the sup-

position of the variety of wits, inclinations and tastes, just like Vives and Huarte de San

Juan among others. Nevertheless, he points out the difficulty of eminence and how hard it is to know the abilities of each individual.

15 Graciän says of the sealed prodigy of sympathy that it consists of a kinship of hearts,

if antipathy consists of a divorce of wills” [consiste en un parentesco de los corazones, si la antipatia en un divorcio de las voluntades, primor XV]. To which he adds that the

heart effects miracles (primor XV) and that ,,In the school of love this is the A, B, C where the first lesson is that of sympathy” [En la escuela del querer es éste la A, B, C

donde la primera leccién es de simpatia , p. 34].

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He is the splendour of the crown, and if eminence in understanding and greatness of heart coincide in him, he lacks nothing to construct a political primum mobile.!6 The dictate seems to be substantial, since it not only promises to draw within reach of anyone who proposes it the excellences of a king, but it also brings actions which are, in theory, the exclusive attribute of the primum mobile, back down to the human level Certainly the affirmation is not that strange if we consider that it formed part of a school where it was supposed that The heart is to man what the mobile is to the heavens”.!’ The Jesuit

continues on to describe other heroic endowments of attraction, such as that of ,,sublime sympathy” (,la simpatia sublime,” primor XV), which,

from Dante on, linked the heart to friendship.'® Let us remember as well that Cesare Ripa’s /conologia exalted its values with the motto ,,Longe et prope” below the cardiomorphic image.'? Ripa’s work reveals quite a number of parallels with The Hero and other books by Gracian with respect to the symbolism of loyalty, counsel, fame and charity.2? In the following primores the Jesuit praises the ,,renovation of greatness” [renovaciôn de la gtandeza, XIV] by means of the familiar images of renewal of the phoenix and the eagle, but fleeing always from the vices of narcissism and affectation.2! Even at the moment of accomplishing heroic feats, the heart

16 ,,Realce es de corona

y, si le corresponden

en la eminencia

del entendimiento

y la

grandeza del corazon, no le falta cosa para construir un primer mévil politico”, p. 33. Keeping in mind, in addition to other references in the rest of his works, the regal crown” [real corona] of El Criticén, p. 807, and the fact that is island of Saint Helena, in the beginning of the book, also appears as a ,,crown of the ocean” [corona del océano], as if it represented the heart of the world. 17 ,,Es el coraçén del hombre lo que el mévil a los cielos”. Thus read some initial verses

of a ballad in the collection of the Biblioteca Nacional de España (ER 4164) Benedicto Haefteni, Schola Cordis, sive Aversi a Deo Cordis ad eundem reductos et instructio, Antwerp, 1629.

18 ,,Vide cor tuum” and friendship, in Milad Doueihi, opus cit., pp. 64ff. The heart raised

up by hands that greet each other as a symbol of friendship without secrets also appears

in Francisco

de

Zarraga,

Séneca, juez de si mismo,

impugnado,

defendido y ilustrado,

Burgos: Juan de Viar, 1684, p. 71. Two hearts united like friendship that endures even beyond death appears in Sebastiän de Covarrubias Orozco, Emblemas Morales Madrid:

Luis Sanchez, 1610, cent. I, 70, f. 70. 19 Cesare Ripa, /conologia, Madrid: Akal, 2007, I, p. 84. 20 Cesare Ripa, opus cit., 1, 207-208 (hidden conscience); I, 218 and 1, 222 (counsel); 1,

154 and I, 161-2 (burning heart); I, 336 (fame); I, 161-2 (charity); II, 14 362 (torments). He also uses the image of two hearts as a symbol of fraud 21 Primor XVIII. En la Agudeza, OOCC, p. 767, Graciàn utilizes a applied ingeniously by Carrillo y Sotomayor in which the heart is salamander that is not consumed by the flames of the fire.

(loyalty) and Il, (I, 388). A type of conceit compared to 4

Egido: The Heart of the King in Baltasar Gracian

131

remains nonetheless essential, since it is centrally located and that which drives all the body’s operations.22 But that apparent cardiomorphic praise carries with it, nevertheless, the well-known adversatives and ,,yes buts” or qualms typical of Gracian, since the Jesuit insists on the necessity of always operating with political tricks, even though these may result in venial sins, such as that which envy touches upon or provokes. It is for this reason that he advises (just as fray Luis did when speaking of the confused style of Saint Teresa, or later Miguel de Cervantes)

adding

a mole,

sinful in a certain

way,

in order

thereby

to

heighten beauty even more.?4 Step by step the heart of the hero moves between systoles and diastoles, wasting away and expanding, but withdrawing and hiding away at the same time. The Hero culminates therefore, and not by accident, in a ,,final and

crowning primor” [Primor ultimo y corona], that takes up once again the figure of Philip IV illuminated by all the splendors unfurled throughout the work, in order to show once again the insoluble alliance between monarchy and religion, so appropriate to political treatises and the life of the period. The image is coherent if we bear in mind that the crown was the image of the king as the head of the body of the republic and even of the world.” The heroic virtue that this final excellence nevertheless supposes is not the sole patrimony of kings, since Graciän speaks also of captains and saints, as well as of others with the makings of heroes who oppose those men captive 22 For the central location of the heart and its role as the seat of intelligence, see: Juan Eduardo Cirlot, Diccionario de stmbolos, Madrid: Siruela, 1969 and José Luis Morales y Marin, Diccionario de iconologia y Simbologia, Madrid: Taurus, 1986. At the same time, Federico Revilla, Diccionario de iconografia y simbologta, Madrid: Catedra, 2007, reminds

us that the heart is a living and powerful center on which all the other parts of the body depend.

23 ,,Let the heart be rescued by exposing it to gossip, drawing the venom to itself.” »Critical paradox,” primor XIX, is its title [Rescate el corazôn exponiéndose a la

murmuraci6n, atrayéndose a si el veneno].

24 See on this topic: Eugenio Narbona, Dotrina politica civil escrita por Aphorismos:

sacados de la dotrina de los Sabios, y ejemplos de la experiencia, Madrid: Viuda de Cosme

Delgado, 1621, pp. 17 et passim, where the idea is endorsed by Trismegistus and other

classical authors

such as Tacitus, who

preached

prudence

and dissimulation

(p. 37).

Narbona also writes at length on the love of the prince for his subjects ademas, fol. 67v°

et passim. The Church-State connection was earlier presupposed in the Gospel of Christian politics that was the De regimine principum of Saint Thomas Aquinas. See Maria Angeles Galino, Los tratados sobre educacién de principes, Madrid: CSIC, 1948, pp. 29 et passim. It is a doctrine that Erasmus posited in his own way in his The Education of a Christian Prince. 25 It appears thus at the beginning of Juan de Orozco y Covartubias, Dotrina de principes

Enseñada por el ST°. Job, Pinciae: Joannes de Herrera, 1605. In this work, dedicated to Philip ΠῚ, the monarchy remains subjugated to the dictates of the Scriptures, where the Book of Job represents the paradigm of a compassionate and merciful king.

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

132

to vice, such as a Caligula. It is also quite curious that the work ends by evoking the image of the heart linked to the House of Austria, that ,,marked

its imperial blood with that of Christ” [rubricé su imperial sangre con la de

Cristo, p. 42], in order to thus elevate their lineage.26 This is nothing new, if

we recall, for the Hieroglfficos (1625) of Baltasar Porreño indicate that the

regal lineage of the House of Austria featured an almost endless number of saints and martyrs?’ But that final appearance of divine elevation does not end there, since The Hero, in spite of the fact that it is constituted on the

premises of human morality, ends with the affirmation that:

Being a hero of the world amounts to little or nothing; being one of Heaven is a lot, and may all praise go to its great Monarch, may His be the honor, may His be the glory. [Ser héroe del mundo, poco o nada es; serlo del Cielo es mucho, a cuyo

gran Monarca sea la alabanza, sea la honra, sea la gloria].

With both monarchies, the terrestrial one and the celestial one, unified and crowned at the end of the book, Gracian left the door open for the later derivations of The Politician |El Politico], but in his first work he had already

established the bases for the art of being a common hero, setting forth as a model, among other attributes, that of the heart of a king with which to govern and crown one’s own feats. That was the equivalent of converting

Egido: The Heart of the King in Baltasar Gracian

133

the work into a mirror of heroism within reach of anyone who aspired to tule with his heart over his own actions and to achieve the greatest exploits regardless of his profession or condition. The Hero combined

intellective, affective and ethical attributes of the

heart, maximizing them in the figures of emperors and kings, with the parameters of dissimulation, occultation and silence. Bear in mind also that according to the Jesuit tradition itself, the heart was bound to the spiritual progress of the soul, and it was therefore easy to reduce its images to the profane and heroic spheres.”? Let it suffice to mention only the works of Luzvic, Herman Hugo and Bolswert, or in particular, that of van Haeften, which implies an entire path of virtue, learned from infancy in the school of the heart.% In that educational process, the heroic took on both theology

and the doctrine of cardiomorphic operations (cordis aversio, cordis effusio, cordis reversio, cordis donatio, etc.), but transferring them to the realm of

ordinary politics and morality.*! In addition, Graciän imprinted upon the concepts of human heroism the theological values of the heart propagated by the Bible, patristics and Jesuit asceticism itself, so inclined towards sacred devotion.*? But if the ending of The Hero consecrated the figure of king Philip IV as the paradigm of the political-religious union that symbolized that of terrestrial and celestial monarchies, what is certain is that the entire work was founded on lay bases that were very different from the habitual cardio-morphism of Jesuit treatises and usages. We need only think, for example, of the Libro de las honras que hizo el Colegio de la Compañia de less de Madrid a la M. C. de la Emperatriz dofia Mariana de Austria, and the use made in its hieroglyphs

26 For the devotion of the House of Habsburg to the Eucharist and relationships between the throne and altar, see: Enrique Rodrigues-Moura,

,,Religion y poder en la

España de la Contrarreforma. Estructura y funcién de la leyenda de los Austrias devotos de la Eucaristia.” In Austria, España y Europa: Identidades y diversidades. Actas del x Simposio hispano-austriaco, ed. Manuel Maldonado, Sevilla: Universidad de Sevilla, 2006, pp. 11-30. The theme abounds in the Spanish one-act Corpus Christi plays (autos sacramentales) and in other Corpus festivals. The fusion of the sacred and the profane is reflected

widely in emblematics.

for example,

See,

Lorenzo

de

Zamota,

Monarquia

mistica de la Iglesia hecha de Jeroglificos sacados de humanas y divinas letras, Barcelona:

Sebastian de Comellas, 1604. 27 Baltasar Porreño, Hieroglificos

de

las

Personas

en

Santidad

excellentes,

Santos

canoniçados, y contenidos en el Martirologio Romano, descendientes, o muy allegados por consanguineidad o afinidad a la nobiltsima, y augusta casa de Austria. 1 take the reference

from Pedro. F. Campa, Emblemata Hispanica. An Annotated Bibliography of Spanish Emblem Literature to the Year 1700, Durham-London: Duke University Press, 1990,

29 For the universal symbolism of those attributes of the heart from the Old Testament on, see: Santiago Sebastian, Contrarreforma y Barroco. Lecturas iconogräficas e iconolégicas,

Madrid: Alianza, 1985, pp. 322-326, where he refers to the works of the Jesuits Etienne Luzvic, Le coeur dévot (Paris, 1626) and Herman Hugo, Pia Desideria, to which 1 will return later. 30 Benedicto van Haeften, Schola Cordis sive aversia Deo cordis ad eumdem reductio et

instructio, Antwerp, 1623; and Boëtius à Bolswert, Schola cordis sive Aversiae Deo cordis, Antwerp: Boétius ἃ Bolswert, 1629.

31 Benedicto van Haeften, opus cit., recreated an entire didactical narration between the Soul and the Christ-Child, utilizing an exhaustive range of cardiomorphic allusion, both in the physiological realm as well as in the psychological.

32 José Luis de Urrutia, Teologta del Sagrado Corazén, Madrid: Apostolado de la Prensa,

Y-28. 28 The heart was a symbol of the Egyptian gods and in the Bible it is the seat of thought and the will, according to Tomar Keel, La iconografta del Antiguo Oriente y el Antiguo Testamento, Gottingen: Vanderhoeck & Ruprecht, 1996, p. 66, pp. 121, 329 and 331. The

1961, pp. 175ff.; see also pp. 64 et passim, on the importance of the Heart of Jesus and that of Mary in the Spiritual Exercises and in the works of fathers Nadal, Canisius,

of the period.

Alacoque in 1672. See R. Lewinsohn, opus cit., cap. XII.

heart is topped at times with a cross or a crown in the political and religious symbology

Francisco Suarez or Luis de Palma, among others. There are vestiges of the cult of the heart of Jesus from the Middle Ages on, although this devotion does not take full shape

until the works of Teresa de Jestis and other mystics (infra), such as Margarita Maria de

134

Egido: The Heart of the King in Baltasar Gracian

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

of the crowned heart joined with the imperial eagle and the sun.% In these hieroglyphs the Ignatian institution was also depicted as a heart with three nails which was protected from the arrows of heresy by the imperial shield.*4 The difference between Jesuit treatises on Schola cordis and The Hero is of course vast, since Gracian not only refrains from using allegory, but he also utilizes cardiomorphic symbols on a human level, reducing them to a heroic and political morality that had very little to do with ,,divine affects”. The Aragonese Jesuit also went further than the mixed use which would be used later by another member of the Society of Jesus, Lorenzo Ortiz, when he spoke about the mental republic inhabited by Memory, Understanding and the Will.36 Emblematics recreated in great abundance images of the winged heart, linking it to the insignia of the prelate, and above all to those of the monarch when he abandoned the world, joining together on numerous occasions the crown and the scepter.*’ Of course, the human and divine symbolism of the heart was so lexicalized by a centuries-long tradition that

33 Madrid: Luis Sanchez, 1603, pp. 38 et passim. See in particular the crowned heart in the center of which appears the symbol IHS of the Society with three nails (p. 44), the hieroglyph of the monarchical bicephalous eagle crowned with the name of Jesus (p. 46), or that which joins together the eagle and the sun (pp. 59-60). 34 Julian Gallego, Visién y simbolos en la pintura española del Siglo de Oro, Madrid: Aguilar, 1972, fig. 6, and pp. 165-6, reproduced this hieroglyph, calling attention to those emblems in which the heart appears linked to the Society of Jesus with distinct variants

38 Guy de Tervasent, Atributos y stmbolos en el arte profano. Diccionario de un lenguaje

respect, the heart was as much an attribute of Charity as it was of Venus. 39 On the implications of this theme, A. Redondo, Le corps dans la société espagnole des

XVI et XVII siècles, Paris: Sorbonne, 1990, ΡΡ. 297-307. 40 Sagrario Lopez Poza, ,,El disimulo como virtud politica en los tratados emblemäticos espanoles”, Estudios sobre literatura emblemdtica española, La Corufia Sociedad de Cultura Valle-Inclan, 2000, pp. 221-235.

known, of the Pia Desideria of Herman Hugo, and it offers numerous emblems on the

topic. See in particular pp. 102 et passim, 160v° and 179.

41 Valencia: Felipe Mey, 1617. I take the reference from Emilia Muntaner, ,,Imagenes de divina y humana politica: la portada en los libros de educacion de principes,” Los dias del Alcién. Emblemas, Literatura y Arte del Siglo de Oro, eds. Antonio Bernat Vistarini and

36 Lorenzo Ortiz, Memoria, Entendimiento y Voluntad. Empresas que enseñan, y su buen uso en lo moral y en lo politico, Sevilla: Juan Francisco de Blas, 1677, pp. 66 et passim, and, especially, the will depicted with a heart in its hand. The author evokes on p.

John T. Cull, Barcelona: Olañeta, 2002, pp. 419-428, who point out how Madariaga follows Jerénimo de Ceballos, Speculum aureo, Salamanca, 1613, in the matter of con-

84 El gran teatro del mundo by Calder6n de la Barca: ,,Do not forget that our life is a

37 See in the Enciclopedia de Emblemas Españoles Ilustrados, eds. Antonio Bernat Vistarini

and John T. Cull, Madrid: Akal,

1999, nos. 439-441, the winged

hearts of Pedro

page of the book by fray Juan de Madariaga, Del Senado y de su principe.*'

This matter is by no means trivial, since it foreshadows an entire cardiomorphic and even economic politics, manifest in the Tacitean and Lipsian Jeronimo de Ceballos, who affirmed: ,,Jocularity and jesting diminish the respect and authority of the prince, but with time and occasion they declare

perdido, Barcelona: Ediciones del Serbal, 2002, pp. 177 et passim, reminds us that in this

Other religious aspects of this matter can be found on pp. 298-299 and 321-322. 35 Afectos divinos con Emblemas sagradas por el P. Po de Salas de la Compania de lesus, Valladolid: G. de Beoyoda, 1663, offers on the title-page a Christ-angel that shoots arrows at the Anima Sponsa, wounding it in the heart. It is the Spanish version, as is well-

to the love of God and of fellow man.

at times it was difficult to distinguish its boundaries.%8 The effort made by Baltasar Gracian to orient and adapt them to the realm of the individual and secular is therefore even more the remarkable. In The Hero he opted above all for the human and political image of the heart, configured to resemble that of the republic“? That feature was far removed from the ingenuous outbursts derived from the Schola cordis emblems, which transformed the Holy Passion and the love and indifference between the Soul and Christ into a children’s game. On the other hand, political treatises on reason of state demanded, from Machiavelli on, an entire precautionary rhetoric that interpreted the traditional symbols in a new light, including the symbol of the crowned heart. This required at minimum—such as the ocular hand of Baltasar Graciän imitated out of the emblematists—an eye in the middle of the heart in order to be able to look and feel at the same time, exactly as it appears on the title

what is in his heart”.42 Ceballos, as Graciän would do later, located in the

(pp. 97-98, 103 and 125). For the crown as a symbol of royal majesty, see pp. 126-128.

play” [No olvides es comedia nuestra vida], so important in The Critic and other Jesuit works, where naiveté is linked to the simple heart (p. 88), the will to prudence (p. 90) and

135

sidering the Spanish nation to be like a human body whose head was the king and the

A

heart its advisors. Graciän alters this perspective, as we have seen, by exalting the image

of the heart of the king for heroic actions. The royal crown also appears as a mens regni. For other aspects, see Carmelo Lisén Tolosana, La imagen del rey. Monarquia, realeza y

Rodriguez Monforte (exequies for Philip IV, flying with the virtues that adorned it) and

poder ritual en la Casa de los Austrias, Madrid: Espasa, 1991.

altar, an image of the soul that burns but is not consumed, and also the one with the heart raised aloft by hands (443), as a reflection of the desires that should accompany good works. Rosa Giorgi, Los Diccionarios del arte. Santos, Barcelona: Electra, 2002,

Jerénimo de Ceballos: un hombre grave para la Republica. Vida y obra de un hidalgo del

Juan de Orozco (insignia of the prelate). Juan de Borja (no. 444) shows a heart on an

points out that the winged heart was also a symbol of ecstasy.

42 ,,Los donaires y gracias disminuyen el respeto y la autoridad del principe, pero con tiempo y ocasién declaran su pecho”. This aphorism is one of two hundred gathered in the Arte real, Toledo,

1623; a work dedicated to Philip IV. See: Franciso J. Aranda,

saber en la España del Siglo de Oro, Cordoba: Universidad de Cordoba, 2001, p. 392.

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

136

prince the eye of the republic [el ojo de la republica], with which he had to keep vigil over the needs of his kingdom.” The Aragonese Jesuit did not go into any detailed and concrete considerations on the proper education of the prince, as did the political treatises in vogue at the time. He avoided details and settled instead on an aphoristic and quintessential style to summarize his doctrine. In The Hero he also tried to transform epic excellence into a human category, placing it within reach of anyone who wanted to strive for it. The image of the heart linked to the body of the republic was of course a constant presence in the long tradition of the mirrors of princes, for as we read in that of Fernandez de Otero, dedicated to Philip IV: The best and safest site for this edifice, to my way of thinking, is the heart of the Prince, for human creatures do not have anything more elevated and noble, nor more similar to God.“

Nevertheless, Graciân did not restrict himself to the premises of sacroprofane political treatise writing that we see, for example, in the Rey Pacifico y Gobierno del Principe Catélico, a work by the Trinitarian fray Salvador de Mallea. He tried to discern constantly, as we have seen, between that which

exists in this world, and in the next.4 This does not mean that he did not

take into consideration the divine origin of authority, just like so many others did, but he understood it as a term of excellence.*®

We should remember, though, that if the first published edition that has been preserved of The Hero (Madrid: Diego Lopez, 1639) proposed to 43 Francisco J. Aranda, opus cit., p. 268.

44 El mejor y mas seguro sitio para este edificio, a mi parecer, es el corazon del Principe, pues

no tienen

las criaturas humanas

cosa

mas

levantada y noble, ni mas

semejante a Dios”. Jeronimo Fernandez de Otero, ΕἸ maestro del principe, Madrid: Viuda de Juan Gonzalez, 1633, p. 25. The treatise is divided into two parts, one dedicated to the prince’s tutor, and the other to his education. Otero constructed an architectonic allegory

of the republic, stressing, as did Gracién and other treatises writers, the figure of Alexander. 45 The work by Mallea (Genoa: Pedro Francisco Barbrio, 1646) was dedicated to Philip

IV. Each one of its chapters was based on a Psalm of David, although Aristotle, Seneca,

Bodino and other profane authors appear, including Plato, but it is evident that biblical

sources predominate, including Psalm 48: ,,Prudence is my heart’s meditation” [La meditacién de mi corazén es prudencia, p. 46)] See also pp. 65 et passim on ,,the depraved

heart” [el corazén depravado].

46 On Pedro de Ribadeneyra, Tratado de la Religién y Virtudes que debe tener el Principe Christiano ... (1595) and for other authors, see: Manuel Ariza Canales, opus cit., ΡΡ. 54-5.

And pp. 62 et passim for Quevedo’s Politica de Dios y Gobierno de Cristo, who opted for the figure of Jesus as the mirror of the perfect prince. A fundamental work for the bases of the genre is that of Ronald W. Truman, opus cit., pp. 13ff.

Egido: The Heart of the King in Baltasar Graciän the ,,cultured

man,

seeker

of heroism”

[varén

137 culto, pretendiente

de

la

heroicidad] the heart of Philip IV as a model of a king’s heart, the manuscript in the author’s hand had previously conceded the torch of monarchy that was a guide and beacon to all to the Count-Duke of Olivares, transforming him into the royal favourite of both the earth and heaven.# The difference between the manuscript and the printed version is enormous, although as concerns the topic under consideration, it is clear that the monarch recreated, with the image of the king’s heart, the ultimate ideal to which anyone could and should aspire in the execution of the feats that life might provide. As we have seen, Gracian’s The Hero was configured not as a mirror of princes, but rather of universal heroes who knew how to govern their actions. This was something that all could achieve by following the philosophy set out in the twenty primores contained in the book and in which a new reason of state over oneself was sketched. This could be applied by any reader who chose to live skilfully and in an exalted way his own particular heroism regimented by the autonomous administration of his own heart.*8

The cardiomorphic symbols of The Hero were determining for The Politician, embodied in the figure of Ferdinand the Catholic in the very lively form of the body itself of the empire.# The embodiment of the

political macrocosm went hand in hand, in this case, with the figure of an

Aragonese king who filled Spain with triumphs and riches by governing prudently and as dictated by the occasion. When outlining the portrait of the ideal politician, the Jesuit characterized him as a clear sun” (,,claro sol?)

shining among all monarchs, because he managed to place prudence in his

head and valor in his arms.5 What stood out in his constitution, nevertheless, were intelligence and judgment over and above force, since the

Jesuit relegated the martial impulses of the heart to a dangerous realm, clearly marked by the limits of action.>!

47 On this topic, see my introduction to Baltasar Graciàn, El Héroe autôgrafo, Zaragoza: TFC, 2001, pp. XVII-XVIII; and p. XTX, for crown” [corona], as well as chapter IV.

48 Ib., p. XX and chap. VI. On the alliance between religion and monarchy in the figure of Philip IV, see pp. ΧΙ ΤΕΣ 49 Baltasar Gracian, Εἰ Politico, OOCC, p. 63.

50 Ib., pp. 55, 57, 64 and 66, We should bear in mind the long political tradition that

considered the king as the head of the body formed by his kingdom. It is an idea shared del principe by Luis Vives and many others. On this, see Manuel Ariza Canales, Retratos cristiano. De Erasmo a Quevedo, Cordoba: Universidad de Cérdoba, 1995, pp. 40-41.

than 51 ,,Many were warriors of the heart, but they destroyed their own kingdoms more their enemies did” [Fueron muchos guerreros de corazon pero destruyeron mas sus reinos que los contrarios, Εἰ Politico, OOCC, p. 69.] It is curious that Augustus should be

exalted in this work in a more judicious than willful manner, since he acted first with his head and then with his fists (pp. 76-7), although Gracian insists later that his ,name is the

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

138

Just as in The Hero, but in a more complex way, Gracian demanded in

The Politician means and their application (p. 80), exalting the model of

those monarchs,

since The

errors or successes

of the other subordinate

limbs fall on their heads” [Recaen sobre la cabeza los yerros o los aciertos de los demas

miembros

subordinados, p. 89], as if the head with its wisdom

takes on a greater prominence than the heart or hands in heroic actions. Thus the model of a sagacious and prudent monarch takes shape, as much

an Argus as a Janus, alive and attentive to all he sees, hears, smells or touches.

A lion with his eyes open, as was Philip II, although Gracian, in spite everything, left open the door to the sentiments, creating also the figure A sensitive prince, whose losses bite and wound him to the depths of heart”.52 The Aragonese Jesuit thus showed himself to be opposed to

of of his the

figure of an indolent prince, since in his view, »kings in their politics should

be sensitive” [sensibles quiere sus reyes en la politica, p. 78].

Later, in The Complete Gentleman [ΕἸ Discreto] Gracian would outline

the dangers of passion, as well as of those devoid of any kind of spirit in

their hearts” [sin género de brio en el coraz6n, p. 116]. In reality, Gracian speaks in that work of a model of restraint who, without renouncing his

feelings, does not allow himself to be overwhelmed by them nor does he

waste them by aborting them prematurely. Therefore, he sketches out in the allegory of Waiting the outline of: A

sea’s heart, where there is room for the floods of passions and where

the most furious storms are contained without emitting any howls, without its waves breaking, without erupting in foam, without surpassing by even the minutest amount the limits of reason.

[Un coraz6n de mar, donde quepan las avenidas de las pasiones y donde

se contengan las mas furiosas tempestades sin dar bramidos, sin romper sus

olas, sin arrojar espumas, sin traspasar un punto los limites de la razon, p. 116].

Faithful to his preferred model, the Jesuit returned to it again when speaking of gallantry (,,I had as my center the heart of Augustus” [Tuve pot centro el corazén de Augusto, p. 121]), but imposing limits always to going overboard,

since ,,passion often deceives, or degenerates, if you give free

reign to the humors”.53 It is logical, therefore, that he should exalt the figure —

mark of his heart” [nombre es timbre de su corazon, p. 78]. ' 52 ,,Un principe sensible, que le piquen, que le lastimen las pérdidas en lo vivo del coraz6n”, Ib., pp. 77-78. Gracian also exalts the figure of those kings who visited in person the battle fields of their soldiers” (p. 82). e 53 ,,Engafia muchas veces la pasiôn o degenera, si se da rienda suelta a los humores - El Discreto, Ib., pp. 111 and 156.

Egido: The Heart of the King in Baltasar Gracian of prudent

and ,,thoughtful”

[pensados]

139

kings, those who

,,exercise their

heads more than their hands” [ejercitan mas la cabeza que las manos], like the man at his most perfect point [hombre en su punto], and the figure of those who do not allow themselves to be dragged down by the tyranny of love, not even paternal love, forming an alliance between the understanding and the will.54 Graciän also brought up the image of the yearned-for window in man’s chest, but in order to clarify that the good discreet man, like the good clairvoyant, does not need it at all when it comes to revealing the interior of hearts.55 Far removed from the heroic enthusiasms of his first treatise, the

splendour [realce] the name given to the different sections of the treatise) Against histrionics” [Contra la hazañeria] reveals that this attribute is not an

indication of sublimity of the spirit, ,,but rather of vileness of the heart”

[sino de vilezas de corazon p. 180], since it seeks after only that which is apparent. The traditional dichotomy between the heart and the head

is resolved in splendour XXIV, ,,the Crown of discretion” [Corona de discrecién], where discretion’s triumph is depicted as an authentic battle, difficult to balance, between the heart and the brain.56 In this battle truth

plays a crucial role, for it resides in the heart but has its tribunal in the tongue (p. 191).

On the other hand, if The Hero displayed some parallels with Ripa’s Iconologia, others can be found in The Politician and The Complete Gentle54 Ib., pp. 161

and

169. See also splendour (realce) XVIII

on the education of the

Persians. Graciän was aware of the pedagogical importance of the formative years, including those of princes. On this he agreed with the Jesuit Juan de Torres, Philosophia moral de principes para su buena crianza y gobierno, Burgos: Juan Baptista Varesio, 1602, lib. I, p. 27: ,I say, that it is easy to tame the wildest heart and to soften the most

hardened breast, if one has beforehand complete knowledge of the makeup and nature of any given individual” (,,digo, que es facil domar el coraz6n mas fiero y ablandar el pecho mas endurecido, teniendo primero entera noticia de la condicién y natural, que reyna en

cada uno”). On this author, see Ronald W. Truman, opus cit., chap. XII, a work in which he also deals with those of the Jesuits Pedro de Ribadeneira and Juan de Mariana. 55 On the window in the breast of man see: Aurora Egido, Las caras de la prudencia y Baltasar Graciän, Madrid: Castalia, 2000. 56 ,,But the tongue, not failing itself, defended itself with the heart which, being the

beginning of life and king of the other limbs, is also entirely flesh. It apologized to the brain which, as the seat of discretion, is much more delicate than the tongue; but it did not work, because both answered for themselves, the heart pointing out its valor, and the brain leaning on its great stability” (,,Pero la lengua, no faltandose a si misma, con el corazén, que, siendo principio de la vida y rey de los demas miembros, carne todo él. Excusäbase con el celebro, que, siendo asiento de la sindéresis, muelle que ella; pero no le valfa, porque respondieron entrambas por si,

defendiase es también es muy mas el corazon

representando su valor y el cerebro apoyando su mucha estabilidad”, p. 190). The

allegory continues, showing the weakness of the tongue, but also its strength when it tells

the truth.

140

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

man in terms of the presence of Good Counsel, depicted in Ripa as an old man with a golden chain from which a heart hangs*’ Ripa also served as a bridge to Graciän’s oracular depictions by seating on the aforementioned tribunal the three headed figure of Prudence with her three temporal faces.

In The Oracle, Graciän stylized symbols and steered away once again

from the allegorical in order to show the complex and subtle network sentiments at odds with reason, recommending all kinds of strategies utilize only those parts of the body and soul necessary, according to occasion.5? In this work desire is subject not only to the ravages of time, also to a life that hinges on patient waiting and prudence, sealing off

of to the but the

affects, because ,,The mindful person is always on the side of reason, and

not that of passion” [El atento siempre esta de parte de la razén, no de la

passion, p. 251]. Even at that, the Oracle is also an art of how to become

impassioned” [arte en el apasionarse] and how to be in reasonable command of affects, provided that it is not done to excess (pp. 255-256). Gracian also believed that the desire for something is worth more than its possession, since the latter always involves disillusionment, besides the risk that is run by following the impetus of the passions (p. 271). It is therefore not strange that the window in the human breast should be worth less than the ocular hand, which touches and sees everything (p. 278), or that ,,moderation in feeling” [moderarse en el sentir, p. 302] should be an obligatory choice. As we see, the heart was in no way absent from the Art de prudence, although it acted in correlative proportion to the ages of man, so long as ,,At

the age of twenty, the will rules, at the age of thirty, the wit, and at the age of forty, the judgment” [A los veinte años reina la voluntad, a los treinta el

ingenio, a los cuarenta el juicio, p. 301]. Graciän also confirms in this and

57 Cesare Ripa, /conologia 1, 218, where he follows the premises on good deliberation that emanated from Aristotle’s Ethics. W

58 Ib., I, 218-9 y 222. We should keep in mind that Pierio Valeriano pointed out in his

Hieroglyphs that the Egyptians considered the heart to be a symbol of Good Counsel, which Ripa felt should be secret.

59 Ordculo manual y Arte de prudencia, OOCC, oracles 4, 6, 8, 19, 34, 43, 80, 89, 126, 142, 155, 207, 294, 287 and 290. Let us remember that prudence was, like the rest of the

cardinal virtues, fundamental in the treatises on the education of princes, generating not

few problems as a result, as Ronald W. Truman has pointed out, opus cit, pp- 361 et passim, depending on whether or not authors took a biblical or pagan perspective on the

issue,

60 Nevertheless, in The Critic 11, XIII, Gracian will say, as we will see later, that the heart continues to grow into one’s 50’s. On the other hand, all of the treatises before the

Agudeza were in reference to the judgment, as he indicated in the prologue to that work

(OOCC, p. 309). It would be fitting to consider this work also as a conceptual anthology

of the sentiments, as reflected in the Quevedo couplet that Graciän selected on Apollo and Daphne: ,,even my heart, that you have / gives you wings against me” (aun ΠῚ corazon, que tienes,/ alas te da contra mi).

Egido: The Heart of the King in Baltasar Gracian

141

his previous treaties that ,,there is a relationship between hearts and genius” [hay parentesco de corazones y de genio, p. 219], and that ,,A Man of patient waiting reveals a great heart with an expanding capacity for suffering” [Hombre de espera arguye gran corazén, con ensanches de sufrimiento”]. It is for that reason that he advises: ,,Never to be in a hurry nor to become impassioned” [Nunca apresurarse ni apasionarse, p. 222]. Like ,,apertures in the spirit” [portillos del animo, p. 236], the passions force one to enclose the will, but sublimity of spirit is also necessary, for it ,,aggrandizes the heart” lengrandece el corazon, p. 246], as well as the expansions of the will. This explains why the Jesuit, in spite of all his precautions, affirms categorically that ,,there is no greater company in great jeopardy than a great heart” [No hay mejor compafiia en los grandes aprietos que un gran corazén, p. 260], and he even affirms the need to ,,Believe the heart, and even more when it is

trustworthy” [Creer al corazén, y mas cuando es de prueba, p. 178]. For all of these reasons The Oracle is a good example of how traditional symbolic cardiomorphism was converted into a more modern image, linked to the space of the affects and passions, even adding to it a certain visceral dynamism, since ,,There is nothing that requires more citcumspection than the truth, which is a bloodletting of the heart” [No hay cosa que requiera mas tiento que la verdad, que es un sangrarse el corazon p. 264]. From that perspective, and years later, The Critic became

a new arena in which the

battle between reason and passion did not take place solely in the space of abstractions of an aphorismatic or discursive nature, but also in the life of its

protagonists. Something very similar happened in E/ Comulgatorio [The

Communion Rail], an experimental work if ever there was one, whenever the Eucharist was a real presence and the heart formed a substantial part of

the sacramental images upon which the reader should meditate.*! Let us assume that the heart is, beyond a doubt, the true dwelling place of the Eucharist, that is to say, the place where the union between God and the soul takes place.f? Gracian also reminds the communicant that ,,they opened

Christ’s side with the harsh lance, and He has sealed your heart with this most sacred host” [a Cristo abrieron el costado con la dura lanza, y El ha

61 We should keep in mind that Graciän, in El Comulgatorio, compared Maty’s belly, when Christ was conceived, to the breast of the communicant (OOCC, p. 1512). It is for that reason that he admonishes him in the beginning by saying: ,,Prepare your heart, then, if not with the perfection that you should, with whatever grace you acquire” [Prepara,

pues, tu corazén, si no con la perfeccién que debes, con la gracia que alcanzares, p. 1513].

62 In the final meditation, on the verge of death, Graciän urges the soul to continue praising God, received in the Eucharist with a winged heart: ,,and if you can no longer do 80 with your tongue, speak with your heart; if your lips can no longer move themselves, let its wings move themselves and let your entrails be touched” [y si no puedes ya con la lengua,

habla

con

el coraz6n;

si no

Conmuévanse tus entrañas, p. 1634].

pueden

moverse

tus labios,

muévanse

sus alas, y

142

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

sellado tu corazén

con esta sacratisima hostia p. 1637]. Thanks

to the

miracle of the Eucharist, the former could rest his head on the wound on the Savior’s side, transformed already into the gate of Paradise. However,

with the exception of this work, in terms of the cardiomorphic application, as happened with other themes, the Jesuit tried to conveniently separate the divine from the human, without confusing them, although he mixes them occasionally in a symbolic way. On that point, the marked difference between him and his companions in religion-Rivadeneira for example-was clearly evident.% With the depiction of the king’s heart in The Hero, Gracian displayed, in spite of his secrecy, a clear enthusiasm that diminished years later in The

Politician and The Complete Gentleman, which imposed, like the treatises on

judgment that they were, all kinds of cautions and masking. These are the same precautions, on the other hand, that were prevented by the wit in the

Egido: The Heart of the King in Baltasar Gracian

143

Gracian gathered numerous examples of amorous poetry in the Agudeza, especially those sophisms that declared the soul’s sentiments with all kinds of paradoxes. And it is quite curious that in the discourse on heroic

sayings, Gracian is aware that ,,the eminence of these sentiments consists

more in displaying the greatness of the spirit and the superiority of the heart” [la eminencia destos sentimientos esta mds en ostentar la grandeza del animo y la superioridad del corazén].°? There is also the enticement of the nominal witticism (agudeza), where the impresa or emblem of a painted anchor carried within itself the enigma’s resolution: Pain is in the middle and in the extremes she who ordains it.

En el medio esta la pena y en los fines quien la ordena.

Because half of the word ancora is cor, which means the heart, and the first and last letters of the same word Ancora form Ana, which is the name

Agudeza when it came to expressing conceptual subtleties. As concerns The Oracle, and The Art of prudence as well, Graciän kept in mind the affects of

of she who caused the worry.68

light of the affects, and Gracian’s paradoxes of the winged heart abound

number XLII, dedicated to the affects and sentiments of the soul, showing once again the breadth of Gracian’s philography in this conceptual work, since although the ingenious witticisms have their domain in the soaring flights of the mind, there are some kinds of conceits, like those involving ingenious transpositions, that excel in subtlety more than they do in truth. In reviewing Gracian’s works, we find an entire vital program which, in spite of so many seals and keys, shows us an author who is very different

the heart, but always under the control of reason and even in spite of how difficult it was to close the doors of the will. It would be a separate task to analyze the aforementioned Agudeza as a conceptual treatise of the passions and a poetical anthology of them, as is proven by the first discourse with the sonnet by Camoens that begins ,,Brief Hours of my contentment” [Horas breves de mi contentamiento].“4 For although sharpness of wit triumphs in the realm of the mind, the wit is the throughout this work, such as in the allusion to the myth of Apollo and Daphne reproduced by Quevedo:

I already lost all my fortune,

Ya todo mi bien perdi,

all my worldly goods have run out; since today, chasing after you,

ya se acabaron mis bienes; pues hoy, corriendo tras ti,

even my heart, which you possess

aun mi corazôn, que tienes,

gives you wings against me.

core

of one

entire

discourse,

su corazon la ayudaban en su cartera. No sold se funda tal vez correspondencia entre los correlatos, sino que se le da exceso de parte de alguno de ellos]. See also on p. 336 an

but impossible.

67 OOCC, p. 575. Graciän takes up once again the premises of The Hero, affirming that

»The depth and greatness of these sayings is an indication of that of the heart” [La

soul is understanding (p. 317), but it is evident that the wit also longs for beauty and makes use of adornment. In this way, the operations of the understanding are subject to

examples of amorous

in this work, the most outstanding of which are those that manifest

amorous witticisms by means of exaggeration.

the

vagant witticism offers all kinds of metaphysical thoughts that are not only exaggerated

alas te da contra mi.®

Both divine and human

formed

66 See on this topic discourse XXIV, pp. 507 et passim, where the paradoxical and extra-

opus cit., p. 314. 64 OOCC, pp. 313-314. The treatise makes clear that the first and principal faculty of the

material abound

contradictions

example by Lope de Vega that alludes to the heart.

63 On Ribadeneira in regards to reason of state and the cardinal virtues, see: R. Trumann,

both aesthetic and moral demands.

Amorous

'

profundidad y grandeza destos dichos es indicio de la del corazén, p. 577], and includes

an example of Caesar and another of Alexander the Great. See also p. 578. 68 OOCC,

pp. 579-580. Graciân reproduces a sonnet in the style of Géngora by the

Aragonese Juan Lorenzo Ibâñez de Aoiz on the heart posed at the window of Christ’s breast (p. 631). There is another sonnet by Camoens on the heart in love and stolen (p. 635). In discourse L he alludes to some verses by Jorge de Montemayor in which the

heart appears as the tip of the tongue (p. 705).

69 This is the case with Marino’s poem to the wound in the side, which is transformed

into a mouth: ,Piaga dolce d’amore, /già tu piaga non sei, / ma bocca di quel core/ che

65 OOCC, p. 334. To which Graciàn adds: ,,She pondered carefully that the wings of his

parla ai sensi miei” (p. 450). Gracian implicates the heart in those witticisms that include

established, but perhaps some of them even lead to excess” [Ponderé bien que las alas de

de San José, p. 775, or the one by Agustin de Tärrega, pp. 775-776.

heart helped her in her flight. The correspondence between the correlates is not only

disillusionment or amorous ecstasy, like the famous sonnet to the rose by fray Jeronimo

144

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

Egido: The Heart of the King in Baltasar Gracian

145

from the man described at the beginning of the twentieth century by modern crafters of the Baroque, such as Jorge Luis Borges, who relegated him to the

que con el valor se califique la nobleza. Nunca es traidor, necio si, pues previene antes las desdichas que las felicidades.]?!

cated every trace of such premises, the rest of his profane treatises, so full of affective images, served without doubt to negate these assumptions and to prove the extent to which the Jesuit always had in mind every aspect of what was contained in the depths of the heart. In spite of all the qualms of prudence and discretion, the Jesuit knew very well, as he said in The Hero, that the maneuvers of the understanding

Faithful to his principles, Graciän evokes as well in the final section (crisi) of that work Alexander the Great ,,conqueror of the world” [conquistador del mundo], thus closing with his name the circle opened in The Hero: ,,His palace was always the battlefield tent, for his great heart was

cold realm of conceptual artifice. For if The Communion Rail fully eradi-

are worth

The Critic, Graciän

[alcazar del alma, corte de sus potencies], but, among the parts of he did not forget the heart, the ,,king of the rest of the limbs” [rey los demas miembros] and situated in their center in order to rule govern them.” In a marginal note in the First Part the pure heart puro] was described as an organ without excrement and a paradigm

passions. From his trajectory throughout the work we can deduce the need for an experienced and prudent heart, like the one that hangs from Good Counsel’s chest in Cesare Ripa’s aforementioned Iconologia. He triumphed in the end over the burning uncontrolled heart of juvenile passions and warranted the entire reputation of any man dedicated to the good who could

very

little when

the

heart

overtakes

it. Later,

anatomy of man” [Moral anatomia del hombre], from

in the ,,Moral

located heaven in the head, as the ,,fortress of the soul, and court of its

faculties” the body, de todos over and [coraz6n

too large for palaces: the whole world was his home”.72 The Critic re-

presented as well, in this and other aspects, living proof for Andrenio and Critilo. The latter’s passion, which drove him to a shipwreck, was something that he nevertheless wound up overcoming, thanks to the efforts of his

of cleanliness that always aspired towards perfection, even transforming its

symbolic wings into vital auricles of nobility:

Its shape ends in a point facing down towards the earth, so that it does not scrape against it, it only points towards it: it is content with an indivisible [point]. On the contrary, the part towards heaven is very wide and spacious, so that it can receive the supreme good from there, that can be filled only from heaven. It has wings, not so much to refresh it, but rather to elevate it. Its color is fiery red, charity’s ostentation; it creates the best blood so that its nobility can be proven with its valor. It is never treacherous, though foolish

father,

become

friend

and

tutor, who

king of himself thanks

taught Andrenio

to distance

himself from

to his natural gifts.’> This demonstrated,

therefore, that for the proper governance of oneself and to triumph over nothingness and oblivion, it was necessary to have the heart of a king, heroic and prudent, like that depicted by Baltasar Gracian throughout all of his works. The Jesuit gathered together in the last of these works the iconogtaphical and symbolic images of his prior treatises in order to establish a vision of the heart that was ever more modetn and autonomous, placing it within reach of anyone who held it as the center of his actions and as a king who knew how to gover them according to the will:

at times, since it prepares misfortunes before joys.

[Su forma es en punta hacia la tierra, porque no se roce con ella, solo la apunta: bastale un indivisible. bastale un indivisible Al contrario, hacia el cielo esta muy espacioso, porque de all reciba el bien, que él solo puede llenarle. Tiene alas, no tanto para que le refresquen, cuanto para que le realcen. Su color es encendido, gala de la caridad; cria la mejor sangre para

71 OOCC pp. 933-934. Gracian stylizes morally and makes human the image of Charity that appears in Cesare Ripa, /conologia 1, pp. 161-2, where it is represented as a woman

dressed in red who carries in her right hand a burning heart, and in the other part there is a child in her arms as an example of pure affect towatds God

and his creatures, for the

heart burns when it loves, since there is restriction of blood in the heart of the lover.

72 ,,La tienda fue siempre su alc4zar, que para su gran corazén no bastaban palacios: todo el mundo

era su casa”, OOCC,

p. 1492. See also other references to the Mace-

donian on pp. 1499-50, where he is even made to speak and participate before Merit.

There is even a reference to the fact ,,that the sweat of Alexander the Great smelled

70 El Criticén, OOCC, pp. 933-934. Graciän recalled its etymology (from cura, ,,cate”)

and conferred upon it ,,the powerful being of life” [ser fuerte de la vida], or upon love,

»the office of desire” [oficina del querer]. Compared to the phoenix, as happened earlier

in The Hero, Artemia says that it is located in the middle, since when it comes to love, everything must be with reason, and not with extremes” [todo ha de ser con razon, no

por extremos]. Many other facets appear in this work, such as the belief that the heart continues growing until the age of fifty (II, XIII), as indicated previously.

good” [que olia bien el sudor de Alejandro Magno”,p. 1504], such as was the case of that of true heroes who went to the Island of Immortality. When he refers to the contempt in which Ferdinand the Catholic was held by the Aragonese, he recalls that they themselves

showed him the road from Fernando de Antequera, ,,appreciating more the great heart of a Castilian than the narrow ones of the Aragonese” [apreciando mas el corazôn grande de un castellano que los estrechos de los aragoneses, p. 1497]. 73 Cesare Ripa, Iconologia 1, 222 and 396, for Good Fame, See also my introduction to El

Héroe autégrafo, p.

LXX VIL.

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Hispanic Emblems and Literature

Hey, there is no dominion in the world like freedom of the heart; that indeed is what it means to be a lord, a prince, a king and monarch of oneself!

[jEh!, que no hay en el mundo sefiorio como la libertad del corazôn; eso si que es ser sefior, principe, rey y monarca de si mismo (p. 1236)]

Egido: The Heart of the King in Baltasar Gracian WORKS

147

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The Whore of Babylon: Tradition and Iconography of an Apocalyptic Motif in the Service of Modern Religious Polemics!

JOSE JULIO GARCIA ARRANZ

University of Extremadura, Spain Abstract

The apocalyptic motif of the Great Whore of Babylon, an attractive allegorization of Roman pagan oppression directed at the first Christian communities, manifests a prolonged trajectory in western medieval iconography, dating back at least as far as the Carolingian period, and achieving its most extensive protagonism and diffusion during the transition from the fifteenth to the sixteenth centuries, due to various interrelated cultural factors:

the growing interest in the monstrous and prodigious as a premonitory sign of political events, the eschatological effervescence fomented by a millenary mentality that established 1500 as the year that would see the end of time, or the apocalyptic expectations of Martin Luther and the first Protestant circles, who identified the pope in Rome and the elite of the Catholic Church with the Anti-Christ. This study analyzes the recuperation and utilization of apocalyptic imagery, and in particular, the biblical icon of the Great Whore in the service of the new prophetic environment and of religious polemics, as well

as

its derivations

in

biblical

moralizing literature of the Modern Age.

illustration,

emblem

books

or

the

{| amicos nobis esse deligendos, qui nec temporum diuturnitate, nec locorum distantia, sed ne quidem post mortem amare desistant.” (Claude Minois’ annotation to Alciato’s emblem CLIX)

The Protestant Reform and the Exploitation of Prodigy Many recent works have demonstrated the striking intensification of interest in the phenomenon of monstrous apparitions and prodigious events. Their dimension of foretelling both portentous omens as well as 1 This study falls under the auspices of a research project co-financed by the Spanish

Government’s

National

Plan

for Scientific

Research,

Development

and

Technological

Innovation [Plan Nacional de Investigacién Cientifica, Desarrollo e Innovacién Tecnolégica (I + D)], the Spanish Ministry of Education and Science [Ministerio de Educacién

y Ciencia de España]

and the European

Fund

for Regional

Development

[Fondo

Europeo de Desarrollo Regional (FEDER): ,,Biblioteca Digital Siglo de Oro HF], code: FF12009-08113,

Corufia.

directed

by

Professor

Sagrario

Lopez

Poza,

of the

University

of La

154

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

terrible calamities, can be detected in central Europe at the beginning of the 1500s.2 With this vogue, which maintained its popularity for a good part of the century, a cultural practice that has its roots in the Hellenistic world was recuperated and reactivated. It is the paradoxography that describes remarkable or fantastic phenomena and which came to constitute its own autonomous literary genre (Gémez Espelosin). This practice managed to survive in the western world, spurred on by the transcendent perception of the physical world that impregnated the Middle Ages. Whether they were understood as a kind of hieroglyph or a visible sign of the divine will— which functions as a mechanism of warning, punishment or transcendent approbation that precedes events and foreshadows them—as an exhortation to man to reform his habits or, finally, as a worrisome symptom of the internal disorder that reigned in the material world (Céard, 8-10),> portents are always signs with a hidden meaning that needs to be deciphered, generally a presage of coming events, which made them material that underwent continual interpretation and speculation (Kappler 1986, 269). Sebastian Brant, the humanist from Strasbourg and a passionate analyst of the events of his epoch, is considered to be the first author who allowed himself to be tempted to produce an allegorical-political interpretation of a series of natural phenomena of an exceptional nature—monstrous births ΟΥ̓ astral conjunctions—that took place in Alsace and Germany at the end of the fifteenth century, a reading that was never impartial and always favorable to the imperial cause of Maximilian II. These prognostications were published with great success between 1495 and 1496, in the form of illustrated leaflets (Kappler 1980, 100-110). Thus was born a custom that would very soon acquire an openly polemical character when the symbolic reading was tinged by impassioned religious and doctrinal hues.° Martin Luther and the first Protestant circles would appropriate, in fact, identical

procedures for ideological diffusion, which they utilized extensively in a tone

that became increasingly direct and demagogic, after seeing their effective-

ness as an instrument of criticism and a way to discredit the target of their diatribes: the elite of the Roman Church.® 2 I will cite passages from diverse representative texts of the growing interest in this phenomenon throughout this study. i 3 The author terms the science of divinatory interpretation of these portentous signs teratomancia. 4 For the distinct focuses on which the different conceptions of nature were based

during the sixteenth century, see Roso Diaz 2008, 199. 5 This consideration

would

be maintained

in successive

treatises and catalogs of mon-

sters and prodigies throughout the century. See, on this topic, Wittkower, 99.

i

6 See, among other studies, Scribner 1981, 170-171; Edwards ]r.; or Martin Torés and

Roso Diaz.

Garcia: The Whore of Babylon We

155

find ourselves, therefore, faced with an actualization, amplification,

and radicalization of the ideological exploitation of the prodigy; but these would not be the only variants that the use of such a device would experience in the hands of the reformers. If indeed Luther—in spite of a degree of reticence shown at certain moments (Saxl, 234)—came to admit the validity of the prophetic system of exegesis (or praesensio) that was proposed by Brant,’ which avails itself without shame of an examination of the singular physical constitution of the prodigy engendered in order to prognosticate, by means of simple deduction based on certain parallelisms among these anti-natural details and determined events or situations, the nature and scope of the changes that will affect, to a greater or lesser degree, the state of the world, he did not hesitate to echo, at the same time, a second

interpretative method. This approach also takes as its point of departure a detailed description and interpretation of the most salient and deformed traits of the prodigy—validated by the oft-repeated apparatus of biblical quotations—as though it was a matter of the attributes of an allegorical figuration, but not in order to propose them as an indication of imminent events, but rather as a grotesque image of the principal vices and depraved habits with which to compose his ferocious criticism of the entire papal curia and even the very institution of the papacy. It was a matter of demonstrating, in the final analysis, the way in which humanity suffered in slavery at the hands of the supreme pontiffs in their exercise of both spiritual and temporal power. This method of exegesis provoked a phe-

nomenon of displacement that stripped the monster of its gravity and transcendence as a foreboding sign of important events, and reduced it to the

status of a simple parody, a burlesque caricature of the distinct ecclesiastical

classes, of what has come

to be called the ,,theriomorphic satire” of the

hierarchy of Rome (Roso Diaz 2008, 202). For this process of ,,satitizing”—and the consequent conceptual easing —of the image of the portent, they turned principally to monstrous births or fortuitous apparitions of human or animal congenital defects, more or less recent that were in the realm of public knowledge at the time. Of significance in this respect is the well-known illustrated pamphlet composed

by Felipe Melanchton and Luther himself, with the title Explanation of Two Terrifying Figures, the Ass of the Pope in Rome and the Calf-Monk Found in Freiberg, in Saxony (Saxl, 234-236)3 a model which would subsequently

be applied to other ,,clerical” monsters of a similar condition. There is no 7 On the use of prophesies and signs by Luther, see Vega Ramos 2002, 61-105. 8 Although it is true that Luther and Melanchton begin by warning that these beings portend grave events—“God always has indicated his Grace or wrath by means of many signs”, the latter reminds us—both will focus more insistently on the allegorical method of interpretation.

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Hispanic Emblems and Literature

lack, nevertheless, of recourse to other registers, and most particularly, to

the imagery of apocalyptic inspiration that was beginning to exert a certain degree of protagonism in the transition from the fifteenth to the sixteenth century.? As a consequence of the urgent eschatological drive of Luther and his

co-teligionists

(Scribner

1987,

277-299;

McGinn,

221-251),!°

the

reformers in the Wittenberg circle insisted on the identification of the institution of the papacy with the figure of the Anti-Christ both in their pamphlets as well as in their evangelical glosses (Guadalajara Medina, 93121; Vega Ramos 1994, 97-107). This accusation, which was frequently reduced to a mere polemical insult, is sustained, beyond denunciations of political or moral corruption, on the conviction of the proximity of the end of the world in view of the increasing decadence reigning in the system of values and in the certainty that the Latin Church had adopted a false plan of salvation of satanic inspiration, which would lead the faithful not to their redemption, but rather to hell. Such forceful considerations resulted in an aberrant and perverse iconography of the papacy, inspired directly on the biblical book of the Apocalypse, which resorted frequently to the most horrendous apocalyptic monsters, the diabolical opposite of what hides behind the apparent humanity of the Pope (Roso Diaz 2008, 199-203). It is not strange, then, to find frightful demons who wear papal garments and carry papal attributes—a well-known example is the striking engraving Ego sum Papa by Eduard Fuchs (mid-sixteenth century), that depicts pontiff Julius ΠῚ with a grotesque diabolical appearance—or with fierce dragons that wear the pontifical tiara on their heads, like the menacing Beast that confronts the two Witnesses, evangelical preachers from whose

mouths flames spew in front of the Measured Temple—a depiction of the

Wittenberg church and the pulpit from which Luther preached—in one of the woodcut illustrations devised for the 1534 edition of the Wittenberg 9 Denis Crouzet defines the period between

1480 and 1533 as one of eschatological

effervescence”, with a proliferation of prophesies, previously unpublished, that suddenly

came out in print in the realms of France, Italy or the Germanic Empire, a symptom ofa millenary

mentality

that at certain

times

became

an authentic

collective

psychosis.

See

Crouzet. 10 As M* José Vega Ramos has indicated in 1995, 239-240, the abnormal accumulation

and frequency of the extraordinary events that transpired in those years was interpreted

as an undeniable indication of a fundamental fact: the second coming of Christ, ἃ certainty based on texts such as the eschatological discourses of the Gospels— Mk 15;

Matt 24; Lk 21— or the books of the prophets, and especially that of Joel 2, 28-31, in

which it is prophesized that the end of the world will be preceded by signs and portents in the sky and on the earth, and by monstrous births. The Protestants echoed in their pamphlets such an ,,incontrovertible” link between the superabundance of prophesies and the end of the world. 11 On the apocalyptic expectation of Protestant circles, and the cultural precedents of Luther’s accusations, with special attention to John Wyclif and Jan Hus. See Gow, 8.

Garcia: The Whore of Babylon

157

Bible. The icon of the so-called Whore or Prostitute of Babylon is also quite

striking, a suggestive vision originating in the New Testament Apocalypse of

John, also called The Book of Revelation, and which, in its use in Protestant

propaganda, enjoyed the culminating moment of its prolonged presence in western thought and imagery. 1 would like to offer in what follows a review, necessarily panoramic, of this allegory’s trajectory, including its incorporation into the graphic repertory of the religious struggles of the sixteenth century. The Whore of Babylon: Image and Symbol Chapter seventeen of John’s Apocalypse begins with the vigorous and hermetic description that I transcribe here:

And there came one of the seven angels which had the seven vials, and talked with me, saying to me, Come here; I will show to you the judgment of the great whore that sits on many waters: With whom the kings of the earth

have

committed

fornication,

and

the inhabitants

of the earth have been

made drunk with the wine of her fornication. So he carried me away in the spirit into the wilderness: and I saw a woman sit on a scarlet colored beast, full of names of blasphemy, having seven heads and ten horns. And the woman was arrayed in purple and scarlet color, and decked with gold and Precious stones and pearls, having a golden cup in her hand full of abominations and filthiness of her fornication: And on her forehead was a name written, MYSTERY, BABYLON THE GREAT, THE MOTHER OF HARLOTS AND ABOMINATIONS OF THE EARTH.!? And I saw the woman drunken with the blood of the saints, and with the blood of the

martyrs of Jesus: and when I saw her, 1 wondered with great admiration."

The verses that follow this passage are dedicated to providing a very specific interpretation of the meaning of this horrifying image, in the enigmatic tone that is characteristic of biblical prophesies: I wondered with great admiration. And the angel said to me, Why did you marvel? I will tell you the mystery of the woman, and of the beast that 12 The word ,,whore” or ,,prostitute” designates in prophetic style any idolatrous city. She bears her name on her forehead, then, according to the testimony of Seneca or Juvenal, while the prostitutes of Rome had their names written on a golden ribbon tied to their heads. 13 Rev 17, 1-6. The English translations provided here are from the American King James Version, transcribed from the online polyglot Bible search website: Biblos [http://biblos.com/].

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Hispanic Emblems and Literature

carries her, which has the seven heads and ten horns. The beast that you saw

was, and is not; and shall ascend out of the bottomless pit, and go into perdition: and they that dwell on the earth shall wonder, whose names were

not written in the book of life from the foundation of the world, when they behold the beast that was, and is not, and yet is. And here is the mind which has wisdom. The seven heads are seven mountains, on which the woman

sits.

And there are seven kings: five are fallen, and one is, and the other is

not yet come; and when he comes, he must continue a short space. And the beast that was, and is not, even he is the eighth, and is of the seven, and

goes into perdition. And the ten horns which you saw are ten kings, which have received no kingdom as yet; but receive power as kings one hour with the beast. These have one mind, and shall give their power and strength to the

beast.

These

shall

make

war

with

the

Lamb,

and

the

Lamb

shall

overcome them: for he is Lord of lords, and King of kings: and they that are

with him ate called, and chosen, and faithful. And he said to me, The waters which you saw, where the whore sits, are

peoples, and multitudes, and nations, and tongues. And the ten horns which you saw on the beast, these shall hate the whore, and shall make her desolate and naked, and shall eat her flesh, and burn her with fire. For God has put

in their hearts to fulfill his will, and to agree, and give their kingdom to the beast, until the words of God shall be fulfilled. And the woman which you

saw is that great city, which reigns over the kings of the earth.!4

This vision gave rise to an allegory that was one of the most complex, suggestive, and as a consequence, the most far-reaching, of all the allegories

found in biblical writings. The great whore, a vision whose attributes offer a perfect counterpoint to the celestial symbols of the ,,woman clothed with the sun”

described

in the same

book,!5

and

a prefiguration

of the apo-

calyptic Virgin, received her feigned name from Babylon, capital of the

Chaldean empire, which the Hebrews called Babel. Jewish eschatological literature converted it into the legendary city that was the prototype of impiety and the persecutor of the people of God:'¢ it represents all pagan cultures, as well as the temptation of riches and material pleasures, in opposition to

the life of the spirit which is defended by adherents to the Christian faith. The accusation of Babylon’s fornication with the ,,kings of the earth”, beyond

its literal sense, points us towards

the spiritual tradition of com-

Garcia: The Whore of Babylon

159

munities that have abandoned monotheism in order to worship the idols of other cultures. Babylonia thus acquires a symbolism that is antithetical to the New Jerusalem, which the apocalyptic text proposes as an alternative comforter in the eschatological future. Great Whore is an appellation with a lengthy biblical tradition,!’ and a designation that had previously been conferred on other cities that acquired meaning due to their idolatrous cult—Tyre,'* Nineveh,!? Samaria or Jerusalem??—in an attempt to divert the chosen people from the road marked by Yahweh. In a generic sense, John’s text echoes the oracles against the city of Babylon included in the Old Testament, such as the lament for the fall of the king of Tyre21 But Babel, let us recall, is a symbolic denomination here: subsequent commentators of the Apocalypse insisted on assimilating this figuration with the city of Rome, the capital of the empire, that dominated the rest of the world at the time of the book’s composition, whereas the historical Babylon had already lost all of its ancient splendor by that time. The seven heads of the beast—and the seven mountains on which the woman appears seated— are the famous seven hills of the Urbs, the seven emperors under which the empire has been ruled, or, according to some more edifying interpretations, the seven deadly sins; the ten pairs of horns are all the vassal kings of Rome, who second and carry out their plans of persecution against the Church? The Roman empire, brimming with economic prosperity and resplendent in its military might, wielded a great fascination with the citizens of its Provinces, in exchange for security and peace, like the wine that the woman offers in her gilded goblet in order to seduce nations. What is more, from the Christian point of view, Rome, the epitome of the exploitation and tyranny of the people of its empire, of the bloody persecution of the people

of God, and of corruption by means

of its idolatry and licentious habits,

generalized the veneration or cult of power, just like the apocalyptic woman

demands the absolute submission of her devotees, and the beast, which would become the portrait of the Anti-Christ in medieval culture, claims

divinity for itself. 17 Bartina, 776-777. 18 Isa 23, 15-17.

19 Nah 3, 4-7.

20 Ezk 16, 15-63; 23; Isa 1, 21; Jer 2, 20; 3, 1-11. 21 Ezk 28, 11-19. 22 As early as the first century AD, Rome occasionally appears in texts with the denomination of ,,the city of seven hills”; see Pliny NH

14 Rev 17, 6-18. 15 In Rev 12, 1. See Grubb, 57.

a

16 The book of Daniel informs us of the sufferings of the Jews after their exile to this city following the destruction of the temple of Jerusalem by king Nebuchadnezzar II, in the sixth century BC. Cf. likewise /sa 21 and Jer 51.

3, 9.

23 The image of ,,horns-kings” was not foreign to Old Testament tastes. See Dan 7, 2024. They are satellites and vassals of imperial power who, in alliance with the kings of the

earth, prepare two wars: the first against the prostitute, who they will conquer—the total destruction of Rome—and later against the Lamb, an image of Christ the Redeemer, at whose hands they will suffer a definitive defeat.

Garcia: The Whore of Babylon

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

160

Likewise, meanings have been proposed for the distinct elements and attributes associated with this baneful lady.24 The waters upon which the whore appears, for example, represent the peoples and nations over which Rome exerted its morally disturbing influence.?> An indication of instability, for Christians these waters are an expression of the pernicious influence of moral imbalance and of the pantheistic cult that the city imposed upon the small vassal states and upon the whole known world, perversely fascinated by them, as though in a state of ,morbid inebriation”. Concretely, the dark connotations attributed to the ornate goblet proceed from Jeremiah 51.7ff: Babylon has been a golden cup in the LORD’s hand, that made all the earth

are drunken: the nations have drunken of her wine; therefore the nations

mad. That gilded vessel, from which

nations

are invited to drink—the

antithesis of the Eucharistic chalice?—represents, then, the deceitful effects

of idolatry, in accordance with the biblical topos that links prostitution and the cult of false images. The color red very probably correlates to the blood spilled during the persecutions and martyrdoms, and the blasphemous names? are the divine epithets bestowed on the Roman emperors, of the innumerable

deities of their pantheon. The woman

wears a dress of royal

purple, a color reserved for emperors, and also, in accordance with meretricious custom, displays bold colors and an ostentatious array of jewelry, pearls, and precious stones, an allegory, of Semitic undercurrent perhaps, of the spleendid construction materials and impressive monuments of the great metropolis.?7 In the shadow of all of these interpretations derived from Christian exegetical tradition, we find in the apocalyptic cycles of medieval manuscripts the first conserved depictions of this portentous apparition. Since the a passage—as it occurs throughout the text of text of Revelations—lacks visions, successive of form narrative development, and adopts the sequential the iconographical repertory winds up being rather limited as a consequence, reduced to a few mere ,,cuadros vivientes” [living pictures]: at times we see the whore seated atop the waters, which acquire the form of a promontory from which spring seven rivers, while she contemplates herself in ἃ mirror and combs her hair under the attentive gaze of John and an angel; on other

occasions, we find her intoxicated as she delights in the blood of martyrs, of

else being consumed amidst the flames—an image that recalls in certain details the primogenital Fall of Lucifer—as a symbol of the destruction of Babylon; at other times, finally, it figures in diverse episodes in the company of the ,,kings of the earth.” But its most reiterated typology, which was to become its prototype thanks to its recuperation and proliferation during the sixteenth century with the development of the printed image is the figure of the whore riding on the monstrous beast while she shows her admirers the ornate wine goblet in her raised hand (Wright). If we turn our attention now to the most primitive manifestations of this icon that have come down to us—the illuminated Carolingian apocalypses of the beginning of the ninth century, such as the cycles of Trier or Valenciennes,

clusions.

,

i

25 It is not unusual to find in the Bible the comparison of large nations to invading waters: 154 8, 7; Jer 47, 2.

26 Cf. Rev 13, 1.

ΜΕΝ

iconic personification 27 Alice K. Turner, in 59-60, has indicated that the model of this

derives from Jadi or Jeh, a creation of Zoroastrian mythology.

or the Ottonian

cycles, in the transition from the tenth to

eleventh centuries, and especially the Bamberg Apocalypse—those first images, formally elementary and markedly naive, depict the whore with garments and a hairstyle appropriate to royal dignity; her pose, sitting, frontal and with her arms opened wide in a gesture of lamentation, seems to relate back to iconographical models of late Antiquity.2 As for the beast, it shows some similarities with the sea-deity Triton, an aquatic creature with two feet and a fish tail, from whose principal head another six smaller ones spring, endowed with their corresponding horns. Also, in the extremely personal series of the Beatus, versions of the Commentary on the Apocalypse by Saint Beatus of Liébana, which basically cover the tenth through the thirteenth centuries, emphasis is placed on the royal and autocratic authority of the whore, although her vestments show a marked oriental aspect and deliberate Islamic details—let us not forget the Iberian origin of the author of these texts—possibly in order to evoke her malignant nature with greater eloquence; here the monster often experiences a formal simplification to such an extent that it acquired the appearance of an only slightly metamorphosed horse. The figuration became more complicated starting in the twelfth century, especially in moralized bibles and illustrated encyclopedias, by means of illuminations that, through a greater iconographical precision, attempt to remain faithful to the details of the biblical passage. However, they pay special attention to the visible attributes of secular power and the wealth of the lady; she rides on the beast, then, with an aristocratic air, and

emanates both political and sexual authority, due to which she acquires at times

24 Sebastian Bartina 776 et passim offers a broad and exhaustive interpretative reading of synthetic conthis episode of the book, which 1 summarize here by means of some

161

some

attractive

traits,

openly

seductive,

and

even

comes

to

be

compared to the allegory of Lust in those moralizing texts that have an

28 Critics have pointed out its close similarity to the artistic image of the constellation

Cassiopeia, included in manuscripts of the Phaenomena by Aratus, like the one housed in

the University Library of Leiden, MS

Voss.

Lat. Q. 79, fol. 28 v. It is likewise very

possible that the first depictions of the beast proceed from the Cetus constellation, the whale. See, in the same manuscript, fol. 66 v. Wright, 183-184.

162

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

effect on the menace of idolatry. She is no longer alone, but rather finds herself surrounded ever more frequently by her unconditional admirers. The

dragon, for its part, presents a multiform nature that is difficult to classify,

with an aspect that becomes increasingly fantastic and consonant with the free imagination of artists, finding its maximum delirium at the end of the fifteenth century with its transference to the realm of the printed image. Propaganda and Polemics in the Sixteenth Century

Without doubt the culminating moment in the iconic trajectory of the Magna Meretrix is the impressive xylograph that Albrecht Durer dedicated to her in his celebrated graphic series of the Apocalypse (Fig. 1). Printed in Nuremberg in 1498, this work, which shows the density and meticulousness of detail characteristic of German printing at the time, also possesses a vigorous plastic use of line strokes and a tremendous dramatic strength in its contrasts of light and shadow. The Whore derives her seductive powers from the sumptuous apparel of a Venetian courtesan and on suggestive details such as her loose hair that cascades down across a shoulder that is audaciously uncovered. She presents the cup of Lust—a magnificent piece of Nuremberg silverware—to a compact group of fascinated adorers representing diverse social conditions. The scene is complicated by the depiction of the ,,heavenly army,” that descends from the ruffled clouds: one of the angels is about to hurl a millstone into the sea, a sign of the

condemnation of Babylon, the sinful city that is being destroyed amidst

purifying flames in the background of the scene. At the same time another

angel spreads its arms open in order to establish a visual connection between the prostitute and the city in flames (Korte, 15). This print attained such extraordinary popularity and widespread diffusion that practically all subsequent depictions of this personification will reveal in one way OF another its influence. In the fall of 1522, Lucas Cranach the Elder, a friend of Martin Luther and artist who utilized all of his creative abilities in the service of the GerProtestant cause, executed a series of 21 engravings destined for the

man translation for the Lutheran version of the New Testament, popularly known as the Septembertestament, a work in which the only illustrations

Garcia: The Whore of Babylon of the

whore

compositional

and

and

the

formal

beast,

model

163 which

follows

of Dürer,

in

its general

although

lacking

lines

the

the lattet’s

secondary scenes, (Fig. 2), the lady appears with her head crowned with the triple tiara as a direct reference, no longer to a generic Anti-Christ, but rather to the Pope himself. At the same ‘time, the garments worn by the adoring figures have become more personalized, which has allowed for diverse attempts at their identification*® The attack was so direct and explicit that the Duke of Saxony, impressed by such boldness, made «sure that the detail of the triple crown disappeared in the following edition, in December of that same year. In 1523 Hans Holbein the Younger followed Cranach’s example for another edition of the New Testament*\—the print with the whore reiterates the disposition of its immediate model, even if her

belly is exaggerated, her general appearance is more common, andthe heads of the beasts, more simplified, lack the tremendous expressivity of their pre-

decessors—and in the Lutheran Bible of the printer Hans Lufft, published in

Wittenberg in 1534, the Great Whore is also crowned with a great tiara as a sign of infamy.*? With all of these visual and written ‘testimonies—let us recall that one of the great Lutheran reformist texts published in 1520 was

titled De captivitate Babylonica ecclesiae praeludium |Prelude Concerning the Babylonian Captivity of the Church. \t was becoming clear that for the Protestant anti-Papists, die Hure Roma was no longer the Rome

of the

Caesars, but rather of Alexander VI and Leo, who took the place of Nero

and Domitian on the pillory. The great changes that would be wrought with their fall and that of the city of Babylon, which are foretold at the end of the Apocalypse, symbolize and announce at the same time the inevitable collapse of the Church of Rome. The engravings and arguments of the Reformation would soon be echoed in the Netherlands, in spite of the fierce repression imposed by Charles V on new religious ideas, which quashed almost completely the free circulation of these diatribes, whose elaboration and manipulation, necessarily clandestine, wound up being tremendously compromised. Reformist testimonies in the first years are, therefore, extremely rare: one illustrative exception is a complex allegorical and satirical drawing about the abuse of power of the Catholic Church, dating from around

1526, and attributed to the Brussels

workshop of Bernard van Orley (Rijksprentenkabinet, Rijksmuseum, Amster-

correspond to the Book of the Apocalypse? The image that depicts the vision Hartmann Schedel (Nurenberg, 1493). of the 29 Wittenberg, 1522. André Chastel 140, figs. 47 and 48, who clarifies the content

antipapal allusions that this graphical series bears, has observed, besides explicit evidence such as the presence of the papal tiara worn by diverse apocalyptic characters (the incarnation of corruption and the sin of ecclesiastical hierarchy), details such as the

circumstance that plate XIV, which illustrates the destruction of the city of Babylon, s ‘;

direct transposition of the Imago Romae, which was used to illuminate the Weltchronik ο

30 Among

them

have been attempts to see, in fact, Ferdinand

Saxony, Charles V and Johann Tetzel, the Dominican

I, George, Elector of

preacher and seller of indulgences

for the construction of St. Peter’s Basilica in Rome. See Scribner 1981, 170-171. 31 Basilea, Thomas Wolff, 1523. See Chastel, 145, and Grouzet, 4. 32 In the iconography of the Babylonian Whote, see also Van der Meer, or Grubb, especially pp. 72-75.

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

164

dam). It is a copy of a painting now lost, with the title De contemptu mundi,

which has survived and come down to us, logically, thanks to its having been hidden away or its restricted use by a private circle, in view of its clearly subversive nature. Among the numerous personifications and emblematic details that it contains, I want to focus here on the lower right corner of the

composition, where we see a large, open entrance into Hell, configured as a

porcine, with the Whore of Babylon resting atop the pig head, and wearing a papal tiara on her head (Fig. 3). It is not until the end the 1550s that we find the first, anonymous, engraved version of this image: the extensive text added in the lower part of the print explains how, due to the work of the devil, the Catholic

Church

has distanced

itself from

Christ’s

original word,

and led us to condemnation (Tanis and Horst, 5-8). Another extremely complex engraving, with the title An Allegory of Spanish Tyranny (1570), attributed to Joris Hoefnagel, was very probably inspired by the previous print. Among other motifs reutilized here, we find once again the Whore as popess ,tiding” in a very similar way atop the Mouth of Hell. With her tripletransomed cross she points the way to some flying demons that emerge from the nasal passages of Leviathan, ready to contribute to the devastating labor of the Duke of Alba in his severe governance of the Netherlands. Without abandoning the spatial and temporal realm of the Dutch uprising against the Hispanic monarchy, a conflict that would lead to the Righty Years’ War, I would like to turn my attention now to one of the few

contemporaneous engravings that show, in this case in an allegorical form, the iconoclastic fury of the groups of Calvinist inspiration that took place in August of 1566: the anonymous Emblematic Engraving of Iconoclastia (1 566). The print depicts a group of soldiers sweeping the fragments of statues and sacred objects that have been removed from a church, just as we see in the

upper plane of the image. The brooms and water are a specific allusion to the ,,cleansing” nature of the iconoclastic movement: the temples, previously contaminated by statues are now ,,purified.” To the left, a bishop, ἃ cardinal,

and other kneeling clerics pray to a papal idol configured like the whore, imploring that their church may survive amidst so much furor. A demon flies above, holding various objects that he has rescue before they could be destroyed by the iconoclasts (Tanis 38-39). We

find

controversial

the Great

Whore

figure of Fernando

once

again,

this

time

Babylonian destructive managed to and Horst,

associated

with

His Tyranny), published in 1572, a crucial moment in the reign of terror of the ,,Iron Duke.” The first two prints of the series show the objectives of mission,

while

politics of repression.

the last two

denounce

the results

165

Dutch economy is in evidence—depicted by an idle sailor, a merchant and a pedlar —the result, according to the corresponding interpretation, of the politics

of assassinations,

the Hispanic monarchy.

conflagrations

and

robberies

by

the governor

Meanwhile, an indifferent Alba embraces

with clear lasciviousness

of

and kisses

the elegant Whore, dignified once again with the

triple pontifical crown, and accompanied

by the seven-headed

beast in order

to ensure its identification (Tanis and Horst, 66-67). Further beyond her belligerent orientation, in which the apocalyptic whore joined the ranks of the Reformists unabashedly, her iconography survived

in biblical illustrations and commentaries,

especially in French

and

German, on the Apocalypse. In this context, under the specific influence of Cranach or the more generic impact of Diirer, the images would repeat very

similar formal schemes, with the lady disassociated from any papal allusions

or attributes. The same thing would occur in other manifestations of the plastic arts, such as tapestries*? or luxurious serving sets:34 The motif would also enjoy a fleeting, though interesting appearance in emblem literature, where

it once

again acquired

an explicit and directed

meaning,

although

its

aspect was more exemplary than propagandistic.

The jurist Andrea Alciato, renowned for his reputation as the founder of

the emblematic genre with Emblematum liber, devoted one of his symbols to the apocalyptic motif that concerns us. It was not included, however, in the

earliest editions of the work: it appears in the Spanish translation by Daza Pinciano in Lyons, 1549, where, with the motto Ficta religio [Feigned religion] we see the whore on the beast, in her habitual pose, facing a group

of people prostrate before her. The Latin epigram as translated by Daza reads thus:

Una ramera en un En señal de honra A todos da a beber Y llena taza, y cabe Esta gran multitud Por esta Babilonia

sillén sentada de grana vestida de una labrada ella tendida emborrachada. fue entendida

Que las groseras gentes atraia Con gesto y religion que ella fingia.*°

the

Alvarez de Toledo, in a series of four

anonymous engravings (Alba’s Mission in the Netherlands and the Effects of Alba’s

Garcia: The Whore of Babylon

of the consequent

In the third engraving (Fig. 4) the collapse of the

33 Piece number 70 of the Angers Apocalypse Tapestry — X1Vth century — shows the great whore on the beast of seven heads.

34 For example, the oval platter of enameled copper with a depiction of The Whore on

the Beast, a work by Martial Courteys of Limoges, c. 1575, housed in the Widener Collection, National Gallery of Art, Washington. 35 Daza Pinciano, IL, 158. Cesare Ripa echoed Alciato’s emblem by availing himself of the same image of a crowned woman adorned with jewelry riding on the back of the

166

Hispanic Emblems and Literature [A whore seated on a throne, Wearing a robe of honorific purple, Pours wine for all from a carved And full cup, and reclining near her Is the great drunken multitude. She symbolized Babylon, For she lured the baser people With gestures and religion she feigned.]

things, with filthy adornment, illicit, and new, which is with the custom of

false and feigned religion, sits on a filthy and fearsome beast. She holds in her hand a gilded cup, signifying hypocrisy, with which she deceives many,

with vices dissimulated, and with the color of true piety, and they, under the

Entiéndese esta Emblema de la falsa observacion, y guarda de la Religién, y contraria a la verdadera piedad, porque el recogimiento de las

cosas malas se llama Ramera, la cual menospreciando a Dios, autor verdadero de las cosas, con aderezo sucio, no licito, y nuevo, que es con

costumbre de falsa, y fingida religién se sienta en una bestia sucia, y temerosa. Tiene en la mano un vaso dorado, significando la hipocresia, con la cual disimulados los vicios, y con color de verdadera piedad engafia a los cuales tomados

de una beodez,

mas

que loca, y desatinada,

despefiandose caen en vicios y pecados. Por esta bestia se puede entender el pueblo infiel [...], y la ciudad cruel, que son contrarios al pueblo fiel, y a la

Ciudad de Dios. La imagen de esta bestia parece también una ficcién de los hombres, que profesan la fe, y viven como infieles, fingiendo que son

buenos

Religio.56

Cristianos,

no

siendo

asi, y de

aqui

cuadra

bien

el titulo Ficta

hydra, on a golden seat of honour. She holds a gilded cup with a serpent inside it, and is surrounded by kneeling or dead men on the ground, already poisoned by her venom. See

Ripa’s personification of ,,False religion” in Ripa, II, 263. 36 Lépez, fols. 27 v-28 r. A bit further on—fols. 28 v-29 r—he clarifies: ,,[...] en la cual

[Emblema] pone esta mujer sentada sobre esta bestia, la cual significa el pueblo pecador,

y las vestiduras coloradas, significan el pueblo de los hombres soberbios y crueles, lleno

de todos los engaños de la verdad fingida. Y cuando dice que tiene el vaso de oro en la mano

167

[This emblem should be understood as false observation, and false observance of Religion, and contrary to true piety, because the assemblage of evil things is called Whore. she who, scorning God, the true author of

Alciato’s generic and ideologically uncommitted meaning, developed in his explication, was qualified by later commentators, such as the humanist Diego Lopez. The Spaniard carried out, in the first place, an exhaustive symbolic reading of the figure in his ,,declaration” of Alciato’s emblem, which does nothing more than reiterate the commonplaces of his traditional exegesis. To this end he writes:

muchos,

Garcia: The Whore of Babylon

lleno de las abominaciones, y suciedad de la fornicacion, nos da a entender los

Cristianos hipdcritas y fingidos, los cuales de fuera muestran que son justos, buenos, santos y limpios como oro, y por dentro estan llenos de toda la inmundicia y suciedad,

como esta mujer, que yendo con tanta autoridad, y demostracién de virtud y bondad, da a beber por el vaso ponzofia, y por esto le cuadra bien el titulo Ficta religio. Las siete

cabezas significan los siete pecados mortales. Y los cuernos, significan la fortaleza, con

influence of an intoxication that is beyond madness and foolishness, fall headlong into vices and sins. With this beast one should understand the unbelieving people (...), and the cruel city, who are the enemy of faithful believers, and of the City of God. The image of this beast also appears to be a fiction invented by men who profess the faith and live as infidels, pretending that they are good Christians, while not being so, and thus the

title is very fitting: Ficta Religio.|

But he quickly moves beyond generalities to an interpretation of the apocalyptic figure as the incarnation of the Protestant tide that swept over Catholic Europe during the previous century, in a clear reply to the exploitation of the motif, as we have already seen, by the Wittenberg circle: Esto ha sucedido en nuestros tiempos en algunas Provincias, y Reinos que algunos han engañado a muchos dandoles a beber doctrina errônea como de vaso dorado fingiendo santidad, y como embriagados han menospreciado la fuente de la sana y catélica doctrina, y se han quedado postrados, y casi semejantes a esta gente, que aqui pinta Alciato arrodillada delante de esta bestia, y mujer, la cual aunque da a beber por vaso dorado, y tiene vestido honrado, y de autoridad es para encubrir mejor su malicia, y el dafio, que hace, porque no hay peor vicio que aquel, que se cubre debajo de

habito honrado, porque asi se engañara cualquiera.*”

que esta mujer engaña a todos, y la gloria que recibe de engafiarlos dandoles a beber por

el vaso dorado suciedades, e inmundicias” [in which [Emblem] he puts this woman seated on this beast, which signifies the sinful people, and her colorful garments signify those people who are proud and cruel men, full of all the deceits of deigned truth. And when he says that she has the golden cup in her hand, full of abominations and the filthiness of formation, he wants us to understand this as the hypocritical and false Christians, who on the outside have the appearance of being just, good, holy and pure, like gold, but inside, they are full of garbage and filth, like this woman, who, riding with

such authority and external demonstration of virtue and goodness, offers drinks from her cup of poison, and therefore the title of Ficta religio is very fitting. The seven heads signify the seven deadly sins. And the horns signify the strength with which this woman

deceives everyone, and the glory that she derives from deceiving them by having them

drink filth and rubbish from the gilded cup]. 37L6pez, fol. 29 v.

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Hispanic Emblems and Literature

[This has happened in our times in some Provinces and Kingdoms, where a few have deceived many, giving them erroneous doctrine to drink, as though from a gilded cup, feigning holiness, and as though they were inebriated, they have scorned the fountain of healthy and Catholic doctrine, and they have remained prostate, and almost just like these people that Alciato depicts here, kneeling before this beast and woman, she who, although offering drink from a gilded cup and wearing honorable and authoritative clothing, does so in order to cover her malice better, and the harm that she causes, because there is no worse vice than that which lurks beneath

an honorable exterior cloak, because anyone could be thus deceived.]

From the opposing side, the Flemish emblematist Jan van der Noot, a militant reformed Protestant, and with a possible Calvinist affiliation, included the motif in his Het theatre oft Toon-neel (Antwerp, 1568), in accordance with the habitual iconographical model described above men of differing conditions, among them a king and a soldier, prostrate themselves before the crowned lady who offers them the cup. Although in the sonnet that accompanies the image—this work does not include mottoes—we do not find explicit allusions,** the author’s ideological orientation makes us understand that the references to blasphemy or pride, more than a generalized criticism of Dutch society of his time, are instead defining some of the vices attributed to Papists, and thus prefiguring, by means of the subsequent fall ,great Babylonia” prophesied by an angel, their imminent destruction. Brief Return to Moralizing Exemplarity With the turn of the century, the icon of the Whore and her terrible beast was definitively stripped of its polemical overtones, and in emblematic and edifying literature of the seventeenth century it recuperated its con-

notations

of exemplariness

that had

been

acquired

through

medieval

Garcia: The Whore of Babylon

169

Queréis saber quién es esta sefiora, Que sobre un vario monstruo va sentada, Con un vaso en la mano, a quien adora

La gente mas valida, y mas preciada: Es la Ambicion perversa encantadora, Que os brinda con su taza emponzofiada No bebais su licor, mucho ni poco,

Si no queréis al punto quedar loco.*? [You want to know who this lady is, Who rides seated on a motley monster, With a cup in her hand, and who is adored By the most powerful and esteemed people: It is perverse and bewitching Ambition, Who toasts you with her poisoned cup. Do not drink its liquor, neither much nor a little, If you do not want to go instantly mad.] Covarrubias tries to avoid, as did Alciato, the most controversial aspects

of the figure, which he proposes, quite simply, as an allegory of ambition:*° »La figura de la ambiciôn esta representada en una doncella sobre una bestia con muchas cabezas, en razén de los diversos caminos que toma para su desvanecimiento, y el vaso con que embriaga el demasiado afecto con que lo procura’’4! [The figure of ambition is depicted as a maiden riding a beast of many heads, owing to the diverse roads she takes to display her vanity, and the cup she uses to intoxicate the excessive affect with which she attempts it]. With this author, the eschatological motif makes the definitive leap into Hispanic moral-didactic literature. Juan de Torres (XIII, II, 422) had already 39 Covarrubias, Emblemas Morales Centuria I, emblem 75, fol. 275.

exegesis. An illustrative example is the emblematic pictura offered to us by Sebastian de Covarrubias, the canon from Cuenca, in his ample repertory

40 In a drawing from a manuscript by Francisco de Holanda, De aetatibus mundi imagines, in Madrid’s Biblioteca Nacional (1545-1573) -B[arcia] 6926-7073 (14-26), fol. 67 τ, illust. 133, we find this personification, in one of the few depictions that does not

mad]. In this emblem, Covarrubias recuperates the already classical image of

symbol, according to the image’s own caption concupiscentia carnis, concupiscentia oculorum and superbia vitae.

(Fig. 5), with the motto Qui bibit inde, furit [Whoever drinks there, goes

the whore, although with certain technical modifications in the icon: she is

alone on the beast, without the habitual entourage of admirers, and wearing

garments appropriate to a noble Spanish woman at the beginning of the seventeenth century, in harmony with her didactical lesson. In the epigram we read: 38 See on this topic Daly, 5 and 25, the source of these brief biographical data.

follow in the wake of Diirer’s iconographical model, decidedly carnal and shameless, as a

41 In another emblem of Covarrubias cent. I, emb. 74, Tot sententiae [So many opinions],

the hydra or beast of seven heads is also used to symbolize civil discord. Another possible slight allusion to the apocalyptic woman may be the personification of Vanity in an emblem from the Pia desideria by Herman Hugo (Antwerp, 1676), II, emblema 5, Averte oculos meos

ne videant

vanitatem,

in which

we

see a crowned

woman

ornately

dressed who carries a fan of peacock feathers and a cup, from which soap bubbles emerge; this figure, in turn, appears to derive from an anonymous engraving of the Lady of the World, executed in the Netherlands (c. 1585).

170

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

warned youths a few years earlier that whoever drinks from the cup of the Great Sinner, and allows himself to be dragged along by the vice of sensuality, loses the virtue of temperance and is transformed into an irrational beast. The Jesuits would make the same use of that personification: Father Juan Eusebio Nieremberg (epist. XXIV, 10-25) alludes to it to denounce man’s greed, and Francisco Garau (maxima XVII, 442-443) winds up calling the Great Whore the epitome of all vices, and anyone who gives in and drinks from her cup has debased himself to the condition of a slave, who becomes ,,ciego y abrasado” [blind and burning with shame]. Let us finish this rapid overview with a fragment from the Criticén by the Jesuit Baltasar Gracian (III, 3), in which he warns of the thirst for power and ambition he saw unleashed in his epoch, especially among courtiers and palace dwellers, in the passage that begins: ,,;Oh monstruo cortesano! Qué me buscas a mi? Anda, vete a tu Babilonia comin, donde tantos y tontos pasan de ti y viven contigo, todo embuste, mentira, engaño, enredo, invenciones y quimeras”

[Oh monstrous courtier! What do you seek in me? Go on, go away to your common Babylon, where so many fools exceed you and live with you, a total fraud, lie, deceit, intrigue, inventions and fantasies]. After these severe warnings, the iconic and literary trail of our baneful lady and multi-headed beast disappears. Once the period of maximum splendor has ended, both entities are plunged into a lengthy lethargy that for all practical purposes restricted their public presence to the conventional illustration of biblical texts, or popular devotional prints. But, like any other archetypal figuration, its resurgence did not take very long. With the new millenarianism that we experienced just a few years ago, and the spread of new imagery sustained by the possibilities of technological tools, our figure has experienced a new reactivation on the internet. By means of some hyper-real figurations halfway between photography and virtual recreation, endowed now with an unprecedented carnality and sensuality, that ancient motif manages to condense better than ever all the material temptations of our contemporary world. From a fatalistic point of view that reissues some eschatological evocations that we believed to have already been overcome, we view our current reality as one being dominated—in a cyclical return?— by a hedonism and perversion of customs easily attributable to the imposition by the great western economies of an uncontrolled and thoughtless consumerism, or, quite simply, to a new and deep crisis in the value system, which manifests itself in the absence of referents or clear ethical-moral models applicable to our daily lives. And it is at this point that we find once again those horrifying apocalyptic figures as an admonishing complaint. There is nothing like the old myths, deeply anchored in our collective subconscious, but always lying in wait, to once again clang the bell of our slumbering consciences.

Garcia: The Whore of Babylon

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Chastel, André. Εἰ saco de Roma, 1527, Madrid: Espasa Calpe, 1998. Covarrubias, Sebastian de. Emblemas morales, Madrid: Luis Sanchez, 1610. Crouzet, Denis. ,,Millennial Eschatologies in Italy, Germany and France: 1500-1533”, Journal of Millennial Studies, vol. 1, tirada 2 (winter 1999): 1-8,

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Saxl, Fritz. ,,Panfletos ilustrados de la Reforma.” In La vida de las imagenes, Madrid: Alianza Editorial, 1989, 230-239 and 175-181.

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McGinn, Bernard. El Anticristo. Dos milenios de fascinaciôn humana por el mal, Barcelona: Paidés, 1997.

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Muir Wright, Rosemary. Art and Antichrist in Medieval Europe, Manchestet:

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Barcelona: Sebastian de Cormellas, 1598.

Turner, Alice K. The History of Hell, San Diego/ New York/ London: A Harvest Book, 1995.

Van De Meer, 1978.

Frédéric. L'Apocalypse dans l'art, Antwerp:

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Van Der Noot, Jan. A Theatre Wherein be represented as Wel the Miseries & Clamities that Follow the Voluptuous Worldlings. London: Henry Byneman, 1569,

Manchester University Press, 1995.

Vega Ramos, M* José. ,,Computatio omnium temporum. La edad del mundo

Nieremberg, Juan Eusebio (Manuel De Faria y Sousa). Epistolario o Epistolas del reverendo padre Juan Eusebio Nieremberg, Madrid: Alonso de Paredes,

Gonzalez Iglesias (Ees.). Antonio de Nebrija. Edad Media y Renacimiento,

1649.

Ripa, Cesare. Jconologia, trans. Juan y Yago Barja, Madrid: Akal, 1987.

en la historiografia reformista.” In Carmen

Codoñer and Juan Antonio

Salamanca: Universidad, 1994, 97-107.

— ., »La monstruosidad

y el signo: formas de la presignificacion en el

Renacimiento y la Reforma.” Signa: Revista de la Asociacién Espanola de Semiôtica 4 (1995): 225-242.

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Los libros de prodigios

Auténoma de Barcelona, 2002.

en el Renacimiento,

Barcelona:

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Universidad

Wittkower, Rudolf. ,,Maravillas de Oriente: un estudio de la historia de los monstruos.” in La alegorta y la migracién de los simbolos, Madrid: Siruela, 2006.

Figure 1 Albrecht Dürer, ,,Great Whore of Babylon Seated on the Seven

Headed Beast Bestia Admired by the Ignorant” (woodcut), Apocalipsis cum figuris, Nuremberg, 1498, fig. 13.

175

176

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

;

S

τ

| Figure 2 Lucas Cranach, ,, The Whore” (woodcut), illustration for the Septembertestament of Martin Luther, Wittenberg, 1522.

177

Garcia: The Whore of Babylon

ΕΣ

ΕΣ,

g.",

_

j

H

’

r d

h>

. Are sion À oom rh! lle flo lode vf

os le gi

Figure 3 Anonymous Dutch, De contemptu mundi (copperplate engraving, c. 1550-1560), detail.

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

178

ἂν ἀν Jivushon

fee veruallen die faplueden coudes pu Je die copimau| ‘ en vercopt agen nye hebrew i mee

vroick_

borr 15

Warr babes

|

de

vaurres

}

le vawmeurs s

mar: chawdift : Stlou duck dalba aueck, [αὐ εἰς pred Ρ̓ folas \ M4 : -

Rope

ucdaba 4,

arn a

par fault

Garcia: The Whore of Babylon

|

179

CENTVRIAIII.

275

75.

EMBLEMA

Quereis [aber quien es ejta fenora,

q {ebre un vario mofirne va fentada, (on un vafo en la mano, a quie adora

La gete mas valtda,

Es la

ra

Di Syn

=

Sia

cramer Ji Wart

| Outlynen

wyet

avmelsck Vercopeu

Johatten

tu

ia

-

wider fy cam aver

τόμον

ducdalhas

-

Nt

FE

ponoynt

dat

pone

vivre

pour

APA Dick

y mas preciada:

Ambscton peruer(a encatadora,

Q ne os brinda co futaca empoconada No benats [a licor, muchont poco,

Sino queress al punto quedar loco. No

Figure 4 Anonymous Dutch, Alba’s Mission in the Netherlands and the Effects of His Tyranny (copperplate engraving, 1572), print no. 3.

3

ESTE

Figure 5 Sebastian de Covarrubias, Emblemas morales, Madrid: Luis Sanchez, 1610, Centuria III, emblem 75.

Clarifications and New Data on the Works of Juan de Horozco y Covarrubias RAFAEL ZAFRA Universidad de Navarra, Spain Abstract

On the 400th anniversary of the death of Juan de Horozco (Fig. 1), this study reviews the life and work of one of the best Spanish emblem authors. It clarifies some important aspects of his life, such as his relationship with San Juan de la Cruz or Santa Teresa de Jesus, his ties with other members of his illustrious family, and the reasons that led him to abandon the diocese of Agrigento. In addition, it describes all of his works and clarifies some other important issues—such as Horozco’s control of the printing of his works— that will help us develop a better understanding of them and facilitate the elaboration of modern editions of his works. The formal similarities that exist among the works of Juan de Horozco,

when considered in their totality, are quite striking. In spite of the eighteen years that transpired

between

the publication

of the first and last of his

works—1588 and 1606—and if we ignore their content, it is possible to interchange the pages of both without at first glance noticing much of a difference, My purpose in this study, in addition to explaining the cause of this formal similitude, is to reveal new data concerning Horozco’s works, which derive primarily from a careful analysis and reading of his books. The article is intended as a hommage to the author whose work has served as an indispensable guide for emblematic studies in Spain over the course of so

many years,' and at the same time a reminder of one of the first and most

important authors of Hispanic emblematic literature on the occasion of the fourth centenary of his death.2 1. Corpus of Works Our

primarily

knowledge

from

the

of the

catalog

information

of Juan

provided

de

by

Horozco’s

Nicolas

works

Antonio

derives

in

his

Biblioteca Hispdnica Nova, written in 1696, and which was later imitated to a

1 Pedro F. Campa, Emblemata Hispanica: An Annotated Bibliography of Spanish Emblem

Literature to the Year 1700. Durham and London: Duke University Press, 1990. 2 There is no definitive work on the life of Horozco, but much valuable information can be found in Gällego, De Gregorio, Hernandez Miñano and especially, in Weiner.

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Hispanic Emblems and Literature

greater or lesser extent in subsequent general catalogs such as that of Palau, or more specialized catalogs such as the previously mentioned work of Campa or that of Landwehr. Nicolas Antonio, after summarizing in chronological order the known works of Horozco that have been preserved for posterity, goes on to mention two works that he did not manage to see himself, and which remain lost to us, if indeed they were ever published: Origen y principio de

las letras [Origin and Beginning of Letters], and Arte de la memoria [Art of

Memory). Given the place and manner in which they are mentioned, it would appear at first glance that Horozco must have written these works during the final stage of his life, and that his death prevented their publication. Nevertheless, the prologue of one of Horozco’s first published works offers us firsthand information on them, and at the same time provides a justification for the publication of the work that it serves to introduce. 2 Works from Horozco’s Period as Archdeacon of Cuéllar in the

Holy Church of Segovia‘

2.1. Tratado de la verdadera y falsa profecta | Treatise on True and False

Prophecy|, Segovia: Juan de la Cuesta, 1588.5

Following the dedication to his uncle Antonio, the book begins with a letter from the Franciscan Fray Juan de Colmenares, which begins in the following manner:

Los libros que V. M. me ha dado para que los viese, que son: De verdadera y falsa profecia, Emblemas morales, Origen y principio de las letras, 3 Campa, pp. 110-111, Landwehr, pp. 374-375. 4 The Archdeacon of Cuéllar was one of the highest-ranking dignitaries of the Council of Segovia, a city which in turn was one of the seven metropolitan seats of imperial Spain. Juan de Horozco rose to this office when it his brother Sebastian ceded it to him, a position originally obtained by his uncle Diego, who at the time was bishop of Segovia. See Gonzalez Palencia, p. 293.

5 I have examined the copies housed in the libraries of the Universities of Granada and

Valencia, as well as the one located in the Chapter Archive of the Cathedral of Segovia.

There are several other copies in Spanish libraries. Outside of the Iberian peninsula, 1 am aware of copies housed in the National Library of France, Cambridge University, the Koninklijke Bibliotheek in the Netherlands, the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek in Germany and in the United States, in the libraries of Yale, the University of Illinois, the University of Pennsylvania, the University of Texas and the University of Wisconsin. WorldCat

registers a Segovia 1583 copy, allegedly in English, with the accession number OCLC: 560106709, supposedly located in the British Library, but this is highly unlikely.

Zafra: The Works of Juan de Horozco y Covarrubias

183

con El arte de la memoria, y otras cosas de devocién he visto con cuidado, y

demas de hallarlas a gloria de Dios ... me da mucho contento ver lo que siempre he conocido, que es tanto ingenio y tan aplicado a todo genero de letras. Y porque he visto a V. M. dudoso de publicar por ahora estas obras, pretendiendo acabar primero y poner en orden las que tiene de su facultad, me ha parecido ayudar en esto el bien de muchos, deseando que se publique lo que con tanto cuidado se ha escrito, y entiendo conviene mucho se lea de

todos el libro de la Verdadera y falsa profecta, por ser el desengaño de las

invenciones y enredos del demonio en las falsas revelaciones que en diversas partes ha sembrado estos dias. [I have examined carefully at the books that Your Worship has given me

to look at, which are: De verdadera y falsa profecta, Emblemas morales, Origen y principio de las letras, along with El arte de la memoria, and other works of

devotion, and in addition to finding them to be to the glory of God ... it gives me great satisfaction to confirm what I have always known, which is a great abundance of wit so well-applied to such a wide array of letters. And because I have observed you to be so hesitant to publish these works at this time, preferring instead to finish the ones that your faculties have created and to put them in order, it has occurred to me to help facilitate the good of the many, desiring the publication of what has been written with such great cate, and it is my understanding that it would behoove everyone to read the

book Verdadera y falsa profecta, since it offers the disillusionment of the

inventions and intrigues of the devil in the false revelations that he has sown in diverse parts these days.]

This text, in addition to corroborating the existence of the two works in question, demonstrates their early date of composition: they were written before 1588. There is still a possibility, therefore, that the manuscripts of these doubtless interesting works may be unearthed eventually in some forgotten archive. It is quite probable that Nicolas Antonio took the titles that he mentions from this passage, adding the interesting piece of

information that Tomas Tamayo saw the manuscript of the Arte de la me-

moria after Horozco’s death.6 We have no information whatsoever Horozco’s intellectual faculties [,,de su which fray Juan de Guevara refers; possibility that they may turn up at some

on the works that were the fruit of facultad”|—on Canonical Law—to but neither can we discount the point in the future.

The treatise De la verdadera y falsa profecta [On True and False Prophecy was written at the same time that Pope Sixtus V published, in 1586 the Con6 Tamayo, Junta de libros, p. 447.

184

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

stituciôn contra los que ejercitan el arte de la Astrologta ..., |Constitution Against Those Who Exercise the Art of Astrology\’ and to a certain extent it comple-

ments it as a declaration. In fact, Horozco included in the final pages of his book both the Latin text of the Constitution as well as its translation into Spanish for just that purpose, at the same time that he fulfilled the papal mandate to publish it in the vernacular tongue.® Horozco’s ideas in opposition to malevolent fraud follow in general

lines those of Pedro Ciruelo,? in his Reprobacién de las supersticiones y hechicertas |Reprobation of Superstitions and Sorcery\'9 and they offer, as do those of Ciruelo, much of interest for those interested in learning about the world of superstitions and magic inhabited by the men of his epoch. Nevertheless, at the same time that he combats evil trickery, Horozco de-

fends true prophecy which, according to him, existed in his times as it had in all epochs. Proof of this is found in chapter VIII, where he summarizes the tone and intention of the work in its entirety, at the same time that he manifests his admiration for Saint Theresa, who he had helped in the foundation of the convent of San José de Segovia. CAP, VIII.

En que se trata que el don de la profecta se ha continuado en la Iglesia Catélica. En nuestros tiempos para gloria del mismo Dios, también se han visto y publicado las grandes mercedes y favores que Dios hizo a la madre Teresa de Jesus, fundadora de las descalzas Carmelitas. Y si consideramos la grandeza de Dios y su benignidad inmensa, y los favores que siempre hizo a los fundadores de las religiones, habiéndola escogido para fundadora de tan santa religion, podemos decir que convenia su divina Majestad la honrase y engrandeciese para gloria de su Santo Nombre; como lo ha sido el ver que

en pocos años se han fundado tantas casas de religiosas y frailes de la misma orden, que segün la priesa que ha habido y lo que se va mostrando, ha de venir a ser en poco tiempo tan extendida como la que mas. Y guardando siempre el rigor que ahora llevan, con la ayuda de nuestro Sefior, se puede esperar han de ser de gran servicio suyo y de mucho ejemplo y ayuda para 7 The full title reads: Constituciôn contra los que ejercitan el arte de la Astrologia judiciaria y

ea cualesquier género de divinaciones, y contra los que leen o tienen los libros que tratan dellas. 8 See from folio 155r onward. 9 This famous scholar was a professor in the Colegio Grande de Porta Coeli de Sigüenza,

where Horozco himself studied a few years later. 10 The first edition is: Salamanca, Pedro de Castro 1538; 1 have consulted the edition

published in the same city by Pierres Touans in 1540.

Zafra: The Works of Juan de Horozco y Covarrubias

185

los que de veras trataren de servir a Dios. Y en lo que trato del particular don de profecia y revelaciones pudiera aqui decir algo de lo que en sus libros dej6 escrito la madre Teresa, a quien en mi 4nimo le doy el titulo que merece y sera Dios servido se le de, mas es a tiempo que se acaban de publicar. Y volviendo al propésito en que hablamos, resta decir que, por ser tan verdaderas estas y otras revelaciones y profecias que en estos tiempos se han

visto,

ha

querido

el demonio

deslumbrar

la verdad

de

ellas

con

otras

fingidas, pretendiendo el mismo crédito para engafiar y por lo menos desacreditar lo que fuere verdadero y cierto. Y de lo que en esto se debe advertir para conocerlo y diferenciarlo se tratarà en los capitulos siguientes (p. 23v).

[CHAP. VIN.

Dealing with the Gift of Prophecy Being Continued in the Catholic Church. In our times and to the glory of God Himself, the great mercies and favors that God did on behalf of mother Teresa de Jestis, founder of the order of discalced Carmelite nuns, have been seen and made public. And if we consider God’s greatness and his immense kindness, and the favors that he has always done for the founders of religions, having chosen her as the founder of such a holy religion, we can say that it was fitting that His divine Majesty should honor her thus, and aggrandize her for the greater glory of his Holy Name; as we can see in the fact that in just a few short years so many houses of nuns and priests have been founded of the same order, for given the swiftness that has occurred, and which we are witnessing, in just a brief time this order will be as widespread as any other. And observing always the same rigor that they currently exercise, with the help of our Lord, we can expect that they will be of great service to Him, and a great example and aid to those who sincerely endeavor to serve God. And as concerns the particular gift of prophecy and revelations that I am dealing with I could say here something of what mother Theresa wrote in her books, to whom I give in my soul the title that she deserves, and which God will be best served to grant her, but it is at a time that these books have just been published. And returning to the matter at hand, it remains to be stated that because these and other revelations and prophecies that have been seen in these times are so true, the devil has attempted to dazzle their truth with other fraudulent

revelations, seeking the same credit for them in order to deceive and at the very least discredit that which is true and certain. And what one should

watch out for in order to know what is thus and to differentiate it will be dealt with in the following chapters.

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Horozco refers several times in this work to his Emblemas morales,'' which indicates that he must have already written them as he was composing this work, even though they would not be published until a year later, by the presses of the same printer, Juan de la Cuesta (Fig. 2). As far as we know, Segovia had no printing industry in this period, so it was probably Horozco himself who set up a press in order to publish his own works.l2 It seems likely that he set up his printing press just a few meters away from his home, and put a certain Juan de la Cuesta! in charge of running it. Such a tight bond with a publisher can explain both the material quality as well as the formal similarity of the only two known works that issued from the presses of De la Cuesta in Segovia.

2.2. Emblemas morales | Moral Emblems|, Segovia: Juan de la Cuesta, 1589 and 1591'4

Horozco must have written his emblems, at least in the form in which

they have come down to us in their most widely known edition, during the years that he spent as a canon in the Cathedral of Segovia; and, as we have seen, on the recommendation of fray Juan, he postponed the book’s

publication until after the Tratado de la verdadera y falsa profecia appeared.

The success of the work—the first original book of emblems published in Spain—must have been relatively extensive, and the supplies available— we do not know the quantity printed—were quickly exhausted. For this reason, two years later, in 1591, Horozco submitted it once again to the presses of Juan de la Cuesta, taking advantage of the occasion to introduce some minor modifications at the same time that he included a brief prologue to the third book.!5 11 For example, folio ὃν mentions the term emblem, and folio 143r evokes emblem 26 of

the second book. 12 On the printing industry in Segovia and the notion that it was Horozco who may have founded it, see Tomas Baeza, pp. 3-4.

13 In spite of having the same name, it is quite improbable that this is the same Juan de la Cuesta who printed the princeps of the Quijote. See Moll, p. 478. 14 Extant copies of both editions are relatively abundant. I have utilized a copy of the 1589 edition housed in the library of the University of Navarre, and for the 1591 edition, I have examined copies located in the Public Library of Palma de Mallorca, and in the Chapter Archive of the Cathedral of Segovia. There are many copies of the 1589 in

libraries outside of Spain—Yale, Harvard, Cambridge, Glasgow, etc.— while copies of the 1591 edition can be found in libraries such as Trinity College, the Newberry Library,

Duke

University, Dartmouth

according to WorldCat.

College, The National Library of France, and others,

15 I became aware of the peculiarities of this edition along with Antonio Bernat when we were comparing it with the earlier edition as a preparation for the project CD Libros de Emblemas Españoles for Studiolum. 1 am grateful to Antonio for granting me permission

Zafra: The Works of Juan de Horozco y Covarrubias The because ecuted without

187

similarity between these two editions is so great, and even more so it is the same work, that it has passed as a simple reprinting exword for word (,,a plana y renglén,” as defined by Palau—and its variations having been perceived. Horozco probably used the

same compositors, the same plates, the same fonts, and he tried to maintain

the distribution of each emblem across six pages. However, he was not at all strict in trying to preserve the same distribution of lines per page. On several occasions the decorative borders that frame each emblem are not the same in the two editions, which helps to demonstrate that the similarity between the two editions is not due to the second one being a mere copy of the first, but rather to the fact that they are two editions of the same work published in the same place.!¢ In spite of the fact that Nicolas Antonio considered this edition of 1591 as the ,,auténtico

texto español”

[authentic Spanish

text], and accords

preference over the others—that is to say, Cuesta’s first edition, Zatagoza edition and that of Agrigento in 1601—ever since Palau it as a mere copy it has been ignored. The diverse emblem catalogs been produced continue to characterize it as a mere reprint, when

it

the 1605 described that have in reality

it must be considered the editio optima, if we omit from consideration the

amplified Latin version, which I will return to later.

In truth, the differences between the two editions are not numerous but

they are significant, and for that reason a critical edition comparing both

books, utilizing the later one as the base text, would be interesting. With no

pretense of being differences:

exhaustive,

I would

like to point out the following

1. The signatures are continuous, which leads one to believe that this book was intended to be published as a single volume, as opposed to the edition of 1589, which was planned to consist of two distinct volumes, and

indeed some copies in this format have been preserved. 2. The second and third books have correlative page numbering, whereas the first edition reinitiates the page numbering in the second book. 3. There are some corrections, though minimal, in the textual quotations, and some minor additions. 4. The most noteworthy and interesting difference is the inclusion of a

brief prologue between the second and third books, in which the author explains the reason that led him to divide his emblems between two books,

a division that has generally been considered as arbitrary:

to include this information here. 16 On the complex world of printing in Golden Age Spain, see the book by Francisco

Rico. On the processes of printing and reprinting, see especially the essays by Jaime Moll and Pablo Andrés.

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Hispanic Emblems and Literature

No es lo que menos ayuda para el contento de lo que se trabaja, en los libros la division acomodada, pues parece que es como descanso, asi del que lo ordena como del que los lee. Y demas de haberse cumplido el cuerpo que

bastaba con lo que se ha dicho en las Emblemas que habemos puesto en el

segundo libro, el nûmero de cincuenta a que se Ileg6, ha sido la medida del y lo sera de los demas que le siguieren, pretendiendo en cada uno que pata alcanzar el fin que por ellos se desea en el aprovechamiento de las costumbres con que se alcanza la perfectiôn, sea Dios el que lo acabe y perfeccione, pues sin él todo se acaba porque se deshace y ninguna cosa queda acabada y perfeccionada. Y esto nos ensefia maravillosamente el numero que decimos de cincuenta en que se considera toda la perfecciôn que puede haber en el septenario nimero multiplicado en si mismo, lo cual no es bastante para llegar a la perfection cumplida se queda el numero en cuarenta y nueve, y viene a cumplirse con la unidad que se le añade, y esta significa a Dios, que es el que todo lo cumple y perficiona.!” [In books, a pleasant division of the material being dealt with is not what helps least to lend contentment, because it seems as though it provides

a respite, both for he who is organizing the book, as well as for he who is

reading it. And besides having completed the volume, (what has been said

about the Emblems that we included in the second book was sufficient), the

number of fifty that it reached has been its measure, and so it will continue to be in those that follow. It is my hope in each book, in order to attain the goal desired for the benefit of customs, which is how perfection is attained, that God be the one who finishes and perfects each one. Without Him, everything comes to an end and falls apart, and nothing is polished or perfected. And this is shown to us marvelously by the number that we have mentioned of fifty, in which one can consider all the perfection that could ever be, in the septenary number multiplied by itself. Which is not sufficient to achieve total perfection, because the result remains at forty-nine, and only

comes to fulfillment by adding one additional unit, and this one stands for God, He who fulfils and perfects everything.

From this prologue we learn both the intention to continue writing

emblems as well as the plan to group them in books of fifty, as is the case

for the amplified edition that was published in Agrigento, which will be studied below,

What is more, the interpretation that Horozco gives for the ,septenary” number evokes one of the works of his father, Del numero septenario [On the

Septenary Number|,'® which reveals, in my judgment, a relationship with

Zafra: The Works of Juan de Horozco y Covarrubias Sebastian de Horozco, which the shared surname

18 See the Edition by Marquez Villanueva.

to some extent, already

announces. The edition published in Zaragoza (1604), normally designated as the editio optima, is in reality a somewhat irregular copy of the 1589 edition. Although this was not an illegal edition, because it took advantage of the fact that the license to print the Segovia editions applied only to the kingdoms of Castille, it is nevertheless one that Horozco did not authorize. The absence of a prologue to book III and of the modifications introduced by Horozco in the 1591 edition, which we should consider as the author’s definitive intentions:'? proves this clearly. The engravings utilized are mirror or reversed copies of those that Horozco used in all of his editions—those of Segovia and that of Agrigento—and to which he must have owned the rights. Finally, the Madrid edition—Luis Sanchez, 1610—mentioned by Palau and repeated by various authors,” does not pertain in fact to this work, but rather to that with an identical title, Emblemas morales, authored by his brother, and published by Sanchez in the year indicated.

2.3. Paradojas cristianas contra las falsas opiniones del mundo | Christian Paradoxes Against the False Opinions of the World| Segovia: Marcos Ortega, 1592?!

Let us continue with the works published by Horozco that issued from the press in Segovia. In 1592 his Paradojas cristianas appeared (Fig. 3). But this time with the publisher identified as Marcos Ortega.?? A quick glance at a copy shows once again a great similarity with other works by Horozco, both earlier as well as later ones. It is probable that this Ortega, of whom we know of no other books except this one, took over the press as a substitute for Juan de la Cuesta, and oversaw the printing of the book. This continuity of printing in Segovia suggests that Horozco himself may have been the owner of the press and the types, and that he contracted tradesman from the printing industry for the physical printing and subsequent sale of his books.

19 On printing licenses in the diverse Iberian kingdoms, see, Reyes Gomez. 20 Among others, the Diccionario de historia eclesidstica de España and the work by Doménico de Gregorio. 21 Copies of this book are relatively numerous both in Spain and abroad. I have examined the copies located in the University of Granada, the General Library of Navarre, the Seminario

17 Emblemas morales, 1591, fol. 211. 1 have modernized all of the texts.

189

Menor

Segovia. 22 See Tomas Baeza, p. 4.

of Guadix

and the Chapter Archive

of the Cathedral of

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Hispanic Emblems and Literature

I will leave the analysis of this extremely interesting work for another occasion and concentrate here instead on two bits of information that shed light on Horozco’s biography and the intent of his works. In the

first instance,

the dedication

to his brother

Sebastian

shows

beyond a doubt that the relationship between the two brothers was good, and at the same time we learn of the absence of their father. Fio de la discrecién de V. M. y su mucha prudencia, adquirida con experiencia larga de negocios, y asi mismo de su ingenio admirable y ejercicio de letras que ha tenido, echara de ver si dara contento y sera de algün provecho este trabajo nuestro, y siendo asi salga en buena hora a luz y séale bastante aprobaci6n la que en V. M. tuviere. Asegurandome en esto el ver que como hermano mayor y a quien he tenido en lugar de padre, ha mirado siempre mis cosas con el cuidado que convenia para que fuesen acertadas. {I trust in your Lordship’s discretion and your great prudence, acquired through your extensive experience in business matters, and likewise I trust that with your admirable wit and your extensive exercise of letters, that you will be able to discern if this work of mine is useful, and if you find it to be so, let it come out at a propitious moment and let your Lordship’s approbation be the only one required. I am reassured in this because I have seen that as my older brother, and one who for me has taken the place of a father, you have always kept watch over my affairs with the care necessary to ensure that they were properly executed.] my

The tone of this dedication, and especially the last sentence, shows, to way of thinking, an individual somewhat distinct from the one that

Weiner proposed after analyzing, in his otherwise exemplary works, relationship of these two brothers with their father, who he considers to ingrates, going so far as to suggest the figure of Juan as the origin of familiar refrain ,,Te conozco Juan de Horozco” [I know you Juan Horozco].23

the be the de

Of great interest also is the prologue to the reader which, written two years after the iniial appearance of his Emblemas morales, explains the

motives for having written them, at the same time that he informs us of his intention to publish some empresas espirituales |spiritual imprese|. These must have already been finished, and possibly, they were only waiting for the engravings to be completed.

23 See Weiner, 1990, where he mentions this dedication.

Zafra: The Works of Juan de Horozco y Covarrubias

191

AL LECTOR Hubo en Atenas un portico sefialado a quien dio nombre la variedad de la pintura que habia en el por haber querido Polignoto, pintor famoso, mostrar alli su ingenio y ayudar en algo a los que en aquel lugar se juntaban para ejercicio de las letras, y de virtud la que entonces se profesaba con algun desengaño del mundo. Y estos eran los estoicos cuya disciplina y escuela dicen comenzé Prometeo. Los cuales se sabe que trataron de algunas verdades que conformaban con la verdad que se traslucia en ellos y se descubrié a todo el mundo en la escuela de Cristo, nuestro redemptor y maestro. Y queriendo yo ayudar en algo a los que tratan desta verdadera filosofia cristiana me parecié primero sacat a luz algunas pinturas que sirviesen de memoria y entretenimiento a los que se ocupan en el ejercicio de las letras y de la consideracién que enseña el camino de la virtud y de las

buenas costumbres. Y esto fue en las Emblemas morales, primera parte y en

la segunda, y las Empresas espirituales que se publicaran muy presto. Y ahora me parecié no contentarme con las pinturas solas aunque por si ensefien y se hayan acompañado de varia doctrina; y pretendiendo tratar algo de aquellas verdades que en la escuela cristiana y verdadera filosofia se enseñan escogi para esto algunas sentencias que por ser tan contrarias a lo que el mundo siente son Paradojas, aunque por si ninguna dificultad tienen, antes son llanas y averiguadas verdades. [TO THE READER There was in Athens a celebrated portico that acquired its renown due to the variety of paintings that adorned it, for the famous painter Polygnotos chose to display his wit there and to help in some way those who gathered together in that place for the exercise of letters and virtue, which back then was professed with some degree of worldly disillusionment. These were the

Stoics, whose discipline and school, it is said, were started by Prometheus. It

is known that the Stoics dealt with some truths that conformed with the truth that shone through them, and which was revealed for the whole world in the school of Christ, our redeemer and teacher. And wanting to lend some assistance to those who deal with this true Christian philosophy, 1 wanted first to bring to light some paintings that might serve as an aid to memory and for the entertainment of those who busy themselves with the exercise of letters and with the consideration that shows the path of virtue and good customs. And this was in the Emblemas morales, first part and in

the second, and in the Empresas espirituales, which will be published very soon. And now it has occurred to me that I should not be content with just the paintings alone, although they may teach something all by themselves, and are accompanied by varied doctrine; and trying to deal somewhat with those truths taught in the Christian school and in true philosophy, I chose

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Hispanic Emblems and Literature

for this purpose some sentences that, because they are so contrary to what the world thinks, they are Paradoxes, although they offer no difficulty in and of themselves, and instead are plain and proven truths.] 3. Works Published in Agrigento As is well known, and in spite of the recommendation against him by San Juan de La Cruz,2\—who must have viewed him as little inclined towards politics, a necessary attribute in a prelate—Horozco sought and attained his ordination and appointment as bishop of Agrigento in Sicily in 1594.25 From the start he tried to be an exemplary bishop and was diligent in setting in motion the reforms mandated by the Council of Trent, trying to put an end to the excessive privileges of some nobles and to reform the cathedral chapter in accordance with the new resolutions. He ordered the cathedral, which had fallen into ruin a few years earlier, to be rebuilt, and he

founded a seminary for the education of the clergy according to the dictates of Trent. As he had done in Segovia, Horozco maintained his good relationship with the Jesuits, who he brought to his diocese immediately upon being named bishop, as he of course did with the Carmelites as well. Taking advantage of the fortuitous journey of Father Jeronimo Graciän, who had been the spiritual director of Saint Theresa, through Sicily, he founded a Carmelite convent with him as its leader. Just as he had done in Segovia, if my speculation is correct, shortly after arriving in Agrigento Horozco founded the very first printing press in that city, and soon began to publish some works that he had composed pre-

viously.”° It is possible that he brought his own types with him from Spain,

an inference based on the formal similarity between the works that issued from the presses of Agrigento and those published in Segovia. One peculiarity of the editions published in Agrigento is that all of the ones that have been preserved are in octavo, while the format of those printed earlier in Segovia is quarto. A possible explanation is that he used a different printing press that was best suited to printing in this smaller format.

Zafra: The Works of Juan de Horozco y Covarrubias

Nicolas Antonio points out that some of these books provoked conflicts between Horozco and some of the most influential personages of his diocese—concretely, Baron di Raffadali and two canons that were his relatives—who went so far as to denounce him before the Roman inquisition. It seems that Horozco had put an end to some of the improper privileges that this baron enjoyed in the Church of Agrigento, which naturally attracted the enmity of this powerful nobleman. At the same time, the reformation of the cathedral assembly with the diminution of its authority, resulted in numerous lawsuits with the clergymen who belonged to the chapter. The baron and the two canons related to him finally presented their denunciation to the Inquisition, motivated by the publication of an emblem book in which Horozco attacked the baron directly. The accusation was accompanied by some defamatory libels, which succeeded in eliciting an order to burn the book and a call for the bishop to return to Rome to respond to the accusations. By order of the Bishop of Palermo, his vicar journeyed to Agrigento, and after convoking all the parishioners of the diocese in the cathedral on a feast day, ordered that all copies of the book be burned right in front of Horozco himself, and at the same time he transmitted the order for him to

present himself in Rome.?7

3.1. Empresas Sacras [Sacred Imprese|, Agrigento 1597? Weiner and De Gregorio have both pointed out that the book which

was ordered to ne burned may have been the Emblemas morales, although

they have found no trace in the work of anything remotely worthy of censorship. On the other hand, De Gregorio himself doubts that this was the title book incinerated, since so many copies of it have been preserved. I myself am inclined to think that the work in question was the one that

Horozco mentions with the title Empresas espirituales in the prologue of his Paradojas. \t could be argued that that these Empresas espirituales may have been the work

addition to the in question, as evidence of the commentary of

that appeared

existence. See especially San Juan de la Cruz, pp. 419-20.

25 On Horozco’s time in Agrigento, see the article by Doménico de Gregorio and that of

in 1601

with the title Symbola Sacra, but in

fact that the publication of this work occurred after the event De Gregorio has demonstrated,?* we do not find in it any Empresas sacra {sacred imprese| that Horozco mentions in the one of his moral emblems written many years earlier:

24 San Juan de la Cruz was Horozco’s spiritual director during the time that the saint lived in Segovia. Years earlier Horozco collaborated in the foundation of the Discalced Convent of Segovia, which was housed in his own house during the early years of its

Weiner (1984). 26 Cf. De Gregorio, pp. 90-1.

193

27 See De Gregorio, pp. 90-91. 28 See De Gregorio, p. 93.

194

Hispanic Emblems and Literature Viene a proposito de lo que aqui se trata lo lib. 1. ς. 1 se traté desta misma figura, que por no repetirse en este lugar se deja, mas conviene que junto con esto se vuelva a leer.

which we can consider to be distinct, three new books of emblems, each

[Quite germane to what we are dealing with here is what we said in the Empresas Sacras

when we dealt with this same figure, which, in order to avoid repetition, we omit here, but

it would be fitting to re-read it along with this.]

I propose the existence of an edition of these Empresas sacras 0 espirituales, divided in several books, among which the one described above would have been included, but of which not a single copy has survived, because they were burned by order of his superiors before the author’s very eyes. The majority of the imprese must have been written in Segovia, but for this edition he likely included some others, among which were those that made direct mention of the baron and the canons, which provoked the denunciation. this

lawsuit,

the

result

of which

turned

195

the Spanish original, would seem to justify the need to reduce the size of the book, so that it would still be manageable. Horozco included in this work,

que dijimos en las Empresas Sacras cuando

After

Zafra: The Works of Juan de Horozco y Covarrubias

out

to

be

the

total

exoneration of Horozco, it would not have been surprising if he made use of the emblems contained in this work, and especially the engravings, for his subsequent works of an emblematic nature: his Emblemata moralia and the

Symbola sacra, both published in 1601.

3.2. Emblemata moralia | Moral Emblems], Agrigento, 1601 This is an amplified Latin version of his Emblemas morales which, in spite of its accurate description by Pedro Campa, has been considered until

only very recently as a mere translation into Latin. Sanz and Lavilla have pointed out that in reality it is a substantially augmented version in terms of

one consisting of fifty emblems, for the reason cited above. Each emblem is formed by a pictura, a motto at times, an epigram in Spanish, and an equivalent one in Latin, written by the Sicilian poet Sebastiano Bagolino. All of the emblems end—both the old ones and the additions—with a Latin commentary whose content and dimensions are quite inferior to those in the editions published in Segovia. The engravings of the repeated emblems are the same, although some, deteriorated probably by wear, were replaced with new copies. This version includes the prologue between the second and third books from the 1591 edition, which explains the division in groups of fifty

emblems, which make it clear that Horozco

definitive edition.

considered his one to be the

3.3. Symbola sacra [Sacred Symbols], Agrigento, 1601 Confused quite often with the Emblemata Moralia,® this is in reality a

new bilingual Spanish.*! As rate book of Horozco also

book of religious emblems, with Sagrario Lopez Poza has pointed out which only three copies are known availed himself here of some of the

lost Emblemata espiritualia, possibly the engravings.

epigrams in Latin and previously, it is a very to exist in Spain. Surely materials from the now

The book’s appearance is very similar to that of the previous one, but its structure is different. It is made up of one hundred emblems, the composition of which consists of an engraving with an inscribed motto, a double epigram—a tercetillo castellano {a three verse stanza in which the lines are eight syllables or fewer] with perfect rhyme in the scheme abb, with a Latin distich that develops the same idea—and a brief Latin commentary that starts on the recto of the folio and completely fills the verso for each of the

the number of emblems, but quite abbreviated in terms of the amount of commentary.” The format, in octavo but with the types in the same size as 29 For a more detailed analysis of the work, see their 2004 article. Confusion regarding the nature of this edition may arise from the fact that the copies preserved in Spain’s National Library—those most accessible to Spaniards, logically—have the same

composition as the versions in Spanish, and therefore do not include the new books. Complete copies located in Spain can be found at the University of Granada, the Seminario Menor San Torcuato of Guadix—these are the two that I have examined—

and the University of Zaragoza. Complete copies housed at institutions outside of Spain include the Universities of Glasgow, Harvard, Illinois, Pennsylvania State and Oxford.

Incomplete versions are housed in the collections of the Universities of Minnesota, Utrecht, and a second copy at Oxford. 30 The confusion probably arises from the fact that Palau deals with these titles as the same work, Both Weiner and De Gregorio also consider it to be the same book. 31 An edition of this work is contained on the DVD Emblemas Españoles, prepared by Studiolum. This project is finished and ready for the market, but its publication has been delayed due to issues with the software program. I am grateful to Tamas Sajò, John T. Cull and Antonio Bernat Vistarini for having allowed me to consult a copy. 32 Sagrario Lopez Poza, p. 267, note 20. The only known extant copies are those of the University of Valencia—the one that I have examined—the Diocese Library of the Obispado de Zamora, and the library of the Real Academia de la Historia.

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Hispanic Emblems and Literature

emblems. Horozco himself explains in his Emblemas morales’ the reason for the name: Los Dichos de Pitagoras por ser obscuros y que debajo de figuras y semejanzas ensefiaban, se llamaron simbolos, y asi también por la misma razon las emblemas o empresas que debajo de figuras tienen sentencias y propésitos de ingenio se llamaron ,,simbolos. [The Sayings of Pythagoras, because they were obscure and utilized figures and similarities in order to teach, were called symbols, and thus for the same reason the emblems or imprese that use figures to convey sentences and displays of wit were also called ,,symbols.”| In spite of its rarity, this work had some influence on subsequent emblematics, as can be seen in the traces left by his emblems on those of his brother Sebastian, as well as on the work

by Marco

Antonio

Orti, Siglo

cuarto de la conquista de Valencia |Fourth Century of the Conquest of Valencia],

which I cannot deal with here, due to limitations of space. In 1603 Horozco returned to Rome, never again to return to Agrigento. Due to an illness, he was confined to his bed during practically the entirety of his stay. It is possible that during this period he committed to writing his sufferings, attempting to explain them in terms of faith, musings that he included in his final works.

4. Consuelo de afligidos {Consolation of the Afflicted|, Agrigento, 1605. This extremely rare book described by Nicolas Antonio does not appear to have been seen by any subsequent bibliographer. Although Palau cites it, claiming that he was unable to locate a copy, there is nevertheless one housed in Spain’s National Library in Madrid, with the catalog number

R/8267. It is not easy to locate this item due to a spelling error in the

transcription of the title and the peculiarities of the library catalog. I have not managed to track down any other copies, which may perhaps be an indication that the printing was very limited.

The book, composed in octavo, as were all of those that issued from the

press in Agrigento, displays a great formal similarity with the rest of these works. It is dedicated to the Carmelite Mother Superior Isabel de Santo

Domingo, Saint Teresa’s successor at the head of the convent in Segovia

where Horozco served as chaplain for a period of time. As he indicates in the dedication, a good deal of the book was written during that period: 33 Ed. 1591,

fol. 20r.

Zafra: The Works of Juan de Horozco y Covarrubias

197

parte dello se escribié cuando en buena dicha y con gran consuelo mio hacia oficio de capellan desta santa casa, y era siendo prior y canénigo, y después Arcediano de Cuéllar en la Santa Iglesia de esa ciudad. Y asi me parecié era justo lo poco que se ha publicado con lo demas que placiendo a Dios se añadirä, lo gocen impreso VR y las hermanas. [Part of it was written when I had the good fortune and immense consolation of exercising the office of chaplain of this holy house, and that was when I was a prior and canon, and later Archdeacon of Cuéllar in the Holy Church of that city. And thus it seemed to me that it would be just to offer the little bit that has been published, along with the rest that will be added, God willing, so that Your Reverence and the sisters may enjoy it in print.] The work is divided into four discourses in which he alternates psalms with reasons why one should not succumb to despair in the face of the world’s troubles, suggesting that the reader try to see behind them the loving hand of God, who provides sustenance to the sufferer if he seeks consolation in Him. In these discourses Horozco seems to be unburdening himself of his own sufferings during his time in Agrigento, as he intimates in the dedication as well: Las letras que he recibido de VR. han venido a tiempo que no solo me han sido consuelo mas dado animo para padecer mayores cosas. Y

me han acordado cuando VR me dijo: ,,presto os daremos el parabien del

Obispado” y le respondi ,,Si no he de ser obispo santo no quiero serlo”. Y parece que tomé Dios la palabra, pues quiere sin duda que lo sea con los inmensos trabajos que por hacer mi oficio he tenido y tengo. Madre mia junto con las hermanas a quien envié mi bendicién, suplique a Nuestro Sefior me ampare siempre y me lleve con bien donde yo le sirva con mas quietud. Y si es servido que donde quiera (como sospecho) tenga afliccién y trabajo se sirva con todo y me dé paciencia y el Espiritu necesario. [The letters that I have received from your Reverence have arrived at a moment in which they have not only provided me with consolation, but they have also given me the spirit to suffer even greater things. And they have reminded me of when Your Reverence said to me: soon we will give you congratulations for your bishopric” and I answered him: ,,1f 1 am not going to be a holy bishop, then I do not want to be one”. And it appears as though God took this to heart, for He wants no doubt for me to be one, with the immense labors that I have suffered and still suffer in order to

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Hispanic Emblems and Literature

perform my office. Mother of mine, along with the sisters to whom I send my blessing, please beseech Our Lord to shelter me always, and to deliver me unharmed to where I may serve Him with greater quietude. And if it is His will (as I suspect), that I suffer affliction and toil wherever I am, may He give me the patience and necessary Spirit.] Horozco left this work unfinished. What we have leaves off at the end of a first part in which he declares his intention—apparently unfulfilled—of publishing a second part, as soon as he was disencumbered of toils and cares [de trabajos y cuidados”’].34

5. Interval in Valladolid (1605) In 1604 Horozco moved to Valladolid, then the seat of the Spanish Court, and therefore also of the Royal Councils, with the intention of procuring from the King the new diocese that the monarch himself had requested from the Pope for his subject.% The motive of the departure must have been the assassination attempt related by the Chamber of Castille in its communiqué to the King, seeking the transfer of Horozco to the vacant diocese of Guadix, a city in southern Spain in the province of Granada: Habra Doce afios que le hizo el Rey, que haya gloria, merced de aquella iglesia [de Agrigento] donde ha estado padeciendo grandes trabajos por tratarse de gente âspera e incorregible.Y que, por haberse ofrecido corregir muchos y hacer justicia, le cobraron tanto odio que se determinaron perseguirle en Roma con testimonios falsos. Y, no saliendo con su intento, pretendieron matarle y lo pusieron por obra, aunque fue Dios servido no tuviese efecto, y que ejecutasen su ira en matarle un mayordomo y dos vicarios. Y que constandole de todo esto a la Santidad de Clemente 8°, le dio

licencia para venir a España, habiéndosela dado antes Vuestra Majestad.*°

[Some twelve years ago now the King, (may God grant him glory),

bestowed upon him the favor of that church [that of Agrigento] where he

has been experiencing great sufferings, since the inhabitants of that city are coarse and incorrigible. And because he sought to correct many of them and do justice, they came to despise him so much that they decided to persecute

him in Rome and raise false testimony against him. And failing in their intent, they determined to kill him and put their plan into action, although it 34 P. 199. 35 See De Gregorio, p. 93.

36 This document is transcribed in its entirety by Gonzälez Palencia, pp. 335-336, note 60.

Zafra: The Works of Juan de Horozco y Covarrubias

199

was God’s will that they not be successful, and that they vent their wrath by killing a majordomo and two vicars. And having made all of this known to his Holiness Clement VIII, the Pope gave him permission to come to Spain, a permission that Your Majesty had granted him earlier.] Shortly after his arrival at Court, the last known work by Horozco appeared, published by the presses of Juan de Herrera (Fig. 4). 6. Doctrina de principes, ensefiada por el santo Job [Doctrine of Princes Taught by Saint Job], Valladolid: Juan de Herrera, 1605. As indicated above, the formal similarity of this edition with his earlier works is quite striking, and demonstrates—as we have seen—the author’s direct supervision over the publication of all of his works, and possibly as well the use of types that belonged to him in all of them. Once again it is probable that he himself hired the printer Juan de Herrera*’ to produce the book using these types, but it is also plausible that he had the books printed in Agrigento and shipped to Valladolid, where Herrera did nothing more than add the title pages and supervise their sale. I tend to accept the first of these possibilities, due to the fact that the book is printed in quarto, a characteristic trait of books published in Spain at that time. Of the three copies preserved, two lack the cover page and none indicate the name of the printer.38 This work, a mirror of princes that takes as its point of departure chapter XIX of the Book of Job, is dedicated to King Philip III, with the intention of helping to educate and shape him in his duties as monarch. It is an attempt for a member of the Royal Council of Castille to exercise auctoritas over potestas, embodied by the monarch.% The naming of Horozco

to this Council, which I have not found documented

elsewhere,

can be deduced from the title-page of the copy housed in Madrid’s National Library (Biblioteca Nacional) and which proceeded from the Royal Palace (Palacio Real). It reads:

Doctrina de / Principes / Enseñada por el Sto. Job / Declarada a la

Majestad del / Rey nuestro Sefior Don Felipe ΠῚ / por Don Juan de

37 A certain Juan de Herrera had his own print shop in Madrid between the years 1612 and 1614, although we do not know if this is the same person. No other title published by this printer in Valladolid is known to exist.

38 The information on the print copies tends to be taken from Palau, who, we can only assume, must have gathered it from a copy that he consulted. 39 For a basic scheme of these concepts applied to emblematics, see Zafra, 2008.

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Hispanic Emblems and Literature

Horozco Consejo.

/ y Covarrubias de Leyva, / Obispo de Girgento,/ de su Real

[Doctrine of / Princes / Taught by St. Job / Declared for the Majesty of the / King our Lord Philip ΠῚ / by Juan de Horozco / y Covarrubias de

Leyva, / Bishop of Girgento,/ of his Royal Council.

It is not plausible that someone who was not a member of the Council would dare to sign with this title, and especially in a work directed to the King himself. We should not forget that his uncles, both Diego as well as

Antonio, had been members of this Council, with Diego rising to become its president, and at that moment, his brother-in-law Diego Alarcon was one of

its judges. It is also possible that he was preparing to be named to this position when he obtained from the King, at the request of the Pope himself with the proposal of the Chamber of Castille, the seat of the diocese of Guadix.” 7. Bishop in Guadix and Death (1606-1610)

No printed works have come down to us from Horozco’s time in Guadix, due perhaps to his poor state of health and a degree of cautious hesitation after the prolonged lawsuit over the works published in Agrigento. There are not many details known about his stay in this diocese, except his role in the restoration of the episcopal palace, the donation, along with other relics, ascribed to Saint Teresa de Jestis, the foundation of a convent of Recollect Franciscans in Baza, and the support he lent once

again to the Society of Jesus, to whose

bequeathed his library, among other things.*!

College of San Torcuato he

Zafra: The Works of Juan de Horozco y Covarrubias

201

7.1.Letter from the Bishop of Guadix and Baza, Guadix, 1609

The most interesting item preserved from the final years of Horozco’s life is the formal declaration that he authored part of the process for the canonization of Saint Teresa of Avila, in which he provides new data on his relationship with the Carmelite nun. The letter describes several surprising episodes regarding Horozco’s relationship with the Saint, ranging from her prophecy on his future appointment as bishop to the inexplicable disappearance of a manuscript of her Camino de Perfeccién from his library. Among these anecdotes, perhaps the most curious deals with the miraculous cure of a mysterious toothache suffered by Horozco when he turned to speak with the Saint: Y cuanto al don de sanidad que la santa Madre tuvo, puedo afirmar lo que a mi me sucedié yendo a Avila a visitarla: y fue que en entrando en el locutorio me dio un dolor de muelas tan grande, a la parte izquierda, que me hizo casi perder el sentido; y fue tanto el dolor, que no podia hablar palabra con la santa Madre. Y entonces me dijo que me Ilegase al torno, y me dio una cruz pequeña atada a un cordén, y me mando me la pusiese en la parte del dolor y que volviese al locutorio. Y, al tiempo que me senté di como un grito, diciendo:—jAy, Madre!—y ella dijo:—Qué hay?— y le respondi—Que se me ha quitado el dolor, como si nunca le hubiera tenido;—y me dijo:— Gracias a Dios y a esa santa reliquia.—Y entonces y después entendi era costumbre de la santa Madre tener a mano esta y otras reliquias, para que no se atribuyese a su intercesién y a la gracia y don que tenia en sanar enfermos.#2 [And as for the gift of healing that the holy Mother enjoyed, I can affirmed what happened to me on a trip to Avila to visit her: and this was that upon entering the visiting parlor I was struck with a toothache so severe on the left side that I almost fainted; and the pain was so severe that I could not speak a word to the holy Mother. And then she told me to draw near to the revolving partition in the wall used to deliver messages in the convent, through which she passed me a small crucifix attached to a cord, and she

ordered me to place it on the place that was hurting, and to return to the

visitation room. And, just as I was about to sit down I kind of shouted out, 40 See Gonzalez Palencia, pp. 335-6, n. 60.

saying: Oh, Mother!—and she said:—What is it?— d I answered her —My

41 With the passage of time, a good number of these books passed first to the Jesuit College of Granada and later to the University of Granada. This likely explains the quantity and quality of the works by Horozco preserved in the rare books collection of

pain has disappeared, as though it had never existed;— and she said to me:

grateful to Mr. José Rivera Tubilla, member of the Pedro Suarez Institute, for his tour of the archive of the Guadix Cathedral and the information he provided me on the chapter lawsuits and the bequeathing of Horozco’s books to the Society of Jesus.

42 In Vicente de la Fuente, pp. 386-388, In spite of the undeniable interest of this letter,

its library. On Horozco’s time in Guadix, see Pedro Suarez, pp. 238-9, yand164-5. I am

limitations of space do not allow for its complete transcription here. I will publish it elsewhere in the near future.

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Hispanic Emblems and Literature

—Thanks to God and to that holy relic— And right then and later on I understood that it was the Holy Mother’s custom to keep close at hand this and other relics, so that the grace and gift that she had in healing the sick would not be attributed to her intercession.] 8. An Unpublished Document A document preserved in the Chapter Archive of the Cathedral of Segovia is also of some interest, and is therefore included as appendix. It is a petition in Horozco’s own handwriting from his time as prior of the Chapter of the Cathedral of Segovia, in which he asks the Bishop—his uncle Diego—to see fit to choose Sebastian de Covarrubias y Horozco, his brother, for the position that became vacant in the Chapter due to the death

of one of the canons. This document, in addition to the interest deriving from the handwriting and signature of our author, shows how intertwined the biographies of the members of the Horozco y Covarrubias family were. Although the petition was not successful in the end—the negative vote is recorded on the reverse side of the folio—its existence reveals anew the close relationship between

Juan de Horozco

and his brother Sebastian de Covarrubias, and the

gratitude of the former who was attempting to reciprocate the great favor that the latter did in yielding his position in the Chapter to him many years earlier. 9. His Face

I return, by way of conclusion, to the face, reproduced as Figure 1. It is

Juan de Horozco’s portrait that hangs in the entrance hallway of the

Lorenzana room of the Library of the Alcazar de Toledo. It forms part of the series of ,, Illustrious Toledans” commissioned by Cardinal Lorenzana to

decorate this space and it was painted by Dionisio Linares at the beginning of the eighteenth century.# Although its artistic quality is not impressive—it appears to be part of a

Zafra: The Works of Juan de Horozco y Covarrubias

203

mind that several of the accompanying portraits are close copies of other known portraits, we can speculate that Horozco’s may well have been a replica of an earlier portrait that has not been preserved or is lost. What is more, if we compate it to the portrait of his brother that is located in the Cathedral of Cuenca, there is no doubt of the similarity.° 10. Conclusion

Few Spanish Golden Age authors displayed the great care and control over their published works as did Horozco. From Garcilaso to Cervantes and from ΕἸ Lazarillo to Calderôn practically all of the masterpieces from this period have suffered the avatars of a complicated textual transmission and a loss of control over the text once it went to press. Horozco, an authentic self-editor in the modern sense of the word. By founding and directing his own printing presses he achieved and bequeathed to us an extremely clean body of work and texts that are almost unique. This facilitates their reading and study. Julian Gallego has mentioned the poetic quality of these works, and the importance, especially of his Emblemas morales, for understanding the complex world of Golden Age emblematics.# Nevertheless and in spite of this, with the exception of a few studies on his emblems‘ the rest of his production has not been studied in depth. Aspects as interesting as the relationship between the works of the two Covarrubias brothers—the debt that Sebastiän’s emblems owe to those of Juan is undeniable, especially to those added in Agrigento—or the heritage passed down to both from the works of their father, especially his Proverbios glosados, remain to be studied. Another promising avenue of research is the influence of Horozco’s production on works of authors such as Saavedra,18 Quevedo*? or Calderén,>*° hinted at by some critics. The data and clarifications that I have offered in this study will hopefully serve as a basis for new studies in the future that will further elucidate the quality and scope of the works of this youngest, though by no means least illustrious, member of the Horozco y Covarrubias family.

series of bishops’ portraits with the face added later—it has an undeniable historical value since it is the only known portrait of Horozco. If we bear in 43 This document is housed in the Segovia Cathedral Archive and has the signature F. 43. I am grateful to the historian Bonifacio Bartolomé Herrero for making me aware

of its existence. 44 More information on this series of portraits can be seen in Arroyo Serrano’s book. 1 am grateful to Ms. Carmen Morales Mateo, Associate Director of the Library of Castilla-La Mancha, both for making me aware of this publication and for granting me

permission to reproduce the portrait and the facilities to photograph it.

45 This portrait is also reproduced on the spine of the jacket cover of our edition of the Tesoro (2006). 46 Gallego, 1968, pp. 100 et passim. 47 Christian Bouzy’s studies on the Emblemas Morales and recently, on the Emblemata

Moralia, are worthy of mention. 48 Mentioned by Gallego, 1968, p. 101. 49 Pointed out by Ettinghausen, p. 12. 50 See Valbuena Briones, p. 189.

204

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

Zafra: The Works of Juan de Horozco y Covarrubias

205

___. Emblemas morales. Zaragoza: Alonso Rodriguez, 1604.

WORKS CITED

Arroyo Serrano, Santiago. Miradas desde la biblioteca. Toledo: Asociaciôn de Amigos de la Biblioteca de Castilla la Mancha, 2008.

_.

Campa, Pedro F. Emblemata Hispanica: An Annotated Bibliography of Spanish Emblem Literature to the Year 1700. Durham: Duke University

_. Emblemata moralia. Agrigento, 1601.

Ciruelo, Pedro. Reprobacién de las supersticiones y hechicertas. Salamanca:

_. Consuelo de afligidos. Agrigento, 1605.

Press, 1990.

Pierres Touans, 1540.

Paradojas cristianas contra las falsas opiniones del mundo.

Marcos Ortega, 1592.

Segovia:

_. Symbola sacra. Agrigento, 1601.

___. Doctrina de principes, ensenada por el santo Job. Valladolid: Juan de

Covarrubias y Horozco, Sebastian. Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española.

Herrera, 1605.

Frankfurt: Iberoamericana/Vervuert, 2006.

Landwehr, John. French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese Books of Devices and Emblems 1534-1827. A Bibliography. Utrecht: Haentjens Dekker & Gum-

Edicién integral e ilustrada de Ignacio Arellano y Rafael Zafra. Madrid/ De

Gregorio,

Doménico.

,,Giovanni

Horozco

de Covarruvias

de Leyva,

Vescovo di Agrigento.” In Miscellanea in onore di Mons. A. Noto. Agrigento, 1985. 65-99.

Ettinghausen, Henry. Francisco de Quevedo and the Neostoic Movement.

Oxford: Oxford University Press, 1972. Madrid: Aguilar, 1968.

__.,,Las Emblemas Morales de don Juan de Horozco.” Cuadernos de arte e iconografia 1.2 (1988): 159-164. Palencia, Angel.

Datos

biograificos del licenciado Sebastian de

Covarrubias y Horozco.” In Miscelainea Conquense. 1929. Facs. ed. Ayuntamiento de Cuenca, 1990. 33-98.

Hernandez

Miñano, Juan

de

Dios.

,,Los

Lépez Poza, Sagrario. ,,Los libros de emblemas como ‘tesoros’ de erudicién

auxiliares de la inventio.” In Emblemata aurea: la emblemätica en el arte y la literature. Ed. Rafael Zafra and J.J. Azanza, Madrid: Akal, 2000. Marquez

Gallego, Julian. Visién y sémbolos en la pintura española del Siglo de Oro.

Gonzalez

bert, 1976.

Emblemas

Morales

de Juan

de

Horozco.” Norba — Arte 8 (1988): 97-114.

Horozco Y Covarrubias, Juan de, Tratado de la verdadera y falsa profecta. Segovia: Juan de la Cuesta, 1588.

___. Emblemas morales. Segovia: Juan de la Cuesta, 1589. _. Emblemas morales. Segovia: Juan de la Cuesta, 1591.

Villanueva,

,,El Numero

Septenario

de Sebastian

Anales de la Universidad Hispalense 19 (1959): 89-109.

de

Horozco.”

Palau, Antonio. Manual del librero hispano-americano: inventario bibliogräfico de la produccién cientifica y literaria de España y de la América Latina desde la invencién de la imprenta hasta nuestro dias. Barcelona: Libreria Palau, 1948.

Reyes Gomez,

Fermin

de los. ,,Con privilegio: la exclusiva de edicién del

libro antiguo español.” Revista general de informacién y documentacién 11

(2001): 163-200. Rico, Francisco

(Director). Imprenta y critica textual en el Siglo de Oro.

Valladolid: Universidad de Valladolid — Centro para la Edicion de los Clasicos Españoles, 2000.

Sanz Ferreruela, Fernando and Luis Lavilla Cerdan, ,,Emblemata moralia de Juan de Horozco: edicién de Agrigento, 1601.” In Actas del I Congreso Inter-

nacional de Emblemdtica General. Ed. Guillermo Redondo Veintemillas, Alberto Montaner Frutos and Maria Cruz Garcia Lopez, Vol. 3. Zaragoza: Instituto Fernando el Catélico, 2004, 1927-1949.

206

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Suarez, Pedro. Historia de el obispado de Guadix y Baza Escrito. Madrid: Antonio Roman, 1696.

Tamayo

de Vargas, Tomas. Junta

de libros.

Ed.

Belén

Alvarez

Madrid: Iberoamericana / Frankfurt am Main: Vervuert, 2007.

Zafra: The Works of Juan de Horozco y Covarrubias FIGURES

Garcia.

Valbueba Briones, Angel. Dramas.” In Pedro Calderon de la Barca, Obras Maestras. Madrid: Castalia, 2000, 189-192. Weiner, J. ,,Sobre el linaje de Sebastian de Orozco.”

textos y estructura.

Actas del I Congreso

In La picaresca: origenes,

Internacional sobre la Picaresca,

Madrid: Fundacion Universitaria Espanola, 791-824.

_. ,,Padres e hijos: Sebastian de Horozco y los suyos.” Toletum 25 (1990): 109-165.

_. En busca de la justicia social. Estudios sobre el teatro español del Siglo de Oro. Potomac: Scripta Humanistica, 1984.

Zafra, Rafael. ,,Emblema?

Siglo

de

Oro.

Ed.

Williamson. Madrid

Ignacio

Imago

auctoritatis.”

Arellano,

In Autoridad y poder en el

Christoph

/ Frankfurt: Iberoamericana

Strosetzki,

and

Edwin

/ Vervuert, 2009, 285-292.

Figure 1 Juan de Horozco, Portrait by Dionisio Linares,

Toledo, Public Library.

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Zafra: The Works of Juan de Horozco y Covarrubias

s Dios eft déde quiera di pi

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

208

Figure 2 Folio 17 from Horozco’s Emblemas Morales (1589) and

folio 5 from his Tratado de la verdadera y falsa profecia (1588).

Figure 3 Folio 1 of Horozco’s Paradajas cristianas (1592).

209

210

Hispanic Emblems and Literature

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Zafra: The Works of Juan de Horozco y Covarrubias

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Figure 5 Unpublished autographed Horozco Document,

;

Figure 4 Page 1 of Horozco’s Doctrina de principes (1605).

Segovia Cathedral Archive, signature F. 43.

211

212

Hispanic Emblems and Literature Appendix (Fig. 5) Muy ilustrisimo Señor

BIBLIOGRAPHY AND EMBLEM THEORY

El licenciado don Juan de Horozco, Arcediano de Cuellar, en nombre

del licenciado

Sebastian

de

Covarrubias,

su hermano,

suplica

a Vuestra

Sefioria sea servido de hacerle merced de la calongia>! que ha vacado por fin y muerte del Doctor Leén que es a proveer a Vuestra Sefioria. Y esto pide y suplica a Vuestra Sefioria como uno de sus servidores y capellan. Y para todo aquello que fuere menester en nombre del dicho su hermano esta presto de lo hacer y prestar por él caucién de rato*? y desde luego la presta si es necesario. El licenciado don Juan de Horozco Arcediano de cuellar {Most Illustrious Lord The Licenciate Juan de Horozco, Archdeacon of Cuellar, on behalf of the Licenciate Sebastian de Covarrubias, his brother, beseeches that Your

Lordship see fit to grant him the favor of the canonry vacated due to the

end and death of Doctor Leôn that Your Lordship must now fill. And this is

requested and beseeched of Your Lordship by your chaplain and one of

your humble servants. And for anything that may be necessary on behalf of the aforementioned, his brother, he is prepared to act, and to post bond for

court costs, and of course he will do so if it is necessary. The Licenciate don Juan de Horozco, Archdeacon of cuellar]

51 Calongia: canonry. 52 Caucién de rato: bond for court costs.

How Many Printed Emblem Books Were There? And How Many Printed Emblems Does That Represent?! PETER M. DALY McGill University, Montreal, Canada Abstract

The answer to this simple-sounding question will depend on such key words as emblem, edition, and print run. And now there are also digital editions. There may well have been in excess of 6,500 books of emblem and imprese printed. An emblematic book might contain a handful or several hundred emblems. We have little information on typical print runs. But we know that Plantin tended to publish about 1,000 copies of emblem books. We also know that the first two editions of Francis Quarles’s Emblemes were printed in 4,000 to 5,000 copies. Our information comes from a Chancery suit in which the publisher Eglesfield was defending himself against accusations of sharp practice. These are large numbers for the time. Jeremias Drexel was probably the most published writer in the seventeenth century. The Munich publisher Cornelius Leysser reports the number of copies of Drexel’s works printed in Munich up to 1639 as some 1,589,000. Many were

illustrated with emblematic illustrations.

This sounds like a simple question, but like many simple-sounding questions, it is fraught with complexity. Old BBC radio in England used to have a programme called the Brains’ Trust in which various speakers used to begin their answers to questions with the phrase ,,it depends what you mean by ...” How many emblems were there in printed editions of emblem books sounds reasonable enough, but there are three words that might give us pause: emblem,

emblem

book, and edition. It depends what we mean

by

these words. What is an emblem? I assume that emblem scholars think that they know. But even modern emblem scholars looking back over many of the same emblem books have trouble coming up with a definition or description that satisfies everyone in the guild. We know that not every visual illustration

may be considered an emblem picture. Let us for the moment bracket out of

consideration the textual part or parts of an emblem.

1 A

version

of this

essay

was

presented

in

an

,,Emblem

Session”

at the

Medieval

Congress at the University of Western Michigan in Kalamazoo, Michigan on May 9,

2008.

216

Bibliography and Emblem Theory

I do not expect everyone to agree with Daly and Dimler, who decided for the illustrated bibliography of Jesuit emblematic books to exclude in most cases books which have fewer than three plates or woodcuts, and books that have only an emblematic title-page or an emblematic frontispiece. I would say in our defence that one has to draw the line somewhere. Determining which pictures may be properly regarded as emblematic is not always easy, especially in works of devotion. In many cases the illustrations depict either biblical scenes or imaginative recreations of scenes from the lives or deaths of the saints and martyrs. They are reminiscent of portraits and Genrebilder in that they lack the symbolic or metaphoric dimension essential to the emblem. There it is then. For many of us emblem must have a symbolic or metaphoric dimension. The chameleon is there in Alciato’s emblem, not for its own sake, but because it can symbolize flattery.

Daly and Dimler excluded works, the pictures of which lacked this symbolic

dimension. If readers study G. Richard Dimler’s short-title listing published in Emblematica 2 (1987): 139-87, they will notice books by Josse Andries

and Johann Dirckinck listed there but omitted in our printed bibliographies because in the meantime we have recognised that the illustrations lack the symbolic dimension discussed briefly above. What then is an emblem book? Is it a collection of emblems in the manner of Alciato? But what about those prose texts that were illustrated by emblematic illustrations? All of Drexel’s works are of this kind: prose treatises with richly emblematic illustrations. I would prefer not to make a

Daly: How Many Printed Emblem Books Were There?

217

editions in all languages. But it is also contained in Drexel’s collected works, which were printed at least 20 times.4 Our printed bibliographies of Jesuit emblem books only record each single title and the title of each collected works, which might contain several individual works. The problem is not just a Jesuit or even Catholic issue. The American Protestants William Holmes and John W. Barber printed many editions of

Religious Emblems and Religious Allegories separately, but also under single cover titles such as Religious Emblems and Allegories, and The Bible LookingGlass. The Union Catalogue of Emblem Books not differentiate between states and editions. emblematic books, that differentiation seemed the time (nearly 30 years ago now). There are also hundreds of facsimiles and

database’ unfortunately does With thousands of titles of like an unnecessary luxury at microforms in microfilm and

microfiche, now available, at least in some libraries, each based on one copy

from a single edition. Should these be counted as separate editions? They

often have a different form, and were always published sometime after, at

times hundreds of years after the original edition had been printed. They made their way into libraries and private collections. In the Union Catalogue of Emblem Books database we added an information field for information

on facsimiles and microforms.

For instance, the record for Alciato’s 1542

illustrations, because I should not wish to lose sight of emblematic pictures

Wechel edition (Paris) with German translations contains a reference to the reprints done by the Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft, Darmstadt. So how many facsimiles and microforms of emblem books are there? We cannot be quite sure, but Alan Young did publish a bibliography of

narrowly. Furthermore, many publications of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries use the term ,,emblem” in ways that do not coincide with modern emblem theory, and we would tend to label loose or metaphoric. For the purposes of bibliography, and as an answer to the simple-sounding question that concerns us here, I prefer not to distinguish emblem books from books

109-156. He includes iconologies, imprese, and hieroglyphs, which he observes are not ,,strictly speaking emblem books.” (p. 111) He also includes modern editions, which are rare, and the printing of emblem books in the Henkel/Schéne Handbuch. Some few early modern emblematic books have been made available more than once. I estimate that Young has found at

distinction between emblem books and books with emblems, or emblematic

with or without text, which could easily happen if one defined the genre too

with emblems, or emblematic illustrations. The notion of edition? also brings with it perhaps unexpected prob-

lems. Most emblem books were printed as single titles. There may have been more than 150 printings of Alciato’s emblems, not counting facsimiles and microforms.

But some

emblematic

books,

considers

the notion

of edition in his essay ,, What

is the Corpus?”

In The Index of Emblem Art Symposium. Ed. Peter M. Daly. New York: AMS Press, 1990, 5-20.

least 1,000 modern ,,reprints” in either microform or print. Young’s biblio-

graphy needs updating, with the addition of digital forms. The usual earlier assessment of the size of the corpus of printed emblem

books of about 1,000 titles in some 2,000 printings may have been based on

especially by the indefatigable

Drexel, were printed as single titles, and then later included in collected works. For instance, Drexel’s Zodiacus christianus was printed in at least 44 2 Michael Bath

them with 44 pages of bibliographical information in Emblematica 1 (1986):

3 See Peter M. Daly and G. Richard Dimler, SJ., The Jesuit Series, Part Two. Toronto:

University of Toronto Press, 2000, 1.437 to 1.480. 4 See Peter M. Daly and G. Richard Dimler, SJ, The Jesuit Series, Part Two. Toronto:

University of Toronto Press, 2000, 1.481 to J.500. 5 For an early description of the database, see Peter M. Daly, ,, The Union Catalogue of Emblem Books project and the Corpus Librorum Emblematum,” Emblematica 3 (1988): 121-133,

218

Bibliography and Emblem Theory

a misreading of Praz who lists 1,090 books, but in some cases not all the editions, and translations. Landwehr’s bibliographies of Dutch, German, and

Romance language emblems already contains over 2,200 entries. David Weston’s short-title catalogue of the Stirling Maxwell Collection at Glasgow University Library records some 1,777 items. There are also valuable catalogues or finding lists of the emblematic books contained in various libraries in Europe and North America. If the Union Catalogue database records some 6.508 titles, and facsimiles and microforms were not recorded separately, then the number of editions including closer to 7,500.

facsimiles

and

microforms

must

exceed

7,000, and be

Digitization now adds a further dimension,’ at least in terms of availability and reception. Only one copy of a single edition may have been digitized, but the one digital edition may be read or at least consulted by scores, even hundreds of people. The material culture brings similar issues. The one architectural decoration, wall painting, ceiling painting, or fireplace decoration will have been seen by many. The emblematic decoration of ecclesiastical buildings will have been seen by perhaps thousands of people over time. So where do we begin? What do we think that we know? I take much of my information from the Union Catalogue database, which is not perfect. There may be some few duplicate records, and a handful of doubtful cases. However, it appears that printed emblems may well exist today in over 6,500 books

of emblems

and imprese, not all with illustrations, printed between

1531 and last year. For this purpose, as 1 observed, I do not distinguish between emblem books and books with emblems. No one knows how many printed emblems that represents because no one knows how large was the

print-run for each title, and how many emblems each book contained. Our

knowledge tends to be partial and accidental. How many emblems were in fact printed? We have tantalisingly little factual information. We need to know not only how many emblematic books were printed, but how large was each print-run, and how many emblems each book contained. We may not have all that information, but we can hazard some informed guesses.

We know, for instance, that Plantin tended to publish at least 1,000 copies of emblem books.®

6 See Michael Bath’s essay ,,What is the Corpus?” In The Index of Emblem Art Symposium. Ed. Peter M. Daly. New York: AMS Press, 1990, 5-20.

7 See Learned Love. Proceedings of the Emblem Project Utrecht Conference on Dutch Love

Emblems and the Internet (November 2006), Ed. Else Stronks and Peter Boot. The Hague: DANS, 2007. 8 From Leon Voet’s

examination

of the

Plantin

archives,

which

are miraculourly

Daly: How Many Printed Emblem Books Were There?

219

We know that the first two editions of Francis Quarles’s Emblemes were printed in 4,000 to 5,000 copies. Controversy surrounded the publication of the first two editions of Quarles’s Emblemes, with Quarles charging the bookseller, Francis Eglesfield, with sharp practice. Quarles’s petition in the Chancery suit and Eglesfield’s responses yield valuable information about book publishing at the time. In his essay ,,The Publication of Quarles’

Emblems,” Gordon S. Haight reviewed the evidence and concluded that it shows that at least this author caused his books to be printed at his own expense, selling them to a bookseller, whose name thereafter appears on the title-page. Both parties to the dispute agree that 2,000 copies of the first

printing of Emblemes were

sold to Eglesfield

for £100. Quarles

and

Eglesfield disagree on the size of the second printing in 1639, the figures being 4,000 and 3,000 respectively. Eglesfield’s lower figure is hardly likely to be an exaggeration since he was defending himself against allegations of sharp practice. We can therefore safely assume that at least 5,000 copies of Emblemes were published and sold in these two editions, a number which, as

Haight observes, is ,,astonishing testimony of the popularity of Emblems”

(109). R.B. McKerrow found very little evidence of the size of English editions for books published up to 1619, and the information he discovered suggested editions of from 100 to 500 copies. But emblematic books were published in all languages and in many countries. With the newer information available on the Plantin Press'’ we can see that the print run for Quarles’s emblem book was indeed high for the period. It seems obvious that some of the emblematically illustrated bishop’s books, published locally by the Jesuits or their students to celebrate the inauguration of a new bishop, appeared in the scores rather than the thousands of copies. But there were also Jesuit best-sellers. Jeremias Drexel was probably the most published writer in the seventeenth century. The Munich publisher Cornelius Leysser reports the number of copies of Drexel’s works

printed in Munich

up to 1639 as some

1,589,000. Three

years later he reports in the foreword to the second edition of Drexel’s Noe that during the previous three years a further 12,000 copies of Drexel titles had been produced. And this report covers only a 22-year period in one, admittedly important, publication center, Munich. Individual books might preserved, we know that Plantin printed in 1565 an edition of Alciato in 1,250 copies; in 1567 he printed 1,000 copies; in 1565 Plantin printed 1,250 copies of a French translation of Junius’s emblems, and again in 1566 850 copies, and in 1567 1,000 copies. See Leon

Voet, 1989-1983. 9 ,, The Publication of Quarles’ Emblems,” Library 15 (1935): 97-109. 10 See Leon Voet, The Golden Compasses, 2 vols. Amstetdam: Vangendt, 1969, and A

Bibliography of the Works Printed and Published by Christopher Plantin at Antwerp and Leiden, 6 vols. Amstetdam: Van Hoeve, 1980-83.

220

Bibliography and Emblem Theory

contain as few as five and as many as hundreds of emblems. Alciato’s emblem book ultimately contained 212 emblems, Meisner’s 830. If we estimate conservatively that 7,000 titles, now including modern facsimiles and microforms but not digital editions, each appeared in 500 copies, and each book had 20 emblems, then that suggests a total of 70 million printed emblems. And the number is probably over 100 million. Not that one assumes anyone read all of them. But even this large number of 100 million printed emblems may have to be corrected upwards in the light of the use for evangelizing purposes of the popular works associated with Johannes Gossner’s Herz des Menschen in Africa and India."!

In his Emblematik und Drama in Zeitalter des Barock, first published in

1964, Schône estimated that the number of emblems published between the

Daly: How Many Printed Emblem Books Were There?

221

WORKS CITED Bath, Michael. ,What is the Corpus?” In The Index of Emblem Symposium. Ed. Peter M. Daly. New York: AMS Press, 1990, 5-20.

Black, Hester, edited and revised by David Weston. A short title catalogue of the emblem books and related works in the Stirling Maxwell Collection of Glasgow University Library (1499-1917). Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1988.

Daly, Peter M. ,,The Union Catalogue of Emblem Books project and the Corpus Librorum Emblematum,” Emblematica 3 (1988): 121-133.

second third of the sixteenth century and the beginning of the eighteenth century was a seven digit number (see 18). My conservative estimate is that there were perhaps over 100 million emblems printed from 1531 to last year. Leaving the print culture, there is also the material culture: secular and ecclesiastical buildings with their emblematic wall and ceiling decorations, household furnishings ranging from cupboards and wall hangings to trenchers and drinking vessels as well as the many decorative arts. Mod-

___. (ed). Companion to Emblem Studies. New York: AMS Press, 2008.

the emblem in the material culture that were likely still in place in the seventeenth to nineteenth centuries. I shall not deal here with the material culture, since it is a large subject that I tried to deal with in the Companion to Emblem Studies.'2 Perhaps my estimate of a hundred million printed emblems may strike some as high. I do not assume that anyone read them all. Such an assumption would be foolish for many reasons. But emblems in the print and material culture were clearly important. Illustrated books were not cheap and buildings, which tend to take longer to finish, often outlasted books and buildings were probably seen by more people than read books.

_.

ernisation, fire, and warfare have obliterated most of the manifestations of

Art

__ and G. Richard Dimler, 5.1. The Jesuit Series, Part One: A-D. Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997.

_. The Jesuit Series, Part Two: D-E. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2000. 2002.

The Jesuit Series, Part Three: F-L. Toronto: University of Toronto Press,

_. The Jesuit Series, Part Four: L-P. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 2005. _.

The Jesuit Series, Part Five: P-Z. Toronto: University of Toronto Press,

2006.

Dimler, G. Richard, S.J. ,Short Title Listing of Jesuit Emblem Emblematica 2 (1987): 139-187. Haight,

Gordon

S. ,,The Publication

of Quarles’ Emblems,”

Books.”

Library

15

(1935): 97-109.

Landwehr, John. Dutch Emblem Books: A Bibliography. Utrecht: Haentjens Dekker and Gumbert, 1962. 11 See Sabine Médersheim and Wim van Dongen, ,,Pure and Impure Hearts: Johannes

Gossner’s The Heart of Man in Africa.” This was a paper presented to the Eighth International Conference of the Society for Emblem Studies, in Winchester, England, August 1, 2008. It appears that millions of copies of this work with its baroque illustrations were and are today used by missionaries in Africa and India. 12 The Companion was published by AMS Press in New York in 2008.

τς, Emblem and Fable Books Printed in the Low Countries 1542-1813: A Bibliography. Utrecht: HES Publishers 1988.

222

___.

Bibliography and Emblem Theory

Emblem

Books in the Low

Countries

Utrecht: Haentjens Dekker and Gumbert, 1970.

1554-1949: A Bibliography.

_. French, Italian, Spanish, and Portuguese Books of Devices and Emblems 1534-1827: A Bibliography. Utrecht: Haentjens Dekker and Gumbert, 1976. _. German Emblem Books 1531-1888: A Bibliography. Utrecht: Haentjens Dekker and Gumbert, 1972.

The Emblem Theory and Practice of Bohuslav Balbin, S.J.*

LUBOMIR KONECNY Director of the Institute of Art History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, and Professor of Art History at Charles University in Prague. Abstract

Praz, Mario. ,,Bibliography of Emblem

Books.”

In Studies in Seventeenth-

Century Imagery, 2nd edition. Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letteratura, 1964.

_. Studies in Seventeenth-Century Imagery, Part II. 1. Mario Praz, Addenda et Corrigenda. 2. Hilary M.J. Sayles, Chronological List of Emblem Books. Rome: Edizioni di Storia e Letturatura, 1974. Schône, Albrecht. Emblematik und Drama im Zeitalter des Barock. Munich: Beck, 1964.

The Emblem Theory and Practice of the Czech Jesuit Bohuslav Balbin, S.J.

(Bohuslaus Balbinus,

Jesuit sources.

Stronks, Else and Peter Boot (eds). Learned Love. Proceedings of the Emblem Project Utrecht Conference on Dutch Love Emblems and the Internet (November 2006). The Hague: DANS, 2007.

1621—1688)

is known

to emblem

scholars mainly as a

writer who coined two often-quoted dicta about emblematics, both originating in his Verisimilia humanorum disciplinarum (Prague, 1666). Less familiar is the fact that these sayings come from a chapter entitled “De emblemate et symbolis” which represents a significant but so far largely neglected contribution towards the theory and practice of emblematics. In the first part of this essay, the chapter in question is analyzed in detail and related to its (mostly) In the second

part several of Balbin’s own

emblematic

in-

ventions are discussed in relation to both his writings and the emblem tradition.

The Czech Jesuit Bohuslav Balbin (or in Latin: Bohuslaus Balbinus, 1621— 1688)! is known to emblem scholars mainly as the writer who coined the two

Voet, Leon, The Golden Compasses, 2 vols. Amsterdam: Vangendt, 1969.

__ and Jenny Voet-Grisolle. The Plantin Press (1555-1589): A Bibliography of the Works Printed and Published by Christopher Plantin at Antwerp and Leiden. Amsterdam: Van Hoeve, 1980-1983.

Young,

Alan

R.

,,Facsimiles,

Microform

Reproductions,

Editions of Emblem Books.” Emblematica 1 (1986): 109-156.

and

Modern

* I first met Pedro Campa at the International Emblem Conference held in Glasgow in August 1990. We both delivered our lectures in a session devoted to Jesuit emblematics. While Pedro discussed “Jeronimo Nadal’s Emblems and St Ignatius’s Spiritual Exercises,” 1 lectured on “Emblematicus Bohemus: the Emblem Theory and Practice of Bohuslaus Balbinus, SJ.” My paper was later published only in Czech as “Bohuslav Balbin a emblematika” [Bohuslav Balbin and Emblematics] in Bohuslav Balbin a kultura jeho doby

v Cechäch: Sbornik z konference Pamdtntku ndrodntho pisemnictvi. [Bohuslav Balbin and the

Culture of his Times. Proceedings of the Conference held at the Museum of Czech Literature] Ed. Zuzana Pokornä and Martin Svatoë, Prague, 1992, pp. 165-170. I reprinted it in my book Mezi textem a obrazem: Miscellanea z historie emblematiky, (Between Text and

Image. Miscellaneous Studies in the History of Emblematics] Prague, 2002, pp. 44-71. It was listed by G. Richard Dimler, SJ. in The Jesuit Emblem: Bibliography of Secondary Literature with Select Commentary and Description, AMS Studies in the Emblem No. 19, New York, 2005, p. 93. The article presented here as a tribute to Pedro Campa is a revised version in English of both the Glasgow lecture and the Czech article. Ivana Horacek (University of

British Columbia, Vancouver) and the late David Pirrie (University of Glasgow) helped with

the English.

1 For the bibliography of writings on Balbin, see Dimler (note *), pp. 92-93, which should be supplemented by Ludger Udolph, “Graeca bei Bohuslaus Balbinus,” in Studien zum

Humanismus in den bühmischen Ländern. Ed. Cologne-Weimar-Vienna, 1988, pp. 341-365.

Hans-Bernd

Harder

and

Hans

Rothe,

224

Bibliography and Emblem Theory

following, oft quoted sayings. The first informs us that “Emblematum Pater et

Princeps est Alciatus” [Alciatus is Father and Prince of Emblems]. The other one

claims that “Nulla res est sub sole, qua materiam Emblemati dare non possit” [There is nothing under the sun that could not provide material for an em-

blem]. Originating in Balbin’s book

Véerisimilia humaniorum disciplinarum

[Nästin humanitnich disciplin], first published in 1666 in Prague? these two dicta were introduced into the literature on emblems by Albrecht Schône as early as the mid-1960s.3 By far less familiar, however, seems to be the fact that we find them embedded in the seventh chapter of Balbin’s Verisimilia, entitled “De Emblemate et Symbolis”, which contains an interesting but as yet largely neglected contribution towards the theory of emblematics. To date, we are still lacking a thorough analysis of the seventh chapter of Verisimilia, and other texts, in which Balbin is represented as a theorist of emblematics, as well as his published and unpublished works where he presents himself as the author of the emblems. In addition to several other passages in

Verisimilia the first group is composed primarily of a relatively extensive section from the Brevis tractatio de amplificatione oratoria (1688), devoted to

Koneënÿ: The Emblem Theory and Practice of Bohuslav Balbin, S.J.

225

represented as an author of fifty-two emblems and symbols in the “Notes”

section to Chapter 7 of Verisimilia as well as in one of the Jesuit Miscellanea, in which sixteen of his other inventions are titled Libellus Emblematum—now

stored in the library of the Royal Canonry of Premonstratensians at Strahov in Prague. Related material on emblematics, although in a more raw state, can be found in two preserved manuscript volumes of Balbin’s Adversaria.!° Last but not least, this group includes descriptions and images of emblems that are variously scattered throughout with a number of Balbin’s works.!! These have never been studied. The seventh chapter of Verisimilia consists of two parts, one dealing with emblems, the other with so-called symbols. Both are constructed along the same lines. After defining the two key terms and briefly listing pertinent authorities, Balbin, in order to clarify his instructions, provided the reader with necessary rules and examples. To start with, he says that the emblem is

“ennunciatio seu sententia pictura expressa, translata ad mores et hominum vitam”

[a statement or a saying, expressed by means of a picture, which is related to

emblems, symbols and their sources. Finally several rather unsystematic pages

from the Quaesita oratoria that was published in 1677 also appear.’ Balbin is 2 Balbinus,

Verisimilia humaniorum disciplinarum, Prague

Later editions (Leipzig, 1687; Prague, 1701; Augsburg,

1666, pp.

198, 199 [440, 442].

1710) are described in Anezka

Bad’urova et al., Bibliografie spisi Bohuslava Balbina vytisténych do roku 1800, [Bibliography

of the Writings of Bohuslav Balbin Printed before 1800] Prague, 1989, vol. I: Bibliografické popisy, [Bibliographical Descriptions] pp. 198-208. A bilingual (Latin and Czech) commented and annotated edition was published in 2006: Bohuslai Balbini Verisimilia humaniorum disciplinarum / Rukovét’ humanitnich disciplin, ed. and transl. Olga Spevak, Prague, 2006. Throughout this essay, the numbers in square brackets refer to the pages of this editio optima.

8 Balbinus (note 2), “Notae,” pp. 93-101 (“Emblematum et symbolum exempla.” Ad Caput

VII. Versisimilium).

9 Prague, Library of the Royal Canonry of Premonstratensians at Strahov, sign. DH I 22 (Miscellaneorum Iesuiticorum liber), pp. 187-190. See Josef V. Simak, “Zprava o literàmi pozustalosti B. Balbina, ulozené v knihovnach kanonie strahovské a Musea kral. Keského” [A Report on the Literary Inheritance of B. Balbin kept in Libraries of the Canonry at Strahov and in the Museum of the Czech Kingtdom]. Vistntk Ceské akademie cisaïe Frantiska Josefa pro védy, slovesnost a uméni, [Bulletin of the Czech Academy of Emperor Franz Josef for Sciences, Literature and Arts] 24, 1915, p. 101, no. 153; Bohumil Ryba, Soupis rukopisti Strahouské knihouny Pamdtniku nérodniho pisemnictui v Praze, [Inventory of Manuscripts of

3 Albrecht Schone, Emblematik und Drama im Zeitalter des Barock, Munich, 1964, p. 24;

the Strahov Library in the Museum of National Literature p. 17, no. 1843 ἢ.

XVII. Jahrhunderts, Svattgart, 1967, p. XXX.

Balbini Pars Ima seu Litt. A), fols. 168r — 183r: “Emblemata R. P. Balbini* (Alena Richterovä,

Arthur Henkel and Albrecht Schône, Emblemata: Handbuch zur Sinnbildkunst des XVI. und

in Prague] vol. IV, Prague, 1970,

10 Prague, National Library of the Czech Republic, sign. VII E 22 (Adversariorum R. P.

4 Balbinus (note 2), pp. 196-205 [438-455]. On this chapter, see Milada Souékova, Baroque

Soupis autograft c z fondà Stdtni knihouny ESR, [Inventory of Manuscripts in the State Library

süddeutschen Barockkirchen, Munich, 1981, pp. 9-13; Dimler, Studies in the Jesuit Emblem,

Prague, Library of the Royal Canonry of Premonstratensians at Strahov, sign. BE V 28

5 Balbinus (note 2), pp. 92, 217, 220, 256, and 270 [222, 474, 480, 546, 574]. For p. 220 [480],

Balbin understood by the term “adversaria” can be read his Quaesita (note 7), pp. 9-10: “Supellectilem voco, quaedam notata est ex diversis Authoribus, & ut alii appelant Adversaria, seu [...], seu emblemata.” Emblematic material could have also been found in Balbin’s now lost Liber C Adversariorum (Richterovä {cited above in this note], pp. 159-160, no. 27). This book contained not only excerpts from the writings of various other authors

in Bohemia, Ann

Arbor,

1980, passim; Cornelia Kemp, Angewandte Emblematik in

AMS Studies in the Emblem No. 18, New York, 2007, passim.

dealing with “emblematic declamations,” see Lubomir Koneënÿ, “Edmund Campion, S.J., as Emblematist” in The Jesuits and the Emblem Tradition: Selected Papers of the Leuven International Emblem Conference, 18-23 August, 1996. Ed. John Manning and Mark van

Vaeck, Imago Figurata Studies Vol. la, Tumhout, 1999, pp. 147-159; also idem, “An

Addendum to Edmund Campion, §,J. as Emblematist,” Society for Emblem Studies Newsletter, 46, Summer 2010.

6 Balbinus, Brevis tractatio de amplificatione oratoria, Würzburg, 1688, pp. 46-47, 50-51, 5862 (“De Emblemate”), pp. 62-71 (“De Symbolis”), pp. 71-74 (“Fontes Symbolorum”).

7 Balbinus, Quaesita oratoria, Leipzig, 1687 (Ist ed., Prague 1677), pp. 135, 155-167, 215, 229; 253,

of the Czech Socialist

Republic Written by Bohuslav Balbin

Prague, 1988, p. 59, no. [bp]). —

(Adversariorum R. P. Balbini Pars 2da seu Litt. B), pp. 350-352 (Simäk [note 9], p. 168). What

(nos. 133, 45 and 110), but also, in contrast to Balbin‘s own tendency, as quoted above, his

own inventions as in no. 139: “Symbola Ferdinandi ΠΠ. a me inventa.” The same mixed nature also characterizes the first two volumes of Adversaria. Balbin himself wrote that he organized his auxiliary material (“supellex oratoria”) according to the instructions given by

Jeremias Drexel, Aurifondina artium et scientiarum omnium, Munich, 1638.

11 See for instance Balbinus, Vita Venerabilis Arnesti, Prague, 1664, pp. 417, 420, 427-428.

226

Bibliography and Emblem Theory

human morals and life].!2 In keeping with common assumptions about em-

blems, these are to be made up of three parts: “pictura seu imago, deinde lemma seu inscriptio, tandem epigramma, quod rem totam explicaf” [picture or image,

then lemma or inscription, and finally an epigram that explains the whole thing].”!3 After thus defining what an emblem is and what it should be made of, Balbin goes on to describe the basic principles of its construction. In devising an emblem (he says) one must start with a comparison or similitude [comparatio vel similitudo|, which forms the basis for both the picture and the first part of the epigram, here termed in Greek protasis or proposal. The second part, apodosis or exploatation, elucidates what application the comparison can have to human morals and life. To these must be added a concise and intelligible emma or inscriptio, conceived in such a way so as to form together

with

the

picture

a perfect

construct

[ut cum

pictura perfectam faciat

constructionem|.'4 Let us now consider in brief what Balbin wrote about symbols. Using the same terms (protasis and apodosis) as for the emblem, he defines the symbol as “similitudo |...| cum lemmate contracta, vim habens svadend?” {a similitude and a lemma which are contracted into a protasis and have the ability to persuade].

According to another definition, given a little later, “Symbolum heroicum est figura et lemma, quibus author explicat suum propositum.” [A heroic symbol consists of an image and a lemma, by means of which the author realizes his

intention.]!5 Given his opinion that the Italian word impresa is best translated

into Latin as symbolum

heroicum, Balbin considered

the two

terms

as fully

interchangeable. Thus we see him as carefully distinguishing between the emblem and the symbol as two different forms of the synthesis of word and image, an issue to which I will return later. Further on, in this text Balbin establishes a set of rules which every author, when devising emblems ΟΥ̓ symbols, should observe. It is

227

emblems he adduced in his own chapter VII.'’ I can illustrate this point by juxtaposing the impresa which Petrasancta listed as belonging to Petrus Aloisius

Carafa (Fig. 1),8 to the following passage from Balbin’s Verisimilia: “Petrus Caraffa tubum pinxit opticum, qui solis maculas repraesentat, adscripsit: Non ideo

macular.” {Petrus Caraffa ordered a telescope to be painted for him. To this instrument, which enables us to perceive sunspots, he added the inscription Thus I am not spotted’.]!? Balbin’s admiration for Petrasancta is most succinctly stated at the very end

of his discussion of symbols, where he writes: “Lectissima symbola sunt apud Petrasanctam, cujus libri ipsem olim compendium confeci, quod qui volet, apud me inveniet et offerre discipulis soleo.” [The most exquisite symbols can be found in

Petrasancta. I once made a digest of his book and will be only too happy to lend it to my pupils.| Very similar praise was lavished by Balbin on the book Speculum imaginum veritatis occultae, published by another Jesuit, Jakob Masen

or Jacobus Masenius, in 1650.2 The Czech Jesuit asserts there that “[...] ab hoc uno absolutissima symbolorum notitia peti poterit [..1. In illo tibi omnia erunt.” [He alone provides us with perfect instruction about symbols. Therein you can find everything.|?! And finally, several minor points in Balbin’s essay on emblems and symbols were inspired by the famous French Jesuit orator and preacher Nicolas Caussin (Nicolaus Caussinus) and his book De eloquentia

sacra et humana of 1619.22

The results of the preceeding analysis are by no means surprising. Being part of a widely conceived outline of the humanities, Balbin’s chapter under scrutiny was quite understandably based on the available classics of the emblematic genre. And for that matter, it is only natural that he found them among the works of the members of his own order, in particular in Masenius

notoriously known as the set defined by Paolo

Giovio for imprese, but here applied to emblems.!6 What I would however consider of the utmost importance is the fact that Balbin took these rules from

Koneënÿ: The Emblem Theory and Practice of Bohuslav Balbin, S.J.

a book

he relied on whenever

writing about

emblems. The book in question bears the title De symbolis heroicis libri novem

and was written by Silvestre Petrasancta, also of the Society of Jesus, and first

published in Antwerp in 1634. In this book Balbin also found the definitions of the symbol and emblem as quoted above, as well as nearly all the examples of

17 Sylvestrus Petrasancta, De symbolis heroicis, Antwerp 1634, pp. 159 and 472 (emblem), 457 (symbol). On Petrasancta, see Dimler (note *), pp. 212-213. 18 Balbinus (note 2), p. 202 [450]. See Petrasancta (note 17), bk. I, p. 23.

19 Ibidem, p. 205 [456]. These excerpts can be found in (note 10), pp. 331-350; see Simak (note 9), p. 168, no. Petrasancta’s emblem book, see Balbinus (note 2), p. 270; idem (note 6), pp. 51 and 64. 20 Jacobus Masenius, Speculum imaginum veritatis occultae, this author, see Dimler

(note *), pp.

170-176

Balbin’s Adversariorum Pars 2da 427. For further references to idem (note 7), pp. 167 and 169;

Cologne, 1650, pp. 525-554. On

and passim; and the three essays on Masen,

reprinted in Dimler (note 4), pp. 96-112, 113-125, 126-143.

12 Balbinus (note 2), p. 197 [438]. 13 Ibidem, p. 197 [440].

14 Ibidem, pp. 198-199 [442 and 444].

15 Ibidem, p. 201 [448].

Le

16 Paolo Giovio, Dialogo dell'imprese militari e amorose, Venice, 1556, p. 6 (easily accessible in

a modern edition by Maria Luisa Doglio, Rome 1978, pp. 37-38).

21 Balbinus (note 2), pp. 197-198 [455]. In his Brevis tractatio (note 6), p. 74, Balbin wrote about Masenius: “Ex eo omnis & absolutissime summi notitia sumi potest.” 22 Nicolaus Caussinus, De eloquentia sacra et humana libri XVI, 3rd ed., Augsburg 1634. On this author, see Dimler (note *), pp. 107-108. Caussin’s work was quoted and recommended

by the Czech Jesuit many times in his Verisimilia; see also Balbinus (note 7), pp. 166 and 231;

idem (note 6), 51 and 65. See also Rétorique et spiritualité a l'époque de Loius XIII (Actes du

college de Troyes, 16-17 septembre). Ed. Sophie Conte. Berlin, 2007. (= Ars Rhetorica 19).

228

Bibliography and Emblem Theory

and Petrasancta? By means of a close comparison of Petrasancta and Masenius with Balbin, we recognize that Balbin’s text certainly may be considered a compilation that necessarily simplified its sources, but by no means therefore one which inexpertly vulgarized them. The Jesuit theoreticians (and in this case Petrasancta in particular) provided the key terms such as comparatio

vel similitudo, protasis and apodosis, and Balbin built upon them a structure for

his own discourse. These borrowed terms helped him to describe both the emblem and the (heroic) symbol, and to explain the function of their constituent parts. Balbin’s explanation was very succinct; he refused any too intellectual classification, rigorous rules or sophisticated polemics. Despite, or rather because of this, he succeeded in coining dicta so clear-cut and apposite that they are still in use now, such as the one already mentioned, where Alciati

was extolled as “Emblematum Pater et Princeps’. This famous designation, however, can have been quite symptomatically derived from material provided,

once again, by Petrasancta and Masenius. The former, Petrasancta, mentioned

the emblem “cuius Princeps Andreas Alciatus’; and according to Masenius Alciato was the “symbolographorum Princeps” 24

It would however be a misunderstanding to suggest that the way Balbin composed chapter VII of his Verisimilia was dictated only by the need to cope

economically with his chosen task. To my mind, both his strategy and modus

operandi with the Jesuit sources may reflect the fact that Balbin was a practicing emblem writer himself. His writings, printed books as well as manuscripts, contain a considerable number of emblems

conceived

by him. He not only

seems to have thought in terms of an overall concept for his emblems but also

in terms of their specific visual form. To substantiate this hypothesis 1 reproduce here a rudimentary sketch drawn by Balbin’s own hand to visualize

the inscriptio “Cum Extollor Deprimor’ [When raised up, 1 am pressed down]

(Fig, 2).25 This emblem, the accompanying text informs us, was commissioned

by a modest and learned friend, and so were many other emblems found in Balbin’s unpublished manuscript. This however means that these emblems, even according to Balbin’s own criteria, are to be included instead among heroic symbols, since symbols were

believed to express the intentions of concrete human beings and not generally 23 For the most recent treatment of Jesuit emblematics, see Dimler, “The Jesuit Emblem,”

in Companion to Emblem Studies. Ed. Peter M. Daly, AMS Studies in the Emblem No. 20, New York, 2008, pp. 99-127. 24 Petrasancta (note 17), p. 472; Masenius (note 20), p. 365. 25 Balbinus (note 9), p. 190, no. (15). For a related emblem, see Balbinus (note 2), pp- 97-87:

“Qui me premit, elevat idem” [Who presses me down, elevates me]. I suggest that Balbin

himself provided also the design for the image on fol. 2r in the first edition of Verisimilia,

which represents a branch with an apple and the inscriptio “Forsan honos erit quoque. Pomo.

Virgil,” which derives from the Eclogues 2, 53: “Waxen plums I will add this fruit, too, shall have its honour.”

Koneény: The Emblem Theory and Practice of Bohuslav Balbin, S.J.

229

applicable ethical maxims. Moreover they ought to be classified as symbols even on purely formal grounds: In contrast to emblems proper, but as with imprese, they are made up of only two parts, an image and an inscriptio. We therefore come to the paradoxical conclusion that Balbin’s emblem theory does not correspond to his emblem practice. Querying what was the rationale behind this obvious divergence one must first understand the obvious similude between Balbin’s emblems and the two-part emblems (composed of picture and inscription) we know from Baroque churches, monasteries, palaces, city halls, and other buildings, that is to say the vast field of the so-called applied or non-literary emblematics. The only difference between them is that in the emblems of Balbin the emblematic picturae are only described and not represented visually. But even so, for a literary-minded man such a potentially visual conception of the emblem strikes us as rather unusual. When Renaissance and Baroque writers produced incomplete, non-pictorial emblems, they were usually termed

emblemata nuda, consisting of only an inscription and an epigram. Evidently,

for Balbin and his practical purposes, this emblem format, reduced to image and inscription, was perfectly suitable. And it is precisely this format, all former definitions notwithstanding, that he called an emblem. It therefore follows that all divergences from his own theory were challenged by his own practice. Theory and practice are here so seamlessly interwoven that one cannot discuss Balbin the theoretician without taking into account Balbin the author of emblems. To make this issue yet more complex, his emblematic activity came to the fore not only in his considerations on emblem theory and in devising emblems for his friends, but it permeated all his literary work. In this respect 1 would like to remember that emblems were discussed by Balbin within the wider framework of the humanities, and quite specifically in direct connection with poetics and rhetoric. And when he stated that every emblem must be

based on the principle of comparatio vel similitudo, then he surely had no doubt

about the relationship between emblems and such literary devices as metaphors. Under this condition, the world as a whole can be seen sub specie emblematis, and this is what Balbin did. The resulting consequence is the need to analyze all the emblematic motifs

found in Balbin’s writings first of all in the context of the tradition of emblems

as we know it from various emblem books; and secondly from the point of view of their occurrence and function within his literary oeuvre. In the last part of my essay I would therefore like to offer several examples.

As I have already suggested, most of the emblems listed in the seventh

chapter of Balbin’s

symbolis heroicis.

Verisimilia were

derived

from

Petrasancta’s book De

1 have demonstrated this by comparing their telescope

emblems which both allude to the clemency of a church dignitary who in Petrasancta’s words “hates the calumnies spread by malicious detractors.” A

230

Bibliography and Emblem Theory

similar emblem, this time described in one of Balbin’s surviving manuscripts, bears the inscriptio “Macula non est in té’ [You are unblemished].”° According to an autograph marginal note, this emblem applies to the Immaculate Conception of the Virgin Mary. As such it belongs among images which interpreted in malo the sunspots discovered with the help of the telescope, in 1610, by Galileo Galilei on the surface of the moon, the planet traditionally connected with the immaculate nature of the Virgin. Such an interpretation of the scientific instrument conforms to the negative attitude on the part of the Jesuit order to Galileo, apparent especially in the initial phrase of Galileo’s controversy with the Papal Curia.27

In his satire Trophaeum Bernardo Ignatio de Martinitz inscriptum (4. 249—

251), Balbin severely criticized this Czech nobleman for his unfriendly attitude towards Prague university, his former a/ma mater. His accusation that Martinitz was ,,velut viperinus partus [as if born of the viper] perplexed modern editors

as mysterious.”® In Balbin’s book Quaesita oratoria this phrase was however explained as denoting ingratitude,”

Valeriano’s Hieroglyphica (1556)%

and references were made

and to the second volume

by him to

of imprese

published in Prague at the very outset of the seventeenth century by Jakob Typotius and Anselmus Boetius de Boodt (Fig. 3).3! Another puzzling passage is the one where Balbin wrote about courtiers

who “have eyes on their hands and believe only in what they see”? The meaning

of an eyed hand as the symbol of a cautious confidence however had a long and distinguished tradition. We come across the motif in Plautus’s Asinaria, in 26 Balbinus, Adversariorum Pars 2da (note 10), p. 351. Physis 7 (1965): 273-280.

For the telescope in emblematics,

231

medieval proverbs as well as in Erasmus’s Adagia (1. 730; 2. 14).33 The idea informed Alciato’s emblem 16 which, in turn, influenced other emblem

writers.*4 Variations upon it can be found in, among others, Gabriel Rollenhagen (1611), Diego de Saavedra Fajardo (1640), and Julius Wilhelm Zincgreff (1619) where it is inscribed “Oculata fides’ (Fig. 4)35 Having to decide which sources Balbin consulted, visual or literary, it seems to me that the former solution is more probable. It reminds me of the issue of William Shakespeare’s

“the eye wink at the hand” from the first act of Macbeth, a phrase for which the

source was also sought in Alciato.56 My concluding example is the first of the emblems published in an appendix to the seventh chapter of Verisimilia. Balbin described there his personal impresa or heroic symbol. It was composed of an arrow aimed at a

target or a circle of eternity, and the inscription ,,/n silentio et spe fortitudo mea“

[In quietness and faith is my stregth], modified from Isaiah 30.15.37 This simple but incisive image, undoubtedly symbolic of Balbin’s life and philosophy, was subsequently used by him as a tail-piece in one of his books (Fig. 5). If we were to look for an appropriate epigram or commentary on this pictura, it would be Balbin’s whole life and work. 33 Plautus, Asinaria, 1.202: “Semper oculatae manus sunt nostrae, credunt quod vident.”; Hans

Walther, Proverbia sententiaeque latinitatis medii aevi, vol. 11/2, Gottingen, 1964, p. 828, no. 1443b: “Manus nostrae occulatae sunt, credunt, quod vident”; Desiderius Erasmus, Adagiorum

epitome, Augsburg, 1581, pp. 149 (“Oculata manus’) and 218 (“Oculis magis habenda fides,

quam auribus’. Also see Waldemar Deonna, “Manus oculatae,” in Hommages a Len Herrmann, Brussels — Berchem, 1960, pp. 292-314; Arthur Henkel, “Zu einem Emblem des Julius Wilhelm Zincegref,” Orbis Litterarum 42 (1984): 236-247, Anna Maranini, “Col senno e

27 Adriaan Willem Vliegenthart, “Galileo’s Sunspots: Their Role in 17th Century Allegorical

Thinking,”

Koneény: The Emblem Theory and Practice of Bohuslav Balbin, S.J.

see Lubomir

Koneény, “Young Milton and the Telescope,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld Institutes

37 (1974): 365-373; Paul Adolf Kirchvogel and Adriaan W. Vliegenthart, “Fernrohr,” in Reallexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte, no. 47, Munich, 1982, cols. 269-274. 28 Balbinus, Trophaeum Bernardo Ignatio de Martinitz inscriptum | Pamitni ndpis Bernardu

Igndcovi z Martinic, transl, and ed. Josef Hejnic, Prague, 1988, p. 75. 29. Balbinus (note 7), p. 265.

29 Balbinus (note 7), p. 265. 30 Giovanni Pierio Valeriano, Hierogyphica, seu De sacris Aegyptiorum, aliarumque gentium literis commentaria, Lyons 1594, p. 134: “Filii conspirantes in matrem’” [Sons plotting against their mother]. For Balbin’s further references to Valeriano, see Balbinus (note 2), pp. 201 and 270 [448 and 574], idem (note 7), pp. 95, 161, 162, 166, 169, 220, 265; idem (note 6), pp: 50

and 64; and his manuscripts, for instance Adversariorum Pars 2da (note 10), p. 351. A. 31 Jacobus Typotius, Symbola varia Diversorum principum Sacrosanct. Ecclesiae et Sacri Impertt

con la mano’: Eyes, Reason and Hand in Symbolic Transmission,“ in The Italian Emblem: A Collection of Essays. Ed. Donato Mansueto in collaboration with Elena Laura Calogero, Glasgow Emblem Studies Volume 12, Glasgow, 2007, pp. 115-156, esp. pp. 145-156.

34 Henkel and Schône (note 3), col. 1010. The emblem first appeared, with a Greek motto in later editions translated as “Sobrie vivendum, et non temere credendum,” in the 1546 Venice edition of Alciato: Emblematum libellus, fol. 28v, on which

I recommend; Monica Grünberg-

Drôge, “The 1546 Venice Edition of Andrea Alciato’s Emblemata,” in Emblems from Alciato to the Tattoo: Selected Papers of the Leuven International Emblem Conference, 18-23 August, 1996. Ed. Peter M. Daly, John Manning, and Mare van Vaeck, Imago Figurata Studies Vol.

lc, Turnhout, 2001, pp. 3-19. For the best commentaries, see Joannes Thuilius in Andreas Alciatus, Emblemata cum Commentariis, Padua, 1621, pp. 91-101, no. 16; and recently Maranini (note 33), pp. 148-153. 35

Gabriel

Rollenhagen,

Nucleus emblematum

selectissimorum,

Cologne,

1611.

no.

I, 61

(Henkel and Schône [note 3], col. 1010); Diego de Saavedra Fajardo, Idea de un Principe

politico-cristiano,

Cologne,

1649, no. 51

(Henkel and Schône

[note 3], col. 1012); Julius

viper emblems and their sources are listed in Henkel and Schéne (note 3), cols. 661-662.

Wilhelm Zincgreff, Emblemarum ethico-politicorum centuria, Heidelberg, 1664, no. 88 (Henkel and Schéne [note 3], col. 1010. For more emblems with the eyed hand, see Henkel (note 33) and Maranini (note 33). 36 Arthur H.R. Fairchild, “A Note on Macbeth,” Philological Quarterly 4 (1925): 348-350.

edition Rozprava krdtkd ale pravdivd, transl. and ed. Milan Kopecky, Prague, 1988, p. 13.

38 Balbinus (note 7), p. 210.

Romani, Prague, 1602, pp. 64 and 68-69 (impresa of Cardinal Francisco Mendoza with motto “Ingratis servire nefas’). Quotations and recommendations can be found in Balbinus (note 2), p. 220 [440 and 444]; idem (note 7), pp. 166 and 265; idem (note 6), pp. 51 and 63. More

32 Balbinus, De regni Bohemiae |... brevis, sed accurata tractatio. 1 used the recent Czech

37 Balbinus (note 2), p. 201 [448].

232

Bibliography and Emblem Theory WORKS CITED

Bad'urovä, AneZka et al., Bibliografie spisu Bohuslava Balbina vytisténych do roku 1800, [Bibiography of the Writings of Bohuslav Balbin Printed before 1800]. Prague, 1989, vol. I: Bibliografické popisy [Bibliographic Descriptions].

Koneény: The Emblem Theory and Practice of Bohuslav Balbin, S.J.

233

Henkel, Arthur and Albrecht Schéne, Emblemata. Handbuch zur Sinnbildkunst des XVI. und XVII. Jahrhunderts. Stuttgart, 1967.

Kemp,

Cornelia.

Munich, 1981.

Angewandte

Emblematik

in süddeutschen

Barockkirchen.

Balbinus, Bohuslav. Verisimilia humaniorum disciplinarum. Prague, 1666. Later

Kirchvogel,

A

Koneény, Lubomir. “Bohuslav Balbin a emblematika” [Bohuslav Balbin and

editions: Leipzig, 1687; Prague, 1701; Augsburg, 1710. bilingual

(Latin

and

Czech)

annotated

edition

with

commentary

was

published in 2006: Bohuslai Balbini Verisimilia humaniorum disciplinarum / Rukovèt humanitnich disciplin, edited and translated by Olga Spevak, Prague, 2006.

___. Brevis tractatio de amplificatione oratoria. Wixzburg, 1688.

Adriaan

W.

Vliegenthart,

“Fernrohr,”

in Real-

Emblematics] in Bohuslav Balbin a kultura jeho doby v Cechäch: Sbornik z konference Pamdtniku ndrodntho pisemnictui (Bohuslav Balbin and the Culture of his Times. Proceedings of the Conference held at the Museum of Czech Literature]. Ed. Zuzana Pokorna and Martin Svatos. Prague, 1992, 165-170.

___. Mezi textem a obrazem: Miscellanea z historie emblematiky (Between Text

_. Vita Venerabilis Arnesti. Prague, 1664.

and Image: Miscellaneous Studies in the History of Emblematics]. Prague, 2002.

_. Quaesita oratoria. Leipzig, 1687 (1st ed., Prague 1677).

_.

Paul Adolf and

lexikon zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte, no. 47, Munich, 1982, cols. 269-274.

Trophaeum Bernardo Ignatio de Martinitz inscriptum / Pamétni ndpis

Bernardu Igndcovi z Martinic, translated and edited by Josef Hejnic, Prague, 1988.

___ “Edmund Campion, S.J., as Emblematist,” in The Jesuits and the Emblem

Tradition: Selected Papers of the Leuven International Emblem Conference, 18-23

August, 1996. Ed. John Manning and Mark van Vaeck. Imago Figurata Studies

Vol. 1a, Turnhout, 1999, 147-159.

3rd ed., Augs-

_. “An Addendum to Edmund Campion, S.J. as Emblematist,” Society for Emblem Studies Newsletter, 46, Sammer 2010.

Conte, Sophie (ed.). Rétorique et spiritualité a lpoque de Loius XIII. (Actes du college de Troyes, 16-17 septembre). Berlin, 2007. (= Ars Rhetorica 19).

__ “Edmund Campion, SJ. as Emblematist, Once Again” Society for Emblem

Dimler, S.J., G. Richard, The Jesuit Emblem. Bibliography of Secondary Literature with Select Commentary and Description, AMS Studies in the Emblem No. 19, New York, 2005.

_. “Young Milton and the Telescope,” Journal of the Warburg and Courtauld

Caussinus, Nicolaus. De eloquentia sacra et humana libri XVI.

burg, 1634.

_. Studies in the Jesuit Emblem, AMS York, 2007.

Studies in the Emblem No. 18, New

__ “The Jesuit Emblem,” in Companion to Emblem Studies. Ed. Peter M. Daly. AMS Studies in the Emblem No. 20, New York, 2008, pp. 99-127.

Studies Newsletter, 48, January 2011, 9-11.

Institutes 37 (1974): 365-373.

Masen, Jacob. Speculum imaginum veritatis occultae. Cologne, 1650.

Pietrasanta, Sylvestro. De symbolis heroicis. Antwerp, 1634. Ryba, Bohumil. Soupis rukopisi Strahouské knihovny Pamdtniku ndrodntho

Pisemnictvi v Praze [Inventory of Manuscripts of the Strahov Library in the

Museum of National Literature in Prague]. vol. IV, Prague, 1970.

———

Giovio, Paolo, Dialogo dell’imprese militari e amorose. Venice, 1556.

234 Schône,

Bibliography and Emblem Theory Albrecht.

Emblematik

und Drama

im Zeitalter des Barock.

Munich,

1964.

Simak,

Josef

v knihovnäch

V.

“Zprava

o

literarni

pozustalosti

B.

Balbina,

Koneënÿ: The Emblem Theory and Practice of Bohuslav Balbin, S.J. FIGURES

ulozené

kanonie strahovské a Musea kral. Geského,“* [A Report on literary

Inheritance of B. Balbin kept in the Libraries of the Canonry at Strahov and the

Museum of the

Czech Kingdom]

Véstntk Ceské akademie céaïe Frantiska Josefa

pro védy, slovesnost a umëni [Bulletin of the Czech Academy of Emperor Franz Josef for Sciences, Literature and Arts] 24 (1915): 82-110 and 159-192. Souckova, Milada. Baroque in Bohemia. Ann Arbor, 1980.

Udolph, Ludger, “Graeca bei Bohuslaus Balbinus,” in Studien zum nismus in den bühmischen Ländern. Cologne—Weimar—Vienna,

Ed. Hans-Bernd

Huma-

Harder and Hans Rothe,

1988.

Vliegenthart, Adriaan Willem.

“Galileo’s Sunspots: Their Role in 17th Century

Allegorical Thinking,” Physis 7 (1965): 273-280.

Figure 1 Jmpresa of Petrus Aloisius Carafa “Non ideo macular.”

Sylvestro Petrasancta, De symbolis heroicis libri IX, Antwerp, 1634, I, p. 23.

236

Bibliography and Emblem Theory

Figure 2 Bohuslav Balbin, impresa “Cum Extollor Deprimor.” Bohuslaus Balbinus, “Libellus Emblematum in Miscellaneorum Iesuiticorum liber, p. 90. Prague, Library of the Royal Canonry of Premonstratensians at Strahoy.

Koneény: The Emblem Theory and Practice of Bohuslav Balbin, S.J.

Figure 3 Impresa of the Cardinal Francisco Mendoza “Ingratis servire nefas.” Jakob Typotius, Symbola varia Diversorum principum Sacrosanct.

Ecclesiae et Sacri Imperii Romani, Prague, 1602, pl. 64.

237

Bibliography and Emblem Theory

238

Multiple Glances at the Mundus Symbolicus by Filippo Picinelli.

A Bibliographical Approach

BARBARA SKINFILL NOGAL

LXXXViil

Centro de Estudios de las Tradiciones,

El Colegio de Michoacan, Mexico

OCULATA FIDES.

Abstract

This article offers a bibliographical review of Spanish scholarship to date on Filippo Picinelli’s Mundus Symbolicus, a work that has sparked great interest on the part of scholars of emblematic literature and emblematic manifestations in general. Critics have come to appreciate the benefits that this work offers as an aid to the correct understanding of symbols that are found in diverse spaces of society and art. The article focuses in essence on two aspects that stand out in studies thus far published on the work and its author: the transcendence and bibliographical sources that nourished the Mundus Symbolicus. Current interdisciplinary studies on emblematic literature have become

more diversified, have taken different textual and creative directions, have explored new veins, have made valuable discoveries and, nowadays, promise

to continue advancing our knowledge of their manifestations and of emblematic spaces, as well as their transcendence. Due to this profusion of studies, works of a bibliographical nature can broaden our perspectives of study, show the current state of research and its achievements, and by means of bibliographical inventories, can indicate the impact that emblematic literature had on culture and society from the sixteenth until at least the eighteenth centuries (Lépez Poza 1999c, 1996, 2002, 2004; Bernat and Cull

2005, Skinfill 2002, Daly 2009). In reviews of the bibliographical production on this body of materials, it is also worthwhile to pay attention to research concerning individual authors and specific emblematic works, since these

P 4

LX XXIX

types of investigations currently allow us to continue sketching out ,,el mapa

de los emblemistas” [the map of the emblematists] (Skinfill 2002, 58) who were in vogue in Europe, America and especially in that part of the Spanish

possessions they named Nueva España, which encompassed what is now Mexico, and whose emblems await patiently in historical archives for

researchers who will examine their repercussion in diverse spheres: political,

religious, social, and cultural.

Figure 4 Emblem “Oculata fides.” Julius Wilhelm Zincgreff, Emblematum ethico-politicorum centuria, Heidelberg, 1664, no. 88.

One work that has elicited a great deal of attention by scholars is the Mundus Symbolicus by Filippo Picinelli, since researchers have seen the benefits that it offers for the interpretation of the symbols found in diverse

240

Bibliography and Emblem Theory

spaces of society and art. The period of its maximum splendor can be situated in the first half of the eighteenth century (ca. 1709-1753), and it began to fall out of favor in the second half of the century. Its sphere of influence includes both the public realm (religious and civil festivals, ephemeral art, sacred oratory, small format paintings), as well as the private realm (emblem books).

The aspects of the Mundus Symbolicus and its author that have been

addressed to date range from biographical information (Gomez 1997, 9-10; 2002, 86; Skinfill 2006,

18-34; 2009

121-129), passing through

theoretical

questions on emblematics and its discursive implications (Pérez 1997, Beuchot 2002, Gonzalez 2002) continuing on with a review and study of the content of the books

(Gémez

1999, Esquivel 2002, Minguez

2001, 2006;

Carrillo 2006), and ending with two fundamental themes: the literary sources

that nourished the Mundus Symbolicus and its the transcendence. In this

bibliographical approach to the work I will limit myself exclusively to those two great themes, which have been the primary area of focus by researchers who have concentrated on the work of the Milanese abbot.

The Transcendence of the Mundus Symbolicus The emblem encyclopedia Mondo Simbolico by the Milanese abbot

Filippo Picinelli was published for the first time in Milan in 1653, and sixteen years later, in 1669, a greatly expanded second edition came out.

Later on, in Venice, it was reissued twice, in editions from three different

presses in 1670 and 1678,! and another edition appeared in Milan around 1680.

The work, composed originally in the Tuscan language, was widely influential, as evidenced by its numerous editions and reprints, and, according

to the testimony of Thomas von Céllen and Joseph Huisch, publishers of

the neo-Latin translation, the value of the book is explained ,,por el hecho

de que ha sido publicado tres veces y con namero abundante de ejemplares, en un tiempo no muy largo y que fue, no digo comprado, sino arrebatado por manos doctisimas” [By the fact that it has been published three times, each with an abundant number of copies, during a not very long period of time, and that it was, I will not say purchased, but rather violently seized by the most learned of hands], Picinelli 1997, 72].

Thanks to the positive reception of the work in its original language, in

1681 the Mondo Simbolico was published once again in Cologne in a neoLatin translation done by Agustin Erath with the title Mundus Symbolicus.

The publishers of the translation explained in their preamble, ,,El impresor 1 Published on both occasions by Combi & La Not, Paolo Baglioni and Nicolò Pezzana.

Skinfill: Multiple Glances at the Mundus Symbolicus

241

al lector benévolo” [The printer to his benevolent readers], the reasons that

led them to print this book: first, because it was a fertile work produced ,,de

los ingenios para incremento de la republica literaria” [by great wits to augment the literary republic]; second, in order to introduce it ,,de dominio

publico” [into the public domain], and, third, because it was a work ,,que en verdad hombres famosos por su ingenio, elocuencia y conocimiento de las artes nobles y liberales juzgaron utilisima para los estudios generales” [that was truly judged to be extremely useful for general studies by men famous for their wit, eloquence and knowledge of the noble and liberal arts], Jdem).

See Fig. 1. Indeed, the translation into Neo-Latin proved to be a great success for the presses of Hermann Demen, later owned by Thomas von Côllen and

Joseph

Huisch,

and after that, for the heirs of these last two, since this

translation increased the work’s impact and contributed to its continued success, since it would be published five more times in Cologne in the years 1687,

1694,

1695,

1715

and

1729

(Praz

1947,

129). The

six editions

of

the Neo-Latin translation were in large measure responsible for the work’s widespread diffusion and its repercussions in the distinct spheres of European and American culture in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the beginning of the nineteenth century? This is proven in modern times by, on the one hand, the diverse studies which, as we will see below,

reveal the transcendence of the Mundus Symbolicus in the plastic arts and in secular literature; and on the other hand, by the publication of facsimile

editions? and the Spanish translation of the work,* which have become absolutely necessary for an adequate interpretation of European and American plastic and literary works of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries, and the beginning of the nineteenth century.

2 Numerous volumes that testify to the widespread reach of the Mondo Simbolico can be found in bibliographical collections of diverse libraries, both ancient and modern, in Mexico and elsewhere 3 Filippo Picinelli, Mundus Symbolicus ..., facsimile edition, Coloniae Agrippinae, Sumptibus

Hermanni

Demen,

1694,

2

vols,

New

York,

London,

Gerland,

1976

(The

Renaissance and the Gods [33]), and Filippo Picinelli, Mundus Symbolicus ..., facsimile

edition, Coloniae Agrippinae, Sumptibus Hermanni Demen, 1687, 2 vols., Hildesheim, Olms, 1979 (Emblematisches Cabinet; 8). At present the Studiolum Project is preparing

its CD 7 on Repertorios Barrocos de Empresas [Baroque Repertories of Imprese] in which the following texts of Picinelli will appear in digital format: Mondo Simbolico (Venice, 1678) and Mundus Symbolicus (Coloniae Agrippinae, 1687). 4 The Mundus Symbolicus Project of the Centro de Estudios de las Tradiciones de ΕἸ Colegio de Michoacan has published the following books of El mundo simblico: Los cuerpos celestes (Libro 1), Los cuatro elementos (libro ii), Serpientes y animales venenosos (Libro vii), Los insectes (Libro viii), Los metales (libro xiii) and Los instrumentos eclesidsticos (Libro xiv).

242

Bibliography and Emblem Theory

But why did the Mundus Symbolicus enjoy such widespread influence in

cultural media as diverse as painting, sacred oratory, baroque festivals, the creation of books of imprese, and even in other areas as of yet unexplored? One author who explains the work’s potential is Fernando R. de la Flor, who characterized it as a ,,machine” that presents:

pues,

fundamentalmente

dispuesta

para generar

textos, y

para adaptarse a contextos estéticos o de espectaculos de masas, para determinar o regir discursos; gigantesca reserva de argumentos, pues. Palacio o almacén de la inventio, entonces, donde se encuentran en potencia todas las relaciones metaféricas posibles que puedan trazarse entre las cosas separadas que aparecen en el horizonte de lo humano. Pues tal enciclopedia, lo que a la postre avala, en términos de Foucault, es un régimen analégico del mundo, la creencia metafisica en una profunda y secreta conexion espiritual” de las cosas en él. Y también, es claro, la capacidad del lenguaje para descubrirlas, en un orden que es de nuevo conectivo y que, como vemos,

agrada,

persuade,

al pueblo

de

encontrarse

ante

la ,,lectura

del

mundo”, la ünica posible coherente, integradora lectura (Rodriguez 2002, 149).

[a scheme or system of thought susceptible to being passed on to other contexts and of governing or determining other types of writings. This explains its potentiality and greatness in terms of its role as a reinforcement ot prinicipal aid for cosmovisions that were clearly receding and which, thanks

to it, continued

243

which, as we see, pleases and persuades people who find themselves faced with the ,,reading of the world”, the only possible reading that is coherent and integrating, | A large part of the interest that this work generated was due precisely to

the possibility for the creation and recreation of diverse ,,texts” (I use this

un esquema o régimen de pensamiento susceptible de pasar a otros contextos y de regir o determinar otras escrituras. He ahi su virtualidad y su grandeza, en cuanto refuerzo o auxilio principal de las cosmovisiones en franco retroceso, que, gracias a ello, tendran todavia una presencia, sobre todo en el espacio ,,abierto” y ambiguo de la representacién artistica. Maquina”,

Skinfill: Multiple Glances at the Mundus Symbolicus

to have a presence, especially in the ,,open” and

ambiguous space of artistic representation.

It is a machine”, then, fundamentally disposed to generate texts, and to

adapt to aesthetic contexts or to spectacles for the masses, to determine or govern discourses; a massive reserve of arguments, then. A splendid palace

or storehouse of inventio, then, where one can find, in potential, all the

possible metaphorical relationships that can be designed from the separate things that appear on the horizon of all that is human. What such an encyclopedia guarantees in the end, then, in Foucault’s terms, is an ana-

logical system of the world, the metaphysical belief in a deep and secret

»Spiritual” connection among the things in it. And also, of course, the ability of language to discover them, in a way that is once again connective, and

word in a very broad sense) and new ,,contexts” that it offered to its reader and it constituted, therefore, a work that enjoyed positive critical reception and great publishing success from the very beginning. Picinelli himself was able to see in his lifetime at least five editions of his work, in Italian and

Latin. Without doubt, the appearance of Mondo Simbolico, \aunched a

lengthy journey that enveloped this work, one which endured diverse phases as it unfolded, ranging from stunning success, as shown by its numerous editions, to a repudiation of that tradition rooted in symbolism, in the recourse to authorities and in false erudition. A shift in time and tastes also contributed to the work’s ultimate rejection. Fernando R. de la Flor shows an example of the potential of this symbolic ,machine” in baroque Spain of the seventeenth century. Luis

Pueyo y Abadia followed the Mundus Symbolicus very closely when elaborating his three works, Santo Tomds de Aquino victorioso con las luces de su sabiduria contra los errores, con las eficacias de su cingulo, contra la impureza [Saint Thomas Aquinas Victorious with the Lights of his Wisdom Against Errors, with the Efficacies of the Girdle of his Alb, Against Impurity|, Zaragoza, 1695); Los elogios del angélico Doctor Santo Tomds en cien empresas del mundo simbélico, ilustradas con conceptos predicables en alabanza de este santo Doctor [Praises of the Angelic Doctor Saint Thomas in One Hundred Imprese of the Symbolic World, Illustrated with Preachable Conceits in Praise of this Holy Doctor|, Zaragoza,1696); and the Crepusculo matutino de el sol de santo Thomas en el orizonte de la cathedra escoldstica, y simbélica [Morning Twilight of the Sun of Saint Thomas on the Horizon of the Scholastic and Symbolic Professorship], Zaragoza, 1697. Pueyo y Abadia dedicated these three works to the:

atticulacion y simbiosis entre los conceptos tomistas y las imagenes de Picinelli ... [por medio de un nuevo lenguaje] en donde las imagenes, las metaforas, emblemas y ‘figuras’ de imagenes agentes, dan un nuevo sentido persuasivo al orden de la légica escolästica ... con el objetivo de crear un constructo discursivo donde las evidencias lôgicas del tomismo se vean procesadas y ‘declaradas’ en términos visuales y omni-comprensivos, conquistando una suerte—imposible-de ‘logica theologica exemplata’ (Rodriguez 2002, 152).

244

Bibliography and Emblem Theory

[articulation and symbiosis between Thomist conceits and Picinelli’s images ... (by means of a new language) in which the images, metaphors, emblems and ‘figures’ of agent images, give a new persuasive meaning to the order of scholastic logic ... with the objective of creating a discursive construct where the logical evidence of Thomism find themselves processed and ‘declared’ in visual and omnicomprehensive terms, overcoming a kind of-impossible-’logica theologica exemplata. ...| It is important to point out that Pueyo y Abadia, by means of emblematic language, which was very widespread, accepted, and well known in the seventeenth century, sought ,,clarity” in his exposition of Thomist precepts and an amplification of the horizon for the reception of Thomist

doctrine, extending it to new realms further beyond ,,las aulas escolasticas y

las disputas académicas” [scholastic classrooms and academic disputes], Rodriguez 2002, 155. See Fig. 2. Two years after the publication of the last of Pueyo y Abadia’s books, Johannes Michael von der Ketten’s Apelles Symbolicus (Amsterdam and Gdankski,

1699)

came out, a work

that was influenced by the Neo-Latin

translation of the Mondo Simbolico. The Apelles is also composed of twenty-

five books, further subdivided into chapters which, when compared to those

of Picinelli, present some variations in their order and number. The trace of

Picinelli to be found in Ketten is primarily structural, since when the emblems are examined side by side, we can observe that the majority of Ketten’s emblems are of his own inspiration, and that he compiled others from diverse authors whose names he hardly even mentions. The comparison of both works allows us to understand that Ketten gathered emblems from a given author that are different from the ones that Picinelli cites, even when both deal with the same theme. I suppose that Ketten

attempted, on some level, to complete or continue the Mundus Symbolicus;

but it must be pointed out that his emblems, as opposed to those of Picinelli, are brief and lack quotations from auctoritates. In order to illustrate his emblems, the author borrowed some of the engravings from the Latin

translation of the Philosophia imaginum Claude Francois Menestrier.

(Amsterdam,

1695) by the Jesuit

In his preface to the Philosophia imaginum, Menestrier commented that

he was

presenting

in his work

various

symbols

that had

escaped

the

attention of the abbot Picinelli and which had decorated and given glory to France (,,Galia”). Likewise, in the theoretical part of the work, Judicium de

omnibus authoribus qui de arte symbolica scripserunt,” he refers to Picinelli on two occasions.

In the first instance, he only enumerates

the parts that

Picinelli touched on in the theoretical section of the Mondo Simbolico, and in the second

instance, he comments

that the Milanese

abbot added

to the

Skinfill: Multiple Glances at the Mundus Symbolicus

245

1670 Venice edition applications that were sacred as well as moral, as well as passages from Holy Scripture, Church Fathers, religious and secular authors, and from poets (Menestrier 1695, 50-51, 77).

On the other hand, Picinelli also left his mark on the Symbolographia sive de Arte Symbolica sermones septem of Jacobus Boschius (1702). Throughout this book we find numerous Picinelli emblems compiled. The Symbolographia can be considered as a counterpart of the Mundus Symbolicus, since it includes engraved illustrations for some of the emblems that the Milanese

abbot carefully described with words. The Symbolographia is composed of 3,347 emblems,

of which

2,052 feature engravings that detail the picturae

which are hardly mentioned in the emblem texts. These emblems are very

brief, concise, and varied in their extension and content (more interest is

placed on some of the elements that make up the emblem). At the same time, the Mundus Symbolicus complements the work of Boschius, since, if the reader is interested in learning the authorities that lie behind the meaning of an emblem, he can find it in the former. Indeed, Picinelli’s book was a reference source for Ketten, Menestrier, Boschius, and other emblematists

as well.

Another fertile field for the Mundus Symbolicus was education. Let us

recall that in the colleges of the Society of Jesus, as per the disposition of the Ratio studiorum, the use of emblematic literature was encouraged for classes on rhetoric and poetics, to aid in the imitation, interpretation and creation of tiddles, hieroglyphs, symbols, and emblems (Skinfill 2000, 2004). The utilization of emblematics extended beyond the mor private realm of the classrooms and libraries of the colleges and convents, and into the public space of the civil and religious festivals of the cities. For all of these reasons,

it is not difficult to imagine that the Mundus Symbolicus should be one of the

works constantly consulted by teachers and students, since it provided ,,por

una parte materiales simbdlicos apropiados para la creacién de emblemas y el embellecimiento de sus sermones y piezas oratorias, y, por otra parte, noticias de diversas indoles mediante las cuales enriquecieron sus escritos con erudicién” [On the one hand, symbolic materials appropriate for the creation of emblems and the embellishment of sermons and oratorical

pieces and, on the other hand, information of diverse sorts by means of which authors could enrich their writings with erudition], Skinfill 2004, 117.

Let us consider as an example the Bibliotheca Rhetorum ... by the Jesuit

Gabriel Francois le Jay, a work dedicated to the students and professors of the school of poetics. In the section on the elaboration of symbols, the author recommends consulting, among Italian sources, Paolo Giovio, Ferro

in his Teatro, and Picinelli in the Mundus Symbolicus, and among French authorities, the Jesuits Le Moine and Bouhours (Le Jay 1725, 794). Thanks

246

Bibliography and Emblem Theory

to the inventories made of the ,,libraries” of colleges and convents, we can

trace this continual presence of the Milanese abbot.

Based on the studies of Reyes Escalera, Jaime Cuadriello, and Carlos

Hetrerôn, the period of the greatest influence of Picinelli’s work has been established. It runs from ea. 1709 to 1753. All of these studies on the

Mundus Symbolicus focus on the period of the popularity of festivals in Spanish and New World urban spaces and on three types of emblematic manifestations: festive hieroglyphs, the ,,portraits of funeral exequies,” and sermons, which have come to embody the permanent memory of festive ephemeral att, and through which we have come to know many of the symbolic programs of the sixteenth to eighteenth centuries. In these and other emblematic manifestations numerous texts were on parade, including Holy Scriptures, classical literature, natural histories, writings by Church Fathers, other religious texts, and of course, the books of hieroglyphs and emblems that contributed to forming the meanings of symbolic programs. Reyes Escalera, by means of a diligent analysis of numerous festival ac-

counts (Relaciones de sucesos) relating to eighteenth-century Granada, ident-

ified allusions to Spanish emblematists such as Borja, Villava, Solérzano, and Saavedra; as well as Italian emblematists, among whom we find Alciato, Aresio, Picinelli, and Ruscelli. The author of ,,Filippo Picinelli en la fiesta

barroca granadina” [Filippo Picinelli in the Baroque Festivals of Granada]

points out that for their ephemeral architectural designs, Granada artists

took from the emblems of the abbot only the mottoes to accompany other images with

which

they composed

their own

hieroglyphs

and which, of

course, acquired other meanings, different from those assigned by Picinelli. Many of those emblems served the preacher and the creator of iconographical programs in their justification of the festive construct, and in the final analysis, they relied on the Mundus Symbolicus for the elaboration of a complete iconographical program. Jaime Cuadriello, in his article ,,Retrato pôstumo del Capitan Don Manuel Fernandez Fiallo de Boralla”5 [Posthumous Portrait of Captain Don Manuel Fernandez Fiallo de Boralla], highlights the artistic value of this unique ,,retrato de exequias” [portrait of exequies], which has come down to us. Two aspects of this portrait are important: on the one hand, the language

of , figuracién emblematica”

[emblematic figuration], that was utilized in

order to proclaim and assure the ,,fama pdstuma” [posthumous fame] of that benefactor; and, on the other hand, the suggestive correspondence that

the author found between the genre of the funereal sermon and the four emblems that frame the idealized figure of don Manuel and which give

Skinfill: Multiple Glances at the Mundus Symbolicus

247

meaning to the portrait. The function that these emblems fulfill is that of genealogical escutcheons or coats of arms; the Jesuits of the Colegio de la Nueva Antequera resorted to portraits of ,,corte ‘emblemätico’ para suplir asi la incémoda falta de los imposibles blasones. Esta seria, ademas, la razon circunstancial que explicaria su rareza genérica” [an ‘emblematic’ type in order to make up for the cumbersome lack of impossible heraldic blazons. In addition, this would be the circumstantial reason that would explain their generic rareness], (Cuadriello 1998, 71). Cuadriello pointed out that two of the picturae from the four emblems of the portrait may have been inspired by engravings that appear in books xx and xxv of the Neo-Latin edition of

the Mundus Symbolicus. See Fig. 3.

The ,,Retrato péstumo del Capitan Don Manuel Fernandez Fiallo de Boralla” is also noteworthy for its documentary value, since it demonstrates

how the Mundus Symbolicus was adapted, reutilized, and applied in concrete

cases, which prove its utility and versatility; likewise, it left its imprint on painting, public festivals, literature, and probably other spaces that have not yet been investigated.

Carlos Herrején, on the other hand, found that Picinelli was cited in

34% of the sermons preached from the pulpit in New Spain between 1712 and 1753, a percentage that is ,notable en comparacién con las citas de otros autores” [substantial in comparison with the quotations from other authors]. In his study ,,Picinelli en el sermon novohispano” ([Picinelli in the Sermons of New Spain], Herrejon 1997; 2003, 50-59) the author suggests two ways in which emblems were utilized in sacred oratory stand out; on the one hand, emblematic

evocation could be ,un mero ornato, es decir,

sirve para ilustrar dando realce y brillo a lo que ya se esta ponderando de varias maneras” [a mere decoration, that is to say, it serves to illustrate by adding luster and brilliance to that which is already being pondered in several ways]; on the other hand, the emblem formed a ,,parte relevante de la argumentacién” [relevant part of the argumentation]. In addition, this author proposed a time frame for the reception and influence of the Mundus Symbolicus on the culture of New Spain. If indeed the Milanese abbot was considered to be a recognized authority and deserved to ,,integrarse expresamente al respetable desfile de la ‘Tradicién”” [to be integrated expressly into the respectable parade of ‘Tradition’|, nevertheless, ,,el momento de Picinelli” [Picinelli’s moment] on the stage of New Spain is circumscribed within the

first half of the eighteenth century.

For an example of the acceptance of our author in the oratory of the Baroque period, we can cite a commentary that alludes to all the works that a preacher should consider when it came time to compose his sermon. A preacher explains to Father Gerundio the first rule that he should observe

5 Don Manuel Fernandez Fiallo de Boralla. Oil on canvas, 147x120 cm., Museo Regional de Oaxaca, Instituto Nacional de Antropologia e Historia (INAH).

when making his sermon:

248

Bibliography and Emblem Theory Primera regla, eleccién de los libros. Todo buen predicador ha de tener

Skinfill: Multiple Glances at the Mundus Symbolicus Likewise, in his Prologue

to the Mundus

249 Symbolicus Picinelli ad-

en la celda 0, a lo menos, en la libreria del convento, los siguientes libros:

monished some of his contemporaries who disagreed on whether emblems

Teatro de los dioses, los Fastos de Masculo o el Calendario étnico de Mafeian,

labor}:

Biblia, Concordancias, Poliantea o el Theatrum uitae humanae de Beyerlinck,

la Mitologia de Natal Cémite, Aulo Gelio, el Mundo simbdlico de Picinelo y, sobre todo, los poetas Virgilio, Ovidio, Marcial, Catulo y Horacio. De

sermonarios, no ha menester mas que el Florilogio sacro, cuyo autor ya sabes

quién es, porque en ése solo tiene una India (Isla 1758, 484).° [First rule, choice of books. Every good preacher must have in his cell, or at least available to him in the convent library, the following books: Bible,

Concordances, Polyanthea or Beyerlinck’s Theatrum uitae humanae, Theater of the gods, the Fasti of Masculo or Mafeian’s Ethnic Calendar, Natal Cémite’s Mythology, Aulo Gelio, Picinelli’s Mundo simbélico and, above all, the poets Virgil, Ovid,

Martial, Catulus

and

Horace.

As

for sermon

collections, he

needs nothing other than the Florilogio sacro, the author of which you are already know, because in this one work alone you will find an entire Indies.]

In spite of the tone of ridicule and playfulness in the Historia del famoso predicador Fray Gerundio de Campazas alias Zotes by José Francisco de Isla, which dates from 1758, we have in this testimony a double message; on the one hand, it speaks volumes of the great acceptance of the Mundus Symbolicus among preachers, and, on the other hand, of the abandonment

should be used, and who considered them to be ,,una obra pueril” [a puerile

Sin embargo no quisiera que por invitarte a ver los emblemas heroicos y morales, siguiendo la huella de algunos ignorantes desprecies este trabajo mio y exclames que son un esfuerzo y una obra pueriles, indignos totalmente de un hombre prudente y maduro. Aqui esta el error de algunos, [... puesto] que la elaboracién de los emblemas es propia sélo de aquellos que con la excelencia de su ingenio en las grandes ciudades dirigen y dan lustre a muy célebres universidades. Que ademas, en esta elaboracion tan brillante son maestros y arquitectos don Paolo Giovio |...], Paolo Aresio [...], Giovanni Ferro [...], Alcibiade Lucarini, Andrea Alciato, [... y] Diego Saavedra [entre otros] Pues bien, squién sin imprudencia llamaria pueriles esas conocidas obras que se cuelgan de los arcos triunfales para representar la gloria singular de otros, que para significar la admirable virtud de los asuntos celestiales se muestran en magnificos templos; que para expresar las dignas prerrogativas de los héroes se llevan en las regias exequias de altisimos principes que finalmente por todas partes se hallan fundidas, impresas o grabadas en bronce, plata u oro por los sumos pontifices, reyes o generales guerreros, para que con estas formas simbôlicas explicaran sabiamente los afectos

and criticism of this type of work.’

interiores de su 4nimo y los confiaran a la eternidad? (Picinelli 1997, 77-78).

6 José Francisco de Isla, in his book ΠῚ, chapter II, called ,,Salese a pasear Fray Blas y

[Nevertheless, by inviting you to see the heroic and moral emblems, 1 would not want you to follow in the footsteps of some ignorant fools, and

Fray Gerundio, y de las ridiculas reglas para predicar que le dio aquél con todos sus cinco sentidos” [Father Blas and Fray Gerundio take a walk, and on the ridiculous rules for preaching that the former gave him with all his five senses], the author jokingly gives testimony on which works and authors were indispensable for crafting a good baroque sermon. This belongs to the period before the one that Isla criticized in his Historia del famoso predicador Fray Gerundio de Campazas alias Zotes. The collection of sermons mentioned at the end of the quote is an allusion to Father Francisco Soto y Marne, a Franciscan writer, who became famous based on the polemic that he maintained with Benito J. Feijoo, after attacking his Teatro critico Universal in his Reflexiones criticoapologéticas sobre las obras de Feijoo (Madrid, 1748). The illustrious Benedictine defended himself against the harsh criticisms in his Justa repulsa de inicuas acusaciones (Madrid, 1749). In 1750 King Fernando VI put an end to the dispute by means of a Royal Decree that prohibited criticism of the works of Father Feijoo (Fernandez 2002, 43). On the other hand, Father Isla cited numerous passages from the Florilogio in order to satirize its author at every opportunity throughout his Historia del famoso predicador fray Gerundio ... Soto y Marne’s questionable taste was evident in the very title of his sermon

Gerundio explains that ,,para mi las emblemas de Alciato y los jeroglificos de Picinelo, que son los ünicos de que tengo alguna noticia, se distinguen en que un libro es mas pequeño y otro es mas grande” [for me, Alciato’s emblems and Picinelli’s hieroglyphs, which are the only ones of which I have any knowledge, ate different only in that one book is smaller and the other is larger] (Islas 1758, 767). In the second occurrence, Fray Blas acknowledges that he is ,,apasionado por los jeroglificos y por los emblemas” [impassioned by the hieroglyphs and emblems] and comments that if he reads a sermon

(mysticas flores) la Aganipe sagrada, fuente de gracia, y gloria. Christo: con cuya afluencia

nails. But, what if, after that, ten or twelve quotations from The Symbolic One (Picinelli) are added, and an equal number from Lelio Gerardo, a few from Pierio and a half dozen

collection: Florilogio sacro. Que en el celestial, ameno, frondoso Parnasso de la Iglesia, riega

divina, incrementada la excelsa palma mariana, (Triumphante a Privilegios de Gracia) se corona de victoriosa Gloria (Salamanca, 1738). 7 Likewise,

in book

V, chapter IV there are two

further allusions

to Picinelli. Fray

scorn this work of mine and exclaim that the emblems are a puerile labor,

that begins with ,,Pinta el docto Picinelo ..., no ha menester mas para que yo me coma las uñas tras de él. Pues, jqué, si después se añaden diez o doce citas de El Simbélico

[Picinelo] otras tantas de Lelio Giraldo, algunas de Pierio y se acogen también media docena de El Brixiano! ;En el mundo hay oro para pagar un serm6n tan ingenioso y erudito!” [As the erudite Picinelli paints ..., nothing further is needed to make me bite my

mote are gathered out of El Brixiano! There is not enough gold in the world to compensate for such a witty and erudite sermon!] (/bidem, 770-771).

250

Bibliography and Emblem Theory

without effort, and totally unworthy of a prudent and mature man. This is where the error of some lies, since the elaboration of emblems is appropriate only for those who, with the excellence of their wit, direct and give luster to very famous universities in the great cities. What is more, this so brilliant elaboration includes masters and architects of the caliber of don Paolo Giovio (...), Paolo Aresio (...), Giovanni Ferro (...), Alcibiade Lucarini, Andrea Alciato, (... and) Diego Saavedra [among others] Now then, who, without imprudence, could possibly deem puerile these famous works that are hung from triumphal arches in order to depict the singular glory of others, for in order to signify the admirable virtue of celestial matters, they are put on display in magnificent temples; and in order to express the worthy prerogatives of heroes, they are carried in the regal exequies of the loftiest princes, and finally, everywhere they can be found cast, printed, etched on bronze, silver or gold by Supreme Pontiffs, kings or martial generals, so that through these symbolic forms the interior affects of the soul ate wisely explained and entrusted to eternity?]

One final testimony on the Mundus Symbolicus in New Spain is one that was recuperated by Benito Diaz de Gamarra in his work, Errores del entendimiento humano. Academias filoséficas. Memorial ajustado ({Errors of Human Understanding. Philosophical Academies. Accurate Memorial, Puebla,

Skinfill: Multiple Glances at the Mundus Symbolicus

251

In the eighteenth century the baroque cosmovision reached its apogee, and at the same time a ,,new cultural epoch,” the Enlightenment, began to impose itself, and which was detrimental to the influence of the Mundus

Symbolicus. As Carlos Herrején points out:

La observaciôn meticulosa de la naturaleza, la medicién y comprobacion

de los fenémenos, un racionalismo matemätico, la critica de los textos, la historia acuciosamente discernida, y en fin ese valor en ascenso, la utilidad,

mal se avenian con una obra [el Mundus symbolicus| en que ciertamente no

estaba ausente

la erudicién, pero se echaba de menos

una depurada y

cientifica caracterizaciôn de los elementos de la naturaleza, asi como de los

episodios de la historia y aun de la mitologia, que servian de base al monumental simbolismo (Herrején 1997, 58-59). [The meticulous observation of nature, the precise measurement and

confirmation

of phenomena,

a mathematical

rationalism, textual criticism,

history painstakingly discerned, and finally, that ascending value, utility, did

not get along well with a work (the Mundus symbolicus) in which erudition

was certainly not absent, but which was missing a refined and scientific characterization of the elements of nature, as well as episodes from history

1781):

and even from symbolism.]

Se aparta a los jévenes del estudio de la geometria y de la buena fisica, por cuanto algunos viejos gritan que son estudios inutiles, y que sin ellos

Towards the end of the eighteenth century and the beginning of the nineteenth, right in the middle of the Enlightenment, Filippo Picinelli still

Laureato, el Diccionario de Ambrosio Calepino, o como ellos le llaman, el

a paradoxical individual: Francisco Eduardo Tresguerras, who and last author from New Spain who wrote emblemata, that is of emblems intended for private reading, in the manner of great extent, the paradoxical part resides in the fact that, at

entienden muy bien el Mundus symbolicus de Picinello, las Alegorias de Calepino de Ambrosio, en donde les parece estar recogidas todas las ciencias

utiles.*

[Youths are spared the study of geometry and good physics, for which reason some old men shout that they are useless studies, and that without

them one can still understand perfectly well the Mundus symbolicus of

mythology,

which

formed

the

base

of monumental

appears together with ,,Bocchio” as one of the ,,two literary godfathers” of

symbolic

culture

was

roundly

criticized,

the

architect

was the first to say, a book Alciato. To a a time when from

Celaya

(Guanajuato, Mexico) was elaborating emblems and valuing their reflexive

virtue in the two volumes of his Ocios literarios [Literary Idleness], which

Picinelli, the Allegories of Laureato, the Dictionary of Ambrosio Calepino, ot

as they call it, the Calepino of Ambrosio, where they believe that all the

useful sciences may be found.]

9 As Tresguerras himself tells us in the sheet of epigraphs of his Ocios literarios: ,,Bocchio y Piscinelli prueban haber juntado ambas virtudes, esto es la utilidad y la dulzura, con los simbolos que inventaron. Véase el Mundo Simbélico de Piscinelli lib. iv pag. 444. Este es

el caso de la presente obrilla, donde la Poesia y Pintura, dulcisimas, ofrecen enseñanza al

lector y a el Facultativo” [Bocchio and Picinelli prove to have combined both virtues, that is to say usefulness and sweetness, with the symbols that they invented. See the

8 Juan Benito Diaz de Gamarra, Errores del entendimiento humano. Academias filoséficas.

Memorial ajustado, Morelia, Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo, 1993, Ρ. 100.

Mundo Simbôlico of Piscinelli book iv, p. 444. This is the case of the little work you have at hand, where Poetry and Painting, sublimely sweet, offer learning to the reader and to the Scholar], (Cuadriello 2002, 265).

252

Bibliography and Emblem Theory

gather together a series of miscellaneous writings between 1801 and 1832 (Minguez 2002, 161). The emblem in the hands of Tresguerras became a weapon of social criticism, one of the most important characteristics of thought in the Enlightenment; in this respect Jaime Cuadriello posits that emblematic culture and Enlightenment culture were not diametrically opposed: Hay que enfatizar, entonces, que la emblematica no fue del todo abolida en el pensamiento ilustrado hispanico; mas bien tendriamos que considerar que su ,,causa eficiente” fue reutilizada, sus propositos originales adecuados a otra realidad, incluso algunos rasgos del lenguaje tradicional en el que se expresaban los conceptos. Bien se podia seguir moralizando, exaltando el poder o especulando sobre los misterios de la experiencia amorosa, siempre y cuando sus estructuras no resultaran tan artificiosas, engañosas o cripticas como las de antafio ... Los emblemas manuscritos de Tresguerras me parecen, pues, un caso muy revelador de transito en esa tradiciôn centenaria, un intento de reescritura, si se quiere ya de antemano frustrado, pero interesante desde un punto de vista meramente autobiografico y regional (Cuadriello 2002, 265-267). {It must be stressed, then, that emblematics was not totally abolished in

Hispanic thought of the Enlightenment; rather, we must consider that its

efficient

cause”

strike me,

then,

was

reutilized, its original purposes

adapted

to another

reality, including even some traits of the traditional language in which its concepts were expressed. It was indeed still possible to continue moralizing, exalting the power ot speculating on the mysteries of the amorous experience, provided that the structures were not so artificial, deceitful or cryptic as those of earlier times ... The manuscript emblems of Tresguerras as a very

revealing case

of the

transformation

of that

centenary tradition, an attempt at rewriting, if you will, doomed to failure from the beginning, but interesting from a merely autobiographical and regional point of view.]

Thus, Tresguerras rewrites and reinterprets fundamental parts of the emblematic discourse, in order to allow their full acceptance within the Enlightenment: transforming emblematics into a weapon of social criticism and a vehicle for the propagation of romantic ideas. See Fig. 4. Finally, we should recall that for the most part emblematic literature had no impact after the beginnings of the nineteenth century, and that its period of maximum splendour occurred throughout the seventeenth century, while it started to fall out of favor in the second decade of the eighteenth century.

Doubtless, these affirmations are true, as we have just seen, but it is also

Skinfill: Multiple Glances at the Mundus Symbolicus

253

certain that the Mundus Symbolicus found resonance and new vitality in the twentieth century.

Agustin Jacinto Zavala found echoes of the Mundus Symbolicus in some

works of Carl G. Jung, who, motivated by the study and interpretation of the symbols used by alchemists, turned to Picinelli to explain the meanings of some symbols, in order to offer the anagogical readings and biblical interpretations of Picinelli, and, as well, to quote the opinion of some of the authorities that the Milanese abbot utilized in his emblems. According to Jacinto Zavala, it should not strike us as odd that this author would also cite other emblematists, such as Alciato, since Jung found que el simbolismo de

los emblemas es apropiado para representar el proceso de transformacién

del si-mismo” and ,,reconoci6 el valor emblematico de los textos alquimicos

y su correspondiente simbolismo” [that the symbolism of emblems is appropriate to depict the transformation of oneself and he recognized the emblematic value of alchemical texts and their corresponding symbolism].!°

The Bibliographical Sources of the Mundus Symbolicus In his prologue to the Mundus Symbolicus Picinelli explains that when he

began to work on his encyclopedia he set out to:

reunir para mi uso propio un conjunto atractivo de diversos emblemas, que, pequeno en volumen, pero rico en conceptos, sin grave incomodidad pudiera llevar a todas partes. Pero la obra crecié en un tamaño tan grande y tantos riachuelos confluyeron en esta llanura que la estrecha concha, a saber cuatro paginas, se ha convertido en un inmenso océano de un volumen completo. [gather together for my own use an attractive collection of diverse emblems which, although poor in volume, would be rich in concerpts, and which could be carried everywhere without serious discomfort. But the work grew to such a substantial size and so many small streams flowed together on this plain that the narrow shell, planned to be four pages, has been transformed into an immense ocean of a complete volume.] And

he points out that the emblems

Opiniones y documentos”

are ,,basados en respetabilisimas

[based on extremely respectable opinions and

documents], and that he illustrated them ,,con observaciones respetables de 10 Agustin Jacinto Zavala, ,Los instrumentos mecanicos. Introduccién”, in Filippo

Picinelli, ΕἼ mundo simbélico. Los instrumentos mecdnicos. Los instrumentos de juego. Libros xvii-xviii, ed. Rosa Lucas Gonzalez and Barbara Skinfill Nogal; trans. Rosa Lucas Gon-

zâlez and Eloy Gémez Bravo, vol. 13, Zamora: El Colegio de Michoacan (in press).

254

Bibliography and Emblem Theory

autores tanto antiguos como modernos, tanto religiosos como profanos; gracias a lo cual la amenidad junto con la utilidad se hallan unidas con un vinculo casi indisoluble” [with respectable observations from authors both ancient and modern, religious and secular; thanks to which both pleasantness and utility are fused together with an almost unbreakable bond], (Picinelli 1997, 77).

Many of the fragments quoted in the Mundus Symbolicus doubtless were

carefully selected and gathered, as were the imprese and emblems, in the codex excerptorius'! composed by the young schoolboy Filippo Picinelli, and later mature preacher. In that notebook he recorded the quotations, organized by themes, and it took shape and grew as the readings of its creator continued throughout the course of his life. This ,,ajuar personal de citas, ornamentos, formulas, vocabulario, imagenes, alegorias ...” [personal trousseau of quotations, decorations, formulas, vocabulary, images, alle-

gories ...] was organized in such a way that users could easily access those materiales como

fuente de invencién, o para adornar el discurso, o pata

emplear como argumentos de autoridad” [materials as a source of invention, or to adorn discourse, or to use them as arguments of authority], Lopez Poza 1999a, 173) in their writings.

Erasmus in his treatise De duplici copia verborum ac rerum advised

students to read ,,with pencil in hand,” that is to say, that they should mark the passages of texts that they might use later in their writings. They could either commit the passages to memory, or jot them down in their codex excerptorius; ,,estos dicta de los antiguos (y de otros autores) constituian un inapreciable repertorio de lugares comunes o topoi, de sentencias, apotegmas y aforismos, que conformaron el pensamiento” [these dicta of the ancients (and of other authors) constituted an invaluable repertory of commonplaces or topoi, of sentences, apothegms and aphorisms, which helped formulate the thinking] of the authors of that period. (Schwartz 2000, 265) The patient labor of personal creation of a codex excerptorius, was, in many instances, interrupted by an exchange of quotations, by the legacy of the codex excerptorius, day after day the references selected by others were copied and

thus slowly ,,haria cada vez mas frecuente el uso de citas de segunda mano y

mas dificil discernir si el que luego usaba esos lugares conocia la fuente primigenia”

[the use of second-hand

quotations

became

more

and more

frequent, and it became increasingly difficult to discern if the individual who used the passages was familiar with the original source], (Lopez Poza 1990, 62).

Skinfill: Multiple Glances at the Mundus Symbolicus

In addition to the personal codex excerptorius, there was also a more extensive use of the great printed books that, as a kind of public codex excerptorius, provided arsenals of passages with their respective bibliographical references. These were also often organized by themes. In time, the use of these great repertories came to favor ,,fingida erudiciôn” [feigned erudition], born of second-hand quotations and their excessive use. Filippo Picinelli, like all writers of his period, also resorted to these repertories of

erudition. Likewise, the Mundus Symbolicus must be placed within the

tradition of works that, with the passage of time, were substituted for the

codex exceptorius, as too were many emblem books, which, given their frequent erudition, also formed part of the so-called ,,tesoros de erudicién”

[treasures of erudition]. Sagratio Lopez Poza

11 It was a notebook in which the owner copied down quotations extracted from his

has

pointed

out on numerous

occasions

the

importance that these works had in their time for inventio, as well as their

current importance for literary scholars, especially for those concerned with the Spanish Golden Age. In her articles on this topic she has also turned her attention to the Mundus Symbolicus (Lopez Poza 2000). In particular, in ,,El

repertorio de Picinelli: de codex excerptorius a Mondo Simbolico” the author

posits in a very detailed and elegant manner the theme of how priests, writers, and orators of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, among them

Picinelli, prepared infancy, their own recommendations writers as Juan de

along with their readings, many of which were begun in codex excerptorius and she pointed out the instructions and for the elaboration of the codex given by such renowned Guzman, Erasmus, Miguel de Salinas, Lorenzo Palmireno,

Justus Lipsius, Luis Vives, and Nicolas Caussin.!?

Upon

reviewing

the

extensive

cast

of authors

and _ bibliographical

citations that occur throughout the Mundus Symbolicus, we find mention of several repertories of erudition, including: the Sententiae ex Thesauris Graecorum collectanae (Tiguri, 1543), Juan Stobeo’s Dies geniales (Rome, 1522),

Alessandro Alessandri’s De dictis fatisque Memorabilibus (Milan, 1509), Baptista Fulgoso’s Adagia ex sanctorum patrum, ecclesiasticorumque scriptorum, monumentis prompta ... (1637), Luigi Novarini’s Adagia ... (Ursellis,

1603), Paolo Manuzio’s Dicta memorabilia, Giovanni Botero’s Adagiorum collectanea of Erasmus (Lopez Poza 1990, 63), the De remediis utrisque fortunae (circa 1354-1360) of Francesco Petrarca, the Apophtegmata of San Efrén, the Oficina istorica (Venice, 1622) of Giovanni Felice Astolfi, the

12 Sagrario Lopez Poza, ,El repertorio de Picinelli: de codex excerptorius a Mondo

Simbélico.”

readings, often known in English as commonplace books.

255

In Filippo

Picinelli, El mundo

simbélico.

Los instrumentos

mecdnicos.

Los

instrumentos de juego. Libros xvii-xviii. Ed. Rosa Lucas Gonzalez and Barbara Skinfill Nogal; trans. Rosa Lucas Gonzalez and Eloy Gomez Bravo, vol. 13, Zamora: El Colegio de Michoacan (in press).

Bibliography and Emblem Theory

256 Magnum

Theatrum3 of Laurentio Beyerlinck, the Sententiarum sive capitum,

theologicorum praecipue, ex sacris et profanis libris ... (Tiguti, 1546) of Antonio

de Melissa and the abbot Maximo and, as Arnulfo Herrera suggested previously, the rarely cited Epitome officinae of Juan Ravisior Textor (Skinfill 2006, 83). As Pedro Ruiz Pérez has indicated, these repertories were incorporated into emblematics, as can be seen in the Mundus Symbolicus, and they were also assimilated by other extensive compilations of miscellania that were produced during the Baroque, with their collections of diverse materials (Ruiz 1990, 432). In spite of the numerous displays of treasures of erudition mentioned previously, in so far as pagan authors are concerned, it appears that Picinelli alludes to them based on his own personal readings, since we find in this area very few passages cited second-hand. In the Mundus Symbolicus the passages that its author collected are registered with scrupulous bibliographical precision; nevertheless, in spite of this precision, we also find some vague allusions, where he only gives the name of the author, and to a lesser extent, the title of the work in question. As for second-hand quotations, the Milanese abbot alludes to Virgil at times, based on the commentary that Luis de la Cerda dedicated to his verses; he also extracted several passages from the works of Seneca based on what he found in the works of Justus Lipsius and he quoted other pagan authors out of the Sententiae ex Thesauris Graecorum collectanae of Joannes Stobaeus. In order to establish with certainty

Skinfill: Multiple Glances at the Mundus Symbolicus

257

Lucas explains that from middle of the sixteenth century and throughout the

seventeenth century, which saw the publication of the Mundus Symbolicus,

Seneca’s work underwent an authentic revalorization, both in its ideological as well as formal aspects. Three elements contributed to effecting this shift in the appreciation of the works of the pagan philosopher: Jesuit Humanism, in the first place, the neo-Stoicism produced in Europe, in the second place, and finally, the taste that developed for authors of the Silver Age of Latin literature (Lucas 2002).

In my own master’s thesis, La tradiciôn cldsica en el Mondo Simbolico de

Filippo Picinelli: Las citas a Lucio Anneo, Séneca 1 dealt with several themes on this topic, including the favorable position of Picinelli with reference to classical authors. The Milanese abbot considered it appropriate to cite these auctoritates, because they allowed readers to understand Holy Scripture at the same time that they provided texts that displayed a correspondence both with Holy Scripture and with Christian morality. Among his preferred authors we find Seneca, who was amply utilized in the construction of Picinelli’s emblems. Quotations from Seneca served ,,como auctoritas, como

apoyo (de sus argumentos); como material propicio para la inventio (esto es, en la creacién de picturae, lemmata y de la idea del emblema), y para el ornatus (es decir, que cité algunos pasajes senecanos por sus recursos estilisticos)”

appropriate

[as

auctoritas,

as

a

support

(of

his

arguments);

as

material

for the imventio (that is to say, in the creation of picturae,

lemmata and of the emblem’s idea), and also for the ornatus (that is to say,

that Picinelli, for example, accessed the classics directly, it would be necessary to undertake an exhaustive review of the pagan authors in all the treasures of erudition that he consulted, and in emblematic works that

that he quoted some Senecan passages for their stylistic devices)]. The conclusion at which I arrived is the following: Picinelli quoted Seneca not only

As for studies dedicated to the Mundus Symbolicus, and more specifi-

because of his predilection for some of the same literary devices used by Seneca. The Milanese abbot, in turn, used some of these literary devices in his emblems with the same functions that they have in Senecan texts (Skinfill 2006, 98-124).

Picinelli compiled as well, in order to determine the precise origin of a given quotation (Skinfill 2006, 84). See Fig. 5. cally, the literary sources that nourished it, we have four texts that analyze the debt to classical literature, as well as to patristic and emblematic

literature. Two

of these studies deal with the repercussions

literature in Picinelli’s work.

The

first is an article on

of classical

the ,,Presencia de

Séneca en Picinelli” [Presence of Seneca in Picinelli] by Rosa Lucas, where its author established some parallelisms ,,entre el estoicismo moderado

de

Séneca y el pensamiento cristiano” [between the moderate stoicism of Seneca and Christian thought] by means of the juxtaposition of some passages from Senecan epistles and Pauline passages quoted by Picinelli. 13 The work consists of seven volumes and is organized in alphabetical order. There

were many editions of this work, including those of 1616, 1631, 1655, 1656, 1665, 1666, 1678 and 1707. Its complete title is: Magnum theatrum vitae humanae: hoc est rerum

divinarum, humanarumque syntagma catholicum, philosophicum, maticum: ad normam Polyantheae uniuersalis dispositum ...

historicum,

et dog-

because of the moral similarities between his work and Christianity, but also

In the realm of sacred literature, that is to say, in ,,Las fuentes patristicas del Mundo simbélico” [The patristic sources of the Mundo simbôlico|, (Carrillo 2002), Alberto Carrillo Cazares enumerated the biblical, patristic,

and theological sources, as well as some of the profane writers cited in book I on Los cuerpos celestes |The Celestial Bodies| and he came to the conclusion that Saint Augustine was the most frequently quoted among the Church Fathers, representing 27% of the total of the quotations in book I, and among authors from Classical Antiquity, Seneca represents 10%, On the other hand, Alberto Carrillo proposed the Comentaria in Scripturam Sacram of Cornelius a Lapide as a possible source from which Picinelli took his patristic quotations, as well as some pagan ones. By identifying some of the passages of the Church Fathers cited by Picinelli, he was able to conclude

Bibliography and Emblem Theory

258

that the quotations are not textual, but rather that he references the idea developed by the passage in question. Carrillo, in the introduction

Likewise, Alberto

to book

xiv titled ,,El

simbolismo de los utensilios litirgicos” [the symbolism of liturgical implements], studies the topic of anthologies of commentaries to the Bible, a

primary example of which is the Sylva allegorarium (Barcelona, 1570) by the Benedictine

monk Jerénimo

Loret. This work

was

highly esteemed

by

scholars, artists, and preachers, both in the in Old World and the New. The

author proposes the Sy/va as an antecedent of the Mundus Symbolicus, since both works ,,privilegian el sentido mistico de las Sagradas Escrituras, se componen segün el arquetipo de las sumas en el otoño de la Edad Media que reverdecen en el florecimiento de la literatura simbélica” [privilege the mystical sense of Holy Scripture, and are composed in accordance with the archetype of the sums or compendiums popular in the autumn of the Middle Ages, and which took on new life with the flourishing of symbolic literature], (Carrillo 2006, 36). In truth, both texts provide a good point of departure to study in greater depth the religious sources of the Mundus

Symbolicus.

In the introduction to book viii, titled Los insectos [Insects], Elena Isabel

Estrada de Gerlero includes a section in which she mentions emblematic works that Picinelli utilized to compile some of the emblems for his own book. The author offers a complete list of emblematists and works compiled, and she details the number of emblems evoked in each one of the chapters that make up book viii. Her approach to this kind of source study is an important initial advance, although it still remains for someone to

contrast the emblems that Picinelli presents in his Mundus Symbolicus with

their original context, in order to try to understand how he gathered them since, in order to give meaning to his encyclopedia, he had to summarize his sources. It would be interesting to ascertain if he modified the original meanings or not, or if he enriched them with references from other auctoritates and with new meanings (Estrada 1999). Jaime Cuadriello, in his introduction to book vii on Serpientes y animales venenosos

|Serpents

and

venomous

animals,

reveals

the

diverse

types

of

sources related to natural history that converge in this book. Thus, for the composition of animal emblems, Picinelli preferred, from among classical authors, Aristotle, Aelianus, Pliny, and Opianus; from among Church Fathers, Saint Basil of Caesarea, Saint Ambrose of Milan, and Saint Isidore of Seville; from among the sixteenth-century naturalists, Conrad Gessner,

Julius

Caesar

Scaliger,

and

Aldovrandi;

from

the

hieroglyphic

tradition,

Horapollo and Pierio Valeriano; from science, Athanasius Kircher ,,otra autoridad de la ciencia barroca” [another authority of baroque science]. The author, by means of the gloss of several emblems, points out the diverse

Skinfill: Multiple Glances at the Mundus Symbolicus

259

ideas that underlie them, such as misogyny, neo-Stoicism, Marian immaculacy and Neoplatonism. Likewise, he undertakes a review of all of the creatures present in book vii, in which he analyzes both ,,representacién grafica (res picta o figuratio)” [graphic representation (res picta or figuratio)|, as well as the ,,implicacién simbélica (res significans)” [symbolic implication (res significans)], and contrasts them in order to determine which emblematic models Picinelli followed for the configuration of these creatures (Cuadriello 1999, 18). My only remaining task is to propose new avenues of study which scholars may find worthy of pursuing in the future, for a further

understanding of the Mundus Symbolicus. First, it is vital to produce critical

editions, both of the Italian text as well as the Neo-Latin; second, there is a

need for a comparison between both versions of the work in order to determine which textual contributions were added by the translator, Agustin Erath, beyond those that we already know about; third, our understanding

would

benefit

from

a contrastive

study

of both

versions

of the ,,Breve

tratado de la naturaleza del simbolo” [Brief treatise on the nature of the symbol], in order to appreciate the adaptations and clarifications made by Erath in terms of emblem theory; fourth, we need to pay attention to the illustrations in the different editions of the work; and, finally, scholars need

to study the impact of the Mundus Symbolicus on such cultural phenomena

as ritualistic exequies, triumphal arches, and in other emblematic manifestations. This bibliographical approach to the long road traversed in pursuit of the transcendence, impact, and literary sources of the Mundus Symbolicus, allows us to appreciate the advances that researchers have made to date, and at the same time, it proposes new and promising paths to follow that will surely lead to interesting results for our understanding of the Mundus Symbolicus.

260

Bibliography and Emblem Theory

Skinfill: Multiple Glances at the Mundus Symbolicus

Studies

EDITIONS, TRANSLATIONS AND STUDIES In what follows, I have compiled an essential bibliography of the modern editions of the Mundus Symbolicus by Filippo Picinelli, translations of the work, and critical studies that have been devoted to diverse aspects of the work. Editions

2006.

Cuadriello,

Jaime.

1998.

— 1999. ,Serpientes Picinelli, 1999b, 9-42. Escalera

Translations

Picinelli, Filippo. 1997. El mundo simbélico: Los cuerpos celestes, libro I, trans. Eloy Gémez Bravo, vol. 1, Zamora: El Colegio de Michoacan (Clasicos).

__ . 1999a. El mundo simbélico: Los cuatro elementos,

,,El simbolismo

de los utensilios

,,Retrato

pdéstumo

Fernandez Fiallo de Boralla,’ Memoria 7: 64- 77.

Sumptibus Hermanni Demen, 2 vols., Hildesheim: Olms, 1979 (Emblematisches Cabinet; 8).

libro II, ed. Eloy

Bravo, Rosa Lucas Gonzalez and Barbara Skinfill Nogal, trans. Guzman de Alba and Rosa Lucas Gonzalez, vol. 2, Zamora: El

y analogia-iconicidad,”

in

Carrillo Cazares, Alberto. 2002. ,,Fuentes patristicas del Mundo simbélico,” in Pérez Martinez and Skinfill Nogal, eds., 179-191,

Filippo Picinelli, 2006, 33-46.

1687. Mundus Symbolicus ..., facsimile edition, Coloniae Agrippinae,

Gomez Pascual

Beuchot, Mauricio. 2002. ,,Emblema, simbolo Skinfill Nogal and Gémez Bravo, eds., 357-364.

___.

Picinellus, Philippus. 1694. Mundus Symbolicus ..., facsimile edition, Coloniae Agrippinae, Sumptibus Hermanni Demen, 2 vols., New York, London: Gerland, 1976 (The Renaissance and the Gods; 33).

_.

261

Pérez,

y animales venenosos.

Reyes.

2002.

,,Filippo

litargicos. Introduccién,”

del

Capitan

Don

in

Manuel

Introduccién,” in Filippo

Picinelli

en

la

granadina,” in Skinfill Nogal and Gémez Bravo, eds., 123-136.

fiesta

barroca

Esquivel Estrada, Noé Héctor. 2002. ,,Consideraciones filoséficas acerca del

libro I: “Los cuerpos celestes’ de la obra El mundo simbélico de Filippo Picinelli,” in Pérez Martinez and Skinfill Nogal, eds., 161-178.

Colegio de Michoacan (Clasicos).

Estrada de Gerlero, Elena Isabel. Filippo Picinelli, 1999b, 43-71.

- . 1999b. El mundo simbélico: Serpientes y animales venenosos. Los insecto, libros VII-VIIL, ed. Eloy Gémez Bravo, Rosa Lucas Gonzalez and Barbara Skinfill Nogal, trans. Eloy Gomez Bravo and Rosa Lucas Gonzalez, vol. 7,

Benito Jerénimo. Teatro critico Universal, 7th ed., Madrid: Catedra, 2002 (Letras Hispanicas), 11-69.

Tecnologia (Clasicos).

Gomez

Zamora:

El

Colegio

de

Michoacan,

Consejo

Nacional

de

Ciencia

y

_. 2006. El mundo simbélico: Los metales. Los instrumentos eclesidsticos. Libros XIII-XIV, vol. 11, ed. Rosa Lucas Gonzalez and Barbara Skinfill, trans. Pascual Guzman and Alberto Carrillo, Zamora: El Colegio de Michoacan (Clasicos).

Fernandez

Gonzalez,

Bravo, Eloy.

1999, ,,Los insectos.

Angel-Raimundo

(ed.),

Introduccién,”

,,Introduccién,”

in

in

Feijoo,

1994. ,,La ética en Felipe Picinelli, autor italiano del

siglo xvii y su presencia novohispana” Saber novohispano. Anuario del Centro de Estudios novohispanos 1: 417-423. ___ 1997. ,,Picinelli en español,” in Filippo Picinelli, 1997, 9-28. 1999. ,, Introduccion. Los cuatro elementos,” in Filippo Picinelli, 1999a, 9-15.

— . 2002. ,,El proyecto de investigacién Mundus Symbolicus en El Colegio de Michoacan,” in Skinfill Nogal and Gémez Bravo, eds., 87-100.

Bibliography and Emblem Theory

262

Gonzalez, Aurelio. 2002. ,,Aproximaci6n a la estructura narrativa del emblema. El caso de los juegos,” in Skinfill Nogal and Gémez Bravo, eds., 365-372. Peredo,

Herrejon

Carlos.

1997.

,,La

Espana,” in Filippo Picinelli, 1997, 47-63.

_ . 2003.

presencia

Del sermén al discurso civico. México,

Colegio de Michoacan, 50-59 (Investigaciones).

Jacinto

Zavala,

Agustin.

,,Los instrumentos

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Nueva

Zamora:

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and Skinfill Nogal, Barbara, eds. 2002. Esplendor y ocaso de la cultura

simbélica. Zamora: El Colegio de Michoacan / Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia (Emblemata. Estudios de Literatura Emblemätica).

Rodriguez de la Flor, Fernando. 2002. ,,La maquina simbélica. Picinelli y el

caso de la teologia tomista hispanica,” in Pérez Martinez and Skinfill Nogal, eds., 143-159.

mecänicos.

Introduccién,”

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Rueda Smithers, Salvador. 2002. ,,El alimento de los sentidos. Notas sobre la

Filippo Picinelli, El mundo simbélico. Los instrumentos mecdnicos. Los instrumentos de juego. Libros xvii-xviit. Ed. Rosa Lucas Gonzalez and

lectura de emblemas y el Mundus symbolicus,” in Skinfill Nogal and Gémez

Lopez Poza, Sagrario. 2000. ,,Los libros de emblemas como

Skinfill Nogal, Barbara. 2002. ,,Similitudo y Exemplum senecanos en el Mundus Symbolicus de Filippo Picinelli.” In Los dias del alcién. Emblemas,

Barbara Skinfill Nogal; trans. Rosa Lucas Gonzalez and Eloy Gomez Bravo, vol. 13, Zamora: El Colegio de Michoacan (in press).

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erudiciôn auxiliares de la ‘inventio’.” In Emblemata aurea. La Emblemdtica en el Arte y la Literatura del Siglo de Oro. Ed. Rafael Zafra and José Javier Azanzas. Madrid: Akal, 263-279 (Arte y estética, 56). _.

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literatura y arte del siglo de Oro. Ed. Bernat Vistarini, Antonio and Cull, John.

Barcelona: José J. De Olañeta, Universidad de las Islas Baleares, College of the Holy Cross, 521-531. - . 2006. La tradicién cldsica en el Mondo Simbolico de Filippo Picinelli: Las citas a Lucio Anneo Seneca, Mastet’s Thesis in Classical Literature, Facultad de Filosofia y Letras, UNAM, México.

Gonzalez and Barbara Skinfill Nogal; trans. Rosa Lucas Gonzalez and Eloy Gémez Bravo, vol. 13, Zamora: El Colegio de Michoacan (in press).

___. 2007. ,,Filippo Picinelli, Mundus Symbolicus ... Coloniae Agrippinae,

Lucas Gonzalez, Rosa. 1994. ,,E/ mundo simbélico de Picinelli y A. Erath: Delectando aedificat. Una aproximacién a lo novohispano,” Saber novo-

de Cultura, 366.

hispano. Anuario del Centro de Estudios novohispanos 1: 425-433.

_.

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2002. ,,Presencia de Séneca en Picinelli,” in Skinfill Nogal and Gomez

Bravo, eds., 103-110.

Minguez, Victor. 2001. ,,El sol y los astros en El mundo simbélico de Filippo

Picinelli.” In Los reyes solares. Iconografia astral de la monarquia hispdnica.

Castellon

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1, 101-108

(Humanitats, 7). _. 2006. ,,Los enigmas Picinelli, 2006, 9-31.

metälicos

de Picinelli. Introduccion,”

1694.” (catalographic card). In Fiesta y Simulacro. Ed. Camacho Martinez, Rosario and Escalera Pérez, Reyes. Malaga: Junta de Andalucia / Consejeria

in Filippo

2009. ,,Filippo Picinelli segûn Filippo Picinelli” (document presen-

tation, translation and notes) Relaciones. Estudios de historia y sociedad 119,

xxx: 109-126.

__ and Gémez Bravo, Eloy, eds. 2002. Las dimensiones del arte emblemätico, Zamora: El Colegio de Michoacan / Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y

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Emblematics,”

In Emblem Scholarship: Directions and Developments Ed.

Daly, Peter M. Turnhout: Brepols Publishers, 25-50.

Boschius, Jacobus, 1702. Symbolographia sive de Arte Symbolica sermones

septem, Augustae Bencard.

Vindelicorum

&

Apud

Dilingae:

Joannem

Casparum

Bravo, eds., 263-287.

Estudios de historia y sociedad 119, xxx: 21-55.

Logros

y retos.” Relaciones.

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logros y perspectivas,” in

2004. ,,La proyeccién emblematica en la Literatura.” In Actas del I

Congreso Internacional de Emblemdtica General. Ed. Redondo Veintemillas, Montaner

Frutos,

Alberto

and

Garcia

Lopez,

Maria

Cruz.

Zaragoza: Institucién ‘Fernando el Catdlico’ (C.S.LC.), Excma. Diputacion

de Zaragoza, vol. III, 1875-1907.

Universidad Michoacana de San Nicolas de Hidalgo, 1993.

Isla, José Francisco de. 1758. Historia del famoso predicador Fray Gerundio de Campazas alias Zotes, ed. José Jurado, Madrid: Romänica Hispanica, IV. Textos, 21).

1992

Gredos,

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complectens quae ad poeticam facultatem pertinent, magistris perutilis, Parisiis, Apud Gregorium Dupuis.

discipulis pariter ac

Ketten, Joanne Michael von der. 1699. Apelles symbolicus exhibens seriem

amplissimam symbolorum poetisque, oratoribus ac verbi Dei praedicatoribus Amstelaedami

and Gémez Bravo, eds., 139-166.

Praz,

Mario.

1947.

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Imagery,

vol. 2: A

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1990. ,,Los repertorios latinos en la edicién de textos

aureos. La Officina Poética de Ravisior Textor.” In La ediciôn de textos. Actas

Jay, Gabriel François le. 1725. Bibliotheca Rhetorum praecepta et exempla

varios, 2 vols.,

Gedami: Prostant apud Janssonio Waesbergios.

Minguez, Victor. 2002. ,,La emblematica novohispana,” in Skinfill Nogal

Diaz de Gamarra, Juan Benito. 1781. Errores del entendimiento humano. Academias filoséficas. Memorial ajustado, Puebla, facsimile edition. Morelia:

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Lopez Poza, Sagrario. 1990. ,,Florilegios, polyantheas, repertorios de sentencias y lugares comunes. Aproximacién bibliografica.” Criticén 49: 61-76.

_. 1996. ,,Spanish Emblem Studies: Status Quaestionis.” Emblematicas 102: 347-376.

1999a. ,,La erudicién como nodriza de la invencién en Quevedo.” La

Perinola 3 (199): 171-194.

_. 2002. ,,Los estudios sobre emblematica: Skinfill Nogal and Gomez Bravo, eds., 31-44.

Menestrier, Claude François. 1695. Philosophia imaginum, Amstelaedami &

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Guillermo,

Cuadriello, Jaime. 2002. ,,Un epigono de la tradicién: Los emblemas manusctitos de Francisco Eduardo Tresguerras,” in Skinfill Nogal and Gomez

conceptus subministrans Janssonio Waesbergios.

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del I Congreso de hispanistas del Siglo de Oro. Ed. Jauralde, Pablo, Noguera, Dolores,

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Rey,

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Monografias, 139).

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Tamesis,

Schwartz, Lia. 2000. ,,La retorica de la cita en Las Novelas

de Lope de Vega.” Edad de Oro XIX (2000): 265-285.

Skinfill

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Barbara.

2000.

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jesuita de la ciudad de México.”

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simbélica. Ed. Victor Minguez. 2 vols., Castellon de la Plana: Universitat

Jaume I, 2000, Baincaixa, vol. 1, 477-497.

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2002. ,,Los caminos de la emblematica novohispana: una aproximaciôn

bibliografica.” In Las dimensiones del arte emblemätico. Ed. Skinfill Nogal and Gômez

Bravo.

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Bibliography and Emblem Theory . 2004. ,,La literatura emblematica en la Biblioteca del colegio Maximo

FIGURES

de San Pedro y San Pablo.” In Literatura y emblemätica. Estudios sobre textos

y personajes novohispanos. Ed. Teran Elizondo, Ma. Isabel and Ortiz, Alberto. México: Universidad Auténoma de Zacatecas, Centro Interinstitucional de

MUNDUS

Investigaciones en Artes y Humanidades, 109-128.

_

and Gémez Bravo, Eloy, eds. 2002. Las dimensiones del arte emblemätico,

Zamora: El Colegio de Michoacän/ Consejo Nacional de Tecnologia (Emblemata. Estudios de Literatura Emblematica).

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267

Skinfill: Multiple Glances at the Mundus Symbolicus

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Bibliography and Emblem Theory

Skinfill: Multiple Glances at the Mundus Symbolicus

269

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Figure 2 Filippo Picinelli, Mundus Symbolicus, Coloniae Agrippinae, 1729, frontispiece. Special Collections, Biblioteca Luis Gonzalez, ΕἸ Colegio de Michoacan.

Figure 3 Image from Book XXV, which was used as a model for one of the emblems in the posthumous portrait of Captain Fernandez Faillo de Boralla, Filippo Picinelli, Mundus Symbolicus,

Coloniae Agrippinae, 1729, p. 264. Special Collections, Biblioteca Luis Gonzalez, ΕἸ Colegio de Michoacan.

270

Bibliography and Emblem Theory

Skinfill: Multiple Glances at the Mundus Symbolicus

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incamberent , tum ne ullos affidué curd infolefce-

tet: cum deniqué ne aliorum ingenia oriosé difflae-

Figure 4 Filippo Picinelli, Mundus Symbolicus, Coloniae Agrippinae, 1729, p. 304. Special Collections, Biblioteca Luis Gonzalez, ΕἸ Colegio de Michoacan.

Figure 5 Filippo Picinelli, Mundus Symbolicus, Coloniae Agrippinae, 1729, p. 144. Special Collections, Biblioteca Luis Gonzalez, El Colegio de Michoacan.

271

Sixteenth-Century Romayne Heads: Engravings by Virgil Solis

Copied on Four Panels in the Victoria and Albert Museum

MICHAEL E. BATH University of Strathclyde, Glasgow. Abstract

The widespread fashion the decorative arts followed in the study, collection, and sixteenth century numerous Italy and France illustrating

for medallion portraits (,,Romayne heads”) in closely on the late-medieval growth of interest re-invention of classical medals. From the early books and pattern-prints began to appear in the art of the medal, but although these pro-

vided patterns for craftsmen, very few, if any, such sources have so far been

identified by historians of furniture or the decorative arts. Four carved wooden

panels in the Victoria and Albert Museum, however, can now be

shown to copy the four imperial medals which are illustrated in an undated engraving by Virgil Solis. The essay examines the close relationship between medallion heads, imperial medals, and numismatic engravings in the light of this discovery. Pseudo-antique

medallions

with

so-called

,,romayne”

heads

are

an

ubiquitous design motif in the decorative arts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. They feature on all types of furniture and architectural decoration, ranging from Italianate friezes, coffered ceilings, and wainscot

paneling, to carved armoires, cupboards, sideboards, chests, tables, chairs,

and almost any kind of surface that lent itself to decorative painting or carving. Their use in the decorative arts undoubtedly follows closely on the growth of scholarly interest, from the fifteenth century onwards, in antique coinage and the related development of the Renaissance medal—historical developments which have always been closely identified with the wider humanist revival of interest in the arts of antiquity, and portraiture in particular.! For these reasons it is fair to say that the use of such medallion motifs in the decorative arts is always likely to be signaling, in any medium ot national tradition, the arrival of what can legitimately and quite strictly be described as a ,,renaissance” style. Considering that it has such clear connections with these momentous historical and intellectual developments, it is surprising that there appears to be no authoritative monograph study of the use of medallion heads in the 1 Roberto Weiss, The Renaissance Discovery of Classical Antiquity (Oxford and New York, 1969, second edition 1988): 167-179, chapter 11: ,,The Study of Ancient Numismatics.”

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

276

decorative arts. Fundamental to any such study would be an examination of the relationship between carved medallions in the decorative arts and contemporary developments in numismatics. As Roberto Weiss says, ,,Ancient coins had ... been collected, imitated, and used as historical evidence before

the fifteenth century. But during this century interest in them assumed hitherto unknown proportions.”? By the mid-fifteenth century what John Connally has justifiably characterized as ,numomania” became so prevalent that the manufacture of fakes and counterfeits was increasingly widespread. The growth of humanist numismatics soon led to a recognition of the need for authoritative catalogues of the growing corpus of antique coins, and by the sixteenth century it became possible at last to illustrate these with woodcut or copperplate illustrations. These begin in 1517 with the publiccation

in Rome

of Andrea

Fulvio’s

J/lustrium imagines,

which

offers the

reader 205 short biographies of Roman emperors (and of other illustrious persons), with profile portraits in medallions. However, although these look like ancient coins, and about a third actually copy such coins, the majority are invented portraits, not all of them of classical figures. The impulse to supplement the known corpus of authentic coins by inventing wholly fictitious and quasi-antique medallion portraits of their successors proved irresistible to most subsequent writers on coinage. A long-standing belief in the unbroken succession and universality of empire must have influenced this impulse—that deeply embedded assumption throughout the Middle Ages that the Roman Empire was a single, continuous and unbroken imperium.4 It was surely that assumption which impelled Fulvio, the pioneer of such publications, to take his line of Jilustrium imagines down to the German emperors Conrad II and Henry III. The new art of the Renaissance medal also, from Pisanello onwards, benefited from the same impulse, and

in the sixteenth century there was a learned debate in the numismatic literature concerning the relationship of coins to medals, with opinion

divided as to whether Roman imperial medaglie had been used as mundane

currency, or whether they were not wholly commemorative, as Sebastiano

Erizzo argued in his Discorso ... sopra le medaglie antiche (Venice, 1559).

One Rouille’s portraits versality Eve, and

of the most popular and influential of these handbooks, Guillaume Promptuarium (Lyons, 1553), contains more than 800 medallion of which the majority are purely fictitious. The impulse to uniaccounts for Rouille’s decision to begin his series with Adam and to end it with Henry II and Catherine de’ Medici. Since it was

2 Weiss, 167.

3 John Cunnally, Images of the Illustrious: the Numismatic Presence in the Renaissance (Princeton, 1999). The reader is referred to Cunnally for details of all printed sources discussed here. 4 Robert Folz, The Concept of Empire in Western Europe (London, 1969).

Bath: Sixteenth-Century Romayne heads

277

widely accepted that ancient coins recorded both the physical appearance and the historical achievements of their celebrated bearers, it was commonly assumed that history required similar artefacts to be made by their modern successors. Moreover, where history failed to preserve authentic portraits of celebrated ancients, sixteenth-century writers and their illustrators did not scruple to fill the gap by inventing pseudo-antique coins or medals for them. The whole history of the Renaissance medal began, indeed, with forgeries of pseudo-antique medals of Constantine and Heraclius for Jean, Duc de Berry in the early 1400s, and this readiness to entertain fakes and forgeries is something which genuine numismatics has struggled to combat ever since. For the history of the decorative arts it can be hailed as a blessing, however, since it was precisely the demand for such fake medallions that opened the door to artistic invention and to the fabrication in the decorative arts of innumerable imaginary medallions showing heads and faces which have, indeed, no originals on actual coins.> Moreover, alongside such ostensibly learned Erizzo,

and historical books as those by Fulvio, Enea Vico, Sebastiano Albert Golzius, or Guillaume du Choul, single-sheet medallion

pattern-prints began to appear in the mid-sixteenth century which belong with the type of ornament engravings which are now known to have supplied the decorative artists of this period with so many of their designs.‘ In view of the popularity of these numismatic illustrations and handbooks it is somewhat surprising that, to date, no such print sources appear to have been identified for any of the innumerable medallion heads in the decorative arts. My aim in the present essay is to identify a pair of wooden panels carved with ,,antique” ornament whose medallion heads do indeed go back to such a source: there must be many more, but furniture historians do not

appear to have identified them.’ This, therefore, is just a beginning. In 1895

5 For the medals of Jean, Duc de Berry, see e.g. Stephen K. Scher, ed., The Currency of Fame:

Portrait

Medals

of the Renaissance

(New

York

and

London,

1994):

31-37.

On

fakes and forgeries see Richard Cooper, ,,Collectors of Coins and Numismatic Scholarship in Early Renaissance France,” in M.H. Crawford, C.R. Ligota and J.B. Trapp, Medals and Coins from Budé to Mommsen (London, 1990): 14-19, and Mark Jones, » Proof Stones of History’: The Status of Medals as Historical Evidence in Seventeenth-

Century France,” in ibid., 53-72.

6 The wholesale reliance of the English decorative arts on such print sources is demonstrated by Anthony Wells-Cole, Art and Decoration in Elizabethan and Jacobean England: The Influence of Continental Prints, 1558-1625 (New Haven and London, 1997). For the similar situation in Scotland see Michael Bath, Renaissance Decorative

Painting in Scotland (Edinburgh, 2003). 7 Just one further example has recently come to light. Nicholas Humphrey at the Victoria and Albert Museum informs me that Virgil Solis prints were used for seven of the eight rounded corner bosses which depict medallion heads on the inlaid ebony games-board (Victoria and Albert 1567-1899) probably made in Augsburg in the late sixteenth century.

Six heads derive from the set of six by Vico, labelled: Josef, Ester, Hector, Jahel,

|

278

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

what is now the Victoria and Albert Museum bought cupboard doors, or falling fronts, carved in oak with 1 and 2).8 All four panels copy an undated engraving 1562) showing four busts in medallions on a panel

for £50 two panelled medallion heads (Figs. by Virgil Solis (1514with satyrs (J/lustrated

Bartsch, Solis 442, Bartsch 297) and with name labels that read: OTHO, QV,

MAVRI, and APOLINA (Fig. 3).° The carved panel showing a fully-bearded man in profile who wears an elaborate plumed helmet, copies Solis’s ,OTHO” roundel faithfully. The adjoining panel shows a décolleté woman

with unbound hair flowing from beneath a shallow bonnet; her loose robe is

knotted at her throat where an outer garment also appears to be gathered up into a piece of strapwork. Shown in part-profile, with both eyes visible albeit turned towards the bust of Otho on the adjacent panel, she is equally closely copied from Solis’s portrait of the figure labelled ,, QV.” The third bust, on the museum’s second falling front, shows a younger man, in profile, beardless and with close-cropped hair and a spiked imperial crown secured by a knotted ribbon behind, and wearing an open-collared doublet. All of these details faithfully copy Solis’s image of ,,MAVRI.” Facing him we see a young woman with her hair bound up beneath an imperial spiked crown, and with a long pendent earring; the folds of a loose gown are draped over her left shoulder and secured over the right shoulder by a ribbon: these details copy Solis’s image of ,,APOLINA” very closely. All four panels decorate the spaces of the square frame surrounding the medallion with small amorini and other grotesque details, none of which is found in the engraving. So who are these named personages? We might plausibly identify the two emperors as Holy Roman emperor Otto I (912-973), and Byzantine emperor Maurice Tiberius (c.515-602). Genuine coinage displaying the portraits of both these emperors certainly exists, however none of it

resembles Solis’s medallions: these are evidently invented and fictitious

portraits. The identity of the two females is even more doubtful, and their

name-labels do not help. We might assume that these confronting couples were meant to represent the emperors together with their respective

empresses, but although Otto married Queen Adelaide of Italy and initiated

the imperial Ottonian dynasty in the West there is no known medal of her that resembles the portrait in this engraving, whose ,,QV” monogram makes

Bath: Sixteenth-Century Romayne heads

279

no kind of sense. Moreover there was certainly no empress called Apolina: Maurice married Constantina, daughter of his predecessor, Emperor Tiberius IT. Inscriptions on ancient coins are admittedly often obscure even when they are legible, and much scholarly effort would eventually be put into recording and deciphering them by learned writers on epigraphy, from Fulvio onwards.'9 However, the casual naming of these evidently invented portraits suggests that they were not intended for sale to an informed scholarly viewer: all that was required of a decorative pattern print, apparently, was that it should show a sufficiently ,,antique” looking portrait. Name labels that might reinforce its classical pretensions are seemingly random and optional. Virgil Solis (1514-1562) was among the most prolific of the sixteenthcentury designers of such ornament prints. Working in Nuremberg, where he or his workshop produced more than two thousand woodcuts or intaglio prints between 1540 and c.1570, he was responsible for book illustrations— including editions of Vitruvius (1548), Ovid (1563), Aesop (1565) and The Bible (1565)—but much of his work was published as single-sheet prints, including both subject- and pattern-prints aimed, as Anthony Wells-Cole puts it, ,at professional tradesmen, to assist them in the design and decoration

of needlework

and

lace, jewelry, armor,

furniture, and wood-

carving, ceramics and metalwork.’ Solis’s designs have been identified as the source for various decorative designs in England, such as overmantels at Loseley, Surrey, and at Haddon Hall, Derbyshire, for wall paintings at Stodmarsh Hall, Kent, copying his Planetary Deities, for the Sheldon tapestry woven for Sir Ralph Sheldon himself at Weston Park, War-

wickshire, for an embroidered cushion cover at Hardwick Hall, Derbyshire,

showing Europa and the Bull, and for wooden trenchers painted with Bible illustrations in Strangers Hall, Norwich.'? Solis’s prints were used elsewhere in Europe in a wide range of different applications: the English applications

identified by Wells-Cole all date, however, from the 1560s through to the

early-seventeenth

century.

The

thirty-odd

prints

of

medallion

heads

engraved by Solis in the 1540s and 1550s (/Mlustrated Bartsch, vol.19, Solis

nos. 433-462, Bartsch 294-303) include not only named classical or biblical figures such as JOSEF, ESTER, HECTOR, JAHEL, HANIWAL, JVDIT

(Illustrated Bartsch, no. 453, Bartsch 301, cf n. 7 above) but also their

modern successors—emperors Charles V, Ferdinand I, Henry VIII and their

wives (Illustrated Bartsch, Solis no. 437, Bartsch 295).!> Nearly all of his Haniwal, Judit, ///ustrated Bartsch 453 (301). 8 The panels have occasionally been displayed in the museum, and two of them are illustrated in Eleanor Rowe (ed.), French Wood Carvings from the National Museums: Second Series — Sixteenth Century (London. 1896), pl. XXXII. 9 Adam Bartsch, Le Peintre Graveur (Leipzig, 1824-67), W. Strauss, ed. The Illustrated Bartsch (New York, 1978- ). The source of these panels was identified by J. G. Dunbar,

The Stirling Heads (Edinburgh, 1975): 26.

10 On epigraphy in numismatics see Cunnally, Jmages of the Illustrious, 68, 74, 138.

11 Wells-Cole, Art and Decoration, 8. 12 Wells-Cole, 24-26, for the Hardwick cushion cover, see Michael Bath, Emblems for a

Queen: The Needlework of Mary Queen of Scots (London, 2008), Fig. 4.29. 13 The engraving is also reproduced in Hollstein’s German Engravings, Etchings and

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

280

antique examples appear to be invented—one would look in vain in Renaissance coin cabinets for antique coins of such people as Joseph, Judith, Hannibal, Hector of Troy, or Romulus. In about half of Solis’s prints showing ,romayne” heads the figures are unlabeled and anonymous: these are all pseudo-antique inventions. The Victoria and Albert Museum’s panels were part of the substantial purchase made in 1895 from Emile Peyre (1824-1904), a notable Parisian collector of French medieval and renaissance artefacts. In 1895 the South Kensington Museum (renamed Victoria and Albert Museum in 1900) bought more than 300 pieces of furniture and woodwork from him, as well as sculpture and metalwork, at a cost of £11,878 16s 9d.'* This double panel and its companion are listed in the sale catalogue as ,,2 Cupboard doors with fall-down

front, renaissance

medallions

with

heads.”

Purchases

from

the

Peyre collection also included several further medallion panels which were not retained in South Kensington but sent to museums in Edinburgh and Dublin. Of these, two panels set in a very similar frame came to what was then known as the Museum of Science and Art in Edinburgh in 1895 and these are illustrated alongside our two panels in Eleanor Rowe (ed.), French

Wood Carvings from the National Museums, published only the following

year.!5 These are now conserved in The National Museum of Scotland, and they show two confronting male and female heads in profile. (Figs. 4 and 5) Examination of the joinery in which the panels are now mounted leaves little doubt that the Edinburgh panels come from the same piece of furniture as the four that have remained in the Victoria and Albert Museum. The treatment of frames and surrounding decorative detail, with full-length amorini displaying a cherub’s head above the medallion roundel and, below the roundel, bird-like grotesques, is also very similar. The rectangular panels in Edinburgh are, admittedly, slightly larger than those in the Victoria and Albert Museum, however, and all six have apparently at some time been remounted in joinery which has been cut to insert strap hinges: these are what evidently persuaded Eleanor Rowe (and the museum) to describe them as doors, and the position of such hinges at the bottom of each door justifies their description as falling fronts. Each of these ,,doors” has its two

medallions carved with confronting male and female pairs, and the fact that

those on the two Victoria and Albert Museum examples match the similarly

confronting pairs on Solis’s engraving confirms that the panels preserve

Woodcuts 1400-1700, vol. 64, Part II, Solis πο. 331, ed. Giulia Bartrum (Rotterdam, 2004): 35. Solis also engraved a separate print showing reversed copies of the ,Apolina” and ,,Otho” medallions, Hollstein, vol. 64, Part I, Solis no. 776 (Rotterdam, 2004): 73. 14 See Paul Williamson, Netherlandish Sculpture 1450-1550 (London: V&A Publications, 2002), pp. 26-28. 15 Rowe, 1896, PLXXXII.

Bath: Sixteenth-Century Romayne heads

281

their original pairings, whatever changes or remounting they may have suffered when the original piece of furniture to which they evidently both belonged was broken up. The Edinburgh panels show a male bearded figure with shoulder-knotted toga, an elaborate helmet, and holding a circular shield (Fig. 4); the female wears a shoulder-knotted blouse and an ornate headpiece over flowing tresses of hair (Fig. 5). These heads do not copy any pattern-print that I have been able to identify, and I suspect that they were invented by the carver, or his designer. They certainly do not copy the same Solis engraving as the four panels at the Victoria and Albert Museum whose four medallions could not, of course, supply any further examples for carving on the same piece of furniture. In addition to these panels from the Peyre collection that were sent, in 1895, to Edinburgh, twenty-two further pieces of renaissance woodcarving from the same collection were sent or gifted in 1896 to what is now the National Museum of Ireland in Dublin. Of these no fewer than nine are listed in the accessions register as examples of paneling with ,,a circular medallion” and it is at least possible that some of these might have come originally from the same piece of furniture as the panels that concern us. Unfortunately, however, these accessions were stored off-site in Dublin for

the next fifty years where they became badly infested with woodworm, and in 1966 many of them were approved for destruction in order to prevent further infestation. It has proved, so far, impossible to locate or identify any of the remaining Peyre panels in Dublin, and hence anything they might have told us about the piece of furniture they originally came from or its iconography cannot now be known.!6 Such pairings of confronting male and female heads are extremely common with early decorative medallions and certainly reflect their numismatic origins. Ancient coins themselves include both male and female figures, imperial coinage often including the profiles of the various emperors’ wives; indeed, as early as 1558 Italian artist and engraver Enea Vico produced a set of prints illustrating exclusively the profiles of emperors’ wives, and Virgil Solis himself produced sets showing only female heads. Rouille’s Promptuarium uses a page-format which places the medallions in pairs, with such marital couples normally shown facing each other. This orientation of medallion portraits according to gender, males to the viewer's left facing right, females to the right facing left, becomes absolutely conventional and de rigueur in the decorative arts, and it is possible that the page-format of

such popular books as Rouille’s Promptuarium French,

Italian, and Spanish,

(1553, with versions in

and an enlarged second

edition, 1577-1578)

16 I am indebted to curator Jennifer Goff for information about the Dublin records and holdings of Peyre Collection materials.

282

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

might have influenced such pairings.!7 Perhaps the most impressive and widespread application of such male-female pairs in the decorative arts is to be found on the carved paneling of clothes presses or armoires. A comparatively large number of these has survived, and I believe that an even larger number of the detached panels which connoisseurs and collectors bought in the nineteenth and twentieth centuries, often in the mistaken belief that they were examples of wainscot paneling, can now be shown to have come from such clothes presses. These normally have two large doors each divided into eight rectangular panels, with four male and four confronting female medallions on each door.'® It is a safe assumption with examples of such paneling that if there are sixteen surviving panels of the right size, with eight male and eight female profiles, then they probably originated on such an armoire. When such moveable furniture was eventually discarded or broken up, it is always the carved paneling that was likely to have been preserved, if only because of its artistry and interest, and when acquired by later owners of historic houses the invariable assumption seems to have been that it was carved wainscot paneling.'? The slightly different dimensions of the two Edinburgh panels, compared with the four in the Victoria and Albert Museum, make it unlikely that they all derive either from uniform wainscot paneling, or from the door to an armoire, and it is not 17 This orientation is not invariable in the numismatic books: Jacopo Strada’s Epitome thesauri antiquitatum (Zurich, 1553), for instance, shows female heads facing in either

direction, even when paired, and he does not hesitate to pair up two female medallions.

18 Examples of such clothes presses with medallion paneling can be seen in Edinburgh,

National Museum of Scotland, ,,Queen Mary Cabinet” (see Fig. 6), in Glasgow, The Burrell Collection, and at Nostell Priory, Yorkshire. Further examples are illustrated in

Victor Chinnery, Oak Furniture: the British Tradition (Woodbridge, 1979), Fig. 4.22 and in Murray Adams-Acton, Domestic Architecture and Old Furniture (London, 1928), Fig. 82. 19 Examples of such alleged ,,wainscot” paneling that almost certainly originated on the doors of a clothes press can be seen in Edinburgh, National Museum of Scotland, ,,Guise Palace Panels,” and Stirling, Smith Gallery and Museum, on which see Michael Bath, The Stirling Heads and the Smith Panels,” Forth Naturalist and Historian 29 (2006): 11-15. The insertion of carved medallion panels of various types and of uncertain

provenance is characteristic of such sites as Taymouth Castle, Perthshire, where the Earl

of Breadalbane put some fine medallion panels with grotesques on the walls of his neobaronial castle in the nineteenth century. At Temple Newsam House, Yorkshire, the inbuilt buffet uses linenfold and medallion panels from Bretton Hall, Yorkshire. Hutton Castle Dining Room was refurbished by Sir William Burrell with paneling, probably from Harrington Hall, Lincolnshire, and is now reconstructed in Glasgow, The Burrell Collection. The best-known examples of actual wainscot paneling are from a destroyed

house in Waltham Abbey, Hertfordshire, purchased by the Victoria and Albert Museum in 1899 but now displayed in the Waltham Abbey museum; they are illustrated and discussed by H. Clifford Smith, The Panelled Rooms VI. The Waltham Abbey Room (London, 1924).

Bath: Sixteenth-Century Romayne heads

283

easy to reconstruct or illustrate from known fexamples of historical furniture just what these three surviving ,,doors” might originally have been used for. At some point before 1895 all three double panels in their framework appear to have been sawn out of the larger framework; rebates have been cut on the edges exposing tenons and mortices, and strap hinges and a lock receiver have been added so that they could have functioned as small cupboard doors, although this means that the roundel panels would have been turned on their sides with their carved heads facing the floor or the ceiling. The unlikelihood of this accounts for the museum’s description of the mounted and hinged panels as ,,falling fronts,” a description which at least assumes that the heads were displayed the right way up. It is, however, doubtful whether the mounted panels were originally hinged. The common assumption in catalogues or guide-books that such malefemale pairs must be portraits of their original owners has to be treated with some scepticism since we seldom, if ever, have independent portraits that might verify any likeness between such ,,Romayne” heads and the original owners, and the more heads there are on a single piece of furniture the less likely it is that any two could be singled out as those of their owners. Clearly they cannot be owner portraits if they copy existing illustrations of medals, and I suggest that the readiness of our carver to resort to pattern prints means that the conventions underlying all such decorative applications are quite different from those which were emerging at this period for genuine portraiture.2 The truth is that very few, if any, medallion heads in the applied arts have ever been convincingly identified as actual portraits and they are probably ruled by a quite different set of conventions, in which it is the art of the medal with its invention of fictitious pseudo-classical portraits that governs the creation of such medallion figures. This would also account for a carver’s readiness to include both copied and seemingly invented portraits on the same piece of furniture. To sum up, the two falling fronts at the Victoria and Albert Museum are of exceptional interest because they are among the very few such examples of medallion roundels in the applied arts which have, as yet, been shown to copy contemporary pattern prints. These should therefore be added to the growing corpus of decorative artefacts which recent research, by Anthony Wells-Cole and others, has documented as evidence of the widespread influence of prints on the applied arts of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries—a development which ought to be recognised as ἃ truly Gutenberg revolution in the visual arts, based on the circulation of multiple 20 There were, of course, real connections between the development of the medal and

the emerging conventions of Renaissance portraiture, for which see Cunnally, Images of the Illustrious, 95-104. See also Milan Pelc, ///ustrium Imagines: Das Porträtbuch der Renaissance (Leiden, 2002).

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

284

copies of the same image. My failure to identify a print source for the two panels now in Edinburgh suggests that their carver was prepared to include both originals and copies on the same piece of furniture, and although it is always possible that a print source for the Edinburgh panels may eventually turn up, it is evident that it would have to be a different print since the Solis

print copied for the Victoria and Albert’s four panels includes only these four heads. It is only when a larger number of such prints have been identified as sources fot the innumerable medallion heads in the decorative arts at this period that we shall be able to draw any reliable conclusions as to how their craftsmen used their source materials, or how far they combined original designs with received or borrowed materials. Identification of Virgil Solis as their source now means that the Victoria and Albert panels cannot if these

be any earlier than the 1540s, and

two examples

are rare or ex-

ceptional in their use of early numismatic illustrations, they are nevertheless wholly typical of such ,,romayne” heads in their use of confronting malefemale pairs and in their use of further, classical detail—grotesque-work and amorini—in the surrounding panel-work.?! Such decorative detail becomes ubiquitous in the decorative arts of this period, but its classical status as antique

work”

associated with leave

little

room

means

such for

that

it is

nowhere

pseudo-classical doubt

more

appropriate

profiles. This

that, wherever

we

than

combination

encounter

them,

when

should

such

de-

corative medallions are sending strong signals of a truly renaissance, classical

style in the applied arts of this period.

Bath: Sixteenth-Century Romayne heads WORKS

Adams-Acton,

Murray.

285 CITED

Domestic Architecture and Old Furniture.

London,

1928. Bartsch, Adam. Le Peintre Graveur.

Leipzig, 1824-1867.

Bath, Michael. Emblems for a Queen: The Needlework of Mary Queen of Scots. London, 2008.

___. Renaissance Decorative Painting in Scotland. Edinburgh, 2003. _. The Stirling Heads Historian 29 (2006): 11-15.

and

the

Smith

Panels.

Forth

and

Naturalist

Cooper, Richard. ,,Collectors of Coins and Numismatic Scholarship in Early Renaissance France.” In Medals and Coins from Budé to Mommsen. Ed. MH. Crawford, C.R. Ligota, and J.B. Trapp. London, 1990.

Chinnery, Victor. Oak Furniture: the British Tradition. Woodbridge, 1979. Clifford Smith, H. The Panelled Rooms

VI. The Waltham Abbey Room.

London, 1924.

Cunnally, John. Images of the Illustrious: the Numismatic Presence in the Renaissance Princeton, 1999.

Dunbar, 1.0. The Stirling Heads. Edinburgh, 1975. Folz, Robert.

The Concept of. Empire in Western Europe. London,

1969.

Jones, Mark. ,,‘Proof Stones of History’: The Status of Medals as Historical Evidence in Seventeenth-Century France.” In Medals and Coins from Bude to Mommsen. 53-72.

Pelc, Milan.

Ed. M .H. Crawford, C.R. Ligota, and J.B. Trapp. London,

/{ustrium

Imagines:

Das

Portritbuch der Renaissance.

1990,

Leiden,

2002.

21 The

expression

,,romayne

[1.6, Roman]

heads” is, 1 believe, quite modern,

despite its

affectation of an antique spelling, and it does not appear to have been at all widely used

in the sixteenth century. It remains, however, a useful descriptor if only because it signals

the classical basis of all such medallion portraiture in the applied arts of this period.

Rowe,

Eleanor (ed.). French

Wood Carvings from the National Museums:

Second Series-Sixteenth Century. London, 1896.

Emblems,

286

Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

Scher, Stephen K. (ed.). The Currency of Fame: Renaissance New York and London, 1994.

Portrait

Medals

of the

Bath: Sixteenth-Century Romayne

heads

FIGURES

Strada, Jacopo. Epitome thesauri antiquitatum. Zurich, 1553. Strauss, W. (ed.) The Illustrated Bartsch. New York, 1978- .

Weiss, Roberto. The Renaissance Discovery of Classical Antiquity. Oxford and

New York, 1969, second edition 1988, especially chapter 11: ,,The Study of

Ancient Numismatics.”

Wells-Cole, Anthony. Art and Decoration in Elizabethan and Jacobean England:

The Influence of Continental Prints,

1558-1625.

New

Haven

and

London, 1997.

Williamson, Paul. Netherlandish Sculpture 1450-1550. London: V&A

Publi-

cations, 2002.

Figure 1 Cupboard door of oak with carved medallion panels.

50 x 71 cm. London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 798-1895,

from the Peyre Collection. Photo courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

288

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

Bath: Sixteenth-Century Romayne heads

Figure 3 Virgil Solis, etched and engraved ornament print,

with imperial medallions and satyrs, c. 1550.

London, Victoria and Albert Museum, E.1791-1923.

Photo courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Figure 2 Cupboard door of oak with carved medallion panels. 50 x 71 cm. London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 799-1895,

from the Peyre Collection.

Photo courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum.

Figure 4 Medallion panel on cupboard door of oak from the Peyre Collection. 49 x 80 cm.

Edinburgh, National Museum of Scotland, A.1895-506. Photo courtesy of National Museums of Scotland.

289

290

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics Veritas filia Dei. The Iconography of Truth Between Two Cultural

Horizons in the [thika hieropolttica ANTONIO

BERNAT VISTARINI and TAMAS SAJO

Universitat de les Illes Balears

Studiolum Publisher, Budapest Abstract

This study analyzes the depiction of Truth as it appears in the Russian emblem book Heixa iepononimika (Ithika hieropolitica, 1712), against the background of the western tradition of this allegory. Truth, in this context, is a figure that combines traits of the topos Veritas filia Temporis (Truth daughter of Time) and that of Veritas filia Dei (Truth daughter of God), forging for itself a place that is doubtless original in the moral and religious literature of the Russian Christian Orthodox tradition. In this unique combination, the iconographical direction marked by Cesare Ripa fuses with that marked

by

Pietro

Aretino,

Cartari,

Marcolini,

La

Perriére,

etc. The

specific context of the publication of the /thika hieropolitika helps to explain the apparent contradictions found in the image and text of the emblem. I. When we were offered the opportunity to participate in this homage to Pedro Campa, we thought immediately of one of his areas of research interest that is surely less familiar to the Hispanic world, but to which he has contributed some valuable studies (Campa 2002, Campa 2008). We are referring to Russian emblematic

studies, a genre which, in spite of its late

and hardly abundant development in that country, is without question both important and attractive. After reviewing the major work of Russia’s emblematic production, it occurred to us that it might be interesting to study the background of an image that attracted our attention some time ago and which, at the same time, has close ties to a lively topic that is quite privileged by modern iconology. It is the depiction of Truth incarnated in the formula

Veritas filia temporis [Truth, daughter of Time] (Fig. 1).

Our

Figure 5 Medallion panel on cupboard door of oak from the Peyre Collection. 49 x 80 cm.

Edinburgh, National Museum of Scotland, A.1895-506, Photo courtesy of National Museums of Scotland.

point

of departure,

then,

is this

peculiar

illustration

that

we

first

glimpsed in the bookstalls of a street vendor in Moscow. It appeared in a brochure advertising an exhibit of eighteenth-century printed works at the Lenin Library—later the Russian State Library—and it came from a book titled Heixa iepononimixa (1712). The image featured a woman garbed in a baroque

tunic, with a sun in her left hand, and in the other hand,

an open

book towards which she directed her gaze. We read on the page of the

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

292

book: CJIOBO BOXIE [God’s Word] and above the image floats the word Vcruna [Truth]. Of course, anyone versed in this sort of allegory immediately thinks of the work of the Perugian author Cesare Ripa (/conologia, 1593), whose influence in the realm of literature and the symbolic imagination of the European Baroque is difficult to exaggerate. See Fig. 2. Ripa’s Iconologia was translated into eight languages and published in forty-three different editions up until the end of the nineteenth century, by which time its prestige and utilization as a reference manual finally ebbed. Nevertheless and in spite of the overwhelming success of this book, it is still quite exceptional to detect the presence of Ripa in a Russian book, and even more so in one written in ancient ecclesiastical Slavic (the first Slavic language of a literary nature), such as the book upon which we will comment here. The deep rooting of emblematic and allegorical literature in both Catholic and Protestant Europe had no parallel in the orthodox territories. Pedro Campa (2008) only mentions two or three similar attempts, always in the western orbit and in a Polish or Jesuit context (James 1992, Polcin 1957).

Strictly speaking, the first Russian emblem book, Symbola et emblemata

Ονμδϑοποι u emônemama, was commissioned directly by Peter the Great—no less—in 1705 from the Amsterdam merchant Jan Tesing. It is a collection of 840 emblems selected from the most popular examples from western emblematic literature. Their mottoes, generally in Latin, are translated here into French, Italian, Spanish, Dutch, English and for the first time into Russian (Ambodick 1788, Ghini 1999, Hippisley 1989 and 1992). Of course, this book was just one part of a vaster program of westernizing reforms undertaken by the Czar, who was also eager to disseminate such a persuasive genre among the Russian public. His efforts, nevertheless, barely garnered any followers. The book from which the image of Truth that we have reproduced above proceeds, Hoika iepononimika, although published seven years after the

emblem

book

commissioned

by

Peter

the

Great,

is

completely

independent of that initiative. It does not derive its inspiration from those emblems nor is it, strictly speaking, an emblem book, but rather a philosophical and moral work with emblematic engravings. It is attributed to Afanasy Mislavsky and, although his authorship is quite dubious, the fact that he was the Archimandrite of the Monastery of Pechersk Lavra, also known as the Kiev Monastery of the Caves, during the years 1710-1714 (he died in 1714), leads one to believe that at the very least he played some role

Bernat and Saj6: Veritas filia Dei in promoting three pages a on the Bible the Catalogue

the work.! concept by and diverse of Ancient

293

Each one of its brief chapters presents in two or means of a formal meditative development based ecclesiastical authors. It is described as follows in Printed Ukrainian Books:

873. Ithika? ieropolitika ili filosofiya nravouchitelnaya symvolami i priupodobleniya izyasneniya ... [Religious and political ethics, that is to say, a philosophy that teaches the good by means of symbols and reasoned similarities ...] Kiev, Press of the Monastery, 1712. Engravings: Skoropadsky’s coat of arms (interior frontispiece), 67 full-page illustrations. Engraver: Nokodim Zubritsky.

This is a philosophical and moral work that presents the basic rules of social ethics, philosophy, and education in poetic form. The engravings illustrate

concepts

such

as

humility,

gentleness,

patience,

piety,

hope,

parsimony, valor, the love of parents for their children, equality, the reading of books, the academy or school, and so on. 1 The Russian Biographical Dictionary in the entry dedicated to Mislavsky, evokes this

controversy by commenting that some writers (the Metropolitan Evgeny and Archbishop Filarete) consider him to be its author, and others, such as the relevant eighteenth-

century historian Pyotr Pekarsky, deny it. The Russian Biographical Dictionary also deals with this book in the entry dedicated to ,,Philosophy.” Mislavsky’s alleged intervention is not made clear here either, but it is indeed interesting to note that the /thika is highly valued in this entry as a philosophical work with these words: ,,The field of philosophical

literature in Russia up until the eighteenth century has barely been explored. The first book, written by Kiev philosophers, /thika hieropolitika |...] was composed by Afanasy Mislavsky. ...” Cf. the web version of the Dictionary: and .

2 At times, the title of this book is transcribed incorrectly in western literature as Ifika.

What is certain is that the original title does not include a ® (,,Ef’), but rather a © (.Fita”), the Cyrillic equivalent of the Greek 0 (,,theta”), which was eliminated by the Russian orthographic reform of 1918, but which in Latin characters is normally transcribed as À,,th”. 3 Udixa iepononitixa, unm dinocodia Hpasoyumrennas [cvmsoramu CVM601b1 u npuynonoGnenua H3acHeHHa]... Kuïs, apykapaa sappy, 1712. 12°. [10], 174, 2 apk. Pauxis — 25. par: 10 paakis — 38 MM. lpasiopy: rep6 CKkoporazcEkHX (3B. THTYJIY, MEAEPHT), 67 intoctpani B rekcri 3 67 xouoK (Mixepar — ΟΦΟΡΤΗ), sacraska. BanuBHi npHKpacH. lpasep: Ημκοπημ 3y6puubKuii. Dinocohcskko-MoparicrH4HHË TBip, πὸ y BipwoBaniii OpMi

BHKNAJEHO

OCHOBHI

HOPMH

CYCHLIBHOÏ

ETHKH,

MOpami,

pinocoit

Ta nezaroriuni

HactaHoBH. ΓΡΑΒΙΌΡΗ DIOCTPYIOTR Taki MOHATTA, AK «CMHPeHHe», «KPOTOCTb»», «reprenne», «G1aro1aTb», KHAJEKJHA», «ΟΙΠΆΠΗΟΘΟΤΡ», (ÉOAPOCTB), «IKO60Bb ΡΟΠΗΤΟΠΘΗ KO ΠΆΠΟΜ», «paBeHCTBO», KKHHT YTEHHE), KAKAIEMHA WIM YAHJIHIE) TOMO. ŸHAOMECKHÏ, 1493; Tlerpos, Bapiok, 3onorapr,

425; BhixoBa, l'ypesnu,

1958, 91; Heparnnea,

221;

Makcumenko, 328. ΠΒΠ, AIM, LUJAJIA, JULIE, JB, BAH, ΠΗΡ, JIBAH, HBJITY BAH BPCP.

294

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

The illustrations that help visualize each of the concepts, subsequently developed in a stanza of four verses, can usually be related to some western European visual source: an emblem, an allegory or a biblical image. It is not odd that this should be the case, since it had only been a few decades since Kiev had ceased to belong to the Polish-Lithuanian Commonwealth and been incorporated into the Russian Empire. ,,Ruthenia,” as the province was still known at the time, enjoyed a high degree of autonomy within the Empire and maintained its cultural connections with Poland and through it, with the rest of western Europe. The printing press of the same monastery published works in Polish and Latin as well, and its library housed a fair number of the works of classical authors, Catholic theological treatises and erudite works (Charipova 2003). This monastery, as we have indicated above, was the Pecherska Lavra, ot Monastery of the Caves, of Kiev, the oldest one in the Ukraine, and one

of the most influential centers of Orthodoxy in eastern Europe. It was the seat of one of the three printing presses operational in the Ukraine during those years. The other two were in the Holy Trinity Monastery in Chernigov, and in the Dormition Fraternity (later called the Stavropigia Fraternity), in Lwôw. The monastery supported the most important university of the region, the Kiev-Mohyla Academy, established as such

since 1658, where the elite orthodox intellects were educated, students who came from as far away as Lithuania, Bulgaria, and Serbia, Poland and the

Romanian Principalities. The name of the Academy derived from its founder, the Metropolitan (archbishop) of Kiev and Archimandrite of Pechersk Lavra, Petro Mohyla (1596-1646), descendent of an ancient boyar family of Moldavia, son of the Prince of Moldavia, Ieremia Movila (1595-1606, the rebuilder of the famous Monastery of Sucevita) and of the

Hungarian Erzsébet Csomortäny de Losonc. His father was a defender of the alliance with Poland, and his mother played a crucial role in the ascent of Moldavian Catholicism. To the broad cultural horizon that he had inherited, Mohyla further enriched himself with studies in European universities, and

as the Metropolitan of Kiev, he worked to promote the diffusion of western

culture, education, and the academic system; likewise, through his relationship with the orthodox church, he promoted scholastic theology, the

use of Latin and the maintenance of contacts with Poland and the West. He was an outstanding orthodox theologian who managed to solve a long series of conflicts between the churches of Constantinople, Russia, and MoldaviaWallachia. Today he is venerated as a saint in the orthodox churches of the Ukraine, Romania, and Poland. Thus, the genesis of the Jthika and of a group

of works

of similar

content is due very probably to the current of western ideas promulgated by Mohyla. The /thika is a didactic work, dedicated to explaining its concepts

Bernat and Sajo: Veritas filia Dei

295

clearly and simply; to a certain extent, it is like a catechism in images” along the same lines as those produced in Europe as a result of the philosophical and ecclesiastical renovations of the first third of the sixteenth century—the impulse of which will also reach Ripa (Saj6 1997); and the Jthika will also stand as the first representative of this genre in the orthodox world. Sergei Zagrebny, in his summary of the history of the la Mohyla Academy,

explicitly mentions the /thika among the most important and representative

works of the followers of the spiritual legacy of the literary school founded by Petro Mohyla. The 1712 edition of the /thika opens with the coat of arms of the Cossack Hetman Ivan Skoropadsky (1708-1722), the most powerful Ukrainian landowner of his epoch. Skoropadsky, who was a student and later a benefactor of the Mohyla Academy (Gajecky 1985), became the supreme leader of the Ukrainian Cossacks after the fall of the previous leader, Mazepa, who had rebelled against Peter the Great. He accepted Russian control, but at the same time, he defended Ukrainian autonomy in a manner similar to that which Petro Mohyla and his academy advocated. It is worth mentioning that one of his descendents, Pavlo Skoropadsky, would be the leader of the ill-fated Ukranian state between 1918-1920. While Skoropadsky was still alive, the Czar respected the autonomy of Ukraine, given the excellent service that he had rendered to the Empire. But after his death the tensions rekindled anew. As a first step, censorship was introduced, as early as 1720: the presses were only allowed to issue reprints of earlier works

and

traditional ecclesiastical books,

while

the works

of

Mohyla’s followers were explicitly banned (Zapasko, J. — J. Isaevich 1984). And thus ended a promising adventure of half a century that attempted to open the orthodox church to the West and undertake an internal intellectual reformation. And owing to the same cause as well, the literary genre inaugurated with the /thika remained without followers.

Nevertheless, the book was reissued in 1718, in Saint Petersburg, also in

ancient ecclesiastical Slavic, but now with Russian orthography. In all probability, the new westernizing airs restored to it its lost public. A few decades later, in 1760, the presses of Lwéw, a city that had remained under

Polish control and where the Orthodox Church maintained its openness towards western European culture, issued it again. Two further editions

followed from the Russian capitals, in 1764 in Saint Petersburg and in 1796

in

Moscow.

Both

were

unillustrated,

and

emblematic substratum was lost from then on.

for

that

reason,

the

book’s

A collateral development of the history of the reception of the Jthika is

its 1774 Vienna edition. The illustrations were restored here, but newly elaborated in a rococcesque style. Ljiljana Stoëié comments on the history of this edition in her work on the western models of Serbian baroque sculpture

296

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

(Stosié 1992). For Serbian orthodoxy, oriented towards the West once the wars against the Turks ended at the beginning of the eighteenth century, the images facilitated the absorbing of western models and their application to orthodox themes. Stosi¢ mentions a great number of works of art along these lines, from places as diverse as Belgrade or Szentendre (Hungary). The

artists of these works inspired by the /thika used, for the most part, the Kiev

edition of 1712, which the Serbian students who had passed through the halls of the Mohyla Academy took back home with them. Once the copies of this edition were exhausted, there arose a need for a new Serbian edition.

By ,,Serbian” we obviously mean to indicate here the purchasers or users of the book, since its language continued to be the same ancient ecclesiastical Slavic, read and written by all orthodox intellectuals, from Moscow to

Tirana (Albania) to Bucharest. And since the most important centers of Serbian culture for the Serbian merchant or burgess who conducted his business along the Danube were Vienna and Buda—it is no accident that Vuk Karadzi¢ undertook the renovation of Serbian in the latter city—it was only natural that the decision was made to publish the book in the Serbian press of Vienna. See Fig, 3. In spite of the fact that the Jthika, as we have seen, was an important and original work in numerous respects at its moment, critics have virtually ignored it. In the West—apart from the summaries by Pedro Campa previously mentioned, and that by Anthony Hippisley (Hippisley 1984, 1992)— it is a work that remains practically unknown. Russian bibliographical studies only mention it in passing when they take up the history of printing in the eighteenth century. Ukranian critics have now begun to discover it as a legitimate specimen of their literature. Recent articles highlight its role as a transmitter of western allegorical language as far east as Galicia (Poland-Ukraine)

(Zhmurko

2008)

and its influence

on the configuration of

Ukrainian religious iconography (Panok 2007), but not in any kind of detail, and generally referring the reader back to the same source manual: The Art

of the Ukraine from the 16th to the 18th Centuries (Zholtovsky 1984). In-

depth analyses of its text and illustrations, and a comparison with its western models, have yet to be done. Keeping in mind the context delineated for the work, let us return now

to our point of departure: the similarity of the images of Truth in the /thika (Kiev 1712) and in Ripa’s Iconologia (Rome

1603). Why is this allegory a

representation of Truth and how can we explain its attributes? Do we really see the same depiction of Truth in both images?

Bernat and Sajo: Veritas filia Dei

297

IL

We can attempt to establish the meaning of this figure from two different approaches, that is to say, either by means of the image or by reading the four verses of the epigram that accompanies it. As we will see, both approaches have consequences that do not fully coincide. If we look at the image, the pages of the previously mentioned Jconologia (1593) by Ripa immediately come to our aid, with abundant details. Though rather long, it will be helpful to cite the passage in full: An extremely beautiful and naked woman, who holds in her right

hand an image of the sun, towards which she is looking, while in

her other hand she holds an open book and a palm branch. Beneath her right foot the globe of the world is seen. Truth is a habit of the spirit dedicated to not twisting the course of the tongue of the straight and proper existence of those cases of which she speaks or writes, affirming only that which is, and denying that which is not, without ever yielding to any mutation of thought. She appears naked in order to show that simplicity is natural to her. And for that reason Euripides says in the Phoenissae that it is a simple thing to speak the truth, and in order to do so, there is no need for vain and complicated interpretations, since she is alone and opportune.

Aeschylus is of the same opinion, as is Seneca in his Epistle V, de-

claring that the truth is a simple enunciation. And that is why she is naked, just as we said before, and should not be endowed with even

the slightest ornamentation. She should be depicted holding a sun in her hand, symbolizing with this that the truth is a friend of the light, and even that she herself is an extremely clear light, who shows us everything just exactly as it is. It can also be said that she is looking at the Sun, that is to say, at God, without whom there is no light or truth whatsoever, since he alone is the truth in himself; as Christ

Our Lord said on this topic: Ego sum Via, Veritas et Vita. The open book shows that the truth of things is found in books and that the study of the Sciences is carried out within them as well. With the palm branch, truth’s vigor and strength may be signified, for just as the branch does not break with weight, thus truth too never yields to contrary things, and although many may try to oppress it, it always winds up rising anew, growing towards the heights. In addition, the branch also signifies truth’s fortitude and victory, since Aeschines holds, in opposition to Timarchus, that the truth possesses so much strength that it emerges victorious against all human opinions. Bacchylides calls truth omnipotent, and it is given

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

298

the name of wisdom in the Book of Ezra, chap IV. And in addition,

it is said in the sentence of Zerubbabel, the Jew, that truth is stronger than any other thing, rising with its valor above everything, even in the court of Darius, who was the king of Persia. But, why

should I have to adduce such numerous sentences if the known facts of numerous Christians have already proved the same thing with such great abundance, with so many thousands and thousands of persons, of all ages and sexes, and almost all countries, having exposed themselves to shedding their blood, and even to losing their lives in order to sustain the truth of the Christian faith, by which means they achieved such a glorious triumph over such cruel tyrants, and the infinite palm branches and crowns that have always adorned the great Christian truth? As for the globe of the World that she has beneath her foot, this clearly signifies that truth is superior to all other things in this World and is more precious than them, as something divine, and Menander said on this in Nanis that

truth is a citizen of the Heavens and that it is only enjoyed in the dwelling of the gods. [We have translated into English based on the Ripa edition of 1987, 391-392.)

This allegory and its description provide a good example of the method typically employed by Ripa, and consisting of the accumulation of attributes. Although after his ,,rediscovery,” around 1927, Ripa was admired as a

gentleman of infinite erudition” who ,,seems to have had in his hands all of

Antiquity, from Homer to Athenaeus and Boethius, without ignoring the Church Fathers, who quoted from the great medieval authors and contemporary poets and who, when books fell silent, consulted ancient medals

Bernat and Sajé: Veritas filia Dei

fundamental attribute of the Renaissance allegory of Truth, also mentions that in the art of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, only a few allegories can be found in which nakedness is a positive moral sign instead of a more or less vague erotic reference (Vassellin 2008). The case of Titian’s Sacred and Profane Love (1513-14, Galleria Borghese, Rome) is well known, where Sacred Love’s essential nudity is contrasted by the luxurious garments and trappings of Profane Love; and we see a similar relationship between nude Modesty and the richness of Vanity’s clothing in the painting by Giovanni Stradano (Modesty and Vanity, XV1" C., Louvre). In Ripa’s /conologia we find only three allegories of this sort: Truth, Clarity, and Beauty. Nevertheless, while the naked figures of the latter two are taken directly and practically literally from Pierio Valeriano’s Hieroglyphica (1556), the origin of Truth’s nakedness derives from a loftier and mote authoritative composition whose best known version is Botticelli’s Calumny ofApelles (c. 1494), housed in the Uffizi of Florence (Fig. 4). Botticelli drew his information from the description provided by Lucian of Samosata (De Calumnia [On Calumny]) of the now lost painting by the Ephesian Apelles, who had been so precipitously and unjustly condemned by Ptolemy I Soter, but the truth came out in time to save him from his death sentence. Like all of the works by Apelles, this painting did not survive, but thanks to the detailed description given by Lucian it became a topos of composition known as ,,The calumny of Apelles,” enormously popular both because it derived from the most famous painter of Antiquity, and because later on Leén Battista Alberti selected it as the best model of ekphrasis in Book III of his De pictura (1435).° On the right sits a man with long ears almost of the Midas pattern, stretching out a hand to Slander, who is still some way off, but coming. About him are two females whom I take for Ignorance and Assumption. Slander, approaching from the left, is an extraordinarily beautiful woman, but with a heated, excitable air that suggests delusion and impulsiveness; in her left hand is a lighted torch, and with her right she is hauling a youth by the hair; he holds up hands to heaven and calls the Gods to witness his innocence. Showing Slander the way is a man with piercing eyes, but pale, deformed, and shrunken as from long illness; one may easily guess him to be Envy. Two female attendants encourage Slander, acting as tire-women, and adding touches to her beauty; according to the

and coins,” [Emile Male 1932, 185; our translation], in fact a careful analysis

of his sources reveals that he composed his allegories primarily based on ten widely disseminated encyclopedic works (Sajé 1997b, 638). In general, his procedure consisted of borrowing the central image from one of these works and then taking from some of the others the attributes, in order to round off thus the figure’s nuances and variants. Our first impression makes it seem as though Ripa immediately adds to Verity’s basic characteristic of nakedness

the attributes of the sun, the book,

the palm

branch

and the

sphere of the world. Martine Vassellin, while stressing that nakedness is the

4 Ripa describes four variants of Truth or Verity; only one of them is dressed, concretely,

in resplendent white (,,white due to her great similarity to light, whereas a lie has the

appearance of darkness”), and featuring attributes such as scales and a mirror, surely because of her conceptual contiguity with Justice and Wisdom or Prudence. The latter reptesents a somewhat confused iconographical line of investigation that has been little studied, and is, in any case, different from what interests us here.

299

5 Classic, fundamental

and

1922,

Altrocchi

references

1921,

for this well known

Goldschmidt

1957;

and,

topos include: Forster 1887,

more

recently,

Cast

1981,

1894

and

Massing 1990-the latter features a thorough review of all the Renaissance editions and

illustrations of Lucian’s ekphrasis.

300

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

cicerone, one of these is Malice, and the other Deceit.

Following

behind in mourning guise, black-robed and with tornhair, comes (I think he named her) Repentance. She looks tearfully behind her, awaiting shame- faced the approach of Truth. (Lucian 1905, 2-3). From Alberti on, over the course of the next three centuries, a series of

famous artists elaborated their own versions of the episode: Mantegna, Brueghel, Rembrandt, Zuccaro ... In a large number of these images we see Truth depicted as naked, even though the Greek original does not mention this trait. The cause, as Franca Magnani has pointed out (Carretto 1997, XXVI) is that both the Latin version of the episode (1435) as well as the Italian (1436) done by Alberti attribute the expression pudica, which in the original is applied to Repentance to Truth.® Some illustrations that are based on a more careful reading of the original, such as the influential drawing by Mantegna (1500-4) do indeed depict Truth dressed, but by then the topos of naked Truth” had taken root firmly, and it of course remains popular even today in the form of a popular dictum. The figure of Truth, proposed by Apelles, also met with great popularity and exercised a good deal of influence on modern iconography because it was the first allegorical figuration of truth that appeared in Renaissance art. We find representations of the Virtues in the Middle Ages. Justice, in particular, with her scales and sword, comes close to the depiction of Truth, and for that reason we find attempts at hybridization in the sixteenth century aimed at harmonizing both concepts visually (Beer 1981). In the town hall of Lille, for example, there is a figure of Justice with the inscription Veritas [Truth] (cf. Tervarent 1994). And since the middle of the seventeenth century several French courts of justice have been decorated— in a subtle warning to judges—with the scene in which Apollo introduces Truth to Justice (Vassellin 2008). 6 ,,In this painting there was a man with very large ears. Near him, on either side, stood

two women, one called Ignorance, the other Suspicion. Farther, on the other side, came

Calumny, a woman who appeared most beautiful but seemed too crafty in the face. In her right hand she held a lighted torch, with her other hand she dragged by the hair a young man who held up his arms to heaven. There was also a man, pale, ugly, all filthy and with an iniquitous aspect, who could be compared to one who has become thin and feverish with long fatigues on the fields of battle; he was the guide of Calumny and was called Hatred. And there were two other women, serving women of Calumny who arranged her ornaments and robes. They were called Envy and Fraud. Behind these was Penitence, a woman dressed in funereal robes, who stood as if completely dejected. Behind her followed a young girl, shameful and modest, called Truth]. See Alberti 1999, 114. We have taken the English version of this passage of Della pittura from John R. Spencer’s annotated translation; On Painting, Rev. ed., New Haven and London: Yale University Press, 1966, 90-91.

Bernat and Sajo: Veritas filia Dei

301

When we compare Ripa’s allegory of Truth with the image from the Ithika we see that, although the principal motifs and symbols coincide, the images differ in some significant aspects, the most important of which is the decision to depict Truth dressed. We do not know if this robing of the figure is due to an effort to meet the local standards of decency—and in fact her garments are skimpier and tighter against the body than other similar representations—or if instead it has been depicted thus because the Renaissance notion of naked Truth established two centuries eatlier had been completely lost in the orthodox tradition. She does not carry a palm branch in her hand nor is there a globe beneath her foot. And the book that in Ripa symbolized study and the search for knowledge has been transformed, with no possible ambiguity, into the source of the truth of faith by means of the inscription ,,Word of God”. Perhaps this is also due to the assimilation of the allegory in the orthodox conceptual world, since in contrast to Ripa’s epoch, orthodox civilization lacked almost completely an academic literature of this nature, of which the Jthika, the first Russian philosophical work, is one of the earliest examples (cf. the entry Φηποcous” [Philosophy] from the Pyccxui Buozpapuuecxuÿ Caoeapp, the Russian Biographical Dictionary, previously mentioned). In this context, the book, as a source of truth, points directly to the Word of God, to the Gospels. III.

Let us now consider what the text of the accompanying quatrain adds to the meaning of this image. It reads: Bca Bpema ry6ut H BCA TOKpbiIBaeT

Bes TMT BpeMA 4 B KOHell npeBparaer Exuay WcTHHY aku ΟΒΟΘ ΠΠΟΜΗ

XpaHnT 610feT H OTKpbIBaeT BPEMA.

[Time destroys and covers everything, Time undoes everything and leads to its end. Only truth and its descendents Are preserved, protected and revealed by time.] Another face of Renaissance Truth emerges from these verses. It is not

the truth that shines on its own

like the sun, but rather that that other

opressed Truth that must be revealed by Time, a Time that is the annihilator of everything, and which pardons nothing except Truth. Renaissance art unfurled this idea in another specific iconographical formula known as

302

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

Veritas filia Temporis [Truth, daughter of Time.] This is the title that Fritz

Saxl gave to his pioneering and still fundamental essay in order to convey this /ocus (Saxl 1936; but see also Bing 1938, Wittkower 1938, Panofsky

1939, Bosch 1983, and Pierguidi 2005). The formula is found for the first time in Aulus Gellius, Noctes Atticae 12.11.7, but the idea was born much

earlier in ancient literature. In the trgedies of Aeschylus and Sophocles or in the odes of Pindar it is always Time who discovers hidden truth, sins, and

merits. The notion soon became a sentence, and it as such that we find it as far back as Menander, and down through Seneca and Tertullian, and then to

the final Byzantine collections of proverbs. All of these sources were gathered and popularized in the sixteenth century by Erasmus in chapter

2.4.17 (Tempus omnia revelans [Time reveals all]) of his Adagia.

The idea has a clear trail in Renaissance literature beginning in the fifteenth century, however, it is not easy to find its corresponding visual representation.’ It appears associated with another formula of ancient origin. It is the one developed by Vincenzo Cartari in what was probably the most popular iconographical repertory of mythology of the Renaissance, Le

imagini de i dei degli antichi, Venice 1556, augmented ed., 1571, making a reference to Democritus (Fragm. B 117 Diels). It is Truth in a well:

dice Plutarco, non ne la traheua fuori alle volte. (Cartari 1571, 367-368).8

emblem books. Juan de Borja is perhaps the author whose work manifests the greatest

presence of the theme, with four of his Empresas morales (1581-1680) dedicated to truth (with a background that is both baroque and peculiarly pessimistic: I, 124; I, 170; I, 176; II, 294) and two more dedicated to destructive/revealing Time (I, 58 and I, 140). The

baroque undercurrent mentioned, which develops further into the opposition deceitdisillusionment, is also present in Hernando de Soto (Emblemas moralizadas, 1599: emblems. 38 and 39). Covartubias speaks of the relativity of Truth (Emblemas morales,

1610, I. 18) and also of time as the revealer of Truth (III. 74) and as a healer (II. 84).

Nevertheless, in its principal books, Spanish emblematic literature does not depict Truth along the iconographical lines that interest us here (see Bernat—Cull, under the entries for

»Verdad” p. 898, and ,,Tiempo” p. 897). A search of Henkel-Schéne does not yield any

significant results here either. Chinchilla (2005) has studied this topic from the perspective of Cervantes’s reading of La Calumnia de Apeles. Most of the images herein can be seen in www.studiolum.com/en/silva.htm, together with the Spanish translation is hidden

and

does

not allow

herself to be seen

by anyone:

own publisher, the Venetian Francesco Marcolini (Fig. 5).

Pietro Aretino composed this emblem for Marcolini’s edition of the Cinque messe by Adriaen Willaert, in 1536. In his prologue, Aretino dedicates the edition to prince Alessandro de Medici on the occasion of his marriage to Margarita of Austria, the daughter of Emperor Charles V, after having defeated his enemies and recovered the Florentine throne. The image of naked Truth, liberated from her captivity by Time, and adapted to this concrete historical circumstance, pleased Marcolini so much that he adopted it as his printer’s device, using it on the frontispiece of all his works. This visual formula adds an element not present in the text of Democritus: a harpy that struggles to try to force Trurh back down the well, or, according to other sources, into a cave. Saxl points out that we

find

ourselves here faced with an original ,,abbreviation” of the composition of the ,,Calumny of Apelles” which, by highlighting only the two principal elements of the populated and complex painting—Calumny/Envy, and Truth, initially slandered and later triumphant—structured the topos in such a way that it was susceptible to being exploited for emblematic uses. And

A Choice of Emblemes (1586) with the motto Veritas temporis filia. In the

7 The reflection on truth from almost every angle is absolutely central in Spanish literature of the Golden Age; in fiction, of course, but especially in didactic and moral literature (cf., for example, Blanco 2002), and thus it appears frequently in Spanish

[Truth]

Cartari, according to Saxl, may have had before him a pre-existing engraving while crafting his description, specifically, the printer’s mark of his

Democritus himself who points out to Time the well in which Truth hides: »se cachoit pour n’avoir grandz appuys”), in Pegma, by Costalius (Lyons: Matthias Bonhomme, 1555, 247), or in the very influential Emblemata (1565) by Hadrianus Junius, utilized as well by Geoffrey Whitney in his collection,

quindi non vsciua mai, se il tempo, ouero Saturno suo padre, come

8 ,,This

303

thus, we find it in La Morosophie by Guillaume de La Perriére (Lyons: Matthias Bonhomme, 1553, no. 48, where, curiously, it is the figure of

Questa [la Verita] st? occulta, ne si lascia vedere ad ognuno: onde Democrito la pose nel prefondo di vn pozzo, dicendo ch? ella

of the article.

Bernat and Saj6: Veritas filia Dei

since

Junius

example,

,,Veritas

tempore

revelatur”: Time

saves Truth

from

its

enclosure while her enemies, Calumny, Envy, and Discord, attempt to destroy her (cf. Gordon 1940). See Fig. 6. On the other hand, Saxl also makes clear that if indeed the popularity of the formula is due to Aretino, it had already been seen earlier in the frontispiece of the Goodly Primer in Englysshe (1535), by William Marshall, where Time (,,Tyme reueleth all thynges”), with the face of Christ, descends down into the limb of our ancestors and rescues Truth from her prison-cave (,,Truth,

the

doughter

of

tyme”).

Since

this

work

was

a

Protestant

publication it is likely ,,Hypocrisy” and not ,,Calumny” who tries to prevent Time from achieving her mission. Matthew 10:26 appears beneath the pictura as a motto: ,,Nothyng is couered that shall not be discouered. And nothing is hydde, that shall not be reueled.” And this is the same verse used Democritus put her in the bottom of a well, saying that she never came out unless time,

that is to say Saturn, her father, as Plutarch says, did not take her out from time to time.”

304

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

by Erasmus in his previously mentioned review of the history of and literature on the topos in his Adagia (which, of course, along with all the

other biblical quotations, was omitted in the ,,Catholic” Adagia of 1575), for which reason Saxl asumes that the two formulas of Aretino and Matshall,

similar in concept and close together in time, remit to a common source based on the adage by Erasmus. This iconographical formula, sustained by the authority of both ancient and contemporary authors, and which is in close relationship to well known visual paradigms—the ,,Calumny of Apelles,” as well as the ,,Descent of Christ to Limbo”—soon became popular in contemporary art and was frequently depicted until the end of the eighteenth century (Carracci, Allegory of Time and Truth 1584-85, a painting strongly influenced by Cartari;

Bronzino, Allegory of Venus and Cupid c. 1546, a composition with a com-

plex meaning, but framed by Truth and all-revealing Time, cf. Pierguidi 2005; Rubens, The Triumph of Truth 1622-25 on the reconciliation of Marie de’ Medici and her son Louis XIII; Poussin,

commissioned

The

by Cardinal Richelieu; François

Triumph of Truth 1641,

Le Moine

(or Lemoyne),

Time Reveals the Truth 1737; Giovanni Battista Tiepolo, Time Unveiling Truth, 1745, and others.)

Thus, the allegory of Truth from the /thika combines two formulas

from Renaissance iconography: the illustration depicts for us glorious Truth, while the poem speaks of hidden Truth, revealed by Time. In European Renaissance art the two formulas sprang from different visual and literary sources, and emphasized two diverse aspects of Truth. The fact that the author of the /thika seems to have been unaware of this divergence and chose to superimpose them on top of one another can be explained by the circumstances that surrounded the birth of the book as we have outlined above. The orthodox artist who had only just begun to familiarize himself with a Renaissance and Baroque iconography quite disparate from his own culture was not yet able to discern properly the subtleties and intricacies of

some meanings. A further development of the genre initiated by the Ithika

would have certainly paved the way for a deeper knowledge of those still remote twists of meanings and of their applications, if the cultural politics of imperial Russia had not put a halt to the promising opening towards the West, shortly after the publication of the book, undertaken by Ukrainian orthodoxy. In any event, perhaps we will be able to understand the contrast between the poem’s meaning and that of the pictura a little better of we delve a bit further into some of the nuances of the latter, marching further back in

time from the Renaissance topos of the ,,naked truth” in order to appreciate its medieval iconographical background.

Bernat and Sajô: Veritas filia Dei

305

IV. It is no accident

that Fritz Saxl, in the article cited above, dedicates

special attention to cataloguing the appearances of Truth revealed by Time in England. In fact, in the sixteenth century two consecutive queens considered that this image summarized the essence of their reign—as opposed to the preceding one—and thus they appropriated it. When in 1553, after the brief governance of young Edward VI (and Jane Grey after his death), and thwarting all the efforts of the Protestant Privy Council, Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary) ascended to the throne, this unexpected twist surprised all of Europe, stunned at the queen’s change in fortune, and in consequence, that of all Christendom. Saxl reproduces the congratulatory message of Cardinal Pole: And see howe miraculouslye God of hys goodness preserved her hyghnes contrarye to the expectation of manne. That when numbers conspyred agaynste her, and policies were devised to disherit her, and armed power prepared to destroye her, yet she

being a virgin, helpless, naked, and unarmed, prevailed. (emphasis

added; Saxl 1936, 207)

What calls our attention in this letter from Cardinal Pole is the emblem of Truth oppressed, but still prevailing; an image that would play an important role in the regal depiction of Mary. In the drama staged on the occasion of her coronation, the allegorical figure of Truth appears, with a book in her hand, where we read: Verbum Dei [Word of God]. She selected as her personal motto for her blazon, seal, and coins, the words: Veritas temporis filia® What the motto was really meant to express deep down is made clear in another part of Pole’s letter: Time is now come, in order that

the true religion and justice return into the kingdom.”

Five years later, in 1558, Mary’s half-sister, the Protestant Elizabeth I,

was received with the same allegory during the procession to her coronation. It is possible that Elizabeth’s Protestant followers may have availed 9 Cf. Francis Sandford, Genealogical History of the Kings and Queens of England, London,

1701, 499-500: ,,When she [Queen Mary] came to the Kingdom, by persuasion of the

Clergy, she bare

[as her device]

Winged

Time

drawing Truth

out of a Pit, with Veritas

Temporis Filia, which Motto adorns her first Great Seal.” Quoted by Saxl. 10 ,,Between [...] hylles was made artificiallye one hollowe place or cave, with doore and locke enclosed; oute of the whiche, a lyttle before the Quenes Hyghnes commynge

thither, issued one personage, whose name was Tyme, apparaylled as an olde man, with a sythe in his hande, havynge wynges artificiallye made, leadinge a personage of lesser stature then himselfe, whiche was fynely and well apparaylled, all cladde in whyte silke, and directlye over her head was set her name and tytle, in Latin and Englyshe, ,, Temporis

306

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

themselves of Mary’s personal motto as a combative means

to ,,restore their

truth.” On the other hand, the appearance of Truth onstage was not fare in the English tradition (cf. Collier 1831, I, 65. Quoted by Saxl), but now it

included

an element

that had

not

been

mentioned

previously.

Bernat and Sajo: Veritas filia Dei

Adam, the celestial virtues—the angels in the Midrash—debated whether or not this would be a good decision: Mercy

Donald

Gordon, in the study cited above, refers to a work titled Respublica, staged in

1553, the first year of Mary’s reign. It presents to the spectator Truth with a book in her hand, but instead of the inscription Verbum Dei, we see instead: Veritas de terra orta est [1 am sproong oute of the earth]. In his description of the Marshall engraving, Saxl, also alludes to the printer’s device of Johann Knoblouch, of Strasbourg—the publisher of

Luther, Melanchton, and Erasmus—in use since 1521, where Truth, framed

by a garland of garlic heads—a reference to the printer’s name—emerges

from

beneath

some

rocks, or the mouth

same motto: Veritas de motto proceeds from Vulgate) that speaks of Veritas de terra orta est,

of some

kind of cave, with

the

terra orta est [Truth has sprung from the earth]. This from the eleventh verse of Psalm 85 (84 in the the glorious kingdom of God that has yet to come: et iustitia de caelo prospexit [Truth has sprung from

the earth and justice has looked down from heaven]. The verse immediately

prior to this one also names Truth in the company of three other personages: Misericordia et veritas obviaverunt sibi, iustitia et pax osculatae

sunt [Mercy and truth have met, justice and peace have kissed each other]. In

the Middle Ages these four figures were the principal protagonists of a morality play with the title The Reconciliation of the Heavenly Virtues or The

Parliament of Heaven, which was very popular from the twelfth to the

sixteenth

centuries,

both

independently

and

included

as

part

of

other

works.'! Surprisingly, its origins date back to an eleventh century Midrash, a treatise by a rabbi named Simeon, from southern Germany, on a passage from the book of Genesis. According to this text, before the creation of

307

said, ,,Create him; because

he will practise mercy.”

Said

Truth, ,,Create him not; for he will be full of lies.” Justice spoke. Create him; for he will be just.” Peace opposed it because he

would be contentious. Mercy and truth thrust at one another. Justice and peace fought together. (Midrash Rabba, Génesis 8.5)

The author of the Midrash creatively interpreted” the two verbs of the biblical verse. He took ,,encounter” in the sense of Clash at the same time that he associated the Hebrew verb PW) nashag to a noun with a similar root

nesheg [arm]. In this way the verse from the psalm became a commentary on the Book of Creation, which, through Hugo de San Victor, interpreter of the Hebrew

source, reached Saint Bernard and Saint Bonaventure,

From

their

widely disseminated meditations on the Annunciation and the life if Christ, the story spread throughout the entire medieval world. Its Christian version, which came to form an organic part of medieval literature by means of the works of Nicholas Love, Lydgate, Walter Kennedy and Grosseteste, Piers

Plowman, Ludus Coventriae, the English Gesta Romanorum and other texts,

the story went more or less like this: a powerful king had four daughters, a

son,

and

a servant who

committed

a crime.

For

this he is sent to prison,

after which the daughters gather together to debate the merits, shortcomings, and fate of the prisoner, and whether he should be condemned or pardoned. In order to settle the debate, reconcile the sisters and respect the pious nature of their father, the son offers to take responsibility for the servant’s crime and suffer the punishment. By means of this altruistic sacrifice, the son redeems the bad servant, unites the sisters, and restores the

servant to the merciful king. Peace will reign over the world, and truth will

spring from the earth and justice will keep vigil from heaven.

filia, The Daughter of Tyme |...” And on her brest was written her propre name, whiche

was

,,Veritas”, Trueth,

who

helde

a booke

in her hande,

upon

the which

Verbum Veritatis, the Woorde of Trueth.” With these explanatory verses:

was

written,

This olde man with the sythe, olde Father Tyme they call,

And her, his daughter Truth, which holdeth yonder boke, Whom he out of his rocke hath brought forth to us all, From whence for many yeres she durst not once out loke.

Now since that Time again his daughter Truth hath brought,

We trust, O worthy Quene, thou wilt this Truth embrace.

(John Nichols, The Progresses ... of Queen Elizabeth, London, 1823, I. 50. Quoted by Saxl). 11 Hope Traver has studied this topos in her The Four Daughters of God (Traver 1907);

but for a more in-depth review, see also Klinefelter 1953, Mader 1971, and Ralston 1984.

This

image

of Truth

as ,,daughter

of God”

was

found

not only

in

literature but also in the visual arts. In addition to Knoblouch’s printer’s

device, Saxl mentions

another example.

After a fire in 1577, Palma Giovane

dedicated a great painting to it to adorn the vestibule of the Magistrato della Quarantia Criminale [grand council hall], in the Doge’s Palace in Venice, now housed in the Academy. This image is a good example of other

paintings hung in town halls and courts of justice such as those mentioned

above, where the allegories of Truth and Justice are harmonized. In this particular painting, Justice, from heaven, contemplates Truth, who emerges from

the earth,

symbolized

by a globe,

and

casts

her gaze

towards

the

heavens, symbolized by the sun. With her right hand she points to the sun

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

308

while she holds a book and palm branch in her left hand. In the open book we read this verse: Veritas de terra orta est et iustitia de caelo prospexit. We

|

have here, then, the exact model for Ripa’s allegory of Truth, and

through it, that of the /thika. Ripa obviously saw this painting—or a copy or model of it—and adapted it for his Jconologia. For this reason the two parts of the allegory of the /thika, the pictura and subscriptio, maintain this sharp contrast, between each other and also with its original meaning. The poem speaks of truth and her progeny; a truth that is hidden but gradually revealed, the daughter of Time. The engraving depicts celestial Truth, always in her glory, the daughter of God. In any event, perhaps Ripa was unable to appreciate fully all of the nuances of meaning of his own allegory, and that is why he changed the Truth of the Psalm, sprung from the earth and advancing triumphantly towards heaven, to the naked Truth of the Calumny of Apelles and then proceeded to interpret its attributes one by one, as was his usual procedure. But

those

teaders

who

were

familiar

with

the

,,morality’

de

the

Four

Daughters restored the primigenial meaning without any difficulty. This is quite clearly seen in the two statues of Truth that Bernini sculpted twenty yeats apart. The

statue of Truth

in Rome’s

Galleria

Borghese,

executed

between

1646 and 1652, copies Ripa’s allegory quite carefully. It was precisely this statue that led Emile Mâle to discover Ripa’s work in 1927. Since Saxl did not touch on Ripa’s allegories, Male immediately traced the chain of influence on Bernini back to the model composed by Palma Giovane. Nevertheless, it is our belief that Bernini’s model was Ripa’s engraving, and that just like Ripa, Bernini ignored the medieval antecedents and biblical undercurrent of the figure. For this reason he endowed it with an hour-glass and wrote on the pedestal: Simulacrum Veritatis Tempore degendae (Statue of Truth that is revealed by Time]. In this manner, he was alluding to personal affronts that he had suffered, and especially, his failure in the competition to devise the new facade for Saint Peter’s. A few years later, Bernini’s personal situation changed for the better. In

Bernat and Sajé: Veritas filia Dei

in cambio del libro habbia la falce” [Modesty and truth encounter one another, Justice and Peace embrace each other, and peace should be turned more towards here, and that death, instead of a book, should be holding a scythe]. Pope Alexander wanted his tomb to be decorated with the four

allegories from verse 10 of Psalm 85, in a similar fashion to what he had done with other works of art inspired by this favorite passage of his, from his first papal medal, continuing with the Silva Chapel in San Isidoro, and

down through the new facade of his ,,family church,” Santa Maria della Pace (cf. Burke 1981). In spite of all the changes and problems that surfaced— this composition was finally executed duly noted in the diary cited above in 1671. The praying figure of the Pope is accompanied by the Four Daughters of God, Justice and Peace in the background, and Piety and Truth in the front. After many years working together, Bernini wound up

with a deep understanding of the importance of this verse, and as a consequence, he transformed the figure of Truth. Here, finally, he covered

her former nakedness with a veil; she rests one foot on a terrestrial globe— more precisely: on England (Fehl 1966)—and she embraces the sun to her breast as the final destination of her endeavors. Since she is now eternally manifest, she is in no way revealed by Time. On the contrary, the veil held by the Four Virtues covers both Death and Time for all of eternity (Fig. 7). V.

The sonnet that Lope de Vega dedicates to Truth can serve as a colophon to what we have covered here. The iconographical analysis developed up to this point helps uncover the allusions encoded in Lope's verses. The Truth, daughter of Time and exiled from that paradise of the Golden Age because of lying, is converted by men into the window through which God

reveals Himself and sheds light on the world. Only to wind up being the very presence of God.

1655 Alexander VII, the great building Pope, was duly elected as Saint Peter’s successor by the papal conclave and he immediately named Bernini court artist. During the twelve years of Alexander’s papacy, Bernini produced his greatest creations; the last of these was the Pope’s sepulchral monument in Saint Peter’s. The Pope began to plan his tomb shortly after

Hija del Tiempo, que en el siglo de oro viviste hermosa y candida en la tierra, de donde la mentira te destierra

and in it one can discern at least six different phases. A note in the Pope’s

diary from January 26, 1660, attests to the fact that by then the essence of its

paz de nuestra mortal perpetua guerra, y de los hombres el mayor tesoro;

s’incontrino, iustitia et pax, si abbraccino, e la pace volti pi? in qua e la morte

vencer codicia, fuerza ni mudanza,

his election (Koorbojian 1991); the planning continued until after his death,

iconography had already been established: ,,Modestia et veritas obviaverunt,

309

en esta fiera edad de hierro y lloro Santa Verdad, dignisimo decoro

del mismo cielo que tu sol encierra;

casta y desnuda virgen que no pudo

310

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

Bernat and Sajé: Veritas filia Dei WORKS CITED

del sol de Dios ventana cristalina;

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Bernat and Sajé: Veritas filia Dei

317

FIGURES

Èfiìflc«rnìî *

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i apyKapcrBo

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Yxpaïai y XVIII cr.” [Book and Printing in the Ukraine in the 18th century]. In Kamanoz cmapodpyxie eudanux na Vxpaïni. Knuza dpyea (1701-1764), Jibpis 1984.

Zhmurko, Oksana (Oxcana )Kmypxo). ,,.[epanbauuna rpadika B Γαπμαμηὶ XVII-XVIII cr.: Taranus icropiorpadii.” [Heraldic Graphics in Galitzia in the 17th and 18th Centuries: An Historiographic Vision]. Hapodosuaëui 3oumumu 2008/3-4: 279-289.

Zholtovsky, P QKontosepkniit Π.). Xvdoocne XVIII cm., Kies: Hayx. Jlymxa, 1984. C. 24.

acumma

na

Vxpaini

e XVI-

v*? ‘$ τιati Fnorqs teres

péafn καὶ# & Wonennn@upn 4 iicw Çaoi ais, Ἦν. i Bic ΠΗ " uM3ae αν

Figure 1 The figure of Truth in /thika hieropolitica, Kiev, 1712.

318

Emblems,

Emblematic I mnnages, and Numismatics

S. ajo: Veritas filia Dei

Bernat and

319

ogy + + ΕΒ y μηροῦ u,9 vows, Sines peedy( ons μην Vida and vy VU 2049 HW9EL 9009 wie hnnwrn Anny ὦgot Po on swaode uli srg gp yo vodAdaya, ahe ad moYn au veyUa Y UNdoL vod og

| | Out IH

So

smaridvon ben ua

- UB

PART L

t

swada nL

8

|

Figure 2 Veritd in Ripa, Iconologia.

+

E

À

Boe gre

"Many σόν

*

=E} x

Figure 3: The allegory of Truth in the editions of Kiev 1712,2

Saint-Petersburg 1718, and Vienna 1774. The editions of Saint -Petersburg 1764 and Moscow 1796 were not illustrated, while this picture i s missing

from our copy of

Lwéw

1760.

320

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

Bernat and Sajo: Veritas filia Dei

Figure 5 Printer’s device of F. Marcolini,

Figure 4 Botticelli, Calumny, c. 1494.

from a composition of Pietro Aretino, 1536.

321

322

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics Pilgrimage with the Redeemer in the Womb: St. Francis de Sales’s 1610 Meditation on the Biblical Mystery of the

Visitation*

JOSEPH F. CHORPENNING,

O.S.F.S.

Saint Joseph’s University, Philadelphia,

International Commission for Salesian Studies (ICSS) Abstract

Figure 6 Guillaume de La Perrière, Morosophie, Lyons, 1553.

2010 marks the 400" anniversary of the foundation of the Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary by St. Francis de Sales and St. Jane Frances de Chantal. Scholars have yet to reach consensus about the process leading to the founders’ selection of the Visitation as the name for the new congregation, which became one of the major new orders of the early modern Catholic reform. This paper studies the only extant Salesian document focusing on the Biblical mystery of the Visitation that dates to the Order’s foundation, but that has generally been neglected by scholars: Francis’s letter of 30 June 1610 to Mother de Chantal. This study demonstrates that this letter opens a window on (1) the spirit that Francis wished to instill in the new institute; (2) the expansive nature of Francis’s approach to and understanding of the Visitation mystery, which was broader than the Gospel scene of the encounter of Mary and Elizabeth (Luke

1:39-56); and (3) the

pictorial nature of the meditation on this mystery that Francis proffers Mother de Chantal and the first Visitandines, as they prepare to celebrate their titular feast for the first time.

The Order of the Visitation of Holy Mary was founded on Trinity Sunday, 6 June 1610, in the town of Annecy in the duchy of Savoy, by St. Francis de Sales (1567-1622) and St. Jane Frances de Chantal (1572-1641).

Scholars have yet to reach consensus

about the process leading to the

founders’ selection of the Visitation as the name for the new congregation.!

*Our

esteemed

colleague

and

friend,

Pedro

F. Campa,

is renowned

for his pioneering

scholarship in the field of Hispanic emblem studies, and so the topic of this paper may seem out of place in this Festschrift.

However,

Pedro’s intellectual interests extend well

beyond Spain’s siglo de oro to embrace Russian icons, Mexican retablos (devotional and ex

voto paintings on tin by self-taught provincial artists), the crèche (the belén displayed in

Figure 7 Bernini, Tomb of Pope Alexander VII. Allegory of Truth, one of the ,,Four Daughters of God,”

1671.

his home at Christmas occupies the entire living room), religious ephemera, and even the spirituality and culture of France’s Grand Siècle, evinced by his elegant reviews of a

monograph on the ballet de cour de Louis XIV (Sixteenth Century Journal 39/3 [2008]: 893-94);

founder

of the

of the

new

edition

Oratory

of the

in France

correspondence

and

of Pierre

later cardinal, who

de

Bérulle

initiated

(1575-1629),

a new

form

of

324

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

Chorpenning: Pilgrimage with the Redeemer in the Womb

325

The only extant document focusing on the Biblical mystery of the Visitation that dates to the Order’s foundation is Francis’s letter of 30 June 1610 to Mother de Chantal? which has been aptly described as a ,,meditation.”5 Clearly the fruit of Francis’s own meditative rumination, this letter opens a

while at the same time demonstrate that Francis had an expansive approach to, and understanding of, the Visitation mystery that was broader than the Gospel scene of the encounter of Mary and Elizabeth and the Magnificat (Luke 1:39-56).

foundation de l’Institut” [on the mystery of the Visitation, at the moment of the institute’s foundation]. Nonetheless, this first of several commentaries Francis proffers on the Visitation mystery, which he ,,found [...] rich in meaning and full of ideas that shed light on the spirit he wanted in his institute,”> has not been analyzed with a view to teasing out the spirit the bishop wished to instill in what was to become one of the major new orders of the early modern Catholic reform.® This paper aims to fill this lacuna,

I

window on his thinking ,,sur le mystére de la Visitation, au moment

de la

spirituality known as the French School (ibid., 40/3 [2009]: 920-21); and the recent study

and facsimile of Adrien Gambart’s 1664 emblem book, La Vie symbolique du bienheureux

Frangois de Sales (ibid., 39/2 [2008]: 590-91). Neatly two decades ago, it was Pedro who introduced me to Gambart’s emblematic interpretation of the life and virtues of the Savoyard bishop-saint. Pedro’s affection for Francis de Sales likewise derives from the fact that he is the saint’s namesake: born on 29 January, which in the pre-Vatican II liturgical calendar was Francis’s feast day, he was thus named Pedro Francisco. With all these things in mind, this paper in some way honors Pedro’s abiding interest in the Salesian tradition, as well as his unfailing colleagueship and friendship. 1 See, e.g., Stopp, 125, who observes that ,,The right name was not discovered till after

the foundation, probably when the actual feast of the Visitation [celebrated at the time on

2 July] suggested a new train of thought to the bishop”; Ravier, 191, who notes that the choice of the name of the Visitation ,,dates at least from July 1, 1610”; Bordes, ,,La

méditation du mystère de la Visitation par François de Sales . .. ,” 69, who points out that Francis’s meditation upon the Visitation mystery antedates the orders foundation; and Boenzi, who suggests that the selection of the name may be linked to new liturgical texts recently promulgated by the Holy See for the feast of the Visitation. Cf. Année sainte des religieuses de la Visitation Sainte-Marie, 7:30, which reports that Francis once remarked that, among other reasons, he chose the mystery of the Visitation as the order’s

name because this feast was not celebrated with the solemnity that others were, and he

wanted to ensure that it would be so observed at least in the Visitation’s churches and chapels. 2 For the text of the letter, see Annecy edition, 14:323-24. 3 Stopp, 125. 4 Bordes, Les sermons de Frangois de Sales, Part V, chap. 2, ,,La Visitation,” note 343. 5 Stopp, 125.

6 Francis’s most extensive subsequent commentaries are homiletic in form: his sermons

on the feast of the Visitation in 1618 and 1621: see Annecy edition, 9:157-69, and 10:61-

77. Unlike Francis’s letter of 30 June 1610, these sermons have been amply studied to see

what light they shed on the Order’s spirit: see, e.g., Stopp, 125-26 (although Stopp underscores the importance of the 1610 letter, her précis of the significance of the

Before turning to Francis’s letter, it is important to remember that the approach of our saint and his contemporaries, as well as his medieval forbears, to meditating on Biblical mysteries is different from both the modern historical critical method and fundamentalism. The tradition of imaginative meditative prayer is exemplified by the fourteenth-century

Meditations on the Life of Christ (which Francis would have known as the

work of St. Bonaventure [c. 1221-74]) and reaches its apex in the Spiritual Exercises of St. Ignatius of Loyola (1491-1556). This method of prayer recommended a ,,continuous narrative” approach that focuses on all the persons in the story and on the succession of events—not only the principal point in the mystery, but also what precedes and follows it—by savoring, ruminating upon, each single stage and scene of the Biblical mystery that is the subject of meditation.? This approach to the mysteries of the life of Christ and of the Virgin in the Gospels did not limit itself to what is explicitly stated in Scripture, but embraced what is plausible and reasonable to assume. For example, it reckoned that in Semitic culture the young Mary would certainly not have traveled alone and unprotected to visit Elizabeth but would have surely been accompanied by St. Joseph. The evangelist does not state this because it was taken for granted. Sometimes imaginative meditative prayer was supported and facilitated

by visual

aids

such

as the

the letter), and Bordes,

,,La méditation du mystère de la Visitation par François de

reform, see Wright, ,, The Visitation of Holy Mary: The First Years (1610-1618).”

of the Visitation,

by

the

Flemish

the Spanish Jesuit Jerénimo Nadal (1507-80): Evangelicae historiae imagines (1593) and Adnotationes et meditationes in Evangelia (1595) (Fig. 1). This

engraving, upon which the reader/viewer was to ,,[s]pend a whole day, even

several days,”8 presents a panorama subdivided into nine consecutive Scenes that visualizes the mystery in its totality. Combining illustration, enumeration, and annotation—with letters assigned to each constitutive scene of the Gospel mystery and keyed to captions identifying the places, characters, and actions depicted—Nadal’s engraving proceeds along a circular path, starting with (A) the Annunciation at Nazareth when Mary

Visitation mystery vis-à-vis the Visitation Order is based on the later sermons rather than

Sales...” 69-88. On the Visitation Order in the context of the early modern Catholic

engraving

engraver Hieronymus Wierix (1553-1619), that appeared in two books by

7 See, e.g., Andrews, 29-33. 8 Nadal, 1:102.

326

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

learns from the angel about her aged cousin Elizabeth’s pregnancy. The movement continues with scenes of (B) Mary’s journey with Joseph through the hill country of Judea; (C) Zechariah’s house; (D) Maty’s arrival; (E) the encounter of Elizabeth and Mary; (F) at the sound of Mary’s voice, John the Baptist leaping in his mother’s womb; (G) Zechariah and Joseph greeting one another and praising God; (H) John’s birth; and (1) Mary and Joseph returning to Nazareth.’ I What is remarkable, even surprising, about Francis’s letter is that its focus is not the visit of Mary and Elizabeth, which the feast of the Visitation celebrates, but on the events preceding this encounter. Francis thus seeks to assist Mother de Chantal and the first Visitandines (whom he also addresses in this letter) to prepare to celebrate this feast by prayerfully observing its vigil (1 July) by providing a ,,fabrication du lieu” [composition of place], which ,,n’est autre chose que de proposer à son imagination le corps du mystère que l’on veut méditer, comme s’il se passait réellement et de fait en notre présence” [is simply to picture in imagination the entire mystery you wish to meditate on as if it really took place here before us].!° Mais demain, vous verres la pauvre petite jeune Dame, enceinte du Filz de Dieu, qui vient doucement occuper l’esprit de son cher et saint mari pour avoir le congé de faire la sainte visite de sa vielle cousine Elizabeth; vous verres comme ell edit a Dieu a ses cheres voysines pour trois moys [Luke 1:56] qu’elle pense estre aux chams et es montaignes [Luke 1:39] [...]. Les Anges se disposent a l’accompaigner, et saint Joseph a la conduire cordialement.!! [But tomorrow, you will see a poor God, who gently comes to prevail upon permission to undertake a holy visit to see how she says goodbye to her dear

little girl, pregnant with the Son of her beloved and holy husband for her aged cousin Elizabeth; you will neighbors for the ,,three months”

which she is expected to be away and ,,in the mountains (...). The angels

make ready to accompany her, and St. Joseph to lead her with heartfelt affection.]

Chorpenning: Pilgrimage with the Redeemer in the Womb

327

Francis’s emphasis on seeing (vous verres, which occurs twice) casts into

relief at the outset the visual nature of this meditation. Of the mystery’s three narrative elements Francis enumerates above, he

devotes

the

most

attention

(and

space)

to

Mary

and

Joseph’s

,,beau

pelerinage” [glorious pilgrimage].!2 To express this by way of analogy with Nadal’s engraving of the Visitation, Mary and Joseph’s journey-pilgrimage occupies the foreground, while the other two scenes are in the background. And what stands out in Francis’s account of this pilgrimage is not simply Joseph’s presence, which by this time was commonplace in devotional literature and sacred art,!> but the extraordinary relationship between the unborn Jesus and His foster-father. Alternately evincing the ,,elaborate pictorial representation” fostered by

medieval and early modern meditative and ,,devotional techniques of a literary kind,’ the rhétorique Jésuite des ‘Peintures,”’'5 and mastery in

composing visual representations,' Francis paints a vivid and memorable word-picture of the prenatal relationship between the Redeemer in the womb and St. Joseph. The Visitation is one of the ,,joyful mysteries,” and Francis’s word-picture occurs in this passage in which he ,,rend Joseph participant de la joie de Marie enceinte” [makes Joseph share in the joy of the pregnant Mary].17 Je voudrois bien sçavoir quelque chose des entretiens de ces deux grandes ames, car vous priendries bien playsir que je vous le dise. Mais penses que la Vierge ne sent que ce de quoy ell’est pleyne et qu’elle ne respire que le Sauveur; saint Joseph, reciproquement, n’aspire qu’au Sauveur qui, par des rayons secretz, luy touche le cœur de mille extraordinaires sentimens. Et comme les vins enfermés dans les caves ressentent sans la sentir l’odeur des vignes florissantes [Song of Songs 2:13], ainsy le cœur de ce saint Patriarche ressent, sans la sentir, l’odeur, la vigueur et la force du petit

Enfant qui fleurit en sa belle vigne. O Dieu, quel beau pelerinage!!®

12 Ibid. 13 See, eg, Francis de Sales, Sermon Texts on Saint Joseph, 144-50 (Appendix 2: St. Joseph and the Biblical Mystery of the Visitation), and Wilson, ,,St. Joseph as Custos in the Summa of Isidoro Isolano and in Italian Renaissance Art,” 99-103. 14 Cave, 279. 15 Fumaroli, 673-85. Among the Jesuits whose names are synonymous with the rhetoric

of pictures, Etienne Binet (1569-1639) was Francis’s fellow student at the Collége de Clermont in Paris and his lifelong friend, while Louis Richeome (1544-1625) is praised by 9 See Melion, 19.

10 Œuvres, 859 (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 2, chap. 4). 11 Annecy edition, 14:324.

Francis in the preface of the Treatise on the Love of God for his personal qualities and as the author of La peinture spirituelle (1611) (see Œuvres, 337). 16 See, e.g., Legros, François de Sales: Une poétique de l'imaginaire. 17 Dompnier, 304. 18 Annecy edition, 14:324.

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

[I would very much like to know something of the conversations between these two great souls, because you would indeed be pleased that I should tell it to you. But consider that the Virgin is conscious only of what is

within her, and that she breathes only the Savior; St. Joseph, for his part, yearns only for the Savior, who, with

hidden

rays, inspires

his heart with a

thousand extraordinary sentiments. And as wines shut up in cellars subtly

exude the fragrance of ,,flowering vines”, so the heart of this holy Patriarch

subtly exudes the fragrance, vigor, and strength of this little Infant who blossoms within his beautiful vineyard. O God, what a glorious pilgrimage!

The image of the unborn Jesus, who ,,par des rayons secretz” inspires

Chorpenning: Pilgrimage with the Redeemer in the Womb His

extended

family—in

this instance, John

the

329

Baptist,

Elizabeth,

and

Zechariah.24 Second, the image of the unborn Jesus penetrating St. Joseph’s heart with hidden rays—the ray being a variant on the arrow or dart25—reflects the widespread practice in early modern Catholic literature and art of identifying the Christ Child with Cupid and the allegorical figure of Divine Love, both of whom are represented using arrows to inflame their objects with love. This Christ image has a double provenance: the Roman poet Ovid’s introduction,

in his Metamorphoses, of the Greek

motif of Cupid’s

arrows to the Latin West; and Song of Songs 4:9, in which the bridegroom

St. Joseph’s heart with ,,mille extraordinaires sentimens,” presages Francis’s

laments, or perhaps exults: ,, You have wounded my heart with one of your eyes” (Vulnerasti cor meum in uno oculorum tuorum).?° An emblem of 1665

inspirations

89), and the author, a Franciscan friar, expounds

description in his masterwork, Treatise on the Love of God (1616), of divine as ,,un rayon

chaleureuse, par pourchas d’icelui” that makes us see striking about this and early modern

Chantal

céleste

qui porte

dans

nos

cœurs

laquelle il nous fait voir le bien et nous [a heavenly ray that brings into our hearts the good and fires us on to its pursuit].!? But passage is that it evokes three motifs from sacred art so as to create the impression

and the first Visitandines

une

lumière

échauffe au a warm light what is most late medieval

for Mother de

that they are looking at ἃ painting,?°

Francis, of course, is not describing an actual painting.

Rather,

he creates a

pictorial image that is ,,capable of translation into painting or some other visual art.”*! While the motifs from the visual tradition highlight the pictorial

nature of Francis’s text as ,,imaginable as a painting,’’*? at the same time the

bishop adapts these motifs to articulate his own distinctive interpretation of the Visitation mystery. Let us consider each of these three motifs. First, Francis’s making visible, through his descriptive prose, the activity

of Jesus in the womb recalls late medieval paintings of the Visitation that show, as if seen through X-ray vision, the fully intact figures of the unborn Jesus and John the Baptist in their mothers’ wombs (Fig. 2). At the same time, Francis reworks this motif by making St. Joseph, rather than Jesus’s cousin John in Elizabeth’s womb, the object of His action, thus indicating that the ,,transforming visitation” of the Incarnation that began with the Annunciation in Nazareth ,,radiated outward in ever expanding circles,”

beginning

19 20 21 22 23

with

Jesus’s

nuclear

family—Mary

and

Joseph—and

then

Œuvres, 740 (Treatise, Book 8, chap. 10). See Bath, 202, 253. Hagstrum, xxii. Ibid. Wright, Heart Speaks to Heart, 55. Also see Bordes, ,,La méditation du mystère de la

Visitation par François de Sales ... ” 73, 77, 81-84.

translates this verse into a surrealistic image worthy of Salvador Dali (1904-

its meaning thusly: ,,Cét

Oeil duquel vous voyez sortir un Dard qui perce un Cœur, represente l’œil de lesus-Christ, qui regarde une Ame qu’il aime, & qui dans le mesme temps la blesse & l’enflame de son amour” [This eye whence comes an arrow that pierces a heart represents the eye of Jesus Christ, who beholds a soul that He loves, and simultaneously wounds and inflames it with His love] (Fig. 3).27 Third, St. Joseph’s heart being the object of Jesus’s rays draws on the medieval tradition of the piercing of the heart as a love motif, notably exemplified by St. Augustine’s attribute of a pierced heart (based on Con-

fessions, 9.3: Sagittaueras tu cor nostrum caritate tua) and given renewed currency in the early modern period by the transverberation of St. Teresa of

Avila (1515-82).28 The word ,transverberation” comes from the Latin transverberare, meaning ,,to thrust or pierce through, transfix, perforate.” It refers to Teresa’s ecstatic vision of c. 1560—recounted in the Book of Her Life (begun in 1562 and completed in 1565), chapter 29—of an angel piercing her heart with ,,un dardo de oro largo, y al fin del hierro me parecia

tener un poco de fuego” [a large golden dart, and at the end of the iron tip there seemed to be a little fire] and that left her ,,toda abrasada en amor grande de Dios” [all on fire with great love of God]. ,,In the baroque

imagination Teresa’s transverberation became inextricably linked with the notion of martyrdom through love, an idea that lay at the heart of Teresian

24 See Chorpenning, »Connecting Mysteries,” 814-27, and Mother Cooperator in Our Salvation,” 73-80, 25 See Graziano, 212, and Lemaire, 175, 385.

26 Newman,

264,

27 Berthod, 374-75,

28 Knipping,

1:98.

29 Teresa de Jesus, 353.

of Our Savior and

330

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

[as well as Salesian and Visitandine] spirituality.”°° An image contemporary with Francis that links Jesus in the guise of Cupid with Teresa’s transverberation is an early seventeenth-century engraving of The Trans-

verberation of St. Teresa of Avila with the Holy Family, by the Flemish

engraver Anton II Wierix (1555/59-1604) (Fig. 4). This engraving is a significant reinterpretation of Teresa’s transverberation: the angel is replaced as archer by the Christ Child, who has already shot one arrow into Teresa’s breast and prepares to launch another.*! Francis’s substitution of St. Joseph for Teresa as the object of Jesus’s arrows of love is not without precedent. This phenomenon seems to originate with St. Teresa’s disciple and interpreter, Jerénimo Gracian de la Madre de Dios (1545-1614), who elaborates this theme in his Josefina:

Sumario de las excelencias de San José (first published in Spanish and Italian in 1597,

was

with

likely

many

editions

familiar.

and

Gracian

translations

indicates

that

thereafter),

,,llamaradas

with

de

which

Francis

divino

amor”

fiery darts of divine love] penetrated and inflamed St. Joseph’s heart when he held the Christ Child, and was embraced and kissed by Him.?? What is new in Francis’s handling of this theme is his portrayal of this process commencing while Jesus was still in Marys womb. Within the broader expanse of Francis’s thought, the interaction of the prenatal Savior and St. Joseph sets into motion the trajectory of the saint’s martyrdom of love in the service of Jesus’s infancy and hidden life that culminates, when his mission is completed, with Joseph’s dying of love, and being ,,porté pat son divin Nourrisson au passage de ce monde en l’autre, dans le sein d’Abraham, pour de là le transporter dans le sien, à la gloire, le jour de son Ascension” {carried by His divine foster Son on his journey from this world into the next, to Abraham’s

bosom,

from

there to be translated into the

Son’s own bosom, into glory, on the day of His Ascension].33

At the outset of the meditation on the Visitation mystery presented, in

his letter of 30 June 1610, to Mother de Chantal and the first Visitandines, ,,Where’s

Teresa?”

197.

On

the martyrdom

of love

in Salesian

spirituality,

see, e.g., Wright, Bond of Perfection, 153-55, 172. For this theme in the iconography of Teresa and Jane de Chantal, see Wilson, ,,Picturing the Way of Perfection,” 164-65. 31 See Wilson, ,,Where’s Teresa?,” 195-98, and his ,,St. Teresa of Avila’s Martyrdom,” 222.

32 Gracian de la Madre de Dios, 2:403. The affinity between Francis and Gracian has recently been noted by Dompnier, 304-5. 33 Œuvres, 702 (Treatise, Book 7, chap. 13). See Chorpenning, ,,Francis de Sales’s

Emblematic Interpretation of the Death of St. Joseph (Treatise on the Love of God, Book 7, chapter 13).”

Francis

enjoins

them

331

to ,,see” (vous verres) the mystery

unfolding before

them, and he excels in composing a vivid pictorial scene evoking familiar iconographic motifs so as to suggest to his correspondents that they are beholding a painting. However, this is not art for art’s sake. It is attractive and appealing (dulce), but it is so in the service of devotion (utile), which in the Salesian lexicon means ardent, diligent, and prompt love of God and of neighbor.%* Here Francis presents the Visitation specifically in terms of his particular spiritual vision, which is ubiquitous throughout his œuvre: an interconnected world of hearts that is both vertical (human hearts linked to

God’s heart by the crucified heart of Jesus) pulsing in union with one another).35 Thus, divine-human love dynamic that is the core union of the hearts of Mary, who ,,ne respire

and horizontal (human hearts our saint casts into relief the of the Visitation mystery: the que le Sauveur” [breathes only

the Savior], and of St. Joseph, who ,feciproquement, n’aspire qu’au Sauveur”?

[for his part, yearns only for the Savior], with the heart of the unborn Jesus, who begins His sanctifying mission and salvific activity on earth well before arriving at the house of Elizabeth and Zechariah. The ,,spirit” that can be deduced from Francis’s interpretation of the Visitation mystery in his 1610 letter, then, is the vertical and horizontal union of hearts nourished by loving recollection wholly focused on the Savior’s hidden divine presence, as well as by mutuality and dialogue. Mother de Chantal herself would become the living image of the spirit of the Visitation mystery that Francis distills into that of the Visitation Order. According to her secretary and first biographer, Mére Françoise-Madeleine de Chaugy (1611-80), Jane’s interior

way was that of ,,le simple regard, l’amoreux repos, la totale remise [...] à

Dieu et le sacré silence intérieur” [a simple gaze, loving repose, total submission to God and to the sacred inner silence].% Francis’s letter of 1610 initiates a series of ,,profound commentaries on the biblical mystery of the Visitation” that ,,gave direction to the community that bore its name.’37 Between 1610 and his death in 1622, these

ΠῚ

30 Wilson,

Chorpenning: Pilgrimage with the Redeemer in the Womb

commentaries continue to develop Francis’s insights into this mystery—the most extensive being his sermons for the feast of the Visitation in 1618 and in

1621,

preached

to

the

Visitandines

in

Annecy,

which

also

identify

34 Œuvres, 32-33 (Introduction to the Devout Life, Part 1, chap. 1). 35 See, e.g., see Wright, That

Is What It Is Made For,” and Heart Speaks to Heart, 22-

43. In Francis’s thought, the word heart ,,designates [...] , as [it does] in the Bible, that that is most profound, most inalienable, most personal, most divine in us; it is that mysterious center where each encounters God, acquiesces to His appeals or refuses to do so” (Ravier, 146).

36 Françoise-Madeleine

de Chaugy,

Mémoire sur la vie et vertus de Ste. Jeanne-Francoise

Frémyot de Chantal, quoted in Chantal, Sa vie et ses œuvres, 1:509. 37 Wright, Heart Speaks to Heart, 54.

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

practical ways of living the ongoing nature of the mystery of the Visitation as it continues to be present in the everyday through divine inspirations, the Eucharist,

and

the

needs

grammar out of which

of

the

neighbor.**

This

mystery

is

,,the

deep

the fledgling [Visitation] articulated its inner and

outer life,”3? and continues

to do so today. Within

this process, Francis’s

Chorpenning: Pilgrimage with the Redeemer in the Womb

33

Oo

332

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the Seventh and Eighth International St. Joseph Symposia, Malta 1997 and El

Salvador 2001, ed. Larry Toschi, O.S.J. Santa Cruz, Ca: Guardian of the Redeemer Books, 2002., 89-120. Wilson, Christopher C. ,,Picturing the Way of Perfection: Grégoire Huret’s

Engravings

of St. Jane

Frances

de

Chantal

(1644)

in Their

Teresian

Context.” In Human Encounter in the Salesian Tradition: Collected Essays Commemorating the 4° Centenary of the Initial Encounter of St. Francis de

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

336

Chorpenning: Pilgrimage with the Redeemer in the Womb

Sales and St. Jane Frances de Chantal, ed. Joseph F. Chorpenning, O.S.FS., et

337

FIGURES

al. Rome: International Commission for Salesian Studies, 2007, 159-189.

Images of Her Transverberation in

. St. Teresa of Avila’s Martyrdom:

Mexican Colonial Painting.” Anales del Instituto de Investigaciones Estéticas,

IN

DIE

VISITATIONIS.

Luc. 1.

2

exlix

nos. 74-75 (1999): 211-233.

. ,Where’s Teresa? The Construction of Teresa of Avila in the Visual Arts.” In Approaches to Teaching Teresa of Avila and the Spanish Mystics, ed. Alison Weber. New York: Modern Language Association of America, 2009., 190-201.

Wright, Wendy M. Bond of Perfection: Jeanne de Chantal & Frangois de Sales. 1985; new enhanced edition, Stella Niagara, N.Y.: De Sales Resource Center, 2001.

_. Heart Speaks to Heart: The Salesian Tradition. Traditions of Christian Spirituality Series. Maryknoll: Orbis Books, 2004. __ . ,°That

Is What

It

Is

Made

For:

The

Image

of

the

Heart

in

the

Spirituality of Francis de Sales and Jane de Chantal.” In Spiritualities of the

Heart: Approaches to Personal Wholeness in Christian Tradition. Ed. Annice Callahan, R.S.C.J. New York: Paulist Press, 1990., 143-158.

_.

,The

Visitation

of Holy

Mary:

The

First Years

(1610-1618).”

In

Religious Orders of the Catholic Reformation: In Honor of John C. Olin on His

Seventh-Fifth

Birthday,

ed.

Richard

L. DeMolen.

New

York:

Fordham

University Press, 1994, 217-250.

Figure 1 Hieronymus Wierix (1553-1619) after Bernardino Passeri (c. 1540-1596), The Visitation, engraving in Jeronimo Nadal, S,J.,

Adnotationes et meditationes in Evangelia (Antwerp, 1607).

Photo: courtesy Saint Joseph’s University Press, Philadelphia.

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

338

339

Chorpenning: Pilgrimage with the Redeemer in the Womb

375

RE RRR ὦ ἢ EMBLESME L. Cét Oeil duquel vows voyez fartir un Dard ui perce un Cœur, reprefente l'œilde Lefius. Chriff, qui regarde une me qu'il aime, © qui dans le mefme temps la bleffe σ΄ Uenfldme de fon amour, MEDITATION.

De la Satisfaction de CAps bleffée de l'amour de Iefas Brift, Vous auex ble jt man Cœur parun de wos Yeux, Cant, 4: V9

PREMIER

POINT.

Onsiperez que quand l'amour de Telus Cherie a bleifé vne Ame, cette À me ne penfe plus qu'à fa bleffare,

elle baife la Fleche qui l'a frapée, &adore

celuy qui l’a décochée ; & que dans le mefme temps elle brufle de fes diuines ardeurs, ‘lle éclatte en gemiffemens &

' i -Figure 2 Hispano-Flemish School, The Visitation, fifteenth century. ;

P

hots:

é

:

Museoribékat Salons,

:

Madrid

FM. ancois Berthod, O.F.M., E Figureigure 33 Emblem L ; from François

s ; Embl Emblesmes sacrez

| : 2219 (Paris,i 1665), 374-375. Philadelphia. Press, University Joseph’s Photo: courtesy Saint

340

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

Imagery for a New Country: The Posters of the Oui-Side in the 1995 Quebec Referendum Campaign! BERNARD DESCHAMPS Research Affiliate, Department of German Studies,

McGill University, Montreal Abstract

This article proposes a study of the five posters created by the Oui-dire committee on the occasion of the 1995 referendum campaign on the future of the province of Quebec in the Canadian federation. Firstly, and with the aid of a brief structural analysis, it reveals in the mode of communication used by the posters, a deep seated affinity with the emblematic form, perhaps

the most

important

visual aspect of the Early

Modern

Period,

the

technique of which they try to reproduce, as well as a very modern and acute awareness of the psychological function of colours. Secondly, the article also analyses the intention of the designers in terms of their reaction to the images employed by their political adversaries since at least the early 1960s. In doing so, it hopes to demonstrate how the careful balance between image and text chosen by the designers constituted a valid and convincing form of argumentation against the devastating rhetorical images that the opposite camp had lined up against them, especially in 1980, on the occasion of the first referendum. Introduction

Held on the 30th day of October 1995, the second referendum? on the

ane

—_—

=

rii

S% Virgo TERESA Carmelitarum Excalceatorum fundatrix. n

uid parentes tela datis amantem incitatis Vite Sagittarwum ? Anton

Quærit ab hoc necis fortem, Imo putat else mortem, Dum negat interitum.

Uherx fertt et mend.

Figure 4 Anton II Wierix (1555/59-1604), The Transverberation of St. Teresa of Avila with the Holy Family, engraving, early seventeenth century.

Photo: courtesy Saint Joseph’s University Press, Philadelphia.

future of the province of Quebec in the Canadian federation was not an isolated event. It is probable in fact that the idea of holding another referendum had already been sown in the mind of many on 20 May 1980, the night of the first referendum, when a totally devastated René Lévesque, then prime minister of the province of Quebec and leader of the sovereignist camp, standing on the platform of the Centre Paul-Sauvé, almost voiceless and unable to say a word because the crowd would not let him 1 A shorter German version of this essay will appear in Zeitschrift für Ideengeschichte.

2 An earlier discussion of some of the referendum poster images appeared in Peter M. Daly, , The Nachleben of the Emblem: Emblematic Structures in Modern Advertising and

Propaganda.“ In Polyvalenz und Multifunktionalität der Emblematik. Multivalenz und Multifuntionality of the Emblem. Proceedings of the 5th International Conference of the Societyfor Emblem Studies. Ed. Wolfgang Harms and Dietmar Peil. Frankfurt am Main: Peter Lang, 2002, 47-69.

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Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

speak, had finally managed to muster these few words: ,,Si je vous ai bien compris, vous étes en train de me dire ἃ la prochaine fois ...” [If I have understood you well, what you are saying to me is: Until next time ...]. It is very doubtful that Lévesque himself really believed there could be a next time, at least as far as he was concerned. The emblematic figure of a movement that had been discussing the possibility for Quebec to become an independent country since at least the nineteen fifties, he was a broken man that night, probably realising that if Quebec ever did become a country, in other words, if there actually was a prochaine fois, he would not be there to

see it. And as it turned out, he had already been dead for a few years when the winds that would eventually culminate in the 1995 referendum storm started to gather in the early nineties. But his words had remained and in the few years leading up to October 1995, they had acquired the aura of prophecy: against all odds,‘ there would be a second referendum, again under the aegis of a Parti Québécois government, but with Jacques Parizeau at the helm this time, the man who had left the Lévesque government in 1984 in protest against the ,,Beau Risque” 3 This shattering defeat did not prevent him from being re-elected in April of 1981, and with an increased majority to boot. However, the magnitude of the Oui-Side’s referendum defeat, which Lévesque could not perceive in any other way than a personal rejection, had weakened his position considerably. This he was able to ascertain beyond

the shadow of a doubt in 1982, when Ottawa, with the support of Canada’s anglophone provinces, repatriated the constitution without the consent of his government, also a fact that had contributed to further reduce his influence even more. It is probably this combination of events that led him to adopt a risky strategy afterwards, at least as far as

the sovereignist camp was concerned, aptly named ,,Le beau risque”, which called for a

further round of negotiations with the federal government, now led by Brian Mulroney, who had offered Quebec a place at the table so it could sign the newly repatriated constitution with ,,honour and dignity.” As a result of this, Lévesque, who had supported

Mulroney’s successful election campaign, ended up being ousted from the Parti Québecois, the party he had founded. Broken, he finally left politics in 1985. But these negotiations did go ahead, without him and his party, beaten at the polls in late 1985, and produced the so-called Meech Lake Accord, whose non ratification by two Canadian legislatures was felt as an unspeakable rejection by the population of Quebec, boosting support for separation to 72% in the process. It is the rejection of the accord that constituted the first step towards the building of a new momentum that would eventually lead to the 1995 referendum. The failure to ratify an agreement that recognized Quebec as a distinct society, which would have been the jewel of the constitutional crown for Robert Bourassa and Brian Mulroney, caused the former, the incarnation of federalism in Quebec, to get up in front of the Quebec National Assembly on 22 June 1990 to say

the following words: ,,English Canada has to understand in the clearest possible way that, whatever we say and whatever we do, Quebec is, as of today and forever, a distinct society, free and capable to assume its destiny and its development.” 4 And against the best judgement of many high ranking Parti Québécois members who were, to say the least, not transfixed with joy by Jacques Parizeau’s promise to hold a referendum in the first year of his mandate.

Deschamps: Imagery for a New Country

343

strategy saying that ,,religion cannot survive if the Pope himself looses the faith.” In many ways, the referendums of 1980 and 1995 present some undeniable similarities. For one thing, both had been initiated by the same generation of men and women, most of them born after 1930, who had come to believe, not only that to be a French Canadian in Canada meant to be a second class citizen, but that this situation would never really change as long as Quebec remained a Canadian province. They were also people who believed in action. They had all suffered under and fought against the ultraconservative ideology that had characterized the years in power of the Union Nationale, the party of Maurice Duplessis, nicknamed Le Cheuf [The Boss], Prime Minister between 1944 and 1959, an era known as La grande

noiceur [The Dark Ages].5 Most of them had also actively taken part in one way or another in the elaboration of the so-called Quiet Revolution,® a period of intense reforms that had taken place between 1960 and 1966 and that had seen Quebec gradually abandon its religious and rural past, its modus vivendi since 1760, the year of the Conquest. René Lévesque, who was to become the figurehead of the push for independence, had been one of them. An extremely charismatic figure and particularly effective politician, he had successfully nationalized the electrical

5 The following lines, extracted from a speech of Duplessis pronounced on the occasion of the dedication of the province to the Virgin Mary in 1951, go a long way to illustrate

his frame of mind: ,,Virgin of the Assumption, it is as chief of our beautiful province, in the presence of religious and civil authorities from the whole country, that I dedicate our

entire province to you [...] May this privileged people never forget that you brought it into the world first and foremost to serve your interests and that its only chance to Survive as a people is to lead its life as a defender and apostle of the Gospel of JesusChrist. May the cross and the fleur-de-lys of its flag preach to this people constant loyalty to its religious and national traditions. Keep our families large, united at the foot of the crucifix and of your statue, tightly bundled around the parochial spire, grouped under the aegis of our bishops, and bowed under the directives of the Vicar of Christ.” See: http://www.radio-canada.ca/nouvelles/societe/2009/08/27/003-rev-trang-accueil.shtml

Accessed September 2010.

6 See: http:/ /www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1 ARTA0006619 Accessed September 2010, Fifty years seems to be a good enough round

number for historians, and sociologists, to re-evaluate older conceptions of the past. In a series of four articles on the Quiet Revolution published in Le Devoir between 18 and 22

September

2010, signed

by Christian Rioux, its Paris correspondent,

we are now

beginning to find the first signs of a reappraisal of the old ,,dark ages — quiet revolution”

dichotomy. For example, the sociologist Gérard Bouchard, known for his sharp positions

against the old Quebec nationalism of before 1960, was quoted saying: ,,We build a fence

around time. It is as if the Quebec of 1960 had to found an era that was radically new, one that owed nothing to its immediate past. Like a bastard [my generation would] ΩΝ

p.

Al2.

[the new Quebec] had any ancestry.” In Le Devoir, 18 September 2010,

344

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

Deschamps: Imagery for a New Country

345

resources of the province during the Quiet Revolution. An ardent nationalist, he left the Liberal Party on 14 October 1967 because the party would not discuss the principle of a sovereign Quebec during one of its conventions. For Lévesque, the idea of an independent Quebec had always been a possibility, and he had been talking about it for a long time, including with

what shorter, ending up with him being expelled from the Canadian Officers Training Corp for what was described as ,,lack of discipline.’”

founded the Parti Québécois, he had come a long way and Quebec’s sovereignty was more than just a possibility for him: it had become a necessity. From then on, the topic moved out of the fringe and set itself in the centre of the political stage, where it remained with increased intensity until the showdown of 1980. Also part of that generation, and also destined to play a role in both referendums, we find another group of young men and women who, although they recognized the sometimes appalling conditions in which French Canadians often lived, believed on the contrary that it was possible,

Quebec’s

his then friend Pierre Elliott Trudeau in the 1950s. But in 1968, when he

indeed desirable, to improve their fate from within Canada. For them, not

independence, but rather a strong central government was the only possible answer, not only to French Canada’s problem, but to Anglo-Canada’s as well. Also in 1968, like the sovereignist side with Lévesque, the federalist camp had found its champion, a leader that would, as he said, ρας Quebec

in its place.” Pierre Elliot Trudeau’s personality was totally opposite to that of Lévesque. Born to an affluent family, he was just as charismatic as Lévesque, but by far more flamboyant than his counterpart. Unlike Lévesque, he sometimes had the tendency to behave like an eccentric aristocrat, an attitude that a lot of people mistook for arrogance. Trudeau was of the same generation as Lévesque and like him, he had been schooled by the Jesuits. He too, as a young man, had been appalled by the dictator-like leadership of Maurice Duplessis. He strongly took the side of the miners during the

violent Asbestos strike,’ but unlike Lévesque, who served in the US Army in

Trudeau, however, in contrast to Lévesque, had not been an architect

of the Quiet Revolution. He had been teaching Law at the Université de Montréal between 1961 and 1965. He was a resolute adversary of all nationalisms, (Roberts, 1-2) considered all nationalism, and probably even

more

since

it touched

so close

to home,

as a form

of

tribalism.!° There is in fact an article he wrote in 1958 that goes a long way to illustrate the complex relationship he was to entertain his whole life with his own people. In it, Trudeau makes two fundamental points about French Canadians, two points that will remain his guiding lights throughout his political career: French Canadian politics is solely motivated by ethnic interests, and French Canadians are absolutely incapable of governing themselves because, having being bred by authoritarianism, they do not under-

stand politics and democracy. With the overall aim to ,,re-examine some of

the unstated

premises

from

which

much

of our political thinking and

behaviour is derived,” he writes that ,,historically, French Canadians

have

not really believed in democracy for themselves. [They] are probably the only people in the world who ‘enjoy’ democracy without having had to fight for it.”!! For Trudeau, they are a ,,vanquished people [who] valued their new form of government less for its intrinsic value than as a means to their racial and religious survival.” (298) Quoting Gustave Lanctôt, who had described their ancestors living under the French regime as being disorganized and »Without any clue about concerted action in the domain of politics, [and as people who were] in the habit of submitting passively to the edicts of [...] Versailles”, Trudeau concludes by saying that, ,,having known only authori-

tarian rule,” the only progressive forces were to be found in the English

colonists after the Conquest. (297-298) He then adds:

Europe in 1944-45 as a liaison officer, his military career had been some-

The Canadiens fought at Saint-Denis and Saint-Eustache as they would eventually rally for electoral battles or parliamentary debates

7 ,,To put Quebec in its place. And its place is in Canada.” Those words, said from a soapbox the during the 1968 federal campaign, were very clever. Pierre Trudeau knew that he meant: , The place of Quebec is in Canada.” But he also knew how it would be

9 As an example of the behaviour that probably did not endear him much with the

perceived

in Anglo-Canada,

where

the speech

was

pronounced:

That

he would

put

sthese people in their place.” See Kenneth McRobertsh, ,,English Canada and Quebec: Avoiding the Issue,” Sixth Annual Robarts Lecture, 5 March 1991, http://www.yorku.ca /robarts/projects/lectures/ pdf/rl_mcroberts.pdf Accessed September 2010.

http://www.canada.com/montrealgazette/columnists/ story.html?id=a50251 96-48b5-4£9

8-a220-148a0016b07e&p=2;

http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgN

m=TCE&Params=M1ARTM0011606 Accessed September 2010.

8 See: La grève de l'amiante. Pierre Elliott Trudeau, ed. Montreal, Éd. du Jour: 1970.

military authorities, we can mention Trudeau’s wattime motorcycle ride and appearance on some of his friends’ porch dressed as a Prussian officer. (See: http://www.collections

canada.gc.ca/primeministers/h4-3382-e.html Accessed September 2010). On the subject of his wartime activities, see also: Trudeau, Stewart, 1998, 32-35.

P.E., Memoirs, Toronto:

McClelland

and

10 Guy Laforest, Trudeau and the End of a Canadian Dream, (Kingston: McGill-Queens

University Press, 1995, 128.

11 Pierre Elliott Trudeau, Some Obstacle to Democracy in Quebec, in: The Canadian Journal of Economic and Political Science, 24:3 (1958), pp.297-311. Here page 297. http://www.jstor.org/stable/138618 Accessed September 2010.

346

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics whenever their ethnic survival seemed to be imperilled, as men in an army whose sole purpose is to drive the Anglais back. And, as everyone knows, the army is a poor training corps for democracy, no matter how inspiring its cause. (299)

These lines are extremely hard. They also ignore the fact that a nation has the right to fight for its survival. But Trudeau’s commentaries are at their most damning when he adds that the acceptance of the democratic game on the part of the French Canadians was a simulacra, and that he believes they had opted for a sort of democratic ,make believe” simply because they had realized that sabotage would lead to ,,suppression by force.” This, he wrote, had brought them to:

outward acceptance inward allegiance to prevailed, no doubt that sabotage would

of the parliamentary game, but without any its underlying moral principles. The latter choice because the years 1830 to 1840 demonstrated lead to suppression by force [...] They adhered

to the ,,social contract” with mental reservations; they refused to be

inwardly bound by a ,,general will” which overlooked the racial problem. Feeling unable to share as equals in the Canadian common weal, they secretly resolved to pursue only the French-Canadian weal, and to safeguard the latter they cheated against the former [...] In such a mental climate, sound democratic politics could hardly be expected to prevail, even in strictly provincial or local affairs where racial issues were not involved. For cheating becomes a habit. Through historical necessity, and as a means of survival, French Canadians had felt justified in finessing at the parliamentary game;

and as a result the whole game of politics was swept outside the pale of morality. They had succeeded so well in subordinating the pursuit of the common weal to the pursuit of their particular ethnic needs that they never achieved any sense of obligation towards the general welfare, including

the welfare

of the French

Canadians

on non-

racial issues. Consequently, apart from times of racial strife [...] they came to regard politics as a game of everyman for himself. In other words, their civic sense corrupted and they became political immoralists. (299-300) He even hints at the fact that he could list plenty more examples of this

behaviour, but that he elected to spare his readers the rest because, as he says, ,,if 1 were

to quote

all the material proving that French

Canadians

fundamentally do not believe in democracy [...] 1 would ‘exhaust time and encroach upon eternity.” (304)

Deschamps: Imagery for a New Country

347

This is the thinking the nationalists, with their fear of assimilation,!2

with their indignation at being told to ,,speak white” in their own country, and with their feeling of economic alienation! in 1980. However, outwardly the fact that they were routed has very little to do with this. They lost because the planners of the No-Side were successful in doing something that their adversaries had failed to do: they had succeeded in transforming the rhetoric into convincing images that the other side could not counter. In 1995, however, the planners of the Yes-Side had had time to analyse

the reasons behind their collapse. Among other things, they had figured out that, in 1980, the other side had represented them from the start as dreamers, people driven by unrealistic ambitions, who could not even be trusted to govern a province, let alone lead a new country into the twenty-

12 In 1839, John George Lambton, the first earl of Durham, ,,had been appointed governor general to investigate colonial grievances after the rebellion of 1837 [...] In

Lower Canada [...] he found ‘two nations warring in the bosom of a single state.’ To ensure harmony and progress, he recommended assimilating the French Canadians, whom he called ‘a people with no literature and no history,’ through a legislative union of the Canadas, in which an English-speaking majority would dominate.”

http:/ /thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA00024 73 Accessed September 2010.

Durham had written: ,,If the population of Upper Canada is rightly estimated at 400,000, the English inhabitants of Lower Canada at 150,000, and the French at 450,000, the

union of the two Provinces would not only give a clear English majority, but one which would be increased every year by the influence of English emigration; and I have little doubt that the French, when once placed, by the legitimate course of events and the

working of natural causes, in a minority, would abandon their vain hopes of nationality

[...]” Right or wrong, many sovereignist perceived the modern Canadian federation as an organism whose aim was the pursuit of the goals suggested by Durham, just like the 1841

union of Upper and Lower Canada had been. See also Robert Maheu, Les Francophones du Canada 1941-1991. Montreal: Parti-Pris, 1970. 13 Pierre Vallières wrote his Nègre Blancs d'Amérique, [White Niggers of America] (Montreal: Partis-Pris, 1968), to describe the strong feeling of economical alienation felt

bya majority of French Canadians. For the longest time, this provocative title was read just like that: a provocative metaphor. Not so however by Lévesque’s generation, for

whom this simply was the reflection of a sad reality, and not so for the economist Pierre Fortin in 2010, who, having himself believed for the longest time in the metaphoric quality of the title, explained recently that for him, what Valliéres was describing was

simply the exact truth, Christian Rioux, for his part, writing about Vallières book, also in September 2010, explained: ,,In 1961, African Americans had spent an average of 11

years in school; French Canadians, a year less. The same poor showing was also true if you compared the average pay check: it would represent only 54% of the salary of a

white man if you were an African American in the sixties, but in Quebec, a unilingual French Canadian could only hope to get 52% of what an Anglophone, unilingual or

bilingual, would earn.” In Le Devoir, 20 September 2010, title-page.

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Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

first century. The road to independence had been described as impossible and likely violent. Quebec had been painted as the future Cuba of the north. The Yes-Side had been almost defenceless against the image makers of the other camp because they had tried to use logic and persuasion whilst the other side had successfully played the stick and carrot game, promising changes one the one hand, and warning about the dire consequences of separation on the other. Thus, the federalists had turned the negativity of a No into something positive: indeed, in the end the status quo appeared as something desirable. To wait and see suddenly seemed far wiser than to risk the untold dangers of the unknown. Ultimately, the success of the 1980 Nocampaign resided in the fact that the voters had been brought to walk the thin line between the dangers depicted by the No-Side, real or not, and the apprehended mirages the other side promised. Those two poles worked in the same way on the minds of voters: they separated them from reality. In doing so, the No-Side simply applied the basic rules of all the successful propagandists of the twentieth century: distortion. As a result, the No-Side completely flooded the space with its message and the Yes-Side’s campaign quickly began to fall apart. The 1980 campaign was also far more personal than its 1995 counterpart. Many of the images of the 1980 campaign revolved around Lévesque and Trudeau, the two charismatic leader of both sides, and what they represented.'* Their quarrel was famous and their encounter at the top was extremely well perceived by the population of Quebec. Most people believed it to be inevitable anyway, and seen from that angle, the best solution was perhaps to resolve the crisis immediately, and hopefully, once and for all. Moreover, and although this is at best speculative, it is possible that French Canadians were under the impression of being able to control the whole Canadian political agenda, with two of their sons fighting it out in the open, at last settling their difference with the whole world as a witness. 1995 was going to be very different, if only because Trudeau and Lévesque, the two champions of the past, would not be there. Lévesque’s absence was easy to explain: he had been dead since 1987. Trudeau’s require an explanation. Pierre Elliott Trudeau had become a liability for his own 14 Technically, the leader of the No-Side was Claude Ryan, chief of the Liberal Party at

Deschamps: Imagery for a New Country

349

camp after 1982, the year he had repatriated the constitution without Quebec’s signature. That event had not been well received in the province, to say the least. Pierre Trudeau, in a speech at the Centre Paul-Sauvé in Montreal on 14 May 1980, had promised changes. He had put his own seat, and the seats of his whole deputation on the line as a guarantee for this change.'5 These had been his words, and it was believed that he had not lived up to them. As an image, he was finished. But the other images, as the No-Side poster campaign illustrate, were more or less the same, and so was the rhetoric. Once more, there was only one No poster, and it simply focussed on the word separation. A Yes, it was implied, meant separation, not association. It meant losing something that had been there forever, so it seemed. And this was not worth the risk. Separation, it was hinted, would also be irremediable. This time however,

the simple and usually effective focus on fear, the brute force syndrome in the world of political rhetoric, was not going to work. The No-Side had grossly underestimated its adversary, and it was about to pay a heavy price for that mistake. Twenty years is a long time in politics. In the world of images, it is almost an eternity. The planners of the Yes-Side had had time to do theit homework; they were ready. Political posters, like all images, are telling. They are also somewhat riskier than their radio, television, or nowadays, internet counterparts, be-

cause there is no voice to drum in the message. Thus, there is always a possibility of the message being misunderstood, or not be understood at all. In other words, intention does not always, if ever, correspond to reception. Today, political posters are hardly used, and certainly not in the way they were used by the Yes planners in 1995. The internet, the speed it allows, its easy availability, its low cost, has all but killed them. The next ten years will be telling, and it is possible that they do in fact survive, because their presence on the street signalizes to the voters that something is going on. But should that happen, it probably will be in the classical form they

nearly always adopt, that is, with a picture of the candidate superimposed on the traditional colour of the party he or she represents. But it is also possible that they disappear completely. In 1995 however, they were unavoidable, and at first, they were used by the Yes-Side in a very traditional fashion, with the aim of flooding the exterior visual space that is, by being plastered all

the time, and former editor in chief of Le Devoir. Ryan, a brilliant mind, was far from

being an emblematic figure however. Among other things, he definitely lacked Trudeau’s

charisma. His views on French Canadians, it must be said, were also considerably less

damning than those of his federal counterpart, and as a result, he probably lacked some of Trudeau’s scathing determination to curb French Canadian nationalism at all costs,

which

we

know,

is already present

in his virulent writings

of the late fifties and

early

sixties. (In Cité Libre, the periodical he had help to found in 1962, he had also described French Canadians as ,,culturally anaemic, economically destitute, intellectually retarded, and spiritually sclerosed.”

15 ,, And I make a solemn declaration to all Canadians in the other provinces, we, the Québec MPs, are laying ourselves on the line, because we are telling Quebecers to vote NO and telling you in the other provinces that we will not agree to your interpreting a NO vote as an indication that everything is fine and can remain as it was before. We want change and we are willing to lay our seats in the House on the line to have change”. See: http:// www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/2/4/h4-4083-e.html Accessed September 2010.

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Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

ovet Quebec and replaced when weather or vandalism had rendered them illegible. Posters, like any image used to convince, like blackened lungs on cigarette packs for example, have a limited ,,shelf life” of about two to three weeks maximum, But in that short time span, they can sometimes achieve wonders because of their unavoidable presence. And if they are cleverly designed on top of that, they might even force the voters to think a little about their intended message. This was certainly the case for the posters of the Yes-Side during the 1995 referendum campaign. In a way, it is possible to say that in 1995, the Yes-Side employed the same methods its adversary had used in 1980. Images are much easier to use than words. One might use the euphemism ,,simpler” to describe them; the truth is that they tend to reduce. But this reduction principle had worked wonders for the other side in the first referendum, and the Yes planners wagered that this time, it would also work for them in the second referendum. They were right: in politics, reduction and simplicity tend to work. This time, they hoped, the fabric of the posters would bring the voters down to a leitmotiv, just a word, in this case a big ,,Oui.”

This is why the design and making of the posters is very simple. They all carry the same little phrase: appropriately, a big ,,Oui,” with the motto ,,ct ca devient possible” under it. (Yes, and it becomes possible). The only difference between the posters are the background colours and the symbol

used to replace the letter ,0° of the word ,,Oui,” which takes the shape of a

daisy, a peace sign, a globe where North America can be seen, the symbol of the man at work and finally, a Canadian dollar coin. This design, although simple, is very powerful. One has to read the

word ,,Oui” first, before going on to the second part of the equation, which

is placed under it. In other words, the posters graphically show that in order

to render the ,,it” possible, one has to say yes first. The ,,it,” normally the most neutral of words, is the million dollar word here. ,,It’ does not mean

anything unless it refers to something. It is liable to adopt any shape or colour. In the posters, it becomes a question a potential viewer must ask, because nothing can be left hanging in such circumstances. The strategic position of the ,,it” is well thought out. Reading, in the western tradition, is accomplished from left to tight and from top to bottom. The ,,it” is not placed on the same line as the ,,Oui.” It rather begins the second ,,phrase,” immediately after the ,Oui” has been read. In order to interpret it, the

viewer has to decipher its meaning, and is forced to go back to the ,,Oui”, the word the planners wished to hear in the end. Each time, the answer

to the meaning of ,,it” is contained in the image that is substituted to the 0.” To go back on something, here the ,,O,” is the visual equivalent of a teflection. Here, it is accomplished in a matter of seconds, and it is

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extremely effective, if only because the signs that form the ,,O” are rematkable. These five signs were carefully designed to set the tone of the campaign as well as to counter the argumentation that the No-Side had developed against secession since the sixties. And they acted like the knife of a surgeon, surgically cutting the arguments of the other side in little pieces, literally turning the tables on the No camp by countering its images. It is also essential to consider the fact that the way these posters communicate is based on a variant of the emblematic form, also a combination

of image and text, a form that was the most important visual aspect of the Early Modern Period. Obviously, the posters are not emblems themselves. However, they certainly use this fruitful combination of text and image to deliver their message and it can certainly be said of them that they are emblematic in their conception.!¢ The next pages are devoted to an analysis of the posters. They constitute the response of the planners of the Yes-Side to the messages the NoSide had been circulating as early as the late sixties. Each one of them is carefully conceived as a rebuttal of the various ghosts that, according to the Yes-Side, the federalist were trying to shake in front of the eyes of the voters. The Daisy Poster (Fig. 1)

At first sight, all the posters seem to be of equal importance. The homogeneity of their design plays an important role in the initial impact they exert on the eyes of the viewers. As such, they seem to reinforce each other; they appear as a team. This cohesive effect is primordial and was of primary importance in the planning process. It is the visual equivalent of the editorial style of a popular magazine. Every publication has a personalized ,,voice,” with its own guidelines, in order to guarantee a uniformity of style from cover to cover throughout the various articles of the publication. This is done in order to achieve a smoother reading experience. The style of each article being the same, the reader does not have to adjust every time he or she begins a new article. The same effect is achieved here visually through the uniformity of the emblematic pattern present in all the posters. On top of this, this primary feature plays another role. With the initial effect gone, it then stimulates the curiosity of the voter. Since all the posters use the same

,,voice,” the viewer is then inclined to look for differences,

which are quite obvious, as they can be found in the different background

colours and different symbols used to replace the »O.” Here, difference and 16 For a discussion of the emblematic form, see, Peter, M. Daly, Literature in the Light of the Emblem, 2nd ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998).

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Deschamps: Imagery for a New Country

sameness complete each other: all the posters ate the same, but with a different background colour and a different symbol; all the posters are different, but they all use the same pattern of delivery. Seen under that light, the daisy poster is particularly interesting. In it, the 0” takes the form of a white daisy, complete with its customary yellow button in the centre. The background is fire engine red, a colour normally perceived to be somewhat aggressive, but also one usually associated with warnings and used to get the people’s attention, which is exactly the effect the designers are trying to achieve here. We could also add that, stylistically speaking, this colour helps bring out the whiteness of the flower and the yellowness of its button, against which both colours stand out. The lettering is also yellow, to match the colour of the button. The daisy poster is also puzzling. It seems innocuous at first. Indeed, why a daisy? What could this particular flower symbolize in this extremely heated context? Interestingly enough, the daisy poster is the poster on which the whole campaign hinges. It carries the weight of all the others and, just as interestingly, it is also the most controversial in terms of the history of its conception. All the planners of the ,,Comité Oui-Dire” involved in the design of the poster campaign came from of the world of advertising, as one might reasonably expect. These are people who spend millions of dollars, usually not theirs, in order to sell you things. This means that they have to know their targets extremely well. In the world of publicity, the rule of thumb reads as follow: you target the person that makes the decision to buy. And in Quebec,

8 times

out of 10, it is assumed

that that person

is

a woman.

Therefore, as one of the head designers of the campaign put it to me, it was decided that the posters would be chiefly aimed at women, and that they would be the equivalent of ,,offering them flowers.”17

This sounds simple, but it was a decision that was extremely difficult to

reach. And

it was

even harder to sell to the head committee,

because it

represented a big break with a long established political tradition. Nearly all, if not all of the members from the political committee were men who had been in politics for as long as they cared to remember. Big time politics is a

353

ness, aggressiveness, dirty tricks, and sometimes downright infantilism. The

,offering

Quebec’s

flowers”

strategy was

so controversial

that Jacques

Premier and leader of the Yes-Side is known

Parizeau,

to have said: ,,you

guys better be right about this. But I want no part of it; it’s your baby. If it backfires, you'll be to blame”. But the idea stuck. And so did the daisy. But, why a daisy, and not a rose for example? Or any other kind of flower? Daisies can represent many things. Of all the symbols used, it is the one that is the less linked to the 1980 referendum campaign. It almost seems to come out of nowhere. It is however linked to the past, a very distant past for some, and not so distant for others. Daisies are indigenous flowers that grow everywhere in the fields of Quebec’s countryside. The daisy brings to the mind of the voter that Quebec has been, between 1534 and 1960, a rural society.!8 A rose, despite the fact that it underlines passionate feelings,

would have been a mistake in this context, technically because it would have made a red background impossible, but more importantly because it would have clashed with the official motto of the province Je me souviens [I remember (that I was born under the lily, but that I grew up under the rose)]. Roses were often perceived as a negative political symbol associated with the throes of the Conquest. Daisies are common flowers. They grow everywhere, on the side of the roads, in the fields, in people’s gardens. They are easy to pick, and they are usually free. The daisy in the poster suggests exactly that. To vote yes is as easy as plucking a daisy, and then ,,it becomes possible.” The daisy also represents a peaceful rural atmosphere, for many Québécois, an image of happiness, of the good old free and careless days. It is also associated with love. This is not a coincidence. The Peace and Love theme played an enormous role in this poster campaign. It also recalls the Flower Power generation of the sixties. And although most of the voting baby boomers now wore suits instead of jeans, they still remembered their youth affectionately as ,,the good old times.” The daisy could be seen as a the promise of a flowery future, where life would be as carefree as before.

little boy’s game”. Which is to say that it is often characterized by crude-

18 A good example of these ties to the land can be found in the contrast between French

17 Men, on Quebec television, especially in advertisements, are often, not always but frequently, portrayed as babbling idiots who need a woman to help them make the right

and Quebec literatures at the beginning of the twentieth century. During the period in

charge of the final buying decision—the idea is that they have to reproduce their decisional point of view in the fiction of a commercial. I call this the Hansel und Gretel

unconscious, Quebec writers were still producing stories which extolled the glory of a rural way of life. With the Catholic clergy in charge, and needing an imprimatur, they

choices. Since publicists are selling things, including cars, to women—the

person in

syndrome. Hansel does have ideas, but they invariably sink the children deeper into trouble: ,,Let’s hide in the oven!” freedom.

It is always

Gretel’s ideas

that show

the path

to

which Marcel Proust, for example, was writing A la Recherche du Temps Perdu, a work of enormous psychological insight that digs into the deepest recesses of memory and of the could hardly have written about anything else anyway. Had they tried, their books would likely have been put on the index, and they would have personally risked excommunication.

354

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

This poster sets the tone for the whole campaign because the image of the generous and peaceful atmosphere that the daisy recalls. And it is not only aimed to dissipate any doubts the voters could have about a future independent Quebec. It also suggests that the road leading to independence, including the democratic process involved in the referendum itself, would be peaceful. One thing the Yes-Side most dreaded was violence. In 1980, this had been constantly drummed by the No-Side, which insinuated that unrest, even during the campaign, was a definite possibility. In Quebec, the word ,,quiet” has a special resonance. In spite of the famous words of Chairman Mao to the effect that a revolution is a violent phenomenon,'? Quebec’s revolution had been resolutely quiet and just as resolutely effective. Initiated by the Lesage government the reforms now known under the label ,,Quiet Revolution” included a profound revision of the labour code, the creation of the ministry of education, the nation-

alization of electrical power companies, a reform pushed by René Lévesque

himself, then minister of natural resources, the creation of the Caisse de

Dépôt et de Placement that would eventually administer the Quebec pension plan. The daisy is a visual embodiment of that concept. It perfectly links the past with the future through the present. Quebec’s past is rural and this flower constitutes

a reminder

of that time.

It also aims, symbolically,

to

represent the future, which the designers are trying to portray as a flowery, peaceful one, a future charmingly being presented now to the voters in the form of a bunch of flowers and that will be available to them, if they say yes. As such, the daisy portrays the exercise of voting itself, democracy, which should ensure that the future country is not born in a bloody revolution, but

in a quiet, peaceful one. It could also imply that all one had to do to step into that future was as easy as to pluck a flower. The poster also successfully combines the unsettling colour red and the peacefulness of the white daisy, a combination that acts on the subconscious of the voters. The Peace Sign Poster (Fig. 2) In this poster, the ,,O” adopts the shape of the famous peace sign over a green background. The effect is not as striking as the one offered by the contrast between the red, white and yellow of the daisy poster. This, however, is exactly the effect that the designers wished to obtain. The result they were trying to achieve this time consisted of an overall feeling of 19 ,,Revolution is not a dinner party, not an essay, nor a painting, nor a piece of embroidery; it cannot be advanced softly, gradually, carefully, considerately, respectfully, politely, plainly and modestly. A revolution is an insurrection, an act of violence by which one class overthrows another. ” Mao Tse Dong.

Deschamps: Imagery for a New Country

355

serenity, concord, and harmony. This is why this poster, contrary to the previous one, presents less interpretative difficulties. It is less intriguing, more straightforward; there is less work to do at first, because nothing could be as explicit as a peace sign. Even the blue of the lettering, blue being a cold colour, the colour of ice, contributes to the general feeling of tranquillity. Still very much part of the flower gift strategy—the peace sign itself vaguely resembling a stylized flower—its primary aim was to imprint the leitmotiv ,,peace” in the minds of its viewers. The peace sign was the obvious choice to achieve this goal. It enjoys immediate and universal recognition and is invariably associated with positive qualities, not only because no one can overtly be against peace, but also because of the nostalgia for the peace and love movement that it elicits. Its presence on a referendum poster complements the image associations introduced by the daisy. This aspect is important, since the hippie movement,

the Flower

Power, which was

at the root of the anti-

Wat protests, was a communal movement, advocating a life in harmony with nature, and is remembered for its fights against consumerism and pollution? It also had a strong rallying feeling of us (the youth), against them, (the establishment). The green background also plays a fundamental role. It is not neutral. On the contrary, it is extremely political. The »Greens”, as they are known throughout the world, are generally positioned on the left of the political spectrum, promoting values like ecology and antimilitarism. This sign is, therefore, despite its apparent naivety, a very powerful symbol, since it combines so many images. The peace sign suggests, far more directly than the daisy, that the process of accession to independence in Quebec would be democratic and peaceful. And there was indeed a precedent for such political optimism: the 1980 referendum. Since everything had gone smoothly in the past, there was thus no reason to fear that it would be different in 1995, even in the eventuality of a victory for the secessionist Yes-Side.

20 The hippie movement, in reality, was far from being all butter and roses. Critics like

Hunter S. Thompson, writing in The New York Times Magazine on 9 March 1964, as well as Tom Wolfe, as recently as 2008, in an interview with the Guardian’s Tim Adams, have both been extremely critical, and lucid, about the sixties. For Wolfe, in the end, the peace and the love rhetoric was still about money: ,,There was [...] almost 10 years of uninterrupted boom in the financial markets and that accounts for so many things that happened: children living in communes on trust funds; children for the first time with enough

money

to support

the music and

fashion industries; children who

could afford

drugs.” See: http://www.guardian.co.uk/books/2008/jan/20/fiction.tomwolfe the web

site in September 2010. The same

I accessed

could be said about the Woodstock

symbol,

for some a defining moment, and for others a collective mud bath for 500,000 people.

356

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

For the people of Quebec, the peace sign also had a special ring: they

had seen soldiers on the streets of their cities in October 1970, when Pierre Eliot Trudeau, then Prime Minister of Canada, had called the War Measure

Acts and sent in the army to quash an apprehended terrorist uprising. Civil tights had been suspended, people arrested without warrant and detained without being charged; even mock executions had been conducted. No one had forgotten this episode of recent Canadian history, which the No camp had strategically tried to link to the sovereignists movement in a long chain of equations: sovereignty equals separation equals terrorism equals violence, and so on. This strategy had played an important role 1980, just as it had worked earlier, notably in the case of the election of Robert Bourassa and his Liberal government of 1972, when the Parti Québecois could only send a handful of its members to the National Assembly in Quebec city, and even more remarkably in the case of the October 1970 election of mayor Jean Drapeau to the Montreal city hall. Drapeau, always the unscrupulous political animal par excellence, had a: ruthless and authoritarian side [which] emerged during the 1970 Quebec kidnapping. In a city election held while the draconian powers of the War Measures Act were in force, Drapeau smeared the opposition as a terrorist front. Amid hysteria, his principal opponent was locked up with 467 others, and on 25 Oct 1970, Drapeau’s private party won all 52 council seats. He rang up 92.5% of the mayoralty vote?! That night, when a commentator had remarked that he had no opposition and this might prove to be very unhealthy after all, Drapeau had commented:

,,Well, if the other

we'll lend them a few.”

party

needs

members

on a

Deschamps: Imagery for a New Country

357

of political science of York University in 1993, that Pierre Eliot Trudeau, far from finding the War Measure Act ,,repugnant”, as he had always claimed, was rather in a hurry to have it enacted.” The general feeling about Trudeau in Quebec, and this certainly goes a long way to explain his absence on the platforms of the No-Side in 1995, was that he had abused his position as prime minister, going as far as asking the RCMP to spy on the Parti Québecois, even after it had been democratically elected in 1976.23 This came on top of revelations, published in La Presse in 1992, concerning the 1978 testimony of John Starnes, former head of the RCMP, before the McDonald Commission, which reviewed Security. He had explained to the commissioners that the federal government had ordered him to steal the files of the Parti Québecois in 1973.24 But what the planners of the Yes-Side feared most was not violence itself, which was highly unlikely, but that the fear of it would be instilled in the minds of voters. Of course, the planners of the No committee had nothing to gain by directly fuelling a riot, but they could do a lot of psychological damage by allowing a subtle feeling of uncertainty to hang about. Already in 1995, it was clear to the Yes committee that a lot of unaccounted money was being circulated in brown envelopes through very dubious channels, and this by rather sinister characters. No one knew for sure where that money was ending up, and far less where it came from. As Chuck Guité, one former Canadian high ranking civil servant accused of fraud and corruption in the late nineties put it, ,,.we were at war and the end

justified the means.” In 1995, despite all the symptoms, none of this could be proven, but it is clear that the Yes-Side, faced with a ,,we are at war”

thetoric it could not ignore, chose the controversial strategy of peace and flowers. It goes without saying that this poster, just like the previous one, did not find much approval in the high quarters of the Yes campaign, who

specific vote,

This kind of cynicism, still present in 1980, had to be counterbalanced

by something pure and it had been hoped that the peace sign, in its naivety, would help achieve this goal. Political cynicism is still a big issue in Quebec, as it obviously is in the rest of the world. But the years leading up to the 1995 referendum provided a lot of ammunition for the cynics on both sides of the Quebec political spectrum, because it is around that time that rather damning documents for the 1970 Trudeau government, obtained under the Canadian Access to Information Act, were starting to see the light of day.

These documents tended to show, according to Reg Whitaker, a professor 21 The quotation is from Brian McKenna. See: http://thecanadianencyclopedia.com/ index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0002392 Accessed September 2010.

22 See: La Presse, 14th November 1993, p. ΑἹ. 23 That this agency should spy on a legitimate political party even before its election is already debatable. See: Dean Beeby, Trudeau pressed Mounties to spy on newly elected Parti Quebecois: book. The Canadian Press. This article was widely circulated. It was published in Le Devoir on 21 October 2002, p. A4. 24 See: La Presse, 24 March 1992, p. A1. See also the website of the Security Intelligence Review Committee of the Canadian government on these matters: http://www.sirccsars.gc.ca/opbapb/rfcrfx/sc02a-eng.html Accessed September 2010. Highlighted above the text, we find the following paragraph: A police-sponsored campaign of dirty tricks consisting of break-ins, arson, and theft targeted at left-leaning press and political parties (including one that was poised to form a government). A subsequent cover-up that was

almost successful—involving a deception that included lying to a Minister about the campaign—but was undermined by frank admissions of people who participated directly in illegal activities. These kinds of stories might seem farfetched and the stuff of spynovel fantasy, but all of it is true. And all of it happened ... in Canada. (Italics in the original).

358

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

would have preferred to fight fire with fire, or, in political terms, money with money. For the poster planners however, this was a battle they could never win, because they knew they could never produce as much money as the other side, in any circumstances. The peace sign was their answer. The Globe of the World poster (Fig. 3)

The next poster shows a globe of the world. On it, the whole of North America is featured, down to the Yucatan peninsula and the Caribbean. The background is yellow, which is also the colour of the landmass, because that colour enhances the blue of the globe’s oceans. Here, contrast was needed,

and this is exactly what the combination of those two colours achieved, the coldness of the blue being brilliantly counterbalanced by the warmth of the dominant yellow, designed to attract the eyes, and the attention, of the viewers. This posters also signals a slight departure from the flower strategy. Despite the fact that the figure of North America is still stylized, unlike its two predecessors, it is not directly designed to tackle the public consultation itself, but rather to address its aftermath, and this under two main aspects: history and the economy. The existence and fate of Quebec is closely linked with that of the North American continent. Up to the nineteen eighties, history had always been high on the curriculum of the Quebec schools, and French Canadians used to form a people conscious of its roots.?> Historical ties to that landmass are very strong in the French Canadians psyche. They feel a strong sense of belonging, they feel that they are a part of it as much as it is a part of them, at a level which is hard to describe. Their ancestors were the firsts European to settle there. North America is the land where their ancestors left their mark, crisscrossing it from east to west and from north to south. The city of Quebec was founded in 1608. Ten years later, in 1618, plants that only grow in the southern United States were reported being studied there by the Jesuits. This means that someone had gone to the Gulf of Mexico to get them and brought back to Quebec to be examined, no small

Deschamps: Imagery for a New Country

359

were known then, are everywhere in North America. They have developed an complex network of alliances with the Amerindian tribes all the way to the Great Lakes and they are patrolling the axis Louisiana to Quebec. They have established a series of forts in Ohio, from which, ,,they lead a skirmish

war against the English settlers. With the help of their Amerindian allies, they harass them in a series of violent raids that wreak terror upon the Americans, giving rise in the process to cries for revenge against the ‘Savages and the Papists’.”27 Far more than for their military successes, which were nevertheless considerable, even causing the English settlers, whose western expansion plans they thwarted, to call for help in London, these raids unmistakably show how deep the Canadiens’ roots in North America already were, because they would never have been possible without the intricate network of alliances they had built with local tribes. ,,When the French build a fort,” says the historian Denis Vaugeois, ,,it is for pétuner, [smoking or snuffing tobacco]

with the Indians. When the English build one, it is to protect themselves

from them.”# The Conquest of 1759, as we know, definitively ended the

development of this society, causing it to fold back and retreat into religious and rural values in the process. As the British historian Jonathan R. Dull puts it, , A few people may prefer the peaceful and placid Québécois of today to their brutal ancestors. But the tragedy is that we will never know what would have become of this society, had it had the chance to develop itself freely.” Nevertheless, and however speculative the prospective development of this vanquished society could have been, one thing remained: the profound identification with the North American soil. It is not the love of the Canadiens for their motherland that the course of history had changed, but simply its nature: from an extremely aggressive, even cruel character, which was essential to survive in their brutal world, their relationship to the soil suddenly became placid and peaceful, seeking asylum in agriculture. It worked. Having lost all political and economical control over their destiny, the love of the land ended up being transferred from its discovery to its culti-

feat in those times. In the 1750s, the French settlers, the Canadiens,” as they

25 This, unfortunately, has somewhat changed. According to Charles-Philippe Courtois, an historian teaching at the Military College, a federal institution in St-Jean, history has

completely deserted the classroom. The historian Gilles Laporte for his part explains that

less than 5% of CEGEP students, that is, students preparing to enter university, had studied the history of Quebec. In: Le Devoir, 12 September 2009, p. A10. However, the voters of 1995 were still part of a generation that had been taught history. 26 This is how Major General James Wolfe, who would eventually be the winner of the battle of the plains of Abraham in 1759, getting himself killed in the process, talked of his enemies: οἱ own it would give me pleasure to see the Canadian vermin sacked and pillaged and justly repaid their unheard-of-cruelty” [...] Wolfe ordered countless French-

Canadian villages burned, farms plundered, and the city of Quebec bombed to rubble.”, In: Kaufman, Jason, The Origin of Canadian & American Differences, (Harvard: Harvard University Press, 2009), 86. The usage of the name ,,Canadien” to refer to FrenchCanadians was still common in the 1950s in Quebec. The others, now known as AngloCanadians, were simply described as Les Anglais. The other name French-Canadians and

others used to refer to themselves was Les Habitants. (See: Oxford Concise Dictionary, 4th ed., (Oxford, Oxford University Press, 1952), 542. Both names: Habitants (The Habs), are also used by a famous ice hockey team.

27 In: Le Devoir, 22 August 2009, p. A8. 28 Ibid, 29 Le Devoir, 25 August 2009, p. A8.

Canadiens

and

360

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

vation, from adventure to farming and church going. But, as it is often the case, the craving for an adventurous life did not die with this unfortunate turn of event; it simply metamorphosed itself into stories. Cultivation of the land bred its culture in the form of images, traditions, folklore, and memory. Will James, who wrote memorable cowboy stories that epitomized the Wild West, is normally believed to be a genuine American. He was actually born in St. Nazaire de Acton in 1892, under the name of Joseph Ernest Dufault.

Even Ti-Jean ,,Jack” Kerouac, one of the main figures of the Beat Generation and the author of On the road, the text that defined it, some

parts of it were even written in French, had his roots in Quebec. He had been born to a French Canadian family in Lowell, Mass., his parents were

part of the nearly one million that had left Quebec in the eighteenth and nineteenth century to find work in the New England factories. These roads, where the footsteps, the beats, of Will James and Jack Kerouac had resounded, were the same ones that the French explorers, d’Iberville, Jolliet,

Radisson, and so many others had travelled before them. The image of the globe reminded everyone that Quebec’s history had deep roots in North America. The outline of the continent the voters could see on the posters is a form that all of them immediately recognized has having been shaped by their ancestors. By presenting the image of the globe of the world, with North America clearly visible on it, the planners of the Oui-Side were trying to counterbalance an old fear present in the subconscious of every Francophone in North America, and not only the ones in Quebec, the fear of assimilation.

The federalists had contended in 1980 that an independent Quebec would

hasten that fate, because Canada would not be there anymore, with the weight of its sizable presence, to defend the French culture on the whole of its territory and abroad. Those were still, after all, the times when it was believed that official bilingualism would enable Francophones to function in French, at least at the level of the public services, from coast to coast. If Quebec

separated, Francophones,

it was

held, would

be left to fend

for

themselves and would disappear quickly, drowned in a sea of three hundred million Anglophones. They would have nowhere to go and would either have to ghettoize themselves or face inevitable assimilation. The image of Louisiana was often summoned. The image of the sea of Anglophones is of course a very potent one. In 1980, it was held by the No-Side that if Quebec became an independent country with French as its official language, the other provinces would take

this as a personal affront and would show even less tolerance towards the Francophones than they had shown up until then. The massive ,,American” argument was also implied: the United States of America were not known to favour any changes in the political status of Canada. Of course, Washington

Deschamps: Imagery for a New Country

361

had always maintained that the Canadian unity debate was to be resolved exclusively in Canada. But the positions of the US government were known, and they meant a lot in the mind of French-Canadians. As such, the image of the globe could in fact be dangerous for the Yes-Side. The third concept the planners hoped to arouse with their image of the globe has nothing to do with the historical and cultural lore of North America, but hints at the possibility of an integrated economy. Seen from that angle, the globe poster becomes the central concept, because it is designed to join the flower(y) motif of the two first ones, with their cultural and psychological associations, with the far more concrete aspects of economy, of every day life, of households, as the etymology of the word suggest. The globe shows that Quebec is a part of the North American world. The Yes-Side let it be known that an independent Quebec would retain its membership in NAFTA, the North American Free Trade Agreement. There are no border lines to be seen on the representation of the North

American

continent.

The

poster

conveys

this

message:

,,We

are

players in a big world, which belongs to us, as we do to it; but this time, if we vote yes, we can play the game as ourselves.” When Quebec elected its first sovereignist government in the midseventies, René Lévesque found out that commerce with the other Canadian provinces did not go as smoothly as before. Lévesque had always held the Americans in high esteem. He had been incorporated in the US Army during the war, and French Canadians have always been known for their deep American sympathies, even for their admiration of the American people. The economic argument, which the globe portrays extremely well, also brought to mind that the primary economic partners of the new country would be south of its borders, on the densely populated eastern sea board, where Quebec was already doing a lot of lucrative business, not to mention the sale of its electricity, produced in its northern territories that had brought

it the

nickname

of ,,The Arabs

of the North,”

and which

was

By

,,we

already bringing in billion of dollars to the province’s treasury. This image, evidently counterbalances the argument of isolation that the federalist

belong

camp

to

the

had

used

whole,

with

where

great

we

can

success

be

in the

ourselves”,

past.

they

saying:

were

directly

aiming at the argument that, if Quebec was independent, it would be isolated and incapable of pursuing its own interest, drowned economically and linguistically in a sea of 300 millions Anglophones. The Man-at-Work poster (Fig. 4) The next poster shows the symbol of a man-at-work replacing the ,,O.”

The blue of the background is slightly warmer than the one used for the

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

362

Deschamps: Imagery for a New Country

363

ocean of the globe poster, which is useful to highlight the familiar road sign, known to everyone. This poster, just like the peace sign poster creates

progressing from the status of folklore nation—the best writers, artists,

and it would probably also have the same meaning, should a Portuguese or Irish national see it. The poster calmly states that there would be work to do in an independent Quebec, and there would also be jobs present. On a subliminal plane, this poster, in terms of transposition of colours, is exactly the reverse of the preceding one. It is also one that Jacques Parizeau, minister of finance and leader of the Yes camp, liked to have near him when i photographers were around. Work has always been a fundamental theme in any society. One of the strongest arguments used by the federalists against Quebec’s separation in 1980 was the spectre of unemployment. Ten years before, in April 1970, during his first provincial election campaign, Robert Bourassa, then the liberal contender, had promised 100,000 jobs if he was elected. The people believed him, and he was voted into office with a huge majority. As already mentioned, the performance of the newly formed Parti Québecois, the party advocating secession, was abysmally low. Although there were many other reasons for the collapse of Lévesque’s party, it cannot be denied that unemployment played a major role in Bourassa’s victory. In the end, work above all, was regarded as far more important than any of the political | changes that the separatists were advocating. midthe in promise Robert Bourassa, once in power, delivered on his seventies and ended up creating far more than the 100,000 jobs he had originally promised, being helped in this matter by the building of the hydroelectric dams in northern Quebec. The prosperity this had brought to the province was still on everyone’s mind in 1980. And it could also be felt in everyone’s pockets. Many had found employment there and were grateful. The federalists were aware of this, and their argument was essentially this

confirmed that trend, it is just as clear that the mood, in the decade leading

immediate associations in the mind of the viewers. It needs no introduction,

one: ,,If you vote Yes, there will be no more jobs; you will lose your job security forever.” And this argument, it must be said, was not just an empty

artifice of propaganda; it drew a lot of its power of persuasion directly from the day to day economic reality of French Canadians. We must not forget that 1970 is not only the first year of a new decade;

mote importantly here, it is also the last one of the old decade, the sixties,

which had seen French Canadians start to acquire all the necessary tools they would need to allow Quebec’s economy to be competitive in the last quarter of the twentieth century and beyond. But these tools, and the accompanying economic prosperity, were far from being completely in place in 1970. The late fifties and early sixties, when French Canadians could only hope to earn a fraction of the salary of their anglophone counterparts, were not that far away

in time.

In other words,

if French

Canada

was slowly

storytellers, dancers, musicians etc.—to the status of a nation in command

of its economy and of its politics, and if it is also true that the seventies

to the eighties, especially after the bumpy start of October 1970, was certainly not one of ,,mission accomplished.” The abysmal poverty status of many French Canadians, an extension of the dreadful thirties, and the feeling that one was a second class citizen in one’s own country, all these things still made deep inroads in the psyche of the nation, and this lasted at least till the mid-seventies. By 1995, the situation had changed. The Parti Québecois, which had led the losing Yes-Side in 1980, had lost power in 1985, but had regained it, this

time led by Jacques Parizeau, a competent economist schooled in London and finance minister who looked and dressed like a prosperous banker. It was felt that the so-called Quebec Inc. was now firmly in place. The North American economy looked good, the recession and high interest rates of the 1980s were a thing of the past. It was not that farfetched to think that such prosperity would be easily transferred to a sovereign Quebec. This poster also targets the working class. After all, featured prominently on it, we find one of its members, at work, with a shovel in his hands.

We must also not forget the fact that the Parti Québecois has always been

close to the workers’ movements. The workers themselves, the blue collars, constitute a crucial part of the electorate and as such, they are an important

target of any propaganda campaign. This fact probably played an important role in the choice of the background colour. The sign of the man-at-work was also created in anticipation of the

speeches of some industry leaders, who, it was feared, would not hesitate to

publicly denounce independence as bad for business and even threaten to leave

Quebec

if the

Yes-Side

won.

Many

business

leaders

did, in fact,

announce that separatism was the worst thing that could happen to their business. One of them was Laurent Beaudoin, CEO of the heavily state subsidized company Bombardier. He was adamant that his company would

leave if the Yes-Side won. In retrospect, and seen in this light, this poster

can also appear as a pre-emptive strike against this type of argumentation. The Dollar Coin poster (Fig. 5)

The last poster of the campaign was extremely controversial. It featured

a Canadian dollar coin, a ,,Looney,” clean and yellow as gold, shining on a

yellow background. The yellow colour this time played against the object it was supposed to bring out, both being almost of the same colour. But the background ended up being used anyway because it linked this poster with

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Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

the two previous ones, which also had yellow backgrounds. Consequently, the role of highlighting the coin was entrusted to the black lettering instead, which contrasted enough with the coin to bring it all the desired attention. Very few people understood the intention of the Yes-Side when they saw this poster. Indeed, why advertise the currency of the country you are trying to break away from? The coin had not only the word dollar” stamped on it, it also had the word Canada as welll Moreover, and keeping with the No-Side’s arguments, would not this dollar be the very thing the voters would loose, if Quebec seceded from Canada? Money is the argument that hits the hardest. Figuratively, to be hit in the wallet is a very personal thing; it really counts. Building a new country might be a gtandiose project, but it takes place on such a scale that it somehow remains a bit theoretical and remote. On the other hand, buying things is an extremely concrete action, and not be able to buy them is absolutely frustrating, especially if the government can be blamed for that reality. Seen from that angle, this poster is an extension of the one of the Man-at-Work. In a modern society, the fear of being broke can be absolutely paralysing, and for the longest time, it was one of the most powerful arguments against separation. In a legendary episode that happened in April 1970, with the newly formed Parti Québécois trailing the Liberal Party of the young Robert Bourassa only by a few points in the polls in spite of the fact that the latter had promised 100,000 jobs if he was elected, an anonymous phone call was made to the office of the Montreal English newspaper The Gazette on

the evening of the 25th April. A man who refused to identify himself

explained that a lot of money stood to leave Montreal for Toronto the next morning. 450 million dollars, 2.58 billions in today’s money! The money was to be carried in trucks belonging to the Brinks company, a firm specializing in the transport of securities. Tedd Church, a photographer who had been sent by The Gazette to cover the event the next morning, confirmed that the trucks had been there, nine of them, and that he had watched armed

guards supervise the transfer of several metallic cases into them. The article was published the next day, without Church’s picture however, because, as

he explained in 2009, the publisher and city editor of The Gazette had called him into their office that night and to tell him that they had ,,made a deal with the prime minister’s office (P.E. Trudeau) not to publish them,” which

would indicate that Ottawa had advanced knowledge of the apprehended money transfer.”

30 See: Le Devoir, 29 April 2009, p. A7. The article is signed by Mario Beaulieu and

Christian Gagnon, two members of the Société Saint-Jean-Baptiste of Montreal, a nationalist organisation, and consequently, it must be read with the customary critical

distance. However, there is no reason to doubt the veracity of Church’s testimony, ΠΟΥ the fact that the trucks themselves, as one can expect, did not carry any money at all. See:

Deschamps: Imagery for a New Country

365

Obviously, the money transfer was a staged event. The Gazette article

however, published in the first edition of the paper on the 26th, a Sunday,

created a lot of waves, even causing The Chicago Tribune to write in its 27th April edition that ,,money was starting to flow out of Quebec because of the fear of a separatist victory.”>! This feat, combined with a televised address of Pierre Eliot Trudeau to the Québécois ,,about the status of Quebec in the

Confederation” the day before the vote, to which Lévesque could not reply because Quebec’s electoral law forbade any campaigning within 24 hours of the vote, sank the Parti Québécois for good. Trudeau’s speech is long forgotten. However, in the province of Quebec, the infamous ,,coup de la Brinks” still lives on in the collective psyche, and is synonymous with treachery and back stabbing. For the 1980 planners of the No committee, this story was a bonus, and far from considering it treacherous, they decided to cash in on it by suggesting that, should Quebec secede, it would become a

Cuba of the north. The ,,Lévesque dollar bill,” which had briefly circulated in 1976, when Bourassa had asked the voters for a third mandate, was

also mentioned. On these bills, next to the worst possible photograph of Lévesque, the words ,,fifty cents” were clearly visible, trying to perpetuate the myth that money would be nearly worthless in an independent Quebec. The Brinks coup and the Lévesque dollar are powerful images. The dollar coin poster can be conceived as one of the countermeasures of the Yes camp. The point that the image of the dollar coin defends is extremely subtle. The difference between victory and defeat in any referendum campaign in Quebec, even now, should there be one, hinges on the word association.

Before he had become leader of the Parti Québecois, René Lévesque had been the founder of the Sovereignty-Association Movement in 1967. The federalists had made fun of him at the time, saying that he had replaced the

word ,,independence” with ,,sovereignty”, a word that has a softer tone and is easier to sell. Lévesque, of course, had been accused of duplicity. Even

stand-up comics had had a field day back then, saying that ,;what the people

of Quebec really want is an independent Quebec in a strong and united

Canada.” But Lévesque was a pragmatist, and he had been quick to recognize that an independent Quebec would have to establish a partnership of some sort with his (future) Canadian neighbours sooner or later. The

name

of his first political movement,

after he had left the Liberal Party,

already contained one of the existential conditions of a future independent http://www.ledevoir.com/ politique/quebec/287902/les-40-ans-du-coup-de-la-brink-s-

les-liberaux-federaux-sont-coupables Accessed September 2010. 31 Ibid. 32 Ironically, in November 2006, the conservative government introduced

à motion

of Stephen

in the Canadian parliament, asking that ,,that this House

Harper

recognize

that the Québécois form a nation within a united Canada.” The motion was passed.

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

366

Quebec, and already foresaw the economic ties the new country would have to establish in North America, including with Canada. The dollar coin signifies exactly that. Of course, it was not to the advantage of the No-Side to concur, and consequently, the federalist camp employed much of its energy to try to demonstrate that things would not run as smoothly as advertised, and that in fact, there would be enormous

difficulties separation campaigns, which was to pick up Paris,

in the negotiations. In other words, they played the word against the word sovereignty. This issue was central to both and we can see a sure sign of this in the fact that the Yes-Side, trailing behind very badly at the outset of the campaign, started momentum the very moment the former Canadian ambassador in

a man

named

Lucien

Bouchard,

a lawyer

and

former

Canadian

secretary of State as well as former minister of Environment in the Mulroney federal cabinet, was introduced to the crowd at a rally in the quality of Chief Negotiator. This constituted the turning point. Both sides knew that the deciding segment of the voters, less than 10,000 according to some people, called the switch voters, were

not likely to vote

,,Yes” if there was

no

foreseeable negotiation afterwards. And therefore, it was extremely clever to emphasize economic ties, or any kind of tie with Canada. The ,,Chief Nego-

tiator,” another brilliant image, embodied this concept perfectly. It turned

the campaign around. This was an extremely difficult argument to counter for the No-Side, because everyone knew that there would be a round of negotiations, perhaps many, should the Yes-Side win, if only to determine the share of the national debt that Quebec needed to carry. And so, it is not really on that point that the federal side counterattacked but rather on the fact that the negotiations would be arduous. The sovereignists, for their part, tried to push the

business as usual” argument. The dollar coin on the poster wonderfully re-

presents this argument. Another point that the dollar was trying to make to the voters was that

this was their money. It belonged to them; they owned it, because they had

paid for it with their taxes. In 1980, on top of the Brinks story, the federalists had had a field day with their pension horror stories. They were

obviously targeting the senior citizens who, born in the early years of the twentieth century, had never even considered a Quebec outside Canada.

They had worked all their lives, and now that they were retired, they

received pension checks with a little maple leaf in the top corner. And they

were not ready to put that at risk. In 1995, things were different, because the

pensioners were more ready to believe that Ottawa took money out of their pockets and sent it back to them with a Canadian flag on it, although not everyone believed this argument.

Deschamps: Imagery for a New Country

367

Finally, Jacques Parizeau had let it be known that it was very possible that an independent Quebec would use the Canadian dollar as its national

currency. Such an argument would have never flown in 1980, but in 1995, it

somehow made sense, although it seemed silly that an independent country would consider having its economic policies decided in the capital of another nation. Still, it was feasible; even Ottawa acknowledged it. The

sovereignist, never short of arguments, claimed that this would not be much

of a change after all, since they held that the Canadian economic policies were dictated by Toronto bankers anyway. These policies, according to the Yes-Side, always seem to be to the advantage of the economic interests of the province of Ontario, and never those of Quebec, hence the need to have a separate country, where one could have at least a little bit more leverage as a partner than as a serf. It is to be noted that that kind of resentment also came from the Western provinces, who also felt that they had a bone to pick with the central government, which they associated with the Bay Street bankers of Toronto, especially over the issue of oil. Conclusion

Posters might appear to be a little archaic in the world we now live in, somewhat static in a universe where the pace is dictated by the speed clocked by computer chips. And posters are short lived too! In 1995, it had

been estimated that, after two weeks spent on a lamppost, they had lived their lives because no one looked at them anymore. Not so for the posters we have just looked at; more than fifteen years after they have been taken down they still have a story to tell, they still want to convince us, they still

need to be interpreted. In the end, it is doubtful whether these images can

really change someone’s mind. But it is possible, and posters might always be there for that reason, because they are cheap and relatively long lasting for the investment, and they also create an environment outside that signifies to the voters at all times that ,,something is going on.” The 1995 Yes-Side posters even went beyond that in a way, because the story they tried tell, no matter how we interpret it in the end, is extremely interesting.

They had history, sociology, psychology, even literature, woven into their fabric. For that reason alone, they are worth studying.

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

368

Deschamps: Imagery for a New Country FIGURES

WORKS CITED

Daly, Peter, M., Literature in the Light of the Emblem, 2nd ed. Toronto: University of Toronto Press, 1998. Maheu, Robert, Les Francophones du Canada

1941-1991,

Montreal: Parti-

Pris, 1970.

Kaufman, Jason, The Origin of Canadian & American Differences, Harvard: Harvard, 2009.

Laforest, Guy,

Trudeau and the End of a Canadian Dream,

McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1995. McRoberts,

Kenneth,

English Canada

and Quebec:

Kingston:

Avoiding the Issue,

Sixth Annual Robarts Lecture, 5 March 1991. http://www.yorku.ca/robarts/projects/lectures/pdf /rl_mcroberts.pdf

et ça devient possible

Trudeau, Pierre Elliott, Memoirs, Toronto: McClelland and Stewart, 1998

La grève de l'amiante. Pierre Elliott Trudeau, ed. Montreal, Ed. du Jour: 1970.

Figure 1 The Daisy Poster.

Trudeau, Pierre Elliott, ,Some

Obstacles

to Democracy

in Quebec.”

Canadian Journal of Economic and Political Science, 24:3 (1958): 297-311.

http://www.jstor.org/stable/138618 Accessed September 2010

Valliéres, Pierre, Nègres Blancs d'Amérique, Montreal: Partis-Pris, 1968.

Periodicals and Newspapers Cité Libre, Montréal: Syndicat coopératif d'édition Cité libre

Le Devoir La Presse

The Montreal Gazette

The New York Times Magazine The New York Times The Chicago Tribune

The

qui

Figure 2 The Peace Sign Poster.

369

370

Emblems,

Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

Deschamps: Imagery for a New Country

et ça devient possible Figure 3 The Globe of the World poster. Figure 5 The Dollar Coin poster.

et ça devient possible Figure 4 The Man-at-Work poster.

Aspects of the Fig Tree and its Fruit in Emblematics

RAFAEL GARCIA MAHIQUES

University of Valéncia, Spain Abstract

The fig tree, of Mediterranean origin, has been endowed with iconic meaning throughout history, both as a literary image as well as a visual image. This study attempts to highlight, from a diachronic approach, the principal aspects of the fig tree’s symbolic meaning, with the understanding that there is a conventionalized cultural tradition where we can observe both continuity and variation in the meaning of the fig tree and its fruit. The point of departure for this study is a verification of the sources in their double origin: the world of Greek and Roman antiquity and the Bible, continuing with authors from the Christian tradition. In this sense, emblematics becomes a melting pot in which the various traditions are decanted, making the fig tree a verbal-visual rhetorical device. This study offers a review of

some emblematic manifestations that have as their object the formation of

conceits based on the image of the fig tree or its fruit.

The fig tree has enjoyed immense popularity dating back to very remote times. We find it in the natural history of the ancients as well as in mythology and the Bible. Theophrastus, the Greek philiosopher who flourished in the third century BC, defined the fig tree as having short shoots and being fleshy,” as opposed to those trees that he calls woody, such as the pine tree. Furthermore, the fig tree’s bark consists of a single layer; its roots are long and very twisted, because it cannot find the expeditious

straight path; its

branches are very knotty, and it is deciduous, although the fig trees of Elephantine island never lose their leaves; the seeds of the fig are contained in a single capsule; it is a tree that propagates by means of suckers or cuttings, more often than by means of seedlings; grafting is also a possibility for propagation; the fig trees of Laconia (or Lacedaemonia) have a taste for water; Theophrastus

also comments

on the operations that must be carried

out in order to make the fig tree bear fruit, such as slashing the trunk, or pruning the roots and fertilizing with ashes; he also writes about the

phenomenon of caprification,! when he states: when the gall-bearing insects

emerge from the wild figs (caprifigs) and cling to the fig trees, they suck the 1 Tt is well-known that fig wasps of the genus Blastophaga psenes Westw., by chewing

through the fig ostiole or syconium, deposit their eggs on the inflorescences of the figs and thus contribute to the pollination of the fig fruits.

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Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

stalks of the fruits and inflate them, thus ripening them. He also affirms that the

fruit of the fig tree falls prematurely,

offering, when

it does

so, ex-

temporaneous fruits (early figs). Furthermore, he speaks of the brevity of their lives.? Dioscorides, a physician of the first century AD, proclaims the fig tree, in all of its components, whether we are dealing with its leaves, its

fruit, or even its sap, to be an extremely useful tree in pharmacopeia. The remedies to which it contributes are multiple, ranging from the cure of chilblains or even warts, to the cure of spasms.3 In Antiquity, the fig tree was consecrated to Saturn, according to Macrobius, the fifth-century grammarian, a belief also echoed by Piero Valeriano in the sixteenth century, since it was believed that this deity had introduced the fig tree’s cultivation, and the people of Cyrene (an ancient Greek colony that forms part of present-day Libya) crowned themselves with fig fronds to celebrate Saturnalia.t Valeriano also related the fig tree and its fruits to Bacchus; to the cult of Serapis; to Mercury, to whom the Egyptians offered a sacrifice of honey and figs on the nineteenth day of the first month of the year—constituting therefore a symbol of the smoothness and sweetness of truth—; and to Ceres, for whom the fig tree is one of her attributes due to the nourishment that the fruit provides. This sixteenth-century Italian treatise writer also related the fig tree to fecundity, insemination, and the inception of creation, due to its abundance of white sap, similar to seminal fluid.” In addition, in certain agrarian cults of ancient Greece, the sycophants were charged with ,,revealing the fig” (suké). This expression symbolically veils an initiation rite to the mysteries of fertility.© The fig tree that protectively covered Romulus and Remus during their birth would also become an image of the future happiness and well-being of Rome, due to is fecundity. For a long time a fig tree was venerated in the Roman Comitium, and was replanted succesively by its priests whenever it dried out.’

Mahiques: Aspects of the Fig Tree

5318

As for the fecundity of the fig tree, the ancients, such as Pliny,’ went so far as to affirm that it produces fruits without the need to have flowered beforehand. The most representative testimony as to the fertility of this tree is provided by Saint Isidore:

Ficus Latine a fecunditate vocatur; feracior est enim arboribus ceteris. Nam terque quaterque per singulos annos generat fructum, atque altero maturescente alter oboritur. Hinc et caricae a copia nominatae® [Ficus (fig tree) is a Latin word derived from fecunditas, since it is more fertile than any other tree, for it produces fruit every year up to three and four times, to the extent that while one harvest is ripening, the next one begins to sprout. Due to its abundance, it is also known as carica.] These beliefs provided the impetus for emblematic literature to elaborate conceits surrounding fecundity based on the model of the fig tree. With Pliny as his point of departure, we see this expressed in one of the emblems of Guillaume de la Perriére, a native of Toulouse (Fig. 1). It depicts a fig tree in the middle of a garden. Beneath the tree, one man helps another by offering him a sack or purse. The author makes reference to the abundance of the fruits of friendship: help and assistance, acting as the fig tree does, when it gives fruits without having flowered. In the same way, true friends help each other out without having to resort to prior promises. The French epigram reads thus:

Faire devons comme le figuier fait, Qui sans florir porte fruictz ἃ larguesse. Semblablement, les amys par effect Faut secourir, sans user de promesse.\

2 Thphr. HP I 3, 1, 5; 5, 1-3; 6, 1, 3-4; 7, 2; 8, 5; 9, 7; 11, 4, 6; II 2, 4; 5, 3-7; 6, 12; 7, 1, 56; 8, 1-4; III 7, 3; IV 13, 1-2. 3 Dsc. De materia medica 1, 145.

4 Macrob. Sat. 1, 7, 25. Levi d’Ancona, M., The Garden of the Renaissance. Botanical Symbolism in Italian Painting, Florence, 1977, p. 135.

5 Valeriano Bolzani, G.P., 1 Jeroglifici overo Commentarii delle occulte significationi de

gl Egittij, & altre nationi composti dall'Eccellente signor (...), in Venetia, 1625, presso Gio

Battista Combi, lib. LIII, pp. 709-712. 6 Later, when the exporting of figs from Attica was prohibited, the term sycophant came to designate those who accused others of contrabanding in figs, the ,,revealers of the fig.” Chevalier, J., Dictionnaire des Symboles,

Paris, Robert

Laffont,

1969

(Spanish

trans.

Diccionario de los Simbolos, Madrid, 1984), p. 568. 7 Plin. nat. 15, 18. Goropius Becanus, J., Opera (...) Hactenus in lucem non edita (...), Antwerp, 1580, p. 76.

8 Plin. nat. 16, 25 (16, 95f). 9 Isid. orig. 17, 7, 17. See the bilingual Latin-Spanish edition by Oroz Marcos Casquero, M.A., Madrid, BAC, 1983, vol. IL, pp. 342-43.

Reta, J., and

10 La Perriére, G., La Morosophie de (...) Tolosain, Contenant Cent Emblemes moraux, illustrez de Cent Tetrastiques latins, reduitz en autant de Quatrains Frangoys, Lyon, pat Macé Bonhomme,

1533, emb. 33. The Latin epigram reads: Vere novo nullos ficus pro-

ducere flores / Novit, at autumno dulcia poma gerit: / Arboris huius erit fidus sectator amicus / Facto, non verbis, dando salutis opem [In the first days of Spring the fig-tree cannot bring forth flowers, but she bears sweet fruit in the Autumn. A faithful friend will be like this tree: giving real help with deeds, not words.

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Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

[We must do as the fig tree does, which bears abundant fruit without flowering. Similarly, one must help friends with deeds rather than a display of promises.] Another emblem closely related to this one can be found in the German emblematist Joachim Camerarius. The pictura presents a fig tree laden with flowers, with the motto Mitte non promitte |Give, do not promise] in order to express the same concept.!! The fig tree, then, which abstains from frivolous promises, bearing fruits without having announced them previously with its flowers, also appears in the great repertory by Nicolas Caussin,!? as well as in the vast encyclopedia by Filippo Picinelli, in which

we should point out: Poma pro floribus [Fruit for flowers], which refers to the studious preacher, and Senectute foecundior [By old age it becomes

fertile], since the fig tree offers more fruit the older it gets.!5 The fig tree’s fecundity is also codified in the emblematic tradition. Thus, when the city

of Valencia celebrated the canonization of archbishop Tomas de Villanueva,

in the middle of the seventeenth century, a hieroglyph adorned the altar of the convent of San Agustin, according to the information transmitted to us by M.A. Orti. It depicted a fig tree in allusion to the fecundity of the Augustinian order, capable of enlightening men such as the previously mentioned archbishop. The hieroglyph featured a fig tree heavily laden with fruit, with a fig at the very top which displayed the coat of arms of the saint. 11 Camerarius, J., Symbolorum et Emblematum Centuriae quatuor quarum prima Stirpium secunda Animalium quadrupedium tertia Volatilium et Insectium quarta Aquatilium et Reptilium. Rariores proprietates Historias ac sententias memorabiles non paucas breviter exponit. Ultima Editio. Moguntiae, Sumpt Ludovici Bourgeat, Academiae Bibliopolae, 1677, cent. I, emb. IX, pp. 18-19. The epigram reads thus: Gratior est fructu ficus quam flora salicta, / Missa ego promissis ante ferenda reor. This emblem is repeated in the collection Emblematische Gemiiths-Vergniigung, bey Betrachtung 715 der curiesusten und ergizlichsten Sinnbildern, mit ihrem zuständigen Deutsch- Lateinisch- Franzôsisch- und Italianischen Beyschrifien, Augspurg, 1693, emb. 8, p. 29. Other emblems dedicated to the fig tree in this collection are Fugit hiems, which alludes to the coming of the spring (emb.9, p. 20) and Semper matura [Always ripe], in the sense that this tree always has ripe fruit

Mahiques: Aspects of the Fig Tree

377

The hieroglyph’s motto was Gloria mea semper innovabitur [My glory will always be renewed], and the epigram read: No en balde ocupa la tierra La madre del gran Tomas Pues dio mucho, y dara mas.!4 [Not in vain does the earth hold the mother of great Tomas since she gave a lot, and will give more.]

But the most

sublime example is provided by Francisco Nüñez

de

Cepeda (Fig. 2) in the impresa whose motto reads Poma pro floribus | Fruit for flowers], that includes the following commentary:

La higuera, cuerpo de esta empresa, fue escogida para primer vestido del hombre, porque no gasta su caudal en producir flores, ni son sus hojas galan adorno, sino grosero y âspero cilicio, a cuya causa rinde doblados frutos en beneficio comin, y tan suaves que ningunos le igualan en la dulzura.'5 [The fig tree, the body of this impresa, was chosen as mankind’s first lothing, since it does not waste its abundance on producing flowers, nor are its leaves gallant adornment, but rather a coarse and rough hair shirt, and for that reason it yields double the fruits for the common good, and so gentle that none other equal them in sweetness.] Valeriano interprets the fruit of the fig tree as sweetness, both in terms of the pleasant conversation of human beings, with gentleness of habits, as well as in other things that are enjoyable and full of pleasure. Many called those who surpassed others in their quality of life ,,fildfigos” [fig lovers, or philofigs|. According to Valeriano, the fig tree is also a symbol of ,,sweetness removed,”

since in imperial Rome, the harmonious coexistence and sweet

commerce of its citizens was taken away from them upon the death of Alexander Severus. The fig tree would also come to be an image of flattery,

(emb. 3, p. 21).

12 Caussin, N., De Symbolica Aegyptiorum Sapientia, in qua symbola, aenigmata, emblemata, parabolae historicae apologi, Hieroglyphica, ex Horo Apolline, Clemente Alexand., S. Epiphanio, Symposio Poéta, cum notis et Observationibus, Colonia, loannem Kinchium, 1654), p. 483. See Peter M. Daly and G. Richard Dimler, S.J. The Jesuit Series. Part One

(A-D). Montreal: McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997, ].106-J.113. The description of

14 Orti Ballester, M.A., Solenidad (sic) festiva con que la insigne, leal, noble y coronada ciudad de Valencia, se celebré la feliz nueva de la canonizacién de su milagroso arçobispo Santo Tomds de Villanueva, Valencia, 1659, pp. 93-94. 15 Nufiez de Cepeda, F., Idea del Buen Pastor, copiada por los SS. Doctores representada en

Caussin’s works is not easy for reasons that are identified in 1.106.

Empresas Sacras, con avisos espirituales, morales, politicos, y econédmicos para el Gobierno de

et eruditioni Sacre, e profane; in Questa Nuova Impressione (...), in Milano, 1680, nella Stampa di Francesco Vigone, IX, 13, pp. 322-323.

Tuero, 1988, pp. 180-182.

13 Picinelli, F., Mondo simbolico formato d'Imprese scelte, spiegate, et illustrate con sentenze,

un Principe Ecclesiastico (...), en Leon [Lyons], a costa de Anisson y Posuel, 1682, emp.

XLVI, pp. 180-182. Garcia Mahiques, R., Empresas Sacras de Nüñez de Cepeda, Madrid:

378

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

due to its sweetness. But in its appearance, the fruit is ugly, black and full of wrinkles, which gave rise to some emblematic conceits transmitted to us by Picinelli. Thus, with the motto Dulcorem non speciem [The taste and not the shape], the fig signifies virtue in a brutish body; and with the motto sub cortice mella [Under the bark, honey], it represents religious life which, beneath its squalid external appearance, contains the honey of divine consolation; or the fruit of the fig can symbolize Christ himself in the ugliness of his abused body towards the end of his mortal life, with the motto Maturitati nigrescunt [They become black when mature]. The sweetness of a plate of world’s best figs were produced, quest of that nation. This notion the Spanish Jesuit Lorenzo Ortiz,

figs that originated in Greece, where the motivated Xerxes to undertake the conalso provided material for an emblem by in which he deals with the sense of taste.

It has as its motto, O si bien loco, general empleo [or if indeed crazy, the

general trend], the meaning of which he explains thus:

(...) y se asolaban los pueblos, se despedazaban los hombres, y teñfan en sangre los rios, y todo era estruendo, horror y furia, porque un Rey goloso se hartasse de higos (...) Y un higo mas o menos; es sélo Xerxes, pregunto, el que por un bocado alborota un mundo? Digalo nuestro mote O si bien loco,

general empleo.\6

[(...) and if towns were razed and men tore each other apart and rivers were dyed by blood, and all was uproar, horror and fury, just so that a King with a sweet-tooth could stuff himself with figs (...) And one fig more or

less; is it ony Xerxes, I wonder, who would upset the whole world just for a

tidbit? Our motto says it all, Or ifindeed crazy, the general trend.

The wood of the fig tree is of relatively low quality, and to that end, Piero Valeriano quotes the Greek proverb on the Mandrén ship, which was made from a fig tree, and which signified a man who was despicable, without authority and insolent, who rises up with power with inappropriate pride. The leaf of the fig is also a sign of walking, of marching, according to Valeriano, since the ancients, when they had to walk someplace, spread fig leaves on the ground as a walking ceremony, which was also considered as a good omen for the journey. We do not know if Alciato’s reference is related 16 Ortiz, L., Ver, Oir, Oler, Gustar, Tocar; Empresas, que enseñan, y persuaden su buen Uso, en lo Politico, y en lo Moral; que ofrece el hermano Lorengo Ortiz de la Compania de Jesus al Excelentissimo Seftor Don Rodrigo Manuel Fernandez, etc, en Leon de Francia, en la Emprenta de Anisson, Posuel y Rigaud, a costa de Francisco Brugieres, y Compañia, año

de 1687, p. 176.

Mahiques: Aspects of the Fig Tree

379

to marching or not, but he certainly avails himself of the harshness of fig leaves in order to allude to the ability of him who pursues one who has fled. The image shows a fisherman who catches a slippery eel by making use of

the roughness of fig leaves. The motto is Jn deprehensum [Against detection],

and he comments in the epigram:

Sobre el capturado. Desde hace tiempo te persigo a donde quiera que huyes, pero ahora por fin has sido atrapado en nuestras redes. No podras esquivar por mas tiempo nuestras fuerzas: hemos apretado a la anguila con la hoja de la higuera.17 [On the captured one. For some time I have pursued you wherever you flee, but now finally you have been trapped in our nets. You will not be able to avoid our strength any longer: we have grasped the eel with the fig leaf.] The fig tree is also a biblical plant, and sources deriving from Scriptures and from their exegetes have inspired a great variety of conceits in both Christian rhetoric and in emblematics. With adequate watering, the fig tree prospers even in rocky soil. It was the custom in Palestine to plant fig trees in the vineyards; which explains the expression ,,living beneath its grapevine and its fig tree.” One of the promises that Moses made to his people upon their return to Egypt was to lead them to land where fig trees grew (Deu 8, 8). The Israelites wept over the sterility of the desert that did not even produce fig trees (Num 20, 5). The fig, along with the olive and the grape, is one of the most important fruits of Palestine and a basic foodstuff. Figs could be consumed

fresh or dried or elaborated in the form of fig bread,

kneaded fresh figs. These loaves of bread were also used to cure ulcers, a remedy that appears in several passages.'® Nahum, describing the ruin of Nineveh, says that all of its fortresses would fall like the ripe wild fig when the tree is shaken (Na 3, 12), and the same metaphor is repeated in Apocalypse, where it is said that the stars in heaven fell like the figs of the fig tree stirred by the wind (Ap 6, 13), a notion echoed by the Christian Fathers and interpreted in diverse ways. Thus in a homily by an unknown author, pethaps Saint Augustine, it is interpreted as the persecution of the Church,

17 Alciati, A., Emblemata, Antwerp 1577, emb. 21, p. 122: lamdudum quacumque fugis, te Persequor: at nunc / Cassibus in nostris denique captus ades. / Amplius haud poteris vires eludere nostras: / Ficulno anguillam strinximus in folio. The Spanish translation proceeds from the edition by Santiago Sebastian, Madrid: 1985, p. 53. 18 1R 5,5; 2 R 20, 7; Isa 38, 21; Jer 8, 13;Jol 1, 7. Cf. Haag, H., Bibel-Lexicon, Zurich-

Colonia, 1951 (Span. trans. Diccionario de la Biblia, Barcelona, 1981), p. 839.

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Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

in which good Christians are those who remain faithful and upright, like figs that do not fall when the wind shakes the fig tree.!” The New Testament also abounds with allusions to the fig tree. The passage on the sterile fig tree is especially well known (Mt 21, 19; Mk 11, 1214; Lk 13, 7). As concerns the Christological theme, the fig tree symbolizes the Cross, or salvation, according to the fourteenth century French encyclopedist Bersuire (Petrus Berchorius), as a tree whose fruit gives sustenance to the needy, and the poor in spirit. Bersuire derives this interpretation based on the passage in which Christ says to Nathanael: , Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee” (Jn 1, 48)° This tradition was maintained for a long time thanks to works such as the Physiologus.! This same passage from Nathanael was interpreted by Rabanus Maurus, in the ninth century, as a figure of the chosen one, he who is placed beneath the shade of the Law,22 and by Valeriano, in the sixteenth century,

as the image of the holy man, of him who leads a sweet and peaceful life. For Pope St. Gregory, the Church is a fertile fig tree which enlightens martyrs towards eternal life. He bases this symbolism on an interpretation of the very well known passage from the Canticum Canticorum (Song of Songs): »The fig tree put forth her green figs (...)” (Ct 2, 13)23 The fig tree will also 19 Auctor incertus, Expositio in Apocalypsin Ioannis, homil V, en PL 35, 2425: ,,/n omni

enim persecutione boni perseverant, et mali quasi de coelo, id est de Ecclesia cadunt. Denique sequitur, Sicut ficus mittit grossos suos cum a vento agitatur: sic de Ecclesia cadunt mali, quando per aliquam tribulationem fuerint conturbati. Quod autem coelum recessit ut liber; Ecclesia est quae separatur a malis, et velut liber involutus, continet in se sibi nota divina mysteria.”

20 Berchorius, P., Repertorium Morale 1, 101. Cit. de Levi d’Ancona, M., op. cit., pp. 135136. 21 Phisiol. 49; Levi d’Ancona, M., op. cit., pp. 135-136, leads to the English trans. by

Carmody, F.J., Physiologus, the Very Ancient Book of Beasts, Plants and Stones ..., San

Francisco, 1953. 22 Rabanus Maurus, Allegoriae in Universam Sacram Scripturam; PL 112, 926. Everything

that this author has to say about the fig tree is concentrated in this passage: ,Ficus est suavitas mentis, ut in Propheta: ‘Corrumpam vineam et ficum ejus’ [Hos 2, 12] quod in necessitate nonnunquam hominis Deus et contemplationem et suavitatem corrumpi permittit. Ficus, genus humanum, ut in Evangelio: ‘Arborem fici quidam habuit plantatam’ (Lk 13, 6] quod humani generis naturam Deus a se habet creatam. Ficus, sancta Ecclesia, ut in Cantico: ‘Ficus protulit grossos suos’ [Sng 2, 13] id est, sancta Ecclesia protulit martyres suos. Ficus, populus Judaicus, ut in cantico Habacuc: ‘Ficus enim non florebit’ [Hab 3, 17] id est, Judaicus populus nitorem fidei non habebit. Ficus, umbra legis, ut in Evangelio: ‘Cum esses sub ficu, vidi te’ [Jn 1, 48] id est, positum sub umbra legis, elegi te. Ficus, mens humana, ut

in Joele: ‘Decorticavit ficum meam’ ΠῚ 1, 7] id est mentem meam per laudem humanam explicavit. Ficus, charitas, ut in Evangelio: ‘Nunquid colligunt de spinis uvas? aut de tribulis ficus?’ (Mt. VII, 16] Spinae et tribuli haeretici sunt, in quibus spiritualem intelligentiam, aut

charitatis dulcedinem nemo invenire potest.”

23 Sancti Gregorii Magni, Expositio Super Cantica Canticorum 14; PL 79, 499: ,,Ficus

Mahiques: Aspects of the Fig Tree

381

signify, as a theme of salvation, Christ’s Resurrection, since it offers con-

solation and nourishment, as well as protection against evil, according to Thomas the Cistercian (Thomas of Perseigne).24 Another allusion to salvation is found in the passage of the prophet Isaiah that evokes the fig’s power of scarification: ,,Now Isaiah had ordered that they should take a lump of figs, and lay it as a plaster upon the wound, and that he should be healed” (Is 38, 21).25 Christ, in the Gospel, utilizes the image of the blooming fig tree, announcing the arrival of spring, as an image of His second coming: ,,Now of the fig tree learn ye a parable: when the branch thereof is now tender and the leaves are come forth, you know that summer is very near. So you also when you shall see these things come to pass, know ye that it is very nigh, even at the doors”

(Mc

13, 28-29; Mt 24, 32-33). Georgette de Montenay

applied this passage to one of her emblems that depicts in its pictura a fig tree, with the motto Discite [Learn], and where the epigram reads as follows:

Quand le figuier met hors son rameau tendre Vous cognoissez que prochain est l'esté: Ainsi deuons semblablement entendre Ce que par Christ monstré nous a esté. Nous donc voyans l’Euangile planté, Les plus meschans conuaincre en toutes sortes, Ainsi qu auoit promis la Verité, Soyons certaions que Christ est à noz portes.”© [When the fig tree puts out its tender shoots You know that summer is near. Thus, similarly, we must understand what Christ has shown us. Seeing the Gospel planted and how it wins over all sorts of wicked people, quippe grossos suos protulit, quia sancta Ecclesia martyres suos ad aeternam patriam prae-

misit.” 24 Thomas Cisterciensis / Joannes Algrinus, /n Cantica Canticorum Elucidatio; PL 206,

205: ,,Fuit ei Christus hedera, fuit juniperus, fuit ficus: hedera in incarnatione, juniperus in

passione, ficus in resurrectione. (...) Qui in umbra ficus est, non timet aestum malitiae, sed

dicitur ei quod dictum est ad Nathanael: ‘Ecce vere Israelita in quo dolus non est ... Jn 1] quia sapiens dum meditatur gaudium resurrectionis; gustat ficus dulcedinem: ‘Pascha nostrum immolatus est Christus. Epulemur non in fermento veteri, neque in fermento malitiae et nequitiae, sed in azymis sinceritatis et veritatis’ {1 Cor 5]. Ecce iste jam in umbra refrigerationem babet ab aestu vitiorum. Sequitur pausatio ab inc do inquietudinum.”

25 See also 2 Ki 20, 7-8. 26 Montenay, G., Emblemes, ou Devises Chrestiennes, Composees par (...), A Lyon, Par Jean Marcorelle, 1571, p: 97 (a).

382

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics let us there be sure that Christ is at our doors,

just as the Truth has promised.]

The fig tree is also the Virgin Mary. The previously cited passage from

the Song of Songs: ,,The fig tree hath put forth her green figs (...)” (Ct 2, 13)

is interpreted by Honorio de Autun as an image of Mary, a fig tree fertile in good works.” Because Mary has the flower of virginity intact, Picinelli associates the impresa Flores mei fructus [My flower is the fruit in the context of the notion that the fig tree gives fruit without having flowered previously. The fig tree also symbolizes Mary as the New Eve, who protects mankind from evil, even though it was Eve who gave Adam a fig to eat that was taken from the Tree of Knowledge.?8 One tradition tries to identify the fig tree with the ,,tree of Knowledge” from Genesis. There has never been any doubt that our first parents took leaves from the fig tree to cover their nakedness after sinning (Gn 3, 7). Holy Scripture does not specify which tree was the tree of Knowledge. Church Fathers usually identify it as the apple tree, but there are also those who felt that since the leaves that Adam and Eve covered themselves with were from the fig tree, it must have been the tree of Knowledge? Piero 27

Honorius

Augustodunensis,

Sigillum

Beatae

Mariae

ubi

exponuntur

Cantica

Canticorum II; PL 172, 503: ,,Ficus quod tu fuisti fructuosa, protulit grossos suos, id est bona opera, pro quibus remuneraberis.” Levi d’Ancona, M., op. cit., p. 137.

28 Ambrosius Cathetinus Politus, De immaculata Conceptione, and Alva y Astorga, P. de, Bibliotheca Virginalis, Madrid, vol. I 1667; vol. II 1648; vol. III 1648, vol. Il, p. 49, col.

1B. The same symbolism can be found in a treatise attributed to a Franciscan from the beginning of the fifteenth century, Daniel Agricola, Corona Duodecim Coronarum Beatae Virginis Mariae, cited by Alva y Astorga, op. cit., vol. II, p. 307, and before him (ca. 1358)

by

Ernesto

de

Praga, Mariale,

sive liber de praecellentibus et eximiis SS.

Dei

Genitricis Mariae supra reliquas creaturas praerogativis. Ex Arcanis S. Scripturae, SS. Patrum, Theologiae et Philosophiae Naturalis mysteriis concinnatus, ab Ernesto primo

Archepiscopo ..., Prague, 1651. See also Marracci, H., Polyanthea Mariana, Cologne, 1683, p- 152. Levi d’Ancona, M., op. cit., pp. 136-137. 29 Ambr., Parad. XIII, 64; PL 14, 307: ,,Et assuerunt, inquit, folia ficus, et fecerunt sibi

succinctoria (Gn 3, 7). Ficum hoc loco pro qua specie debeamus accipere divinarum nos docet series lectionum: quandoquidem sanctos esse qui sub vite et ficu requiescunt Scriptura memoraverit (Mi 4, 4), et Salomon dixerit: Quis plantat ficum, et de fructu ejus non manducat (Pr 27, 18), et Dominus ad ficum venerit; sed ideo sit offensus, quia non invenerit fructum, sed folia tantum. Docet ergo me Adam quid sint folia, qui posteaquam peccavit, de foliis ficus fecerit sibi succinctorium, qui de fructibus magis ejus gustare debuerit.” Ambrosius

Catherinus Politus, ib. Talegén, J.G., Flora Biblico-Poetica o Historia de las principales

plantas elogiadas en la Sagrada Escritura (...), Madrid, 1871, pp. 335-336, also leaned in this direction, basing his belief on Garcia Horta, who likewise affirmed that it is found in Irenaeus. This same author asserts that the fig tree was the ,,Tree of the Virgin,” which, next to a fountain, was a witness to the stay of the Holy Family in Egypt, contrasting this with other opinions that identified it with the turpentine or mastich tree. In reality, it was

Mahiques: Aspects of the Fig Tree

383

Valeriano even maintains that theologians have taught that the fruit of Adam is the delectation and pleasure apprehended by the senses. Valeriano echoes Irenaeus, for whom the fruit of sin was the fig, and even the fig leaves with which Adam and Eve covered their shame, were nothing more than the rigor of penance, due to the harshness of this leaf to the touch. In another emblem by G. de Montenay, Adam, after sinning, hides from God beneath a fig tree (Fig. 3). The motto of this emblem is Ubi es [Where are your], and the author writes in the epigram:

Adam pensoit estre fort bien caché, Quand il se meit ainsi souz le figuier. Mais il n a cachette où le peché Aux yeux de dieu se puisse desnier. Se vante donc, qui voudra s oublier,

Que die une void des hommes la meschance. Je croy qu'à rien ne sert tout ce mestrier, Qu à se donner à tout peché licence. [Adam thought he was well hidden when he placed himself beneath the fig tree like this. But there is no hiding place where sin can hide from the eyes of God. Whoever wants to forget this boasts arrogantly that God does not see the wickedness of men. I believe that this sort of talk serves only to give oneself license to sin.] It also symbolizes the Holy Spirit due to the sweetness of its fruits, which allude to the totality of its attributes! Hohberg (Fig. 4) proposes the fig tree as a symbol of Grace because of the attractiveness of its fruits. This is expressed in the epigram thus: ,,The sweet fig tree provides happiness with its pleasant fruit, and that is why it frequently suffers the abuse of

a sycamore that, even until recently, could be found in Matarieh, near Cairo, planted in

1672, that replaced the earlier one to which the apocryphal Gospels refer [Evangelio drabe de la Infancia 24, Span. trans. by Santos Otero, E. de, Los Evangelios apécrifos, Madrid:

BAC, 1988, p. 317.

30 Montenay, G., op. cit., p. 65(a).

31 Hier., in Joel 1; PL 25, 955: ,,Si ergo dederimus locum huic genti, ut ascendat in nobis, statim ponet vineam nostram in desertum, de qua vinum facere solebamus, quod laetificat cor hominis (Sal 103): et ficus nostras decorticat, sive confringit, ne habeamus in nobis Spiritus sancti dona dulcissima, ne sub nostra vinea et ficu vir sanctus requiescat; sub quibus cum

fuerit, adversariorum impetus non timebit.”

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

384

children; thus should God’s grace attract us, to such an extent that we harbor the sacrament in our heart.” As an attribute of saints, figs are associated with Saint Rita of Cascia,

for, as tradition has it, shortly before her death, in the middle of winter, she

otdered figs from the convents garden to be brought to her. Saint Onuphrius is also depicted occasionally wearing a girdle or loin-cloth of fig leaves. Picinelli recalls an impresa that Monsefior Aresi dedicated to Saint Sylvester, with the fig tree blooming in the spring: Prope est aestas | Time is near] since during his pontificate all persecutions ceased and the Peace of the Church began. Archbishop Carlo Labia relates the fig tree of Lydia, very milky according to him, to the martyrdom of Saint Agatha, whose breasts were amputated. The impresa depicts this fig tree and a hand that cuts off one of its figs, causing some drops of white sap to spill (Fig. 5). The motto

reads Vadam et amputabo {I will go and cut if off] and the author adds the

following commentary: ,,Che Sant’Agata se bene nelle mammelle qui in terra

restasse fieramente strappata, rimase con tutto cid dal Cielo di pretioso latte

pienamente fecondatæ” [Even if Saint Agatha’s breasts were amputated here on earth, nevertheless the heavens ensured that she was fully blessed with precious milk].4 The fig tree is also used as a rhetorical device to signify clerics, since they are, according to Hugo de St. Cher, like the fruits of the fig tree: excellent, when they are good, but terrible when they are bad.*° The fig tree, inclined towards the sun, is an image of Saint Augustine, according to Carlo Labia, since once he became a convert to the Catholic faith, he distinguished himself in it with the loftiness of his doctrine: Ad me conversio eius [The conversion is towards me] reads the motto of this impresa, and the author

adds the following commentary: ,,Che Sant’Agostino essendosi alla vera, e Catolica Fede egregiamente convertito, si dimostr in questa con alte dottrine, e rare virtit heroicamente stabilito”® [Once Saint Augustine converted to the 32 Hohberg,

W.H.

Freiherr von, Lust-und Artzeney-Garten

Davids, Regensburg: Johann Conrad Emmrich, 1675, p. 108.

des Küniglichen propheten

33 Ferrando Roig, J., /conografia de los Santos, Barcelona, 1950, p. 237. According to other versions, it was not figs, but rather a rose that she requested, as related by Réau, L.,

Iconographie de l'Art Chrétien, PUF,

1957 (Span. trans. Iconografia del arte cristiano,

Barcelona: Ediciones del Serbal, 1998), t. 2 vol. 5, p. 136. 34 Labia, C., Horto Simbolico che con Gieroglifici di varij Alberi,

e diuerse Piante

rappresenta le Virtix singulari d'alcuni Santi, e molte Sante. Descritto Con morali, & eruditi discorsi da Monsignior Carlo Labia nobile veneto prima Arcivescovo di Corfu poi Vescovo

d’Adria; dedicato Al Celeste Hortolano dell’Horto della Chiesa Giesù Christo Dio, & Huomo Saluator del Mondo, Venice 1700, Appresso Nicolo Pezzana, p. 65. 35 Hugo de S. Cher, Opera Omnia, vol. 1, Genesis, Chapt. III, p. 6, col. 2i. Quoted out of Levi d’Ancona, M., op. cit., p. 140. 36 Labia, C., op. cit., p. 344.

Mahiques: Aspects of the Fig Tree

385

true, Catholic faith, he proved himself to be heroically versed in said faith with lofty doctrines and rare virtues]. The fig tree is also a visual code of many virtues, such as Charity. Picinelli dedicates his imprese Lac, suo lacte condensat [It consenses milk with its own milk] and Lac densum lacte resolvit [With its milk it dissolves milk condensed] to this comparison, associating the traditional theme of milk; humility and human nature; or the human mind developed on its own merits; and contemplation.*/

Another signifying realm for the fig tree is the representation of the Synagogue. The sterile fig tree, mentioned in the Gospels, which produces

its fruit in accordance with the law of Moses, and which withers and shrivels

at the moment that it refuses to accept the doctrine of Christ, is the Judaic synagogue, according to Saint Ambrose, Cassiodorus, and other Christian authors.** Along the same lines, we have the following text of the prophet Jeremiah ,,Gathering I will gather them together, saith the Lord, there is no grape on the vines, and there ate no figs on the fig tree, the leaf is fallen: and I have given them the things that are passed away” (Jer 8, 13). Also related to all of this is that passage from Nathaneal: ,,Before that Philip called thee, when thou wast under the fig tree, I saw thee” (Jn 1, 48). The

fact of having been beneath the fig tree is interpreted by Saint Augustine as remaining still beneath the influence of the flesh, prior to Grace, and therefore it includes the totality of all the Jews and Pharisees.*” The passage 37 For a source see: Rabanus Maurus, in note 22. 38 Ambr. Isaac 4, 36; PL 14, 514: ,,Ficus protulit grossos suos (Ct 2, 10). Quae ante quasi

infructuosa jubebatur excidi, haec fructus ferre jam coepit. Sed quid dubitas quia grossos dixit? Priores discutit, ut posteriores meliores adferat. Grossus sicut Synagogae fructus abjicitur: Ecclesiae autem renovatur”. Auctor incertus (Cassiod.?), Expositio in Cantica Canticorum 2, 13; PL 70, 1065-1066: ,,Ficus protulit grossos suos. Ficus Synagogam significat; grossi autem dicuntur primitivae et immaturae ficus, inhabiles ad edendum, qui ad pulsum venti facile

cadunt. Voce autem turturis insonante ficus protulit grossos suos: quia apostolis praedicantibus emerserunt multi de Synagoga Judaeorum, qui et in Christum crederent, et tamen legem carnaliter observare vellent, magisque auctoritate legis delectarentur quam dulcedine Evangelii: volentes circumcisionem, sabbatum, et alia legis praecepta juxta litteram observare: de quibus Apostolus dicit: Aemulantur vos non bene; sed volunt vos circumcidi, ut in carne vestra glorientur (Ga 6, 13). Vineae florentes dederunt odorem. Postquam vox turturis audita est, postquam ficus protulit grossos suos, vineae florentes dederunt odorem: quia multitudo Ecclesiarum per latitudinem orbis diffusa est, quae flores virtutum et odorem bonae operationts late de se spargerent.” Eucherio de Lyon, PL 50, 742. Rabano Mauro, PL 112, 926. Bernardo,

PL

183,

1066.

Alanus

de Insulis, PL 210, 70. Petrus de Riga, Aurora in

Cantica Canticorum, and Pitta, Spicilegium Solesmense, vol. 2. fol. 139. Levi d’Ancona, on Ρ. 137, also cites the testimony of Guillelmus Bituntinus and of Guillelmus Parisiensis (in Alva y Astorga, P. de, op. cit., vol III, p. 592).

39 Aug. in Psalm 31; PL 36, 264: ,,/ta non erit dolus in corde tuo, hoc est in ore interiore tuo; nec aliud in labiis habebis, aliud in cogitatione. Non eris de illis Pharisaeis, de quibus dictum est: Similes estis monumentis

dealbatis; a foris quidem apparetis hominibus justi, intus

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

386

on the sterile fig tree was also interpreted as a representation of the Jewish people by Piero Valeriano. What is more, this Italian treatise writer also relates the Synagogue to the passage on Nathanael beneath the fig tree, suggesting that Christ called to Nathanael, saving him from the original stigma, since he was sheltered beneath the protection of Judaic law.

Mahiques: Aspects of the Fig Tree

387

It is my hope that with this modest contribution I have added something to our understanding of the importance of emblematics as a phenomenon that manifests, in its sources, the tradition of our visual culture.

The withered and parched fig tree, destined to burn in the fire, is also a

symbol of the damage caused by evil. This notion is also based on Isaiah:

WORKS

folded together as a book: and all their host shall fall down as the leaf falleth from the vine, and from the fig tree. For my sword is inebriated in heaven: behold it shall come down upon Idumea, and upon the people of my slaughter unto judgment” (Isa 34, 4-5). Picinelli, finally, offers two imprese in which the fig tree is depicted as the ingrate, or treacherous Judas, because, as experience teaches us, when it rains, the fig deteriorates: /rrigatione deterior [By watering it will decline] and Riget dum rigatur [By watering it becomes hard]. This is, in general terms, the basic scheme of the visual code of the fig tree, according to sources derived from western culture, and proceeding from classical and Christian traditions, a code which emblematics exploited fully as an extraordinary exponent. I have not intended to present an exhaustive catalog of each and every emblem that depicts the fig tree and its fruit, but I believe that I have selected a representative sampling to serve as an initial approach to understanding the semantic code of this visual manifestation. Nor have I attempted to offer an account—nor even a mention— of the entire range of the visual arts that feature manifestations of this plant.

Alciati, Andrea. Emblemas. Ed. Santiago Sebastian. Madrid: Akal, 1985.

And

all the host of the heavens shall pine away, and the heavens shall be

autem pleni estis dolo et iniquitate (Mt 23, 27). Qui ergo cum sit iniquus justum se praetendit, nonne dolosus est? Non ille Nathanael est, de quo Dominus dicit: Ecce vere Israelita in quo dolus non est? Unde autem in illo Nathanaele dolus non erat? Cum esses, inquit,

sub arbore fici, vidi te (jn 1, 47-48). Sub arbore fici erat, sub conditione carnis erat. Si sub conditione carnis erat, quia impietate propaginis tenebatur; sub illa arbore fici erat, in qua

gemitur in alio psalmo: Ecce enim in iniquitate conceptus sum (Sal 50, 7). Sed vidit eum ille qui venit cum gratia. Quid est, Vidit eum? Misertus est ejus. Ergo hominem sine dolo sic commendat, ut gratiam suam in illo commendet. Cum esses sub arbore fici, vidi te. Vidi te, quid magnum est, nisi intelligas aliquo modo dictum? Quid magnum est videre hominem sub arbore fici? Si non vidisset sub ista ficu genus humanum Christus, aut aresceremus omnino, aut, quomodo Pharisaei, in quibus dolus erat, id est, justificabant se verbis, factis autem mali erant, folia sola invenirentur in nobis, non fructus. Nam talem arborem fici quando vidit Christus, maledixit, et aruit. Video, inquit, sola folia, id est sola verba, absque fructu: Arescat (Mt 21, 19), inquit, ut nec folia habeat. Utquid et verba tollit? Arbor arida enim nec folia potest habere. Sic ergo erant Judaei, Pharisaei arbor illa erant: verba habebant, facta non habebant: ex sententia Domini ariditatem meruerunt. Videat ergo nos Christus sub arbore fici: videat in carne nostra etiam fructum boni operis, ne ejus maledictione arescamus” 40 This is similar to the passage from Joel 1, 7. Levi d’Ancona, M., in op. cit. p. 138, cites

Honorio de Autun, Speculum Ecclesiae; PL 172, 904.

CITED

Alva y Astorga, Pedro de. Bibliotheca Virginalis sive Mariae Mare Magnum, Madrid: Ex Typographia Regia, vol. I 1667; vol. II 1648; vol. III 1648.

Camerarius, Joachi., Symbolorum et Emblematum Centuriae quatuor quarum prima Stirpium secunda Animalium quadrupedium tertia Volatilium et Insectium quarta Aquatilium et Reptilium. Rariores proprietates Historias ac sententias memorabiles non paucas breviter exponit. Ultima Editio. Moguntiae: Ludovici Bourgeat, Academiae Bibliopolae, 1677.

Carmody, Francis. Physiologus, the Very Ancient Book of Beasts, Plants and

Stones. San Francisco: The Book Club of California, 1953.

Caussin, Nicolas. De Symbolica Aegyptiorum Sapientia, in qua symbola, aenigmata, emblemata, parabolae historicae apologi, Hieroglyphica, ex Horo Apolline, Clemente Alexand., S. Epiphanio, Symposio Poéta, cum notis et Observationibus. Paris: Roman de Beauvais, 1618.

__. De Symbolica Aegyptiorum Sapientia, in qua symbola, aenigmata, emblemata, parabolae historicae apologi, Hieroglyphica, ex Horo Apolline, Clemente

Alexand.,

S.

Epiphanio,

Symposio

tionibus. Colonia: Ioannem Kinchium, 1654.

Poéta,

cum

notis et Observa-

Ernesto de Praga. Mariale, sive liber de praecellentibus et eximiis SS. Dei Genitricis Mariae supra reliquas creaturas praerogativis. Ex Arcanis S. Scripturae, SS. Patrum, Theologiae et Philosophiae Naturalis maysterits concinnatus, ab Ernesto primo Archepiscopo (...). Prague, 1651.

Ferrando Roig, J. Iconografla de los Santos. Barcelona: Ediciones Omega, 1950.

Garcia Mahiques, Tuero, 1988.

Rafael. Empresas Sacras de Nüñez de Cepeda.

Madrid:

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

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Goropius Becanus, Joannes. Opera (...) Hactenus in lucem non edita (...). Antwerp, 1580.

Haag, H. Bibel-Lexicon. Zurich-Cologne: 1951 (Spanish trans. Diccionario de la Biblia. Barcelona, 1981). Hohberg, Wolffgang Helmhard, Freiherr von. Lust-und Artzeney-Garten des

Kéniglichen propheten Davids. Regensburg: Johann Conrad Emmrich, 1675.

Labia, C. Horto Simbolico che con Gieroglifici di varij Alberi, e diuerse Piante rappresenta le Virtù singulari d'alcuni Santi, e molte Sante. Descritto Con morali,

La

& eruditi discorsi da (...). Venice: Nicolo Pezzana, 1700.

Perriére,

Guillaume

de. La Morosophie

(...)

Tolosain,

Contenant

Cent

Emblemes moraux, illustrez de Cent Tetrastiques latins, reduitz en autant de Quatrains Frangoys. Lyons: Macé Bonhomme, 1533.

Levi d’Ancona, Mirella. The Garden of the Renaissance. Botanical Symbolism in Italian Painting. Florence: Leo 5, Olschki Editore, 1977.

Marracci, Hippolyto. Polyanthea Mariana. In libros XVIII distributa. Cum appendice. Cologne, 1683. Montenay, Georgette de. Emblemes, ou Devises Chrestiennes, Composees par (...). Lyons: Jean Marcorelle, 1571.

Nuñez de Cepeda, Francisco. Idea del Buen Pastor, copiada por los SS. Doctores representada en Empresas Sacras, con avisos espirituales, morales, politicos, y econémicos para el Gobierno de un Principe Ecclesiastico (...), Leon [Lyons]: Anisson y Posuel, 1682.

Orti Ballester, Marco Antonio. Solenidad festiva con que la insigne, leal, noble y coronada ciudad de Valencia, se celebré la feliz nueva de la canonizaciôn de su milagroso arçobispo Santo Tomds de Villanueva. Valencia: Jeronimo Vilagrasa, 1659.

Ortiz,

Lorenzo.

Ver,

Oir,

Oler,

Gustar,

Tocar;

Empresas,

que

ensehan, y

persuaden su buen Uso, en lo Politico, y en lo Moral; que ofrece el hermano Lorenço Ortiz de la Compania de Jesus al Excelentissimo Senor Don Rodrigo Manuel Fernandez, etc., Leon [Lyons]: Anisson, Posuel y Rigaud, 1687.

Mahiques: Aspects of the Fig Tree

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Picinelli, Filippo. Mondo simbolico formato d'Imprese scelte, spiegate, et illustrate con sentenze, et eruditioni Sacre, e profane; in Questa Nuova Impressione (...). Milan: Francesco Vigone, 1680.

Réau, L. /conographie de l'Art Chrétien. Paris: PUF, 1957 (Spanish transl. Iconografia del arte cristiano. Barcelona: Ediciones del Serbal, 1998). Talegén, Juan Gualberto. Flora Biblico-Poética o Historia de las principales plantas elogiadas en la Sagrada Escritura (...). Madrid: Imprenta de la viuda e hijo de D.E. Aguado, 1871.

Valeriano Bolzani, Giovanni Pierio. 1 Jeroglifici overo Commentarii delle occulte significationi de glEgittij, & altre nationi composti dall’Eccellente signor (...). Venice: G.B Combi, 1625.

390

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

Mahiques: Aspects of the Fig Tree

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Figure 2 Francisco Nufiez de Cepeda, Empresas Sacras, (1682),

Figure 1 Guillaume de la Perriére, La Morosophie, (1553,) emblem 33.

empresa XLVI.

391

392

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

EMBLEME

CHRESTIEN

65

Mahiques: Aspects of the Fig Tree

393

Ficus. >

Adain penfoit estre fort bien caché,

Quand il [e meit ainfi fouz.le figuier. Mars il n'y a cachett£' ou le peché

Aux yeux de Dieu fe puilfe defnier. Se vante donc,qui voudra s'oublier, Que Dieu ne void des hommes la mefchance. Je croy qu'a rien ne fert tout ce mestier,

Qu'a [e donner a tout peché licence.

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Figure 3 Georgette de Montenay, Emblemes, ou Devises Chrestiennes,

Figure 4 Wolffgang Helmhard Freiherr von Hohberg, Lust-und Artzeney-

(1571)., 65(a).

Garten des Küniglichen propheten Davids, (1675), 108.

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

394

The Urban Emblems of Daniel Meisner. The Image of the City as a Treasury of Knowledge (1700)

VICTOR MINGUEZ

INMACULADA RODRIGUEZ Universitat Jaume I, Spain

6

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Abstract

The

publication

of an admirable

and

unique

book,

Daniel

Meisner’s

Thesaurus Philo-politicus de (1623-1631), was the fruit of modern man’s double disquietude to identify all the places on the planet and endow them with a metaphorical meaning. This is the only known book of urban emblems. Meisner offers us hundreds of marvelous views of cities throughout the world and a similar number of emblems related to these cities. The book first appeared in Nuremberg in 1623, published by the engraver and publisher Eberhardt Kieser, and its publication was completed in 1631. It was organized in two volumes with a total of 830 engravings. A quantitative

analysis of the cities depicted according to geographical criteria reveals a

strong presence of German urban centers, some 400 engravings, as well as a significant

number

of

emblems

dedicated

to

Austrian

cities—40,

territories.

In this introductory

Italian

cities-40, French cities-35, cities of the Spanish empire—30, Flemish cities35, Dutch cities-65, Hungarian cities-40, and a lesser number of images for cities from

other countries

and

study we

analyze the keys to understanding the relevance of this work in its historical and cultural context. For our study we have utilized primarily the edition of 1700, since it is the most complete edition that we have had at our disposal.

Che Sant Agata fe ine nelle mammelle qu) in terra reflaff ΗΑ,

pete con tutto cio dal pienamente fecondata .

a

Figure 5 Carlo Labia, Horto Simbolico, (1700), 65.

fn

feramente

The publication of an admirable and unique book, Daniel Meisner’s Thesaurus Philo-politicus of (1623-1631), was the fruit of modern man’s double disquietude to identify all the places on the planet and endow them with a metaphorical meaning. This is the only known book of urban emblems. Meisner offers us hundreds of marvelous views of cities throughout the world and a similar number of emblems related to these cities. The book first appeared in Nuremberg in 1623, published by the engraver and publisher Eberhardt Kieser, and its publication was completed in 1631. It was organized in two volumes with a total of 830 engravings. A quantitative analysis of the cities depicted according to geographical criteria reveals a strong presence of German urban centers with 400 significant number of emblems dedicated to Austrian 40, French cities, 35, cities of the Spanish empire, Dutch cities, 65, Hungarian cities, 40, and a lesser

engravings, as well as a cities, 40, Italian cities, 30, Flemish cities, 35, number of images for

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

396

cities from other countries and territories. In this introductory study we analyze the keys to understanding the relevance of this work in its historical and cultural context. For our study we have utilized primarily the edition of 1700, since it is the most complete edition that we had at our disposal.

Minguez: The Urban Emblems of Daniel Meisner

it is due to the fact that it constitutes the only book known at this time that is dedicated to urban emblems. Meisner offers us 830 marvelous city views from throughout the world and an equal number of related emblems. In this introductory study we will examine the keys to understanding the relevance

of the Thesaurus Philo-politicus in its historical and cultural context.

Introduction

Urban Representations in the Modern Age

The centuries of Humanistic culture and Renaissance art coincided with the exploration of new continents and oceans, with the growth of commerce and the exchanges between different peoples and civilizations, with an intensification of diplomatic missions among nations and a multiplication of travels for these and other motives. The new man who sprang up during this vertiginous period needed to relocate himself on a planet that had grown and become spherical, and on which knowledge of others and what was distant became essential in order for one to know oneself and the place where one resided. Coinciding with the appearance and development of the printing press, this period saw an explosion in Europe of travel books, accounts of explorations, the description of other cultures, editions of atlases and maps, and the printing of street plans and city views. But this modern world, hungry for knowledge, continued being at the same time deeply symbolic, as is evident in the appearance and success of emblematic culture in sixteenth-century Italy, a culture that was deftly utilized in order to theorize and reflect on very diverse aspects of life in the new emerging society: moral and political aspects, religion, love, war, science ... and also cities. One of the fruits of this double concern for identifying places on the planet and endowing them with a metaphorical meaning is the appearance

of an admirable and unique book, the Thesaurus Philo-politicus by Daniel

Meisner (1623-1631), which we, the authors of this article, became aware of

a while ago when we were conducting research focused on other urbanistic and emblematic texts.! We must confess our initial surprise at the extraordinary quality of this work, both on a symbolic as well as a formal level, for which reason we felt that it merited an in-depth analysis in all of its diverse

397

aspects, an endeavor

that we

have undertaken

only recently. But

Throughout history, the urban phenomenon has run parallel to an interest in its representation. Antiquity has left us some evidence of this. We

can, for example, recall the Severan marble slab fragments that contain the

Forma Urbis Romae, one of the few known topographical ground plans of Rome from around 204 and 211 AD. Likewise, we have frescoes that depict urban chorographic views, although these begin to be more abundant beginning in the Middle Ages, and especially from the eleventh century on, when the renaissance of cities begins.? As a general rule, their basic function is ornamental, since they tend to accompany other types of representations, such as those of saints or evangelists for example, which in spite of their divine nature, are situated on a mundane plane. The similarity of these images with the real cities that they depict is more symbolic than realistic, since the views ate schematic, minimally based on direct observation, and

they frequently feature exaggerated architectonic landmarks which in reality ate what give the city its character. Among these urban representations, we should mention the very numerous depictions of the holy city par ex-

cellence, Jerusalem. fore

The process of the development of topographical techniques, and therethe

achievement

of verisimilitude

in

urban

representation,

occurs

beginning in the thirteenth century and continues until the seventeenth century.* During that long period of time we can highlight some important

landmarks in the production of images of cities, such as those executed by Simone

de Martini of the territory of Sienna, and those supposedly by

Sassoforte

and Massa

Maritima,

in the fourteenth

century;

the fresco by

Ambrigio Lorenzetti from the fourteenth century that also depicts Sienna; or others that we will comment on in somewhat more detail.® Nevertheless,

what constitutes that special circumstance from which the importance of

this book derives, and to which we dedicate this brief study? Without doubt,

1 See especially our studies: Victor Minguez (ed.), Del libro de emblemas a la ciudad

simbélica,

Castellon:

Universitat

Jaume

I,

2000;

Victor

Minguez

and

Inmaculada

Rodriguez, Las ciudades del absolutismo. Arte, urbanismo y magnificencia en Europa y

América durante los siglos XV-XVIII, Castellon: Universitat Jaume I, 2006; Victor Minguez,

Inmaculada Rodriguez and Vicent Zuriaga, El sueño de Eneas. Imdgenes utépicas de la ciudad, Castellon: Universitat Jaume

I, 2009.

2 See Imago urbis, Rome: Viella, 2003.

3 See Garcia Mahiques for an in-depth study of the symbolic depiction of Jerusalem. 4 On this topic we recommend the magnificent study by Federico Arévalo.

5 For Medieval urban representations, the series of the Storia dell'urbanistica is of interest, published by Edizioni Kappa and with each volume dedicated to a different

Italian territory. In the volume directed by Marco Cadinu and Enrico Guidoni, La citta Europea del trecento. Transformazioni, monumento, ampliamente urbani (Edizioni Kappa, Rome, 2006), there are also studies devoted to Valencia by Amadeo Serra and to Seville

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

398

alongside a greater topographical and chorographic precision, the opposite phenomenon occurs, that is to say, a tendency towards urban idealization. Both tendencies then, the realistic and the symbolic, coexist and are necessary in a phenomenon so vast and with so many facets as the image of the city. The sixteenth century saw a blooming of this kind of iconography that combines realistic and symbolic imagery. It is easy to identify the factors that contributed to this: reflections on the ideal city in Renaissance treatises on architecture, interest from the spheres of power in the beautification of cities under their dominion, improvement in both maritime and terrestrial

communications, and therefore in travels, and a greater development in the techniques of spatial measurement. This all contributed to the interest developed by a series of artists and printers in capturing the image of diverse cities in frescoes, panels, canvasses and paper, in order, in this way, and

establishing a parallelism with the portrait, to possess beforehand the image of a place or a person that they wanted to get to know, as well as some basic keys to be able to delve deeper into their nature. This was something that

could be of great utility to monarchs, diplomats, artists, travelers, etc. This is

in addition, of course, to the other uses that the urban image could have: strategic, propagandistic, commemorative, symbolic, rememorative, decorative or evocative, to cite the most frequent. With all of these functions, it is not surprising that, starting with the middle of the fifteenth century and especially in the sixteenth, collections of urban

views,

called

,,vistas al natural”,

Bernhard von Breydenbach,

should

enjoy

Peregrinatio in Terram

such

great

Sanctam

success:

(1486), the

Cronica de Nuremberg by Hartman Schedel (1493), the Cosmographia uni-

versalis by Sebastian Miinster (1550), the Premier livre des figures et pourtritz

des villes plus illustres et renommées d'Europe by Guillaume Guéroult (1551), the Theatrum Orbis Terrarum by Abraham Ortelius (1570, maps, for the

most part, and of course, the Civitatis orbium terrarum (1572-1617) by Braun and Hogenberg with 546 images of cities. The last of the great projects of urban views is that of Matthäus

Merian, which sought to elaborate seven

books on cities from different regions in the middle of the seventeenth century (Arévalo, p. 186). We can add as well to this panorama the images of gardens and palaces of Jacques Androuet du Cerceau, Gerard de Jode, Hieronymus Cock, Vredeman de Vries or Etienne Du Perac, among others.

In all of them there is a idealization, for although observation, they also very cities by relying on written

clear tension between topographical reality and they are frequently based on direct personal frequently copy one another, or else reconstruct accounts, or outdated representations. Let us not

Minguez: The Urban Emblems of Daniel Meisner

399

forget that the images had to be not only verisimilar, but also attractive, and for that reason fantasy entered into play. One needs only to recall the attractive example of the image of the city of Cuzco which, from the time of Münster’s book on down to the one that we are dealing with here, has absolutely nothing to do with reality. Another of the requirements of these repertories was that of variety. Thus, very diverse points of view would be offered, and these were catalogued by Richard Kagan as profile views (also known as prospects), cavalier, or equestrian views, oblique views, bird’s-eye views, perspective or cartographic views and ichnographic (ground plan) or orthogonal views (Kagan, /mdgenes, p. 22).° At the same time that these collections of views were published, the walls of Italian and Spanish palaces were used as a medium for urban representation, sometimes designed for the particular occasion, and at other times, inspired by the engravings from these repertories. The chronology coincides with the publication date of these collections, Thus, starting with the middle of the sixteenth century, and especially in the decades of the 1560s and 1570s, we find numerous examples of palaces in Naples (Palacio Comunal), Florence (Palazzo Vecchio, Sala del Mappamondo), Venice (Palacio Ducal), Perugia (Palacio del Gobernador), Caprarola (Palacio Far-

nese) and especially in Genoa (Palazzo Grimaldi-de Mari). One of the most important in Italy, and in the world, is without doubt the Gallery of

Geographical Maps in Saint Peter’s, the Vatican. It is one of the landmarks of Renaissance topography. Carlo Pellegrino Danti, a Perugian cosmographer and mathematician, was responsible for the gallery’s iconographical program, and the pictorial decoration was the work of a group of Italian and Flemish artists. The frescoes, which run the length of the 120 meters of wall space, were completed in only two years, between 1580 and 1581 (Malafarina, p. 10). In Spain a number of books were also published in which urban views

wete inserted, for example, the Libro de las Grandezas y cosas memorables de

Espafia (1548), one of only a few executed by a Spaniard, since practically all the remaining views were designed by foreigners, such as Anton van den Wyngaerde or Joris Hoefnagel (Arévalo, p. 53). Likewise, the walls of some of the palaces of the Hispanic monarchy were also decorated in the sixteenth century with frescoes that included views of cities, although generally as the background for bellicose, naval or ground scenes. For example, the Roman artist Julio Aquiles and the Milanese artist Alejandro Mayner executed the frescoes for the queen’s dressing room [Peinador de la Reina] 6 An updated English edition was published by Kagan and Fernando Marias with the title Urban Images of the Hispanic World. 1493-1793. New Haven: Yale University Press,

by José Miguel Remolina, with interesting views of these cities.

2000.

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

400

(1539-1544) in the Alhambra palace of Granada, with scenes of the expedition by Charles V to Tunis in 1535, where the cities through which the emperor passed. The Palacio de El Viso del Marqués is another notable example in this respect. Its urban views were inspired directly by the Braun and Hogenberg collection and they reflect cities that were important in the life of the marquis Alvaro de Bazin (Rodriguez Moya 2009, 120). In The Escorial, Philip II commissioned Luca Cambiaso to direct and execute a cycle on the Battle of Lepanto between 1583 and 1585 (Checa, 95-97); and

years later, between 1587 and 1590, he commissioned a series of paintings with war scenes to a group of Italian frescoists for what would come to be known from that moment on as the Room of Battles (Garcia Frias-Checa, 118-126). Both sets of paintings depict urban panoramas. Let us recall finally the chorographic views painted by first-rate artists,

such as the Vista y plano de Toledo painted by El Greco (ca. 1610, Toledo,

Fundacion Vega-Inclan), and Toledo en tormenta (New York, Metropolitan),

by the same artist (R. de la Flor, 59-82), or the Vista de Delft painted by Vermeet (1661, The Hague, Mauritshuis).

The City in Symbolic Culture and in Emblem Books Fernando R. de la Flor has highlighted quite appropriately the apparently contradictory double role played by chorographic depictions in the Modern Age: they are at the same time a visual and textual /audatio of a particular place executed with alleged descriptive fidelity, as well as a political and propagandistic instrument that lends prestige to the city in question. Due to this latter motivation, at least in the Hispanic realm, the first veristic depictions of the sixteenth century—such as those of the Flemish artist Anton van der Wyngaerde, for example—were followed by fabulous depictions, beginning in 1580 (R. de la Flor, op. cit., p. 68). In this process chorography was able to avail itself of the invaluable assistance of the symbolic languages that flourished in the Italian Renaissance: emblematics and allegory. The universe of symbolic culture and emblem books incorporated the phenomenon of the city into its compositions from its earliest origins in the sixteenth

century,

even

though

the

manifestations

are

not

especially

ab-

undant beyond those instances of mere background accompaniment of as a referent of the spatial location of the principal elements of the composition. This was the case because emblems by definition transmit a moral, political or religious lesson to men, and therefore, the protagonists of emblematic representation are men, animals, objects, their actions and their qualities. Some examples of emblematic books with city profiles might include the

Idea del Buen Pastor copiada por los sanctos doctores representada en empresas

(Lyons, 1688), by Nufiez de Cepeda, where we find a city as a metaphor of

Minguez: The Urban Emblems of Daniel Meisner

401

the Church; the Principe perfecto y ministros ajustados, documentos politicos y

morales (Lyons, 1662), by Andrés Mendo, that includes two depictions of

cities as a political metaphor; or the Emblemas morales (Segovia, 1591), of

Juan de Horozco y Covarrubias, which include three cities to locate specific scenes. In the German realm, we find this type of urban views during the seventeenth century, although they tend to constitute a background landscape with a high degree of fantasy. We observe the use of some topographical urban views for the first time in the work of J.W. Zincgref,

Emblemata Ethico-Politica (1619), with engravings by Matthäus Merian,

where we can make out the profiles of Heidelberg or of Mainz, taken from his own book of urban sketches. However, where we do find a noteworthy presence of cities, kingdoms, and geographical places is in two sciences that are auxiliary to emblematics: heraldry and numismatics. In medals and blazons, and in their emblematic projections, it is indeed frequent to find urban designs and plans, or their corresponding allegorical or merely heraldic representations. Let us offer some examples. The collection of coins and medals minted during the reign of the Sun King assembled by the Jesuit and emblematist Claude François Menestrier, Histoire dv roy Lovis le Grand (Paris, 1691),’ shows numerous profiles, street plans and coats of arms from cities depicted in these media: Paris, Marseille, Cambrai, Strasbourg, Reims, Montmédy, Dunkirk, Tournay,

Courtrai, Toulouse, Besancon, and others (Minguez, 2000, 308-319). For his

part, Juan de Caramuel published his Declaracién mystica de las armas de

España (Brussels, 1636), emblematizing the coats of arms of the kingdoms that made up the Hispanic monarchy: Castille, Leon, Portugal, Aragon,

Sicily, Granada, Burgundy, Austria, etc. And F. de Montalvo, in his account

Noticias fénebres (Palermo, 1689), gathered together the hieroglyphs of kingdoms and territories of the Crown for the exequies in honor of queen Maria Luisa de Orleans: Andalucia, Galicia, Navarra, Sardinia, Naples, and others (Sebastian, 48-56).

Catalonia, Valencia,

Cesare Ripa in his /conologia (Roma, 1593) included numerous allegories referring to territories and rivers, the only ones that we can consider related to a topographical element. But we do find a few that allude to cities. The sources that Ripa utilized to compose his personifications are quite varied, and when it came to territories and cities, he sought his inspiration in medals, concretely in those of Commodo, Tito, and Antonino. Both territories and cities are depicted as a woman, seated or standing, carrying her

attributes, among which we find regularly a crown of a number of different

7 This Paris 1691 edition may well have been pirated. See Peter M. Daly and G. Richard Dimler, S.J.

The Jesuit Series, Part Four. Toronto:

J. 1014 (pp. 112-113).

University of Toronto

8 See Minguez (2007), pp. 402-406 and Rodriguez and Minguez, pp. 233-247.

Press, 2005,

402

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

types. Thus, Italy is an elegantly dressed woman who appears seated on a globe. A crown with high walls and towers rests on her temples, and she grasps in her right hand what appears to be either a spear or a scepter; in her left hand, she holds a cornucopia (Ripa, vol. I, 543-44).9 Above her head there is a star. Ripa informs us that the depiction of Rome Eternal from a medal dedicated to emperor Marcus Julius Philippus (also known as Philip the Arab) was similar, showing the woman on a shield, a symbol of eternity because of its roundness, and holding in her right hand a Victory and in her left hand a staff. Also, in another medal, this one of Mutius Cordus, Italy

Minguez: The Urban Emblems of Daniel Meisner

403

character (a cabbalistic or magical sign or emblem). In her right hand she holds a spear topped with a crown of gems, inside of which appears the same character as on the crest of the helmet. Beneath the crown the spear forms ,,the sign of the cross,” while the barbed tip of the spear is poised to kill a serpent on the ground (symbolic of idolatry, according to Tempest). In her left hand, Holy Rome holds an escutcheon emblazoned with the Crosskeys of gold and silver beneath a papal tiara, which Tempest calls a triple pontifical crown (p. 44). The Rome of emperor Theodosius is depicted

seated, holding a globe with a cross, a circular shield, and two spears. She is

appears on one side, and Rome on the other. The depiction of Rome is a woman dressed in a light tunic, stepping on a globe with her right foot, while she holds a spear with her right hand and the figure of Italy with her left hand (Ripa, vol I, p. 544). The allegory for Tuscany is spectacular. It is represented as a beautiful woman dressed in a rich garment which is covered by the mantle of red velvet and ermine of the Grand Duke. She wears on her head the Grand Duke’s crown and could be accompanied by many different attributes: weapons, the personification of the Arno river that is graced with a garland of beech, a Lion, an altar with fire burning on it, an Urn, a Paten and the augurial staff, as well as other instruments of the priesthood. In her right hand the matron held a red lily and a book. Beginning in 1625 editions of Ripa’s book incorporated new allegories composed by Giovanni Zaratino Castellini, among them several of the city of Rome.'® Castellini included in the first place a joint allegory of Italy and Rome, in accordance with the Mutio Cordus medal described by Ripa. But he also added allegories of Victorious Rome, Eternal Rome, Holy Rome and the depiction of Rome according to emperor Theodosius. Eternal Rome is shown carrying a spear, wearing a helmet and holding in her right hand an orb with a bird perched on it. According to the author, it is based on a coin of emperor Caius Julius Emilianus from the year AD 254. Victorious Rome displays two figures: a winged Victory places a laurel crown on the head of a matron seated on three shields (,,targets,” according to Tempest) and holding a lance or spear. The image was based on medals of several Roman families. According to the description of Holy Rome by Tempest, echoed by the Perugia description in Italian, the image depicts a woman garbed in a

accompanied by a howling dog. In the background we see the Coliseum and a star in the sky. According to the author, it was inspired by a medal that was struck in AD 379. The allegorization of cities multiplied rapidly in all kinds of artistic media as a consequence of the teachings of Ripa, but in reality it had begun eatlier. As early as the middle of the sixteenth century Achilles Bocchii, in his Simbolicarum questioneum de universo (Bologna, 1555) dedicated an emblem to his city of birth, the only one of this type in his book of emblems and imprese. It is emblem CXIII from book four. The image relates back to classical Rome, since it depicts a matron with a breastplate and helmet carrying a purple and white pennant with crosses and the word ,,Liberty” [Libertad], as a symbol of one who knows how to govern himself. A lion at her feet, functioning here as a symbol of Fortitude, helps her to hold the pennant. Flanking this principal figure we find to the right four ,,expolia optima” hanging from a snare, and beneath, a church with a tall tower, a graphic symbol of the city. To the left, hanging from another snare are four

9 An early English translation of Ripa with the title /conologia: or Moral Emblems by Caesar Ripa... was published by P. Tempest with engravings by I. Fuller (London: Benj.

in the festival account by Marco Antonio Orti, Siglo cuarto de la conquista de

purple vest, embroidered with gold. The crest of her helmet consists of a

Motte,

1709). An

online

facsimile edition of the descriptios and

beautiful

images is

currently available from the Penn State University Library [http://emblem.libraries.psu. edu/Ripa/ Images/ripaOii.htm]. 10 We have consulted the Perugia edition of 1764, which issued from the press of Piergiovani Costantini, with engravings by Mariotti and Carlo Grandi.

books and parchments, on which we read ,,S.P.Q.B.” and ,,Bononia Docet”,

alluding to their educational task. The entire emblem revolves around the

number four, as the epigram explains, which alludes to the four virtues of

the city: liberty, wealth, laws, and vigilance. After the publication of Ripa’s treatise it became very popular to depict cities by means of allegories. This was also true in the Hispanic world, especially in the realm of public festivals, as is evidenced by hundreds of examples of ephemeral architecture, iconographical programs, and festive hieroglyphs. Less frequent in the Hispanic realm, although we do find examples, is the supposedly realistic depiction of city profiles or street plans in the pictura of hieroglyphs. One such case is the book of commemorative hieroglyphs honoring the conquest of the city of Valencia that were included Valencia (Valencia, por Juan Bautista Marçal, 1640). This work was composed in order to commemorate the four centuries that had transpired since this city came under Christian control, and it included 58 hieroglyphs and 16 engraved altars. Among these illustrations we find three in which the

404

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

representation of a city is the primary motif. For example, seventeen of the hieroglyphs were hung on tapestries and drapes in the plaza of the Dukes of Manda. On the third of these spectators could perceive the image of a naive depiction of the city of Valencia, the gate of which was guarded by an enormous and vigilant cat. A group of rats flee from its presence in terror. The motto and epigram both make reference to the tenacity with which king Jaime I pursued his enemies. On a street that led from the Convent of San Agustin to the Colegio de San Pablo, three altars and other decorations such as hieroglyphs were erected. Hieroglyph number 5 depicted a view of the Miguelete tower with an eclipsed moon above its bell, in order to allude to the king’s victories over the Muslims. Hieroglyph 37 featured an elephant wounded by arrows at the gates of the city, in order to refer to the way that Jaime I defeated the Muslims in spite of his wounds.

Daniel Meisner and the Thesaurus philo-politicus There is hardly any information available on Daniel Meisner (15851625). We know that he was born in Chomutov (Komotau), Bohemia, and

that he died in Frankfurt am Main on March 21st of 1625, where he had

gone in order to finish his education.!! We know nothing further about his education or his profession, nor do we know which work of his earned him the honor of being named poeta laureatus cesareus, which is how he signed the work that under consideration. No other works of his have been preserved for posterity, with the exception of a number of verses he composed to accompany some engravings.'? What little we do know is that he married Margarete Diirbeck, with whom he had a son, also named Daniel, in 1619. Margarete remarried after Meisner’s death, this time to a wine grower, only to become a widow for the second time in 1640. Meisner,

like other

authors

of emblem

books,

undertook

the

com-

position of emblems as a form of entertainment. Alciato’s book had been published very early in Germany, and his example had taken root among German scholars, who endeavored to publish emblem books composed during their leisure hours throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. Meisner himself declared in the introduction to his first book, of 11 The scant information we are able to provide on Meisner has been drawn from the introduction to the facsimile edition of his work edited by Fritz Herrmann and Leonhard

Kraft, Daniel Meissners Thesaurus Philopolitucus (Politisches Schatzkästlein, Carl Winters Universitatbuchandlung, Heidelberg, 1927. More recent and complete studies are Dietmar Piel, 1998 and Hans Fellner, 1991.

12 The presence of his signature at the bottom of the engravings that accompany his

verses led some authors

Kraft, p. VI.

to affirm that Meisner was also an engraver.

Herrmann

and

Minguez: The Urban Emblems of Daniel Meisner

405

the eight that make up the work in its entirety, that over the course of several winters he had composed more than fifty political-moral emblems, with the purpose of compiling a commemorative work with coats of arms of illustrious cities. He must have enjoyed this pastime, for after the release of this first book he began to publish a new one every spring and fall, each containing approximately fifty new emblems.

The editorial history of Daniel Meisner’s Thesaurus Philo-politicus is

quite complex. This is due, in the first place, to the fact that after the initial appearance of the first book, te-editions of each successive volume published kept coming out. To this we must add the further complication that at the same time new editions were issued in Latin and German for

some of the books that had been re-edited. What is more, after the death of

Meisner the complete work was published several times, with the title frequently altered, while some of the re-editions consisted of just one isolated book. The editorial success of the work is undeniably tremendous, but the editorial process was very disordered. One proof of the success of the work is the affirmation of one of its publishers, Kieser, who observed in

the introduction to the eighth and final book that he had not planned to

issue it but, worn down

by the demand

from its scholarly aficionados, he

was forced to turn to the reserve of emblems by Meisner he had in his stock in order to compose it. Daniel Meisner’s book of urban emblems began to appear in Nuremberg starting in 1623, published by the engraver and editor Eberhardt Kieser, and was completed in 1631. It was organized in two volumes, and

the final tally of emblems was 830. The sequence of the complete book’s printing is as follows: March of 1623, the first book; fall of 1623; the second; spring of 1624, the third; the fall of the same year, the fourth; February of 1625, the fifth, and in March of the same year, the sixth. Meisner was only

directly involved with the first six books that came out before his death. The publisher was responsible for the seventh and eighth books, which came out in the spring and fall of 1626, respectively. The Latin compositions of the final two books was the work of Johan Ludwig Gottfried, a minister from Offenbach am Main. Nevertheless, the work in its entirety is traditionally attributed to Meisner, because it was his idea to bring together city views and moral emblems. The majority of the verses included were also his. What is more, the later re-editions by Fürst and Helmers also attributed the whole

work to Meisner, in spite of the important role that Kieser had in all the books. Between 1627 and 1631 Kieser published the complete work once again. For the Latin compositions, he counted on the collaboration of Gott-

fried and Feder Lieboldts, and, beginning in 1627, with that of the doctor of law, Heinrich Kornmann. From that moment on new editions kept ap-

406

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

pearing constantly, even though the book’s plates were sold upon the death of Kieser in 1631 to Paulus First, a Nuremberg publisher, who reduced the number of cities to 800 and reordered them. In 1637-1638 Fiirst published the work again with the title Sciographia césmica, in eight books of 100 emblems each, organized by geographical criteria. The book was still being reissued in 1700 in Nuremberg in a reduced version by Rudolf Johann Helmets with another new title and without explications of the emblems.'3 The title-pages of the different editions are of great interest. For example, that of the first book of the 1625 edition is magnificent. Both the title of the work, as well as the image engraved by George Keller, reveal the moral intention of Meisner’s book, since it is a »Philo-political thesaurus.”

That is to say: a chest containing the political treasure needed to be a good man and a better friend [Tesauro filo-politico. Esto es: cofre del tesoro politico para ser un buen hombre y un mejor amigo].'* Meisner sought to educate and cultivate his reader, with the intent of helping him to improve himself and be prepared to meet foreigners. For this reason, the title is accompanied by different figures that have a bearing in this respect: in the space above the title, we find the figure of Eternity, between Perseverance and Diligence. She is also flanked by the allegory of the Origin of Love and that of Friendship. In the four corners four emblems have been engraved depicting the four elements: fire, represented by the joining of two right hands and the salamander in the midst of flames, with the motto Deorsum

nunquam [Never downwards]; air, represented by an eagle staring at the sun and renewing its feathers, with the motto Renovamini {I will be renewed];

water, figured as a water-mill with the motto Mens inmota manet remains unmoved]; and earth, embodied in the figure of

[The mind a column

immovable though combated by winds, a dog, and a tree from which a new branch sprouts, with the motto Patientia, fides et Constantia (Patience,

faith,

and constancy]. After the respective title pages, each book is introduced by a dedication

by Meisner, generally to illustrious personages of the city of Frankfurt; this is

often followed by some

words

of praise composed

by a colleague

for

Meisner or for his work, an introduction written by Meisner or by Kieser, and a brief explication of each one of the emblems, and then the engravings

themselves, which are not ordered alphabetically nor numerically. It was only starting with the third book that Meisner began to order them alpha-

13 For this study we have utilized several editions, including some individually published books from the first edition of 1624, some from the 1625 edition, but we have relied

mainly on the 1700 edition, because it is the most complete one at our disposal. We have consulted the copy from the British Library in London. 14 According to Siebenmann, in this context the word political means ,,worldly”, ,,adept in dealing with foreigners” (p. 323).

Minguez: The Urban Emblems of Daniel Meisner

407

betically, and to number the engravings, although this was not the case for all subsequent editions. The last of the books published in Meisner’s lifetime, that is to say number 6, included a novelty: the engraved portrait of the author. In undertaking a quantitative assessment of the cities according to geographical criteria, one is struck by the strong presence of German and central European cities. However, it is difficult to offer an exact accounting based on current borders, since the maps of territories from Meisner’s time that belong to current countries have changed significantly. We must also bear in mind that precisely at the time that this work was in the process of publication, many of the territories in question were involved in The Thirty Years’ War, and that as a consequence, territorial maps were highly changeable in those moments. Nevertheless, we can venture a general computation. For example, the first book is dedicated in its entirety to German cities, of which there are approximately one hundred. In addition, there are seventyone German cities represented in book two. In book three, there are some ten mote

German

cities and a like number

of Bohemian

cities; the fifth

book includes some seven cities from Westphalia. We must also add another ninety-seven German cities from book six, which is dedicated almost in its entirety to Hessen. And finally, some sixty-three cities from the Rhine state are represented, and there are ten from the Moselle river region, and about thirty others associated with central European rivers. That is to say, there is a grand total of approximately four hundred German cities. Austria is also an important territory in Meisner’s work, with some thirty cities represented in the third book, in addition to six Tyrolean cities and some five ftom the Canton. That is to say, some forty in total. As for Italian cities, we find them scattered throughout books four, six, and seven, which

feature one, two

includes more

and thirteen Italian cities respectively. But book eight

than thirty. Therefore, we

find a total of more

than

forty

Italian cities in the work. There is a significant number of French cities depicted as well, with thirty-five engravings in book six and another three in book seven. Cities under the control of the Spanish crown, whether peninsular (including Portugal) or not (Peru, Italy, the Netherlands), number a few more than thirty, and are concentrated primarily in book seven. Likewise, we find thirty-five Flemish cities in book five as well as some sixty-five Dutch cities (Zeeland, Nassau, Brabant, the region of Holland).

The Hungarian territory is represented in book eight, with forty cities. Numbers for other countries are less impressive: book two includes seven Danish cities, two from Prussia, two from Slovakia, one from Sweden, one

from Russia and six from Poland; book seven features eleven English cities and one from Scotland; book eight has some ten African cities, approxi-

408

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

mately the same number of Mediterranean islands and oriental cities, and one from Peru. On the Structure of the Emblems and the Urban Perspective The 1700 edition received the Latin title of Politica-politica, followed by

a long subtitle in German.! It consists of eight hundred city views, etched in copper, many of which were inspired by Sebastian Miinster’s Cosmographia (1550), by Hoefnagel’s engravings from around 1564 and by the Civitatis Orbis terrarum of Braun and Hogenberg, published beginning in 1572. But when it was not possible to find inspiration in the repertories of urban engravings, the views were invented for the occasion, as Kieser himself admitted in the dedication of the third book (Herrmann and Kraft, p. XXXII). In the first editions each volume of engravings is preceded by a few pages in which the author provides an explication of the approximately fifty emblems, but that was obviated in this one. The images are of a great beauty and executed with an exquisitely fine burin. Their size is 10 x 15 centimeters. Only some of them are signed with the engraver’s initials, and there were several engravers who contributed to each volume. The attribution of many of the engravings has not yet been fully determined. Among the signatures we find are those of Sebastian Fürck (S.F. FEC.), George Keller (G. Keller), Matthäus Meriam (M. Merian F. 0, M.) and Johann Eckard Lôffer (JEL, EL, L). Other initials present as signatures of the engravings have yet to be attributed with certainty to particular engravers and artists of the period. The emblems depict as a background the view of a city, identified by name, which acts as a mere horizon. As was the case for the repertories on which they were inspired, Meisner’s views sometimes offer a high degree of similarity with the city in question, whereas others are nothing more than a fantastic vision or very difficult to recognize. Generally the views are chorographic in nature, but we can also find bird’s-eye views, vertical or

ground plans (ichnographic), and at times we find grouped together representations of fortresses, castles, and citadels. The emblems present a certain geographical coherence, although not always. As previously indicated, it was not until the editions of Furst and Helmers that an alphabetical and numerical ordering took the place of a geographical one. One element to point out that distinguished Meisner’s urban views from those that inspired him is the fact that he does not limit himself to presenting daylight scenes. That is to say, when the moral lesson or symbolic 15 Daniel Meisner, Politica-Politica. Dass ist: Newes Emblematisches Buchlei, darinen in

acht Centuriis die Vornembste Stätt, Verstung, Schlésser, etc ... der gantzen Welt gleichsamb adumbrirt und in Kupffer gestochen, mit ... Lateinischen und Teutsche Versiculn ... abgebiltet werden, Nuremberg, 1700.

Minguez: The Urban Emblems of Daniel Meisner

409

content require it, Meisner modifies the view in order to depict it as a nocturnal scene. This is an aspect that is not only very suggestive, endowing the scene with a gloomier or more mysterious nature, thus reinforcing the message by means of the emotion that it engenders, but it is also quite original. Of course it is common in emblem books to find some nocturnal scenes, but it is highly unusual in the urban repertories such as those of Minster and Braun and Hogenberg, where clarity in the identification of a city’s elements is fundamental. In the foreground of the pictura one or more figures appear, and it is these that endow the composition with its emblematic content. The corresponding Latin motto appears above the image, while a distich in Latin and a quatrain in German are printed beneath the engraving. These combine in such a way that they respond perfectly to the emblem’s meaning, for it was

not in vain that Meisner subtitled his work as Emblemata moralia. The human figures are either accompanied by a series of attributes or else are engaged in some kind of activity that conveys to us the moral lesson. occasion the emblems do not depict human beings, but only animals derive from a long symbolical trajectory, for which reason it is relatively to follow the clue of the moral lesson.

they On that easy

On the Nature of Cities and their Lessons by Means of the Emblems

The motto, pictura, and epigram are usually related to the history, culture or particular idiosyncrasy of each city depicted, although at times, this relationship is cryptic or quite simply non-existent. Some of the emblems are very simple, since the scenes are purely narrative with respect to the mottoes

and texts, which at times are more hermetic, but at other

times they are merely popular phrases. Other scenes are more difficult to unravel, since they derive from emblems proper, although they are emblems that were very well-known and widely disseminated in the seventeenth century. On many occasions the emblems, in addition to their symbolic content, contain a strongly critical attack against the nations that they represent, either political or moral in nature. Or else they reflect some characteristic of their inhabitants generally based on prejudices of the period, which can be either positive or negative. Historical bellicose conflicts are also reflected in the emblems, whether in a direct fashion, or in an indirect manner, which is most frequently the case, since the scenes often remind us of some historical event that occurred in the city: a siege, a battle, or even a political or religious council. We are also reminded of the harshness of the soldier’s life, as, for example, in the

emblem dedicated to Weimar where we see the combatants firing at each

410

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

other on horseback, warning of the cruelty of military law. On the other hand, some of the emblems exalt peace, such as that of the city of Prague,

whose motto is Non bellum, sed pax [Not war but peace], and which shows two

turtle-doves,

the

symbol

of concord.

The

author

himself,

in

the

emblem’s explication, tells us that there is no better example of peace than the city of Prague, which was so harshly punished by the Turks. A great number of cities are characterized by the existence of a university in them. On a graphic level, this is represented by means of the abbreviation ,,Univer.” and on a symbolic level by means of stressing the academic nature of a city or its inhabitants. For example, this can be accomplished by situating in the main scene a pair of scholars or objects appropriate to studies, or else by emphasizing the propitious nature of this activity. Thus, the city of Lübeck displays its magnificent profile in order to teach us that he who does not preach with his example gives with one hand while taking away with the other (Fig. 1). This is the definition of the poor teacher or preacher who does not apply his teachings to his own life and who, while he gives alms with one hand, with the other he takes them back. The scene is narrative and easy to understand, by depicting a teacher who gives alms with one hand while with the other he steals from the beggar’s

coin-purse. The motto reminds us who the hypocrite is: Qui bene docet, et male vivit, quod una manu dat, altera rapit [Who teaches well and lives

Minguez: The Urban Emblems of Daniel Meisner

411

On occasion these warnings are directed at heads of state, and for that reason the emblems in question are based on mirrors of princes on moralpolitical and religious treatises intended for governors or anyone who holds a political office. Let us recall that Meisner himself dedicated each book to a series of illustrious personages from Frankfurt, and we can therefore assume that he might have had them in mind at times when he composed certain emblems. As for some concrete examples, the virtue of Fortitude is depicted by none other than the city of Meisner. In spite of his personal familiarity with the city, the view that he provides is nevertheless once again conventional.

The view of Frankfurt am Main that he offers us is from the river, allowing

us to see both shores, exactly as it was represented by Munster. Meisner highlights the magnificent cupola of the cathedral. The center of the com-

position, as is the norm, contains the emblematic representation. In this case

it is an enormous tortoise that holds up a tall building. There is an individual

scaling its walls, while at the top of the building we see a stork’s nest, with

five storks taking flight from it. The tortoise with the building symbolizes those who wear their houses on their backs, while the person who climbs it is the strong man. The motto reads: Forti viro omnis locus patria [For a strong man every place is fatherland], and the texts allude to the fact that it is not such a bad thing to not be able to settle down in a given place, since the strong man feels at home anywhere he is at. To that effect he cites a

wrongly, takes back with one hand what he gave with the other], and evokes a quotation of Gregory of Nazianzus, archbishop of Constantinople and theologian from the fourth century. The city of Bremen, with its tall towers, warns us of the three evils that thwart the student in his labors: drunkenness, excessive sleep and love. Thus, on the left side of the composition we see a student sleeping, perhaps due to drunkenness, at his study desk. Meanwhile, a lady entices him to accompany her to bed. Cupid is set to fire an arrow towards a boar, a symbol of lust, that is at the feet of the student. Books lie abandoned on the ground. The author calls these three hindrances to study the three fountains of Castalia, alluding to the famous spring. Often urban stereotypes are depicted by means of the representation of phrases or proverbs of popular wisdom, which are frequent in the German context—and for that reason the motto is occasionally in that language— but their translation still remains familiar in the Hispanic. Therefore, the symbolic content is of a lesser scope, but its comprehension is immediate. The themes, on the other hand, reflect in their majority clear moral

numeru [Not by number], and both the Latin distich and German quatrain warn us that no robust army, no girdle of defensive walls are sufficiently strong; only he who maintains his faith in God will always be protected. The emblem’s explication gathers some quotations from the monarchs Seleucus and Antigonus, scorning power, and of Horace: Tollat te qui non novit, a

that clear. Basically, we are dealing with moral warnings against some of the evils of the world—avarice, pride, and so on—as well as recommendations

buy you who does not know you”. Therefore, all the elements of the emblem emphasize contempt for terrestrial power.

contents and it is here, perhaps, where the relationship with the city is not all to cultivate positive virtues—justice, faith, vigilance, moderation or honor.

sentence from Ovid’s Fasti (1, 493): Omne solum forti patria est ut piscibus

aequor, the translation of which is ,, To the brave, every land is their country, as the sea to fish, or every empty space on earth to birds” (Cantera Ortiz de

Urbina, p. 162), and that is the reason why storks are depicted. Another example is the imperial city of Ausburg, whose emblem holds a moral warning for monarchs and governors (Fig. 2). The view of the city is

magnificent, and it fills almost the entire space available, allowing us to see it in great definition. As a consequence, the central scene consists of a single

individual, a crowned king, richly garbed and in a curious posture: he shows his contempt for the crown with the tip of his foot. Below we see aban-

doned other regal symbols: the scepter and orb. The motto reads: Non

very popular refrain in Germany and in Spain, whose translation is: ,,Let him

412

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics Some

of the emblems

are dedicated to God, Christ, and religion. For

example, the city of Leipzig, in which we are told that no treasure is sufficient to duly pay the grace of having a God, a father, and a teacher. The emblem dedicated to a chick depicts a hen taking care of some chicks, beneath the motto: Christus probor tuetur [Christ watches out over the good]. The Strasbourg emblem reminds us that the origin of wisdom is the fear of God, and the emblem for San Salvador in Brazil tells us that we must

give the maximum to God. We also find a series of very interesting recurring themes. For example, many emblems depict the nature of love and marriage. As for the former, the city of Linz teaches us that love cannot be hidden, by means of a figure

that is half-man and half-woman. The man holds a heart in flames, while the

woman holds one that has been bitten by a serpent. To the left, an old man exhales a strange breath of air from his mouth, while his bed is consumed. The motto tells us: Quae occultari nequeunt [That which cannot be hidden from heaven], and this is burning love, coughing, the devouring fire and the heart’s pain. The image of Linz is once again that of Civitates. The emblem of Zasla in Bohemia depicts matrimony, and is the well-known Alciato emblem of the couple chained together with their hands joined, although in this case a skull threatens to break the bond between them. Nevertheless, the motto reminds us that marriage is an indissoluble bond, broken only by

death, as is graphically demonstrated by means of the image of two graves on the right side. The city of Rauchenberg in Hessen tells us, in addition, that matrimony is a happy bond, through the image of a man playing a violin and a woman who carries in her hand a scarf of honesty. Between them is a tortoise that symbolizes the home, with a pennant planted on its shell. An equally substantial number of emblems ate dedicated to the Arts and Sciences, as professions that help to shape men or as activities characteristic of a given city, as is the case with Nuremberg (Fig. 3). The emblem features in its background a city view from outside of the circle of defensive walls, showing us a simplified version of the well-known 1572 image of the city by Braun and Hogenberg. The main scene presents a symmetrical structure, since we see two mathematicians, each one seated at opposite ends of huge table, facing one another. The one on the left is identified as Netidorffer'®

and he holds in his hands a painter’s palette and perhaps brushes or a compass. He appears to be consulting a book of models, and next to him there are coins and measuring instruments. The mathematician on the right 16 Johann Neüdorffer (1493-1593), was an illustrious mathematician from Nuremburg,

who authored a very famous manual on typography, as well as a biographical compendium on the best artists of the city: Nachrichten von den vornehmsten Künstlern und Werkleuten, so innerhalb hundert Jahren in Nürnberg gelebt haben (1546). He was also the famous calligrapher of the inscriptions for Diirer’s Four Apostles.

Minguez: The Urban Emblems of Daniel Meisner

413

side, Iamitzer,'’ is also taking measurements, using a cord and a series of stakes. In addition, there are some instruments on his side of the table, such

as a compass, number of stacked buckets and a candelabrum. Between the two

of them,

the

caduceus

of Mercury,

the god

of Arts

and

Sciences,

descends from the sky and seems to aim for the center of the table. In a pit beneath the table we can make out a large number of books, a polyhedric geometrical figure and an armillary sphere. The Latin motto reads: Nil melius arte [Nothing better than art/science]. The Latin distich reinforces this idea that there is nothing better nor more beneficial in the world than Science,

since she is a good companion. This relationship between Nuremberg and

the Arts and Sciences is not casual, since it was one of the few cities whose

town councils paid scientists for their advances in knowledge and created an environment suitable for scientific development. The group of emblems dedicated to extolling friendship is also important, for example, the one devoted to Groningen, which points out that friends are the medicine of life, and to symbolize this, it depicts two figures bound together, flanking a column. One holds a heart and the other a jar of medicine; both objects are linked together by a chain. To depict the city of Würzburg the emblem shows in the foreground a melancholic figure, flanked by two other individuals, one of whom is a doctor. The motto, Fidus uterque comes, could be translated as ,one and the other are faithful com-

panions”. The distich and epigram allude to the fact that the best cure for sadness is a good friend, and the best cure for illness is a doctor, since both are faithful companions. The city view is also very attractive, since in the

background we can see its magnificent castle. With a slight modification, since the point of view is lateral, it is based on the engraving by S. Minster from the Cosmografia and on the Civitates of Braun and Hogenberg. The city of Jena came to symbolize the harmony between friends by means of the cultivation of three great virtues, which must be developed in a gradual manner. In order to synthesize this notion in an image, Meisner depicted in the foreground a tower to the left. Atop it a chorus of musicians sings joyfully and plays instruments such as lutes and trumpets. In order to reach the top of this tower, which symbolizes the harmony of the mind and the spirit, it is necessary to climb the three steps of stairway, beginning with

»Pietas” [piety] and then proceeding up ,,Virtus” [virtue] and ,,Integritas” [integrity]. These are extremely important among true friends, and therefore they are repeated in the motto. The city of Jena is represented in all its

splendor in a valley among mountains, with the tall spire of its cathedral and

the indication that it possesses a university, repertory of Braun and Hogenberg.

an image

17 Wenzel Iamitzer, an engraver and silversmith from Nuremberg.

copied

from

the

414

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

The city of Dresden is also dedicated to extolling friendship. We ate shown a magnificent view from the outskirts of the city, with glimpses in perspective of the Frauenkirche, a Lutheran church, and the castle on one shore and the old city on the other. In the foreground there is a splendid garden with its geometrical flowerbeds, perhaps the Lustgarten. The view is taken again from Braun and Hogenberg. In the center of the composition two elegant figures take possession of a book. We see a phylactery over the volume that reads: Tuus sum totus [1 am all yours]. The motto clarifies the meaning of the emblem: true friendship, for, as the texts indicate, it is a pleasure both to read and to write these three words. Those emblems that reflect death and all the moral lessons associated with it are also very interesting. At times, of course, they accomplish this through the representation of vanitas [vanity]. Also, they emphasize the passage of time and the contrast between youth and old age. For example, the emblem of the city of Rheinfels tells us that the life of man is a race through eternity by means of the image of a knight who rides on horseback towards a shield into which he will sink his lance. The scene is totally appropriate and in harmony with the background, by depicting a river, the Rhine, which also flows eternally. The emblem of Dordrecht in Holland is

also interesting, because it shows us a positive image of death, drawing us

close to Christ. To achieve this, it shows a skeleton about to cut the thread

on a distaff that a woman seated on an orb has been spinning. In the sky above the clouds part in order to allow us a glimpse of the anagram of Christ. The urban view is taken from Braun and Hogenberg. Work is another of the activities that often inspired the author to compose moral lessons. And for those who may not have assimilated the value of work, Meisner frequently warned by means of his emblems of the volatility of fortune. For example, the emblem dedicated to Erfurt in Thuringia alerts us that fortune is like glass: Fortuna vitrea est [Fortune is glass]. And he represents this with a bolt of lightning that destroys the windows and statues of a house, while a hand breaks a glass cup. We have tried to offer in this section some of the main themes of the emblems, but there are so many that without doubt, each one merits its own

detailed study. Meisner’s emblems

have a grace, poetical excellence, and

wealth of knowledge that are infrequent in emblem books. A listing of the

principal themes, some of which we have already seen, would include: faith in God, contempt of riches, the value of friendship, the indissoluble bond of matrimony, appreciation for and the eternity of the Arts, wisdom, the cultivation of positive virtues, the advantages of study and of work, the discrediting of tyrants, the criticism of vices, the ephemeral nature of life.

Minguez: The Urban Emblems of Daniel Meisner

415

Epilogue: On How to Attain Wisdom by Means of the Vices and Virtues of Spaniards

Among the 830 cities included in the Thesaurus philo-politicus we find an

important group dedicated to urban centers belonging to the Spanish crown, some in the peninsula-27 including Portugal—and others in other European territories. The largest group is comprised of Andalusian cities-18. In addition, there are other Hispanic cities in diverse territories: Cuzco in Peru; Calcaria in the Duchy of Cleves; Azemmour in Morocco; Tangier in Africa—although the author situates it in Portugal; Perugia in Umbria;

Tivoli

in

Lazio;

Mechelen

in

the

Netherlands

(Siebenmann,

328).

On

occasion, as we have just seen for Tangier, the localization of the cities presents errors, which allows us to confirm that Meisner, of course, as well

as Braun and Hogenberg in their day, did not know all these places personally, and he based himself on available urban repertories. As for the case of Spain, almost all of the cities are taken from the repertory of the Civitates and many of them were drawn by Hoefnagel. One of the first images of a Spanish city is found in the second book, outside of a geographical context. It is the city of Jerez (Fig. 4). We see in the image a perspective of the city, surrounded by its farmlands. The emblematic image is located on the left side, where we make out a doctor burning a large number of books in order to heat up a pot and roast some chickens. The motto reads In tumido pectore Festus inest [In a heart swollen with pride there is arrogance]. The texts at the bottom of the image make an ironic allusion to the fact that this doctor is not noteworthy for his cures, but rather that he is well-known for being a cook and heating his stewpot by burning books. In the emblem’s explication Meisner tells us that the similarity between the words ,,doctor” and ,,coctor”, that is to say, doctor

and cook, is almost a joke. His intent with this is to ridicule doctors who swell up with pride when they receive their diploma and graduation cap, but for whom the arts and sciences represent the great unknown. Similar to this theme is one developed for the view of Vejer de la Frontera, Cadiz, where

we and arts and

perceive two burros carrying on their backs some instruments of labor war, while with their hoofs they step on instruments pertaining to the and sciences. The German motto alerts us to the woeful state of the arts sciences at that time. The city of Seville is highlighted by Meisner in order to indicate that what is said is not always what is done. What stands out in the profile of this Andalucian city is the imposing mass of its cathedral, as well as that of its famous

bell tower,

the Giralda,

imitated

out of one

of the three views

offered in the Civitatis in its several editions. But the symbolic content is displayed in the pictura, by drawing a warrior who stands over a crocodile,

416

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

leaning against a column with his left arm. With his right arm he raises a sword, as though swearing an oath, but its tip threatens to shred a letter of Credit (,,carta de Crédito”) held by two hands that emerge from the clouds.

The motto reads: Dicere et facere differunt |Saying and doing are seldom seen

together, Siebenmann, 324]. The small town of Gerena, in the modern-day province of Seville, is utilized in order to depict the story of David and Goliath and to remind the reader that what is biggest is not always what is most appropriate, that is to say, at times wit is worth more than brute strength. The town of Nebrija, which had a university, is also in the province of Seville. Its emblem reflects a prejudice of the period against Jews, since it shows us in its image a couple dancing on the left, and on the right, a Jew on a goat and a soldier. The motto alludes ironically to the notion that the union we are presented, between a lie and diversion, is very jubilant. The emblem’s clarification points out that the young enjoy dances, the Jew enjoys nothing except making himself rich, and the military man likes games. Two emblems are dedicated to the city of Granada. The first is taken from the view of Hoefnagel for the Civitates, from south of the city. The engraving presents us with an excellent view of the Alhambra palace and of the city in the background, where the cathedral’s cupola and the base of the dome are the features that stand out. In the foreground we see a weeping woman, seated on a rectangular stone and holding in her right hand a cup

with a serpent, a toad, and a scorpion. The motto, in German, says that evil,

causes the greatest harms to itself. The Latin distich insists that evil minds drink their own poison. The second emblem takes a diametrically opposite approach of the city view, and shows in the foreground a praying Philip II who receives power from God beneath the motto Nulla potestas nisi a Deo [Every power is from God] (Urefia Uceda, 278). The explanatory texts allude precisely to this notion, that there is no power if it does not come from God. The identifying trait of the city of Toledo as shown in Meisner’s work is that of a city that understands that a prudent life is one that should be a meditation on death, and that this should not ever be forgotten, not even for a minute. The author does not expound at all on this in his explication of the emblem, since its meaning is clear, but the motto Tota vita sapientes ist meditatio mortis [The whole life of a wise man is meditation on death] reminds us of a Senecan sentence in which the beginning of life is the road towards death (Cantera Ortiz, 100). The emblem’s image is equally eloquent, since it features an allegory of Prudence looking at herself in a mirror, but instead of seeing her reflection, she contemplates a skeleton. To her side, another skeleton holds a sundial and a rose, elements that doubtless allude to the brevity of life and its ephemeral nature. The emblem for the city of

Minguez: The Urban Emblems of Daniel Meisner

417

Ecija also insists on this theme by presenting us a precious nocturnal view in which a single candle burns, in order to indicate to us how rapidly existence is consumed. The motto and the texts in Latin and German warn us that both the candle and the wise man, when they illuminate and enlighten others, they themselves burn (Sibenmann, 325). The view is exactly that drawn by Hoefnagel in 1567 and which was reproduced in the Civitates in 1572. The emblem dedicated to Barcelona is very simple and easy to understand, since it depicts against the background of the city an individual playing a lute that has several broken strings. The motto reads In foedera quaedam nostrorum temporum, [On a certain alliance of our times] and alludes clearly to the rupture of alliances and the need to tune the strings

well, that is to say, to harmonize intentions. Without doubt, the composition

was inspired by Alciato’s very well-known emblem X from his Emblematum

liber (1531). The message associated with the emblem for Valladolid is more

positive, for it shows how we can overcome nature by means of habit, and

to this end it depicts the also famous emblem of the crane holding a stone, in this case next to a table full of measuring and other scientific instruments, as well as a book of musical scores. All of this is intended to convey: Non semper natura sed usus [Not always nature, but also custom]. Necessity is what makes the weak strong, according to the lesson taught by the emblem dedicated to the city of Alhama de Granada. In order to show this, the image features a dear being pursued during the hunt that charges at emperor Basil I, causing his death. The image is accompanied by the motto Necessitas facis fortes, [Necessity makes strong people] thus reminding us that we should not overextend ourselves in our pursuits or those who have been attacked will find strength in their weakness. Another regal example appears in the emblem for the city of Bilbao, where we see the Syracusan tyrant Agathocles, in order to remind us that riches and glories are ephemeral. Against a background of the estuary and city, we see to the left the tyrant seated on his throne and surrounded by casks full of treasures, but lamenting how ephemeral life is. The stork is the protagonist of our next two Spanish emblems. The city of Loja (Granada province), with a magnificent view of its fields, offers us a popular lesson by means of La Fontaine’s fable (derived from Aesop) of the

stork and the fox (Fig. 5). Thus we see on principal scenes of the tale: the first in which soup offered by the fox from the very shallow the fox is unable to reach the food offered by with a narrow mouth. The motto is: Fallacia another

precious

will

view

blossom

offered

into

another

for Spanish

deceit

either side one of the two the stork is unable to eat the dish, and the second in which the stork in a long-necked jar alia aliam trudit (Deceiving

at a later moment].

cities is that of Archidona

Another

(Malaga

418

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

Minguez: The Urban Emblems of Daniel Meisner

419

province), with its crags and its country house. The city’s emblem insists on the importance of caring for one’s parents, with the example of storks, and the motto reminds us too that our parents are in need of care in their old age. The Latin distich tells us that storks show their gratitude to their parents by carrying them in flight on their backs and providing them with sustenance. The pictura in fact features a stork carrying another on its back in the air while another stork is bringing food to its parent. Plate 74 of this seventh volume is dedicated to the Escorial and thus we ate offered a very precise view of the monastic complex. Next to the building we see a depiction of the two-faced god Janus. The texts make reference to this deity who was capable of looking at both the past and the future. The quatrain in German tells us: ,, That all should follow the example of Janus, who knows how to look behind and look ahead”, alluding thus to the virtue of Prudence (Sibenmann, 326). The next engraving represents the city of Cérdoba, with its walls, the mosque-cathedral and the Guadalquivir tiver, with its tower and bridge. The emblematic scenes presents a larger than usual number of figures, and thus we see a woman on a throne beneath a canopy, who points with her arm towards the city. She is surrounded by a series of noble personages, one of whom is an Arab. Lying vanquished at her feet are other figures, among whom we can recognize Justice, Prudence and Fortitude. The motto alludes to those who govern indulging in all the

The city of Ardales in Malaga, displays the qualities of another animal, the Beaver, which, according to natural lore, gnawed off its own genitals when pursued by the hunter, in order to save its life. As the motto indicates, it is better to renounce the part rather than the whole, and thus the Beaver saves its life by surrendering its genitals, sought for their multiple alleged medicinal properties. What stands out in the engraving is the splendid view

rogues”, Zahara, a city in Cadiz, also features a magnificent view of its moun-

diversions and gambling; phony doctors, ignorance of the times and stupidity of the Century; avaricious Jews; failure to live up to one’s word. But we also find some cities associated with positive concepts such is virtue,

pleasurable vices, and the Latin distich translates as ,,Fool, drunkard, gambler, after death there is no pleasure; the world feeds pigs, gluttons and

tains, the castle, and the walls of the city. The emblem

presents a playful

image, since it shows two individuals one horseback each pulling the same

cart, loaded with a barrel, in opposite directions. The motto reads Huius seculi status [This is the attitude of the century] and the texts in Latin and

German agree that the common masses behave like the cart in this world, being pulled along in the wrong direction. Next we have Marchena, in the province of Seville, the image of which

the city of features its

magnificent profile and the construction of two towers, and we are told that The Prince who punishes people and judges their vices does not hate them” (Sibenmann, 326). This is represented graphically by means of a vineyard worker pruning the dried up branches of a grape vine, which is the same way that vices need to be severed. Likewise, the city of Cadiz offers us a moral lesson by claiming that one must not aspire in excess, for he who

of the city, with the majestic Castle of La Peña, an enormous

rock that

towers over the profile of the country house at its base. Antequeta offers us a final moral lesson in terms of the Spanish cities, and it is that it is a city always prepared for misfortune. The scene is simple, since it shows five owls perched on five branches. The meaning of the motto is clear: Semper praesto ese infortunium |Misfortune is always near] which corresponds to a popular saying in Spanish: ,,Mochuelo a principio de cazadero, mal agiiero” [an owl at the beginning of the hunting ground is a bad omen].'* Traditionally, owls are considered, among other things, to portend mishaps, since their nocturnal song is very sad, as the distich in Latin also reinforces. Our analysis of the Hispanic peninsular cities in Meisner allow us to observe how he utilized a series of topoi relating to Spaniards that were common in the period in order to compose his emblems. These stereotypes, generally negative, were exploited in order to offer moral lessons: exaggerated religiosity and related to this, a taste for the macabre, such as the constant reminders of death and the fugacity of life; evil omens; the taste for

the dominion of nature, the excellences of sacrifice, prudence, veneration of

parents and devotion to Christ. What we have, then, are the virtues and defects of the peoples of a country, shown through the emblematization of some of its cities, and integrated in an ambitious emblematic atlas of the

world that was well-known at the beginning of the seventeenth century.

Meisner’s book was to become a triple treatise, one that was urban, symbolic, and moral, which enjoyed great success in its day, and which today is without doubt one of the most fascinating works of an emblematic nature available for our study.

blindly places his entire fortune on that which is very high will suffer the same fate as the tower in the image, which is toppled by the wind. This may perhaps be a reference to the famous lighthouse of Cadiz.

18 Sibenmann, p. 326, according to L. Martinez Kleiser, Refranero general ideoldgico

espanol, Madrid: Hernando, 1978.

420

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

Minguez: The Urban Emblems of Daniel Meisner

Kagan, Richard. Imdgenes urbanas del mundo hispänico,

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Arévalo, Federico. La representaciôn de la ciudad en el Renacimiento. Levantamiento urbano y territorial. Barcelona: Fundacion Caja de Arqui-

Ediciones El Viso, 1998.

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1493-1780. Madrid:

___. and Fernando Marias. Urban Images of the Hispanic World. 1493-1793.

tectos, 2008.

New Haven: Yale University Press, 2000.

Braun, Georg and Franz Hogenberg. Civitates Orbis Terrarum. Coloniae Agrippinae: Apud Bertramum Bochholtz, 1597-1618. [We have consulted the copy in Madrid’s Biblioteca Nacional].

Malafarina, Gianfranco.

Cadinu, Marco and Enrico Guidoni. La città Europea del trecento. Transformazioni, monumento, ampliamente urbani. Rome: Edizioni Kappa, 2006.

darinen in acht Centuriis die Vornembste Stàtt, Verstung, Schlüsser, etc ... der gantzen Welt gleichsamb adumbrirt und in Kupffer gestochen, mit ... Lateinischen und Teutsche Versiculn ... abgebiltet werden. Nuremberg, 1700.

Cantera Ortiz de Urbina, Jestis. Diccionario Akal del refranero latino. Madrid: Akal, 2005. Checa,

Fernando.

España y Génova.

,,Pintores genoveses

al servicio del rey de España”.

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La Galleria delle Carte geografiche in Vaticano.

Modena: Franco Cosimo Panini Editores, 2005.

Meisner, Daniel. Politica-Politica. Dass ist: Newes Emblematisches Buchlei,

Minguez, Victor and Inmaculada Rodriguez. Las ciudades del absolutismo. Arte, urbanismo y magnificencia en Europa y América durante los siglos XVXVIII. Castellon: Universitat Jaume I, 2006.

Minguez, Victor, Inmaculada Rodriguez, and Vicent Zuriaga. El sueño de

Luis Colomer, and Clario di Fabio. Madrid: Fundacién Carolina, 2004. 8598.

Eneas. Imdgenes utépicas de la ciudad. Castellon: Universitat Jaume

Fellner, Hans.

Emblem-

Minguez, Victor (ed.). Del libro de emblemas a la ciudad simbélica. Castellon: Universitat Jaume I, 2000

Garcia Mahiques, Rafael. ,,La Jerusalén celeste como simbolo de la Iglesia. Su configuracién durante el primer milenio.” In El sueño de Eneas. Imägenes utépicas de la ciudad. Ed. Victor Minguez, Inmaculada Rodriguez, and Vicent Zuriaga. Castellon: Universitat Jaume I, 2009. 19-44.

_. ,,Juan de Caramuel y su Declaracion Mystica de las Armas de España (Brusels: 1636).” Archivo Espanol de Arte 320 (2007): 395-410.

,Meisner Schatzkistlein.”

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I, 2009.

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Garcia-Frias Checa, Carmen. ,,Artistas genoveses en la pintura decorativa de

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Madrid: Fundacién Carolina, 2004. 113-128.

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Imago urbis: immagine della citta nella storia d'Italia atti del convegno internazionale, Bologna 5-7 settembre 2001. Ed. Francesca Bocchi and Rosa

de emblemas a la ciudad simbélica. Castellon: Universitat Jaume I, 2000. 5993.

buchandlung, 1927.

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R. de la Flor, Fernando. ,,La imagen corografica de la ciudad penitencial contarreformista: El Greco, Toledo (h. 1610).” In Victor Minguez. Del libro

Miinster, Sebastian. Cosmographiae Universalis. Basel: Henricuhum 1550. [We have consulted the copy in Madrid’s Biblioteca Nacional].

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Moya,

Marqués.” In

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El sueño de Eneas. Visiones utépicas de la ciudad. Ed. Victor

Minguez, Inmaculada Rodriguez, and Vicent Zuriaga. Castellon: Universitat

Jaume I, Generalitat Valenciana, Biblioteca Valenciana, 2009. 89-120. _.

and Victor Minguez. ,,Symbolical Explanation of the Spanish Coats of

Arms According to Juan de Caramuel (1636).” Emblematica. An Interdisciplinary Journal for Emblem Studies 16 (2008): 223-251. Sebastian, Santiago. ,,La imagen alegérico-emblemätica de los lugares geo-

graficos: el catafalco de Maria de Borbon.” Ars Longa 4 (1993): 47-57.

Siebenmann, Gustav. ,,Vision de Espafia en un viaje emblematico aleman de

1638.” Dicenda. Cuadernos de Filologta Hispänica 6 (1987): 321-330.

Urefia Uceda, Alfredo. ,,La Catedral de Granada y su imagen. Fortuna critica

de su representacién grafica desde el siglo XVI al XIX.” Cuadernos de arte e iconografia 8, No. 16 (1999): 265-312.

Figure 1 Lübeck, in Daniel Meisner, Politica-Politica. Dass ist: Newes Emblematisches Buchlein darinen in acht Centuriis die Vornembste Stitt,

Verstung, Schlüsser, etc … der gantzen Welt gleichsamb adumbrirt und in Kupffer gestochen, mit ... Lateinischen und Teutsche Versiculn ... abgebiltet werden, Nuremberg, 1700.

Figure 2 Augsburg, in Daniel Meisner, Politica-Politica ... Nuremberg, 1700.

Minguez: The Urban Emblems of Daniel Meisner

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Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

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424

Figure 3 Nuremberg, in Daniel Meisner, Politica-Politica ... Nuremberg, 1700.

426

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

427

Minguez: The Urban Emblems of Daniel Meisner

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Figure 5 Loja, in Daniel Meisner, Politica-Politica ... Nuremberg, 1700

The Fervent Heart: Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s Herzbiicher (Books of the Heart) SABINE MODERSHEIM University of Wisconsin — Madison, U.S.A. Abastract

This is the first study of a previously unknown emblem book manuscript, Herzbiicher [Books of the Heart] written by the Carmelite nun Isabella De Spiritu Sancto in the 1650s, which recently appeared in facsimile (Grevenbroich 2005). The trilogy follows the spiritual path of the via purga-

tiva, lluminata, and unitiva, using the imagery of the human heart as the

embodiment of the pious soul as its central metaphor in various contexts, a topic popular in numerous emblem books of the time, but also deeply rooted in Carmelite sprirituality, drawing from from the visions of Teresa of Avila,

the

founder

of

the

Discalced

Carmelite

Order

of

the

,,trans-

verberation of her heart,” in which an angel pierced her heart with a firetipped lance. Very few emblem books written or co-authored by female authors are known. Among the few are, for example, Georgette de Montenay’s Monu-

menta emblematum Christianorum virtutum,' Anna Roemers Visschet’s con-

tribution to Sinnepoppen,2 Anna Sophie von Hessen-Darmstadt’s Der treue

Seelenfreund Christus Jesus, or Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg’s Betrach-

tungen.* It is, then, all the more exciting and important for emblem studies when discoveries are made of previously unknown emblem books or manuscripts authored by women. 1 Georgette

de Montenay,

Monumenta

emblematum

Christianorum

virtutum: inter-

pretatione metrica Latina, Anglica et Belgica donata. Frankfurt/Main: Unckel, 1619. First edition: Emblematum Christianorum Centuria. Paris, 1584. See Martine van Elk.

,Courtliness, Piety, and Politics: Emblem Books by Georgette de Montenay, Anna Roemers Visscher, and Esther Inglis.” Forthcoming in Early Modern Women and Transnational Communities of Letters. Ed. Anne Larsen and Julie Campbell. Burlington, VT:

Ashgate Press. 2 Sinnepoppen. Amsterdam: Willem lantz, 1614. See Marc van Vaeck. Moral Emblems

Adorned with Rhymes: Anna Roemers Visscher’s Adaptation (1620) of Roemer Visscher’s Sinnepoppen (1614).” In Visual Words and Verbal Pictures: Essays in Honour of

Michael Bath.

Ed. Alison Saunders

and Peter Davidson.

Glasgow:

Glasgow

Emblem

Studies, 2005, 203-223. 3 Anna Sophie von Hessen-Darmstadt, Der treue Seelenfreund Christus Jesus. Dresden: Andreas Lôffler, Georg Sengenwald. 1658. 4 Catharina Regina von Greiffenberg, Alerheiligsten Lebens Jesu Christi 6 Andächtige Betrachtungen. Nurembutg: Johann Hofmann, Sigmund Froberg. 1693.

430

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

The focus of this article is a remarkable manuscript that was only recently returned to the archives of the Convent of the Discalced Carmelites in Cologne, Germany and made available in a facsimile edition and tran-

scription: Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s: Herzbiicher (Books of the Heart)? Its full title reads: ,,Buch der Rekreationen unnd geistlichen gespräch der Carmelitinn Discalceatessenn. Dediciertt Jesu Christo Ihrem Gespons, getheilet in drei theill gleichformig denn drei Standenn der Christlichen Seelen Der Beschauung des fortgangs, und der vollkommenheit, oder der stand der Reinigung, der erleuchtungh unnd der vereinigungh.” |,,Book of Recreations and spiritual conversations of the Discalced Carmelites. Dedicated to Jesus Christ, her Spouse. Divided in three parts, representing the three stages of the soul: Of contemplation of progress and perfection or of purification, illumination, and unification.’ This previously unknown emblem book manuscript, featuring three books of heart emblems and prose commentaries in Latin and German, containing almost 300 emblems, was invented, written, and drawn in 1650-

52 by the Carmelite prioress Isabella De Spiritu Sancto, co-founder of the convent of the Discalced Carmelites in Cologne, Germany. The original manuscript is kept today in the archives of the Convent of the Discalced Carmelites in Cologne, Germany.f It is not recorded in the catalogues of Landwehr’, Praz®, Henkel / Schéne? or Sandra Sider’s Bibliography of Emblem Manuscripts,'° nor is it mentioned elsewhere in the secondary literature on German emblem books or international emblem studies. There is also a lack of research about Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s manuscript or her other writings in the literature about Carmelite history or Carmelite emblematic literature in particular. Antonia Sondermann’s edition and her substantial introduction is the first study of Isabella de Spiritu Sancto as an author, and it is primarily written from the perspective of Carmelite history and

spirituality, and not from the view point of emblem studies. Given the dire 5 Isabella de Spiritu Sancto (1606-1675): Herzbiicher. Kritische Edition von M. Antonia

Sondermann. Grevenbroich: Bernardus-Verlag Langwaden, 2005. (Monumenta historica Carmeli Teresiani 22).

6 Part I and II of the manuscript had been at the Carmel in Echt until 1996, part ΠῚ at the Historical Archives in Cologne until the 1930s (Sondermann, Introduction, unpag-)

7 John Landwehr, Dutch Emblem Books: A Bibliography. Utrecht: Haentjens Dekker & Gumbert, 1962; Emblem Books in the Low Countries 1554-1949: A Bibliography. Utrecht: Haentjens Dekker & Gumbert, 1970; German Emblem Books 1531-1888: A Bibliography. Utrecht: Haentjens Dekker & Gumbert, 1972.

8 Mario Praz, Studies in Seventeenth-Century Imagery. London: Warburg Institute, 1939; 2nd ed. Part I. Rome: Edizioni di Storia et Letteratura, 1964, Part II. Rome: Edizioni di Storia et Letteratura, 1975. 9 Arthur Henkel and Albrecht Schéne, Emblemata. Handbuch zur Sinnbildkunst des XVI.

und XVII. Jahrhunderts. 2nd ed. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1976. 10 Sandra Sider (ed.), Bibliography of Emblem Book Manuscripts.

Queen’s University Press, 1997. (Corpus Librorum Emblematum).

, Montreal: McGill-

Môdersheim: Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s Herzbiicher

431

research situation, this article attempts to give a first assessment of the manuscript, its status and value for emblem studies, and its reception, in particular in regard to the question of female authorship and readership. The manuscript is divided in three parts, containing 104 emblems in part 1, 118 emblems in part 2, and 64 emblems in part 3 of the Books of the Heart, consisting of a collection of religious emblems with heart motifs as allegories of Christian virtues. At the end of each part are mnemonic tables containing all emblems of the book in miniature, followed by a reprise of all the emblem subscriptiones. Besides this manuscript of the complete three books!', there are two partial copies, containing the first 20 emblems of book 3 in Amsterdam,!? and a copy of part 2 with 94 (instead of 118) emblems in Cologne.'3 These were part of a more luxuriously crafted copy of the manuscript (,,Prachthandschrift”) on parchment with illuminated picturae, also drawn and written by Isabella de Spiritu Sancto herself, presumably as a gift for a benefactor of the convent. Both the pictures and texts in the manuscripts are invented and authored by Isabella de Spiritu Sancto in the mid-seventeenth century. A note at the beginning of the manuscript indicates that the pictura drawings as well as the handwritten motti and epigrams are in Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s own hand while all other texts were executed by a scribe.!4 The trilogy of the Books of the Heart follows the spiritual path of the via purgativa, illuminata, and unitiva, using the imagery of the human heart as the embodiment of the pious soul as its central metaphor. The heart of man as the center of faith and as a symbol for the devout soul aspiring to the word of God is a popular symbol not only in Carmelite spirituality, but in numerous emblem books of the time. It is quite possible that Isabella de Spiritu Sancto drew from her knowledge of such publications, specifically prints published in Antwerp in the first half of the seventeenth century, e.g.,

Wierix’ Cor Iesu Amanti Sacrum,!5 Otto van Veen’s love emblem

Herman

Hugo’s

Pia Desideria,'® Hoyer’s

Flammulae

books,

Amoris,'’ and Za-

11 H1, H2, H3; Archiv des Klosters der Unbeschuhten Karmelitinnen, Cologne. See Sondermann, 4*ff and 104*-116*.

12 Bibliotheca Philosophica Hermetica, Amsterdam. See Sondermann. 13 Dom- und Diôzesanbibliothek. See Sondermann. 14 Sondermann, 105. 15 Anton Wierix, Cor Jesu Amanti Sacrum. Antwerp, c. 1585. 16 Herman Hugo, Pia desideria. Antwerp: Hendrick Aertssens, 1624. Ed. Hester M. Black. Menton: Scholar Press, 1971; and its first Dutch translation: Herman Hugo.

Goddelycke wenschen: verlicht met sinne-beelden, ghedichten en vierighe uyt-spraecken der

oud-vaeders. Antwerp: Hendrick Aertssens, 1629.

17 Michael Hoyer, Flammulae amoris, S.P. Augustini versibus et iconibus exornatae. Ant-

werp: Hendrick Aertsens, 1629; cf, Arnoud Visser. ,,Commonplaces of Catholic love. Otto van Veen, Michel Hoyer and St Augustine between humanism and the Counter

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

432 charias

Heyns’s

Emblemata

moralia.!8

There

seems

to be,

however,

no

evidence from archival materials such as letters and diaries that she owned or had access to any of these books. Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s manuscript of the Books of the Heart, written in 1650-52, is the first emblem book explicitly devoted to the Teresian heart iconography and based on the distinctive Carmelite mysticism found in the works of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, describing the trivium of the via unitiva, the mystical ascent in purification, illumination,

union. She intended the use of the emblems as tools of the imagination during devout contemplation, repetition of prayers in the quietude of an interior life of prayer and meditation towards the attainment of spiritual perfection. The books belong to a tradition of Carmelite iconography and emblematic expression that reached a peak after the 1680s and the centenary of the publication of Teresa of Avila’s Castillo Interior (1577). The Teresian reform movement produced several emblem books, manuscripts, and print series depicting the life of Teresa, such as the Idea vitae Teresianae (Antwerp 1685)1° and Juan de Rojas y Ausa’s Representaciones de la verdad

vestida sobre las siete Moradas de Santa Teresa de Jestis. (Madrid 1679).”

Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s manuscript, however, was already finished in 1652 and thus predates most other Carmelite and Teresian emblems and illustrated books by several decades. Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s work is not only one of the very few surviving manuscripts by the hand of a female author, the books also give a

Reformation.” In: Learned Love. Proceedings of the Emblem Project Utrecht Conference on Dutch Love Emblems and the Internet. Ed. Els Stronks and Peter Boot. The Hague, 2007.

Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008, 33-48. 18 Zacharias Heyns, Emblemata moralia. Rotterdam 1625. 19 Idea vitae Teresianae iconibus symbolicis expressa, in quinque partes divisa: prima figurat

sui cognitionem,

secunda sui mortificationem,

tertia virtutum acquisitionem,

quarta

Médersheim: Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s Herzbiicher

433

rate insight into the production and reception of religious emblems purposely written by a woman for other women, as the introductory note states: » This outstanding work was produced by our memorable first co-founder of this our Carmelite Convent in Cologne, located in Schnurgasse, our revered mother, Isabella a Spiritu Sancto, made herself by her own hand, she also

invented the texts and had them copied and written out by another hand, as it is documented by our venerable P. Fulgentius a S. Maria in her vita. [...] Now and in posterity, coevals and coming generations may benefit and draw on these Recreations diligently, so that the first spirit will not be obliterated or erased.’”2! In her own comments, Isabella de Spiritu Sancto frequently hints at the purpose and practical use for the emblems. This study will show how the emblems were intended for use as mnemonic tools and inspiration in the daily prayers and meditations performed by the nuns under Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s spiritual leadership. Considering that the manuscript contains almost 300 emblems, only a select few will be discussed here to establish the style in which they are executed, attesting to their originality of design, motifs, variations, and combination of motifs and show the position of the Books of the Heart within the tradition of religious emblem books and manuscripts. Vita Isabellae

As the founder of the first convent of the Discalced Carmelite nuns in Germany, Isabella de Spiritu Sancto played an important role in the history of the order. Accordingly, her biography is well documented in her Vita, a manuscript outlining her religious and spiritual development as well as her accomplishments as writer and artist. The original manuscript of Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s Vita, written only three years after her death, is preserved in

the archives of the convent in Cologne.2? Written and compiled by the Carmelite P. Petrus Thomas a Sancta Maria on the basis of Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s own notes and writings, it describes Isabella’s upbringing

mentalem orationem, quinta divinam contemplationem. Antwerp: Jacob Mesens, 1685. A copy of the dea vitae Teresianae (Antwerp: Mesen, 1692) owned by the Carmelites in Cologne (Dau) included handwritten German epigrams and was clearly used in prayer practice by the Fratres (Sondermann, 103*). See Hans-Hermann Rohrig. ,Bibliotheca conventus Coloniensis Carmelitarum discalceatorum. In Jahrbuch des Kélnischen Ge-

and family, her motivation to join the order of the Discalced Carmelites in Antwerp, the task of co-founding the new convent in Cologne and her

20 Juan de Rojas y Ausa, Representaciones de la verdad vestida sobre las siete Moradas de

Cologne at the Bibliothèque Royale in Brussels.

Teresian Doctrine in Fray Juan de Rojas y Ausa’s Emblematic Version of the Mansions of the Interior Castle.’ In Carmelus 41, 1994, 63-87. Other Carmelite publications include: Daniel a Virgine Maria. Speculum Carmelitanum sive Historia Eliani Ordinis Fratrum Beatissimae Virginis Mariae de Monte Carlo. Antwerp: Cnobbaert, 1680; Joseph à Sancta Barbara. Het Geestelyck Kaertspel met herten troef oft t'spel der liefde door den eerw. pater Fr. Joseph a S Barbara Carmelit Discals. Antwerp: Cnobbaert, 1676.

21 Sondermann, p. [1] (my translation). 22 Ms. Vita: Recit De la vie et vertus de nostre Venerable Mere Isabelle du sainct Esprit. See Sondermann, 6*. 23 Sondermann, 21*. 24 Ms. 36826 [14147]: Originelle Relation et principe de la fondation du Convent des Reli-

schichtsvereins 36/37 (1961/62), 173-223.

Santa Teresa de Jesis. Madrid 1679. See Joseph F. Chorpenning. Graphic Images and

tenure as prioress. A chronicle of the convent in Cologne is preserved in a collection of manuscripts concerning the history of the Carmelites in

434

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

Isabella de Spiritu Sancto was born Charlotta de Urquina in Brussels in 1606 as the daughter of a Spanish courtier at the court of Archduke Albert of Austria and the Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain. Mateo de Urquina, who served as secretary of state and war in the Army of Flanders from 1618 to 1625,25 a member of the ,,chevaliers de S. Jacques,” was Secrétaire d’etat,’26 appointed by Philip III in 1613, ,,grand Chancelier de Guerre de sa Majesté Catholique”?? and ,,secrétaire des archives sécréte des

archiduc.78 At the time of Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s early life, when her father served at court, Brussels was one of the foremost political and artistic centers in Europe. Albert and Isabella Eugenia’s patronage included artists such as Rubens, Brueghel, and van Veen. Veen’s emblem books, including

Quinti Horatii Flacci emblemata (1607), Amorum emblemata (1608), and Amoris divini emblemata (1615) appeared during that time. During her reign, the Infanta was a patron and supporter of Counter-Reformation movements,

and

the

Carmelite

reformers.2?

In

fact,

several

of Infanta

Isabella’s ladies in waiting became members and founders of the Discalced Carmelite convents in Flanders, in Antwerp, and in Brussels, among them

Teresa a Jesu (Violante de Croy) who became prioress of the Carmelites in Brussels and later lived in Cologne from 1637 and 1641.%° There are no sources available, however, proving any contact between Isabella de Spiritu Sancto and the court of Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia through her family.

Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s father had died in 1625 when Charlotta was only 21, and before she took the veil. Her mother, Marguerite de Boisot et Taxis, retreated from court life, her brothers became priests, her sisters joined convents. Until 1614, her eighth year, Isabella de Spiritu Sancto was educated by Benedictine nuns. Her upbringing was strict and focused on moral and

Médersheim: Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s Herzbiicher

435

spiritual values. Isabella de Spiritu Sancto read and spoke several languages,

including German, Dutch, Spanish, French, Latin, perhaps even Greek and

Hebrew and showed a special talent for drawing and painting, which shows in her emblem drawings. Isabella de Spiritu Sancto was always fascinated by the power of images to enhance the imagination, and always decorated the church and altar with religious imagery, often of her own design.*! A defining influence in Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s spiritual development, prompting her decision to join the Discalced Carmelites, was Teresa

of Avila’s autobiographical Libro de la Vida, in particular the third chapter

describing Teresa’s struggle? Charlotta de Urquina received the name Isabella de Spiritu Sancto when she entered the Carmel in Antwerp in 1629. Charged with the founding of a new convent in Cologne under the reformed rules, she moved to Germany several years later where she became ptioress of the new Carmelite convent in 1639. In 1643, the Carmel in Cologne broke ground for the new convent building and church, after it had received the donation of the ,,Gnadenbild” (miraculous image of the Virgin Mary) from Maria de Medici.% Isabella de Spiritu Sancto saw in this donation the fulfillment of her earlier visions of a ,,grande statue de notre

Dame” [a great statue of Our Lady].*4 Isabella de Spiritu Sancto was elected prioress in the same year. In 1649, the nuns moved into the new convent and a year later Isabella de Spiritu Sancto began to write down the Books of the Heart. Elected prioress of the convent in Antwerp in 1659, she declined the vocation and chose to stay in Cologne, where she died in 1675. Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s Writings Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s most important legacy are the Books of the Heart, but they are not the only works by her hand. Other writings include

poems,

litanies, and prayers written for the convent

and designed

to be

recited in the company of the sisters, for example Alleluja or Crosses of a gieuses Carmelites deschausées de coulagne. See Sondermann, 16*f.

25 Geoffrey Parker, The Army of Flanders and the Spanish Road, 1567-1659. The Logistics of Spanish Victory and Defeat in the Low Countries’ Wars. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press: 2004 [2nd ed.], 248. 26 Sondermann, 21*. 27 Ms. Vita: Recit, 11. 28 Sondermann, 21*.

29 See Cordula van Wyhe’s introduction to her edition of Jean Terrier. Portraicts des

Carmelite, which she began writing during her time in Antwerp.® Other

texts were private prayers she wrote down that were not intended for communal use. Her confessor encouraged and even ordered her to write down her prayers, including reflections on the disposition of the soul,

SS. Verts de la Vierge contemplees par feue S.A.S.M. Isabelle Clere Eugenie Infante

31 Sondermann, 120*.

30 Sondermann 37*. See Cordula van Wyhe, ,,Court and Convent: the Infanta Isabella

meilleur” (Ms. Vita, p. 27; cited after Sondermann, 26*, note 64).

445. especially 425£; Cordula van Wyhe, ,,Piety and Politics in the Royal Convent of

the Regina Pacis Statue in Cologne.” The Seventeenth-Century Journal 22 (2007): 41-74. 34 Sondermann, 33*.

d Espagne, Pin 1635. Glasgow: Glasgow Emblem Studies, 2002.

and her Franciscan Confessor Andres de Soto.” Sixteenth Century Journal 35 (2004): 411-

Discalced Carmelite nuns in Brussels 1607-1646.” Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique de Bel-

gique 100 (2005): 457-487.

32 ,seulement sur la lumiere de la raison, qui les asseure que l’estat religieux est le

33 Cordula van Wyhe, ,,Reformulating the Cult of Scherpenheuvel: Marie de’ Médicis and

35 Vita, 32; Sondermann, 30*.

436

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

thoughts on grace, etc. She had a booklet with her all the time to write down

reflections, meditations, and prayers.36

Among those works written down at her confessor’s behest and thus preserved, are poems, litanies, and prayers written for the convent and designed to be recited in the company of the sisters; private prayers not intended

for communal

use;

reflections

on

the

disposition

of the

soul,

thoughts on divine grace, and exercitia. A Canticum in honor of Teresa of Avila includes emblematic imagery of a rose, eagle, pelican, and phoenix.*” Other works combining text and image are also mentioned in the Vita, comprising four different types of works Isabella de Spiritu Sancto produced since her early years in the convent besides her emblem books: Horologes,*® a tabernacle which

opened

to show

the Sacred

Heart; mnemonic

tables,

comprising 24 characteristics of the human soul” and several material emblems that were displayed in church.# Among those the Vita mentions two oval pictures with heart motifs, one showing Teresa’s image, the other a phoenix.*! There are detailed descriptions of those works in Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s Vita, but the works themselves are lost, due to their ephemeral nature. Of the series of emblems one was actually printed, sponsored by a relative, according to the Vita, but Antonia Sondermann was not able to track down this private print.#2 The Vita also mentions

elaborate Emblemtafeln,

mnemonic

tables of

emblems. When Isabella de Spiritu Sancto was encouraged to copy her emblem books for a benefactor of the Convent, she started out—presumably due to a lack of time—with several plates of smaller emblems. Unfortunately, these are lost today. However, summary emblem plates at the end of each chapter in the manuscript of the Books of the Heart give us a good impression of what they would have looked like. Judging from the description of the partial luxury versions of the Herzbiicher, illuminated in color on parchment, we can assume that the Emblemtafeln were of a similar quality (Fig. 1).

Médersheim: Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s Herzbiicher

437

The Manuscript of the Books of the Heart From

emblem

1650 on, Isabella de Spiritu Sancto worked

books, which

she called Books

on the trilogy of

of the Heart, in reference to the

dominant topic of the emblem picturae, depicting the human heart in vatious contexts. The visual coherence is established by the central theme and depiction of the heart in all emblems. The emblem picturae show stylized, oversized human

combination

with

hearts, sometimes

other attributes

and

with eyes, hand, and feet; in

significant items

such as scales,

arrows, shields, and anchors. Each emblem pictura incorporates scrolls with

biblical quotations in Latin pertaining to the topic explored in the emblem. A German translation of the bible verses precedes the pictura; the Latin motto is found below the pictura, followed by its German translation and a German epigram. On the opposite page is a collection of further biblical quotations on the theological topic in Latin, followed by their German translation; and a prose commentary in German, explaining the meaning of the emblem in connection with the words from Scripture. This structure expands the traditional tripartite from of the emblem of motto, pictura, and subscriptio. Teresa of Avila: Isabella’s Model and main Influence

The three-part structure of the emblem book manuscript clearly reflects the three parts of the way of perfection in the Christian mystic tradition, in close imitation of the mystic experience comprised in the works of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross, which were Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s main inspiration for her emblems. Teresa of Avila’s spiritual and political life, combining mystic contemplation and a reform activities, served as the supreme model for Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s work. Saint Teresa of Avila, founder of the order of the Discalced, or Barefoot, Carmelites was canon-

ized by Pope Gregory XV in 1622. Teresa was revered as a spiritual leader,

mystic, and author of such texts as The Way of Perfection and The Interior

36 ,,Elle avoit un petit livret des poincts d’humilité” (Vita, 32; Sondermann, 31*). 37 The text is reprinted in Sondermann, 167*.

38 Sondermann, 96*. 39 Sondermann, 95*. 40 One of them was still in use in the convent church until it was destroyed dyring the second World War; Sondermann, 95*. 41 Sondermann, 70*.

42 Sondermann, 95*.

Castle, as well as two autobiographical works, the Vita and the Book of Foundations. The books contain an account of her spiritual life and visions in a rich symbolic and poetic language. They were specifically written for the nuns of her order, and only published posthumously. Most famous is her description of a vision of the piercing or transverberation of her heart, an episode that features prominently in Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s Books of the Heart. 43 See Joseph F. Chorpenning, ,,Heart imagery in Santa Teresa.” In Studies in Honor of Elias L. Rivers. Ed. Bruno M. Damiani and Ruth El Safar. Potomac: Scripta Humanistica,

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

438

Isabella de Spiritu Sancto founded the Carmelite monastery in Cologne and advanced the religious and ascetic education of the nuns under her supervision through her works, following Teresa’s example closely. Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s Books of the Heart document the devotion to the strict observance of the original Carmelite rule at the convent in Cologne, including absolute poverty and the renunciation of property, and a rigidly contemplative life, consisting of prayer, penance, work, and silence. Isabella de Spiritu Sancto and the nuns at the convent in Cologne remained in pious seclusion, engaged in contemplation and daily prayer. The main inspiration for choosing the imagery of the human heart undoubtedly stems from the visions of Teresa of Avila, the founder of the

Médersheim: Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s Herzbiicher

from Luke Ich bin kommen ein feur zu senden auf erden und was will ich

anders als das es brenne” [I am come to send fire on the earth; and what will I, if it be already kindled? Luke 12, 49] and ,,Mein hertz ist entzundt dan ich bin mit lieb verwundet” [Thou hast ravished my heart, my sister, my spouse; thou hast ravished my heart with one of thine eyes; Song of Solomon 4, 9]. The motto reads: ,,Cor sanctae et seraphiae matris Theresiae—Das hertz der H. und seraphischen Mutter Theresiae” [The heart of the Holy and Seraphic Mother Teresa]. The subscriptio claims this initiation as the source of the emblem book itself:

of Avila had been suffering from serious illness and had retreated to a life of rigorous religious exercises. In 1555, she claimed to experience visions of

» Wie sehr Theresa gott geliebt im lebenn das thut ihr hertz noch ietz und zeugnuB geben. Wirckung der lieb ein solche wunden bringet Effect auB welchem dieses buch entspringet.”(8)

caused by the tip of an angel’s lance piercing her heart. Teresa described this vision or Transverberation in her autobiography: ,,I saw in his hand a long spear of gold, and at the iron’s point there seemed to be a little fire. He appeared to me to be thrusting it at times into my heart, and to pierce my

[How much Teresa loved God in her life Her heart testifies to yet today Impression of love brings such a wound Effect from which this book issues.] (Fig. 2)

Discalced Carmelites as a reformed branch of the Carmelite Order, in particular her famous vision of the ,,transverberation of her heart.” Teresa

Jesus, angels, and demons; and she felt sharp pains that she claimed were

very entrails; when he drew it out, he seemed to draw them out also, and to

leave me all on fire with a great love of God. The pain was so great, that it

made me moan; and yet so surpassing was the sweetness of this excessive pain, that I could not wish to be rid of it. The soul is satisfied now with

nothing less than God. The pain is not bodily, but spiritual; though the body has its share in it. It is a caressing of love so sweet which now takes place between the soul and God, that I pray God of His goodness to make him experience it who may think that I am lying.”# Teresa of Avila’s hagiography includes the claim that her body in an examination after her death was found to have a perforation of the heart, reflecting the mystical experience described in her autobiography. There are

numerous depictions of this striking vision, among the most famous is the

sculpture St. Teresa in Ecstasy or Transverberation of St. Teresa by Gian

Lorenzo Bernini in the Cornato Chapel of Santa Maria della Vittoria in

Rome, dating from 1652. The Transverberation of Teresa’s Heart is the very first emblem in the book. The pictura depicts the relic of Teresa’s heart pierced by the seraphim’s fiery arrow, placed in a crystal vessel, accompanied by quotations 1989,

49-58

and

Margit Thofner,

,,How

to Look

Like

a (Female)

Saint: The

Early

Iconography of St Teresa of Avila.” In Female Monasticism in Early Modern Europe. An Interdisciplinary View. Ed. Cordula van Wyhe. London: Ashgate, 2008, 59-78. 44 Teresa de Avila: Autobiography, Chapter XXIX; Part 17.

439

The reference to Teresa’s Transverberation Cordis is again taken up at the beginning of the second book. Here Isabella de Spiritu Sancto quotes an eyewitness stating that the relic of Teresa’s heart bore the imprint of her image and the Ecce Homo. The emblem provides a rendering of Teresa’s heart with theses images in a transparent vessel (pp. 212-213). Further references to the piercing of the heart are found in all books of the trilogy.” Heart Emblems

Preceding the first book of the trilogy, following the aforementioned Saint Teresa of Avila’s pierced heart is an introductory text in Latin and German with Latin and German biblical quotations on the general topic quid est homo?” [What is man?], followed by 21 emblems that explore this topic: what is the human heart?” (12-46) under the title ,,Spiritus sancti gracia illuminet sensu et corda nostra” [the grace of the Holy Spirit illuminates our hearts]. This introductory chapter concludes with two mnemonic tables in the shape of a shield, the first containing emblems of the wicked

heart (48), the second showing emblems of the saved heart (50), followed by

a reprise of the emblem subcriptiones (52-53).

45 80, 146, 154, 170, 176, 422, 436, and 191-192, 422-423.

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

440

The first book of the trilogy is consequently dedicated to the state of the human heart before its redemption by the grace of God in 67 emblems (55186).

Its

title reflects

the

desire

,O

of illumination:

Lux

beatissima—

Replete cordis intima” [O light of grace fill my heart]. The second book, divided into 8 chapters (212-439), shows emblems of virtues and vices undet the title , Veni lumen cordium et emitte caelitus lucis tuae radium”

[Come

light of the hearts and emit the ray of your heavenly light]. Here the topic is explored by the juxtaposition of a white and a dark heart opposite of each other in the same pictura, symbolizing the ,,antipathia” as the opposition of good and evil, virtue and vices. After the first part described the inherently sinful nature of the human heart and showed the tools of divine grace leading the human soul on the ,,path of true virtue” and ,,god fearing beati-

tude” (215). The images in this second part show the virtues and vices in opposition, as ,,antipathia,” comparing virtuous and sinful attitudes and behaviors in the

same emblem, represented by a white heart and a blackened heart. ,,Some of

the hearts from the first part are repeated here,” states Isabella de Spiritu Sancto, and adds that the duplication and variation on themes explored in the first part serves a purpose. This reminds the reader to repeat the prayer and remember the lessons from earlier meditations. The Virgin Mary and Teresa serve as exempla for this practice of prayer regimen, leading the reader on the ,,way of illumination” in this second part of the book (216), complementing the two other parts, according to ,,the author’s intention.”

Here the dedicatory emblem shows another image of the relic of Saint Teresa of Avila’s heart, this time with an imprint of Teresa’s image with Jesus and the cross on the heart, in a reliquary. The final book of the trilogy moves towards the anticipation of the mystic

union

of the soul with

the divine,

under

the

title ,,Veni

spiritus

sanctus—In lumine tuo videbimus lumen” [Come Holy Spirit—In your light we will see the light]. The thematic Leitmotif in this book is the depiction of the human heart looking through a telescope towards heaven. The unifying topic of all three books is the human soul’s ascent to God, represented and manifested in the image of the heart. Many of the heart images in Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s emblem

book

are based on biblical

allegories and metaphors, and all texts quote Scripture. Biblical heart metaphors were part of the iconic inventory of popular religious and devotional images. They helped to visualize and illustrate spiritual phenomena in the figure of the human heart that undergoes the otherwise invisible process of inner transformation. The interior core of the individual being becomes visible in this introspection. The biblical metaphors describe the heart’s progress from damnation to justification in the context of the order of salvation, illuminating the three

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stages of contritio cordis, illuminatio cordis, renovatio cordis, of penitence, en-

lightenment, and renewal of the heart. The symbol of the heart is based on the concept that the human heart is the place where God works his influence by means of torment, infliction of wounds, healing such wounds, instilling joy and gratitude. The heart is also, and most importantly, the place

where God’s word is heard, seen, and understood. God strikes the heart. ,,A

sword must pierce your own heart” (Luke 2:35) and God vexes it: ,,the

vexation of his heart” (Ecclesiastes 2:22), but he also heals the broken and wounded heart: ,,He healeth the broken in heart, and bindeth up their

wounds.” (Psalm 147, 3). He illuminates the heart: ,For God, who commanded the light to shine out of darkness, hath shined in our hearts, to give the light of the knowledge of the glory of God in the face of Jesus Christ.” (2 Corinthians 4:6). Those who have received the word in their heart are blessed: ,,Blessed are the pure in heart: for they shall see God.” (Matthew 5:8). Faith will take root in their heart: ,, That Christ may dwell in your hearts

by faith; that ye, being rooted and grounded in love.” (Ephesians 3:17). He lifts the heart up: ,,thine heart is lifted up” (Ezekiel 28:5) and gives it new spirit. God’s word is best heard and understood with the heart: ,,they should

understand with their heart, and should be converted, and I should heal them” (Matthew 13:15; Acts 28:27) and ,,the word that was sown in their

hearts” (Mark 4:15). These biblical metaphors help visualize spiritual phenomena in the figure of the human heart undergoing an invisible process of inner transformation. The interior core is made visible in this introspection, illustrating the heart’s progress from damnation to redemption. In the context of the way of perfection in the Teresian sense, they illuminate the

three stages of contritio cordis, illuminatio cordis, renovatio cordis, of penitence, enlightenment, and renewal of the heart.

The preliminary series of 18 emblems (12-46) describes the stages of the human heart from creation, the fall from grace to the possibility of redemption. The pictura for the first emblem—God creates man out of nothing—shows God’s two hands from the clouds over an empty patch of land. The hands are opened towards the viewer in a gesture of presentation or donation. The two clouds as well as a third cloud above in the sky bear the inscription of the tetragrammaton, the four Hebrew characters that spell the name of God.‘ In the following emblem (14) God forms the human heart out of clay, the scene is exactly the same, but now the two hands from

the cloud form a heart out of the clay of the earth. In a further step, in the next emblem, God forms the heart after his own image” in the shape of a

triangle, which finds its counterpart in a triangle in a cloud above as a

46 As Isabella explains in the foreword, the tetragrammaton is always meant to symbolize God throughout the book in all the emblems (Sondermann, 5).

442

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

symbol of the trinity bearing the inscription of the tetragrammaton ina circle of sun rays. The following emblem shows ladders leading to heaven, the fifth and sixth emblems depict the heart in the state of innocence before the fall in the garden of paradise, covered in leaves with open eye, and then in the state of fallen innocence and original sin. Now the leaves around the heart have fallen off and the heart’s hand accepts the forbidden fruit from the snake. Emblem 7 (24) symbolizes the ,,Anima in peccato originale” [The soul in the state of original sin] as a black heart, signifying, as Isabella de Spiritu Sancto points out in the introduction (5) blackened by sin, and in chains which are grabbed by a claw emerging from the fire, symbolizing hell and evil. In contrast, the next emblem elevates the heart in God’s grace into the state of redemption. The next emblem depicts the soul reborn through baptism, where two hands from clouds submerge the heart in a baptismal font and God’s hand reaches from a cloud in a gesture of benediction while rays of light shine on the heart from a cloud inscribed with a tetragrammaton. This is followed by emblems showing the soul after baptism and receiving gifts from the Holy Spirit. Given the key to the heart, a symbol for free will (34), the soul recognizes the difference between good and evil. Surrounded by the temptation of vice, in the form of snake, toad, peacock, pig, money bag, and barrel of wine, in contrast to eight large gem stones on the other side, representing God’s grace, the heart faces the choice between the guardian angel (38, 40), resistance towards the vices, by chopping their heads off (42), or to give in to the temptation by letting the beasts dwell inside the heart (44-46) (Fig. 3). The conditions of the heart after the fall from grace and this catalogue of vices are expanded in more detail in the first and second books of the trilogy. The heart is shown bound to its sinful nature, chained to columns

(62 and 64) or to a globe (66 and 70) but corresponding emblems de-

monstrate how the heart breaks the chains (98) or is led on a chain to

heaven (114). The effects of faith on the heart are presented in images of the fountain of life (94), cross and Eucharist in the heart (156), shield and anchor (172-178). The second book takes up the catalogue of vices represented as beasts living in the heart, defining the meaning of each in separate emblems: superbia as a peacock, luxuries as a pig, acedia as a toad, ira and invidia as snakes, while the images for avaritia and gula are a money bag and a barrel

(220-234). It is important to note that Isabella de Spiritu Sancto places superbia—in contrast to humility—first, and that she uses the traditional iconography of the peacock as a symbol of self-reflection (,,nosce te ipsum” [know thyself). The process of continuous and repeated prayers, as preparation for the

transformation in the divine love and grace leading towards perfection is

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443

indicated by repetition and variation of similar topics and pictorial motifs, corresponding in topic, e.g., chapter 4 of the second book and the end of books I and Π (189-205 and 441-457).

The faculties of Reason,

Free Will,

and Memory are represented as ladders (18) leading to heaven, while the

laddersof a sinful life lead to hell (276, 342).

Some of the original and striking images deployed in Isabella de Spirito Sancto’s Books of the Heart include the rendering of the heart made of stone, showing quite literally a heart built of bricks, with each brick bearing the inscription identifying the sins that harden the heart: malitia, volumtas

perversa, superbia, avaritia, luxuria, invidia, temeritas, gula, ira, blasphemia, accedia, perfid, mala consuetudo. In another emblem the dark heart (synonymous with

sinful”) is weighed down by stones hanging on heavy chains,

identified by their inscriptions as the seven deadly sins (hecuria, invidia, ira, superbia, avaritia, gula, accedia), dragging the heart towards a pit of flames

and devils / dragons, Le., hell and damnation. Variations of this topic of the heart of stone place the hardened heart in contexts and situations in the following emblems. In other emblems the pious heart takes on the shape of a bee, while the sinful heart is transformed into a spider, poisoning the flower with is venom (238). See Fig. 4. Other combinations include a magnet in the open

heart (172 and 384). As the commentary explains, it stands for the attracnon

of virme and the beauty of humility as in the example of the Virgin Mary.

An hour-glass in the center of the heart is intended to spark a meditation

about one’s mortality (82). Sources

Among the most likely sources for Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s Books of the Heart, beyond the influence of the Teresian heart iconography and

biblical allegories, are the religious emblem books of the early seventeenth century, in particular printings issued in Antwerp and Brussels. The picturing of a large stylized open heart, with scenes and attributes placed in its

center, is reminiscent of the widely popular series, Cor Jesv Amanti Sacrvm a de Spiritu by Anton Wierix, first published around 1600. Several of Isabell

Sancto’s emblems bear resemblancea to plates by Wierix, e.g., those in which Jesus shines a light into the heart and discovers snakes and beasts (Emblem

4), sweeps out the snakes and demons (Emblem

the heart as king (Emblem

5) and sits in the center of

8), brings the cross into the heart (Emblem 11),

shoots arrows at the heart, which pierce the heart and remain there (Emblem 19), or decorates the heart with palm branches (Emblem 22). Another source for this type of imagery could have been a large open heart in the style of Wierix with Christ inside the heart under the title

444

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

,templum Christi cor hominis” [the heart of man as a temple of Christ] and another with a globe in the center as a symbol for worldly power: ,,hic fons et otigo malorum” [this is the source and origin of evil], clearly reminiscent of Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s almost identical emblem in the same style (60)

from Zacharias Heyns’s Emblemata moralia, published in Rotterdam in 1625.47 The title-page of the book carries a small emblem of a peacock »Nosce te Ipsum” [Know thyself]. From Herman Hugo’s Pia Desideria and Otto van Veen’s Amoris Divini

Emblemata might stem the inspiration to represent the human soul’s love

and desire in emblematic format. The theme of the mystical union as a dissolution of the self into the divine in the allegory of the spiritual marriage between the soul and Christ, closely following the allegory of the soul as the bride in the Song of Solomon, is presented in the form of two human figures, Anima and Divine Love.# Other than Hugo and Van Veen, however, Isabella de Spiritu Sancto does not personify the human soul or anima as a human figure but rather chooses a more abstract representation with the image of the human heart, a motif that is used on the title-page of Hugo’s

Pia Desideria.® \t shows a stylized human heart with wings and a flame, symbolizing the ardent desire and love, issuing from its top, quite similar in

style. Apart from the structural similarity—Hugo’s emblem book is divided in three parts, reflecting the spiritual path of purgation, illumination, and union—several emblems feature similar motifs, e.g., looking through a telescope (Emblem 14) or the attempt to ascend to heaven, while held back with the foot chained to a globe (Emblem 39), or a vision of heaven (Emblem 44). Hugo’s Pia Desideria was exceedingly popular and appeared in over 40 editions and many translations, among them French, Spanish, Dutch, and German. Therefore it is quite likely that Isabella de Spiritu Sancto might have seen or read a copy (Fig. 5). Equally popular were Otto van Veen’s Amoris Divini Emblemata of 1615,% a book Isabella de Spiritu Sancto was most likely to have seen and

read, given the dedicatory context of his emblem books, given Van Veen’s

connection to the court and the reform movements

supported by the

Infanta Isabella Clara Eugenia in the context of the reform movements of

47 Zacharias Heyns, Emblemata moralia. Rotterdam: Pieter van Waesberge, 1625, Part I, C2r and Part II, 29. 48 See Anne Buschhoff, Die Liebesemblematik des Otto van Veen, Die Amorum emblemata (1608) und die Amoris divini emblemata (1615). Bremen: Hauschild, 2004 and Zur

gedanklichen Struktur der Amoris divini emblemata des Otto van Veen (Antwerpen 1615).” In The Emblem Tradition and the Low Countries. Ed. John Manning, Karel Porteman, and Marc Van Vaeck. Turnhout: Brepols, 1999, 39-76. 49 Herman Hugo, Pia desideria. Antwerp: Hendrick Aertssens, 1624. 50 Otto van Veen, Amoris Divini Emblemata. Antwerp: Moretus, 1615.

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445

the early seventeenth century such as the Discalced Carmelites. Van Veen’s book on divine love was published in the year after Teresa’s beatification and bears similarities to Teresa’s writings and the Teresian ,,by means of reading and looking! Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s emblems share also a similarities in structure, in the addition of a collection of biblical verses on the topic of each emblem. In Van Veen’s emblem book, there are, under-

neath a Latin motto, quotations from Scripture and the church fathers in Latin, followed by the epigram in Castilian as well as in Dutch and French. Isabella de Spiritu Sancto would have shared the conviction stated by Van

Veen in his introduction to the Amoris Divini Emblemata, that an image or what we see with our eyes ,,affects the mind more than words spoken or

written’”>2 Nevertheless, in stark contrast to this favoring of the image over the text, both authors expand the tripartite structure of the traditional emblem and add copious amounts of text to the form, a tendency found in many other religious emblem books of the time, such as those of Herman Hugo or Daniel Cramer. The textual parts of the emblem, claiming up to

two thirds of the space, help the reader to contextualize the image, and to

understand its meaning through matching Bible quotations and commentaries. The texts support the image, and respectively, the image supports the text. Several motifs such as the fountain of life or the peacock for superbia appear in Van Veen’s emblems, although these images are quite common, as are most of the pictura motifs in the Books of the Heart.

By A Woman For An Audience Of Women

The stunning visual representations of Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s anthropomorphous emblems, showing hearts with eyes, hands, and feet, exerting

tasks

such

as

looking

through

a monocular,

climbing

ladders,

holding books, and turning pages, might seem to be in contrast to the

sober style of Carmelite convent life. They are, however, deeply rooted in Carmelite spirituality. Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s thought-provoking use of this type of heart imagery in combination with biblical passages is well suited for the discipline of study and contemplation required by the Carmelite method of the lectio divina. The personal and community lectio divina as a central element of contemplative exercise is a prayerful reading of Scripture, distinct from scientific exegesis, study and interpretation. Its purpose is to facilitate meditation and to communicate messages of salvation and experiences in the spiritual exchange among the nuns as part of the daily

51 Margit Thofner, ‘Let your desire be to see God’: Teresian Mysticism and Otto van

Veen’s Amoris Divini Emblemata.” Emblematica 12 (2002): 83-103. 52 ,,solent enim oculis obiecta animos magis afficere quam ea, quae auat dicta aut scripta” (Otto van Veen, Amoris Divini Emblemata. Antwerp: 1607, 6).

446

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

exercises of religious life in the convent. The Carmelite nuns live cloistered lives of prayer and contemplation. According to the Carmelite rules, each day is marked by silence and extensive time for theological and spiritual reflections. In addition to the daily celebration of the full Liturgy of the Hours, two hours are set aside for uninterrupted silent prayer. Thus the book is highly important for the further study of the use of emblems in the context of spiritual practice, exercitia, and meditation. As a central part of the

Carmelite

rule,

the

,,Lectio

divina”

emphasizes

the

importance

of

Scriptural quotations as a means by which God’s word enters the human heart.

» The Rule opens three doors through which God’s Word can enter into the life of Carmelites: 1. The door of personal reading: meditation in the cell, thinking over the Word which travels from the mouth to the heart, producing holy thoughts, and leads to bringing everything into conformity with God’s Word. 2. The door of community reading: to hear the word together in the refectory, during discussion, in the chapel during the Eucharistic celebration.

3. The door of ecclesial reading: reciting the psalms in accord with the

approved custom of the Church; trying to stay within the tradition of our saintly forefathers (Introduction); keeping in mind the idea of Church the Apostles had, as described in Acts.”. The four steps of lectio divina are:

1. Reading. Before all else, the Word ought to be heard or read: be it in the refectory, in the Eucharist, in the Divine Office, or in solitude in the cell. 2. Meditation. Then the Word, that has been read and heard, ought to

be meditated upon and thought about. This meditating should be done day

and night, without ceasing, particularly in the cell. By means of this meditation (ruminating), the Word travels from the mouth to the heart and

produces holy thoughts.

3. Prayer. The Word, once heard and meditated upon, ought to be

gathered up into prayer, ought to become itself prayer: just as much in the Divine Office, the Eucharist, as in the cell, where the Carmelite ought to be vigilant in prayer day and night.

4. Contemplation. This reading produces the following results: the word invades thought, the heart and action, and thus everything will be done according to God’s Word.”

The emblems from the Books of the Heart are the ideal medium to be utilized in this context of the Lectio Divina, not only in the personal reading,

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447

but also in the communal reception and recitation of the psalms and other quotations from Scripture contained in them. The word enters the heart more readily, Isabella de Spiritu Sancto argues, in combination with the striking and memorable images. The commentaries provided spur the private meditation while the biblical quotations for each emblem initiate further prayers and contemplation. Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s emblem book was thus primarily written for an audience of women, namely the nuns in the Carmel at Cologne, as a tool to imagine and memorize biblical loci and topoi, designed to further the nuns’ spiritual development. Isabella de Spiritu Sancto explains in her introduction how the emblems are to be used by the nuns in her convent and by other readers, indicating how the books and the emblems were received and utilized in the context of the daily prayer exercises. Isabella de

Spiritu Sancto’s ,,Dedication to Jesus Christ, our Spouse” evokes Teresa of

Avila’s example and displays confidence that Jesus would look benevolently

on her ,,humble effort,” written ,,in the trust in your divine grace,” hoping

for his appreciation of the ,,recreationes of Teresa’s daughters.” She describes

the ,,recreations” or ,,colloquia” as ,,divine pleasure garden” and asks for the

benediction of her efforts in order that all who read the book will benefit spiritually, hoping that out of the humble seed will grow a strong, fruit bearing, fragrant tree.” (3) Her ,,Dedication to the reader” (4-6) speaks of the ,,overflowing of the heart”

in these

emblems,

both

in the inventor

and

in the reader. The

simplicity of the emblems makes them accessible and useful, in particular for the retention of their topics and meanings. Isabella de Spiritu Sancto confirms that the biblical quotations are taken from the ,,Brevier,” but claims

that the imagination and inventions of the pictures came first, and only then did she find the matching quotations in the ,,Brevier.” (5) The combinations of textual and visual elements—both based on biblical metaphors—help to memorize the passages from Scripture as well as the moral precept or religious doctrine. They function as mnemonic devices, summarizing the content of the emblem as well as the ensuing meditation, and printing the image into the heart and mind of the reader. According to Isabella de Spiritu Sancto, memoria paints an image in the mind in the same way as a picture makes an impression on the mind. The picture on the page then mirrors the image as well as the concept represented by it in the heart of the reader. Isabella de Spiritu Sancto claims a divine origin for the images she uses for her emblems as well as for the form she uses, the emblem genre, pro-

posing that the imagery emanates from biblical verses and scripture-based

prayers. Her descriptions of the process are quite illuminating. She claims

that the words of Scripture and the meditations about the bible words form those images and serve as an inspiration for the imagery. While searching for

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Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

an ,erklärung [explanation], erforschung” [investigation], in the attempt to

understand the words of Scripture, the essence of the divine word crystallizes for her into pictures. The meditation on the divine word leads the imagination, as she describes it, not necessarily in a theological interpretation, but almost as a mystical experience, forming into images. Isabella de Spiritu Sancto does not claim to interpret biblical verses, pointing to her lack of theological education and emphasizes that her interpretations or contemplations ate not biblical exegesis in the strictly theological sense. In examining her commentaries, however, we find more

often than not that

Isabella de Spiritu Sancto provides at least as much theological interpretation and commentary as many of her male counterparts in their emblem books— Hugo, Cramer, Saubert, and others.

The prose commentaries that accompany the emblems give testimony of Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s extraordinary knowledge and familiarity with key passages of the Old and New Testaments. Antonia Sondermann suggests that the main influence came from the daily prayer exercises (Brevier) that are central to Carmelite spirituality and from the writings of Teresa of

Avila and John of the Cross. Isabella de Spiritu Sancto strives to exclude any

possibility of a misunderstanding of the symbolic conventions employed in her emblems. Rather than leaving the interpretation, or speculation, to the reader, she makes the intended meanings explicitly clear. She explains for example the use of the tetragrammaton for the divine presence, or states that clouds represent heaven.

,,Black” denotes

flame symbolizes love and passion.

the ,,evil heart,” while the

Isabella de Spiritu Sancto avoids ambiguous imagery, although the combination of images and symbols in the emblems often form quite complex constructions. They combine, however, widely known conventional images that could easily be understood, even by those with a limited education. The pictures were easy to decipher with the help of biblical metaphors that were

familiar from prayers, lectures, and sermons in the nuns’ religious practice.

This underscores

that Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s

intention was largely

educational, affording the nuns, even the less educated ones, a helpful tool to memorize, recite, and repeat the biblical passages illustrated in the

emblems. In the context of Carmelite reform and spirituality this educational and pedagogical mission is quite important. Throughout the three books, the interpretation of the biblical quotations and short treatments of the articles of faith are composed with remarkable theological insight and clarity. The author of these original heart emblems and prose commentaries needed an extensive knowledge and education, including religious iconography, but more importantly, a thorough knowledge of the biblical texts, including theological exegesis. She knew the emblem tradition, and, naturally, drew upon the rich Carmelite

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tradition of mysticism, in the writings of Teresa of Avila and John of the Cross. Isabella de Spiritu Sancto was, as is quite obvious from the manuscript, in a position, due to her upbringing and education, to use this knowledge in the composition of her emblems. While the emblems were used primarily in common prayer, the exposure to the images and texts of Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s emblems educated the nuns and provided them with another access to passages from the bible, paired with commentaries to aid their prayer and meditation. It is most likely that the nuns did not have access to the manuscript beyond the prayer sessions. They needed to memorize picture and text, as they would not

have

without

been

allowed

supervision and

teenth-century

convent,

to take

the manuscript

spiritual guidance.

strict as the

rules

to their cells for study,

Nevertheless, in this seven-

might

have

been,

concerning

individual property of books, bibles, and prayer books, through this manuscript the nuns had access to important passages of Scripture, even if they did not own a Bible or could not read. The emblems in this manuscript, written by a woman and mostly for women—the Carmelite nuns in the Cologne convent—were accessible not only to the prioress and select members of the convent, but to all nuns in the convent under Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s supervision. The images that they viewed with a reading of Scripture and the emblem’s commentary served as a mnemonic device, retaining the essential message and lesson. We might assume that even the uneducated and illiterate nuns derived benefit from memorizing the passages and emblems. Any woman in the convent, literate or not, would have been able to recollect the imagery and texts, at least partially, when in her cell in silent prayer. Listening to and memorizing the content of dozens, even hundreds of emblems

in this way, they were

able to retain a significant collection of biblical quotations to be used in prayer and

meditation,

even

without

access

to a printed

bible or prayer

book. From the viewpoint of a (male) supervisor this access was presumably considered safe, as they approved of the manuscript, even encouraged Isabella de Spiritu Sancto to write the emblems and commentaries down for the use of contemporaries as well as for later generations. It is important to note that this practice, itself in a way an imitation of Teresa’s practice of

prayer and meditation, open a space—albeit a limited one—of independence and empowerment for women, even within the strict confines of

convent life. Authorship and access promoted the leadership of women,

although monitored and under the supervision of male authority.

Isabella de Spiritu Sancto does not openly reject or resist the passive

role traditionally allotted to women within the spheres of religion and convent life, but circumvents certain restrictions. In a typical captatio bene-

volentiae

she

calls attention

to her own

lack of erudition in theological

~~

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

450

matters, but calls her desire to share the meditations ,,natural.” Explicitly, Isabella de Spiritu Sancto addresses the question why a female author should be allowed to invent these emblems. She does not overstep the boundaries

set for women, she argues, because she only executes what is demanded of

her in terms of practicing her faith in daily search and meditation, guided by the words of Scripture. As for the intended readers of her book, Isabella de Spiritu Sancto defends the prayers, meditations, and emblems contained in the book by pointing out that all the quotations from Scripture are strictly limited to those that are also found in the ,,Brevier,” i.e., the prayer book

that the Carmelites used for their ,,communications” and silent prayers. She points out that all the texts and biblical quotations that appear in her emblems come from the ,,Brevier” that the nuns are encouraged and obliged to study daily. Conclusion

The function of the manuscript was, primarily, to provide visual and textual material for the nun’s prayers and meditations. The commentaries would educate the women about the interpretation of the images, verses, and biblical quotations that came with them. The same commentaries, as well as the bible verses in the emblems, also provided the nuns with access

to selected portions of Scripture. It was by no means deemed appropriate that nuns would have access to the Bible without the proper supervision and guidance by a—usually male—prior or priest. Theological debate was discouraged, and the knowledge of Scripture was limited to passages that were

deemed beneficial to the spiritual education of women. Isabella de Spiritu Sancto, however, found new ways—with the help of the genre of emblems—to expand the horizon in spiritual practice, exercitia, and meditation

for the nuns in her convent. The use of the bi-medial emblem genre supported the impact of the spoken word of the prayer or the Lectio Divina that was an integral part of Carmelite spiritual life. The use of images that were in large part based on the motto or Bible verse quoted above the emblem also served as ἃ mnemonic tool enabling the nuns to better memorize biblical verses and their meaning for further meditation and prayer. Thus they served an educational as well as a spiritual purpose, allowing the women to expand their theological knowledge in a significant way. Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s Books of the Heart are an important discovery, as they are valuable and highly relevant for emblem scholarship and generally, for the study of the visual culture of the seventeenth century, expanding the knowledge about the use of emblems in spiritual exercise and education, and especially, in the

education of women.

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Rojas y Ausa, Juan de. Representaciones de la verdad vestida sobre las siete Moradas de Santa Teresa de Jesus. Madrid 1679.

Letters, Eds. Anne Press.

Wyhe. Glasgow: Glasgow Emblem Studies, 2002. Veen, Otto van. Amoris Ioannes Meursius, 1615.

divini emblemata.

Veen, Otto van. Amorum Emblemata. Aldershot: Scolar Press, 1996.

,,Courtliness,

Montenay,

Anna

Piety,

and

Roemers

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Books

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by

Inglis.”

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Burlington, VT: Ashgate

Henkel, Arthur and Albrecht Schéne. Emblemata.

Handbuch zur Sinnbild-

kunst des XVI. und XVII. Jahrhunderts. 2nd ed. Stuttgart: Metzler, 1976.

Landwehr, John. Dutch Emblem Books: A Bibliography. Utrecht: Haentjens

Antwerp:

Antwerp

de

van.

Roemers Visscher, Anna. Sinnepoppen. Amsterdam: Willem Iantz, 1614.

Terrier, Jean. Portraicts des SS. Vertus de la Vierge contemplees par feue S.A.S.M. Isabelle Clere Eugenie Infante d'Espagne. Pin 1635. Ed. Cordula van

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1608. Ed. Karel Porteman.

Wierix, Anton. Cor lesv Amanti Sacrum. Antwerp, c. 1585.

SECONDARY LITERATURE Buschhoff, Anne. Die Liebesemblematik des Otto van Veen. Die Amorum emblemata (1608) und die Amoris divini emblemata (1615). Bremen: Hauschild, 2004.

Dekker & Gumbert, 1962.

Landwehr, John. Emblem Books in the Low Countries Bibliography. Utrecht: Haentjens Dekker & Gumbert, 1970.

1554-1949: A

Landwehr, John. German Emblem Books 1531-1888: A Bibliography. Ut-

recht: Haentjens Dekker & Gumbert, 1972.

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London:

Warburg

Edizioni di Storia et Letteratura, 1964,

Part II. Rome: Edizioni di Storia et Letteratura, 1975. Rôhrig, Hans-Hermann.

,,Bibliotheca conventus Coloniensis Carmelitarum

Buschhoff, Anne. ,,Zur gedanklichen Struktur der Amoris divini emblemata

discalceatorum.“ Jahrbuch des Kélnischen Geschichtsvereins 36/37 (1961/62), 173-223.

Low Countries. Ed. John Manning, Karel Porteman, and Marc Van Vaeck.

Sider, Sandra (ed.). Bibliography of Emblem Book Manuscripts. Montreal:

des Otto van Veen (Antwerpen 1615).” In The Emblem Tradition and the Turnhout: Brepols, 1999, 39-76.

McGill-Queen’s University Press, 1997. (Corpus Librorum Emblematum).

Campa, Pedro F. Emblemata Hispanica: An Annotated Bibliography of Spanish Emblem Literature to the Year 1700. Durham: Duke University

Sondermann, Antonia. Ed. Isabella de Spiritu Sancto (1606-1675): Herzbiicher. Kritische Edition von M. Antonia Sondermann. Grevenbroich:

Press, 1990.

Chorpenning, Joseph F. ,,Graphic Images and Teresian Doctrine in Fray

Juan de Rojas y Ausa’s Emblematic Version of the Mansions of the Interior Castle.” Carmelus 41 (1994): 63-87.

Bernardus-Verlag Langwaden, 2005. (Monumenta historica Carmeli Teresiani 22).

Thofner, Margit. ,,How to Look Like a (Female) Saint: The Early Iconogtaphy of St Teresa of Avila.” In Female Monasticism in Early Modern Europe. An Interdisciplinary View. Ed. Cordula van Wyhe. London: Ashgate,

2008, 59-78,

454

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics . , Let your desire be to see God’: Teresian

Mysticism

and Otto van

Veen’s Amoris Divini Emblemata.” Emblematica 12 (2002): 83-103. Vaeck, Marc van. ,,Moral Emblems

Médersheim: Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s Herzbiicher

FIGURES

Adorned with Rhymes: Anna Roemers

Visscher’s Adaptation (1620) of Roemer Visscher’s Sinnepoppen (1614).” In

Visual Words and Verbal Pictures: Essays in Honour of Michael Bath. Ed

Alison Saunders and Peter Davidson. Glasgow: Glasgow Emblem Studies, 2005, 203-223, Visser, Arnoud.

,,Commonplaces

of Catholic love. Otto van Veen, Michel

Hoyer and St Augustine between humanism and the Counter Reformation.”

In Learned Love. Proceedings of the Emblem Project Utrecht Conference on

Dutch Love Emblems and the Internet. Ed. Els Stronks and Peter Boot. The Hague, 2007. Chicago: University of Chicago Press, 2008, 33-48. Wyhe,

Cordula

van.

,,Court

and

Convent:

the

Infanta

Isabella

and

her

Franciscan Confessor Andres de Soto.” Sixteenth Century Journal 35 (2004):

ae}

411-445.

_.

,,Piety and Politics in the Royal Convent of Discalced Carmelite nuns

in Brussels

5

1607-1646.” Revue d'Histoire Ecclésiastique de Belgique 100

__. ,,Reformulating the Cult of Scherpenheuvel: Marie de Medicis and the Regina Pacis Statue in Cologne.” The Seventeenth-Century Journal 22 (2007):

eet

(2005): 457-487.

41-74.

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» The

‘Idea Vita Teresianæ’

(1686): The Teresian Mystic Life and its

Visual representation in the Southern Netherlands.” Jn Female Monasticism

in Early Modern Europe. An Interdisciplinary View. Ed. Cordula van Wyhe.

London: Ashgate, 2008, 173-211.

Figure 1 Books of the Heart p. 48 (Wappentafel).

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Figure 2 Books of the Heart p. 8 (Relic of Teresa of Avila’s heart).

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Kenny Meadows and the Emblematic Designs for Shakespeare’s

Cymbeline in Robert Tyas’s ,,Shakspere for the People” Project

(1839-43)

ALAN R. YOUNG Acadia University, Nova Scotia, Canada Abstract

In March 1839, the London publisher Robert Tyas began the serial publication of an illustrated edition of Shakespeare. It was designed to rival the Pictorial Edition of the Works of Shakspere that Charles Knight had begun to publish in serial parts a few months earlier. A central feature of Knight’s edition was its more than 1,000 wood engravings. Tyas planned to include just as many wood engravings, and for this he hired Kenny Meadows as designer and Orrin Smith as engraver. The designs for Knight’s edition were largely concerned with pictorial annotation, providing portraits of the historical figures in the plays, images of the localities in which the plays were set, and historically accurate images of costumes and buildings. By contrast, Meadows’s designs were often highly imaginative. Particularly striking was the emblematic nature of many of them. This essay examines the images Meadows designed for Cymbeline. Eleven of these were emblematic. Of these, six are discussed in detail to demonstrate how Meadows employed an emblematic mode that can function as interpretive and thematic commentary. Combining a sensitive and careful reading of the text and a knowledge and understanding of established emblematic motifs, Meadows may be seen

as an important precursor to the Victorian emblematic revival.

On 15 March 1839, the London publisher Robert Tyas began the weekly serial publication of a copiously illustrated edition of Shakespeare’s works. He clearly intended to rival Charles Knight’s Pictorial Edition of the

Works of Shakspere, a work that had begun monthly serial publication only a

few months earlier in November 1838.2 Not only did Tyas seek to undercut

1 Its full title of publication was The Works of Shakspere Revised from the Best Authorities: With a Memoir, and Essay on his Genius, by Barry Cornwall: Also, Annotations and Introductory Remarks on the Plays, by Many Distinguished Writers: Illustrated with Engravings on Wood, from Designs by Kenny Meadows. The weekly serial publication in 55 parts continued until 31 July 1843. Tyas then offered the complete edition in three volumes for three guineas, whereas Knight’s edition consisted of eight volumes and cost

more than twice as much at seven guineas. The editor of the Tyas edition was John Ogden. 2 For discussions of the publishing history of the rival editions published by Knight and Tyas, see Alan R. Young, ,,Charles Knight and the Nineteenth-century Market for

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

462

Knight’s price and reach a broader readership, but his advertisements implied that he would match the scholarly authority of Knight’s edition. Especially striking was his advertised claim that his ,,Shakspere for the People” would be ,,[llustrated with Nearly One Thousand Engravings on Wood.” As Tyas would have been well aware, the principal attraction of Knights Pictorial Edition of the Works of Shakspere was, as its title implied, its illustrations. Knight offered an edition that would eventually contain over one thousand illustrations, all of them wood engravings. The idea was that the Pictorial Edition would be the most copiously illustrated edition of Shakespeare to date. Tyas’s edition, in formats costing from about one third to a half the price Knight was charging, was intended to match or even exceed Knight’s achievement. Whereas Knight employed a team of designers and engravers to produce the wood engravings for his edition,‘ Tyas hired a single designer, Kenny Meadows, together with a single engraver, Orrin Smith.> The designs for each respective edition were radically different. Those in Knight’s work, as he himself later explained, were largely a kind of pictorial annotation, providing, for example, portraits of the historical figures depicted in the plays, the localities of the scenes

represented,

objects

of natural history,

historically accurate depictions of relevant costumes, and accurate archi-

tectural renderings of ,,many scenes, which upon the stage had in general

been merely fanciful creations of the painter.”6 Although generally critical of the

,,fanciful creations”

characteristic

of much

previous

Shakespeare

illustration, Knight did decide to commission also a series of frontispieces, Shakespeare,” Publications of the Bibliographical Society of America 103:1 (March 2009): 19-41; and Alan R. Young, ,Kenny

Meadows’s

Illustrative Designs

for Robert Tyas’s

‘Shakspere for the People’ Project (1839-43).” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America (forthcoming).

Young: Robert Tyas’s ,,Shakspere for the People” Project » which,

embodying

the realities of costume

463

and other accessaries, would

have enough of an imaginative character to render them pleasing.”’ Tyas’s goals were very different. In November 1838, he had begun to publish the twelve monthly parts of Heads of the People Taken Off by Quizfizz, a set of character portraits by Meadows (under the pseudonym of Quizfizz) with accompanying letter-press material by Douglas Jerrold (under the pseudonym Henry Brownrigg) and others. This project proved to be very popular, and Tyas seems to have planned in March 1839 to build upon its ongoing success by simultaneously having Meadows create ,,character” portraits to accompany the forthcoming edition of Shakespeare’s text.’ However, Tyas had not reckoned on Meadows’s extraordinary creativity. When Tyas’s serial edition began to appear, the illustrations were very different from what his advertisements had promised, and they consisted of a considerable variety of unusual visual material, the nature of which has recently been discussed elsewhere.? Particularly striking was the emblematic nature of many of Meadows’s

designs. A typical example is the title page of Macbeth, which, below a

dagger dripping with blood, has two crowned serpents with human heads.!0 The reader who knows the play will recognize that these serpents represent Macbeth and his wife, the evil killers of King Duncan while he is a guest in their house. The serpents are crowned because the Macbeths become king and queen of Scotland once Duncan and his son Malcolm are out of the way. Whereas the serpent is a traditional and potent symbol of evil, Meadows’s choice of it for his title page has particular resonance because the serpent is often also taken as an emblem of deception, particularly when its presence and malicious intent is hidden from its unwary prey. In the play, the Macbeths early on adopt a conscious policy of hiding their murderous motives and deeds like the serpent below the flower:

3 See the advertisements that appeared in The Publishers’ Circular, 2:33 (1 February 1839): 72-3: Serial Number XII (1 March 1839) of Charles Dickens, The Life and

Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby (London: Chapman and Hall), [387-8]; and Cleave’s Gazette of Variety (Saturday, 9 March 1839), 4. 4 Wood engraving was a relatively cheap medium that had the immense advantage Over

other types of engraving of permitting simultaneous printing with letter-press text. Prior to the publication of his edition of Shakespeare, Knight had established himself as a preeminent pioneer in mass publication and in particular the use of wood engravings in the mass publication of illustrated materials. See, Young, ,,Charles Knight,” 19-41.

5 Meadows appears to have had some assistance with ,,the landscape and architectural portions of the illustrations. See Vizetelly, Glances Back Through Seventy Years: Autobiographical and Other Reminiscences (London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1893), 1:153. Orrin Smith died on 15 October 1843, before the concluding serial parts of Tyas’s edition had been published. He was replaced as engraver by Henry Vizetelly.

6 Charles Knight, Passages of a Working Life During Half a Century: With a Prelude of

Early Reminiscences (London: Bradbury and Evans, 1864), 2:284.

7 Knight, Passages, 2:284-5. 8 See the advertisements referred to in Note 3 above. Tyas also planned that the portraits would be accompanied by ,,landscapes illustrative of the Text.” 9 The nature of Meadows’s work for Tyas’s Shakespeare edition has recently been discussed in Stuart Sillars, The Illustrated Shakespeare, 1709-1875 (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 2008), 272-88; and Young, ,,Kenny Meadows’s (forthcoming). 10

See,

Meadows

headpiece

Young,

,,Kenny

Meadows’s

Illustrative

Designs”

Illustrative Designs”

(forthcoming),

Figure

1.

also used an emblematic serpent as a prominent motif in his near full-page

for Act

1 of Macbeth. As Sillars points out, Meadows

used emblematic

serpents in designs for a number of different plays in the Tyas edition (The Illustrated

Shakespeare, 19-20, 275-9).

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

464

Young: Robert Tyas’s ,,Shakspere for the People” Project

465

cupids who encircle the enraptured lovers and play with Antony’s (Mars’s) shield and sword; Cupid stoking a fire of burning books with a stick (perhaps the shaft of an arrow) to foreshadow the doomed attempt by the male protagonists in Love’ Labour’s Lost to favor study over passion and

... To beguile the time, Look like the time; bear welcome in your eye,

Your hand, your tongue: look like the innocent flower, But be the serpent under it. (I v)!!

As has long been recognized among emblem scholars, this particular rendering of the proverbial ,,snake in the grass” topos strongly parallels one of the emblematic devises in Claude Paradin’s Devises heroiques (Lyons, 1557

edition) and its subsequent re-working in Geffrey Whitneys A Choice of Emblemes (Leiden, 1586).!2 However, there is no evidence, as far as I can tell, that Meadows drew upon emblem literature as a source for his Macbeth title page design or for any other of his Shakespeare illustrations for the Tyas edition. Instead, his many emblematic designs, like that for the Macbeth title page, more likely are an extension of the symbolic and allegorical modes sometimes employed by eighteenth-century and early nineteenth-century cartoonists.l? Examples of the many other emblematic designs employed by Meadows include a skeleton holding an arrow while emerging from a rose to

accompany the Prologue to Romeo and Juliet and its allusion to ,,death-

marked love”; an elaborate re-working of the Mars and Venus topos for the headpiece to Act 1 of Antony and Cleopatra,\* complete with a band of

love; and the tailpiece for Act 5 of Richard IT depicting a cushion supporting

a crown, from the centre of which rises a skeleton wearing a crown and holding what appears to be a spear, the whole being an emblematic vision of the long period of civil strife occasioned by the murder of King Richard II and Henry Bolingbroke’s usurpation.'!° However, rather than attempting to survey the broad spectrum of Meadows’s emblematic designs, I propose in what follows here to examine six of the emblematic designs he created for a

single play Cymbeline.\6 Meadows supplied Tyas with twenty-two designs for Cymbeline, half of

which are every play companied Cymbeline,

emblematic.!7 Prefacing the text of the play, as is the case for in the Tyas edition, are some ,,Introductory Remarks” acby a wood engraving. For the text of ,,Introductory Remarks” to Meadows provided an emblematic design consisting of a highly

imaginative initial letter ,,O” (Fig. 1).18 The ,,O” takes the form of a ring, a was a popular subject in Renaissance art. Included in Meadows’s composition are two

cupids in the foreground, one of whom holds a pearl above a goblet, a reminder of the love token Antony sends Cleopatra in Act 1, scene 5, while the other holds a small snake,

that Tyas

a foreshadowing of how Cleopatra will die. Meadows’s design is reproduced in Sillars, Illustrated Shakespeare, 283.

12 Both Paradin’s devise and Whitney’s emblem have the motto ,,Latet anguis in herba” (A snake lies concealed in the grass). For a recent discussion of Shakespeare’s possible

16 Tyas spread Cymbeline over two serial issues (Nos. 16 and 17), which were published in August and September 1840. See The Age (Sunday 9 August 1840), 250; and The Age

11 All quotations

from Shakespeare

are from

the three-volume

edition

published in 1843 (see Note 1 above). The edition does not provide line numbers.

familiarity with the Paradin/Whitney emblem, see Joan Larsen Klein, »Whitney’s Em-

blem Latet anguis in herba and the Shakespeare Connection,” Emblematica 16 (2008), 151-172. 13 It should also be noted that Meadows’s

emblematic designs are, as will be shown

below, a possible early manifestation of what Karl Josef Héltgen has called the »Victorian Emblematic Revival” that was characterized by an interest in typology, the revival of symbol and allegory in the Oxford Movement

and in ecclesiastical art and liturgy, and

in the publication of emblem books (Aspects of the Emblem: Studies in he English Emblem Tradition and the European Context (Kassel: Edition Reichenberger, 1986], 142). Meadows’s use of emblematic designs as illustrations for Shakespeare was anticipated by John Thurston, himself the designer for an emblem book in 1809, in his popular and frequently reprinted Illustrations of Shakspeare; Comprised in Two Hundred and Thirty Vignette Engravings by Thompson, From Designs by Thurston (London: Sherwood, Gilbert,

& Piper, 1825) and by Moritz Retzsch in some of his engravings for Hamlet in Outlines

to Shakespeare (Gallerie zu Shakespeare's Dramatischen

Werken),

First Series, Hamlet

(Leipzig and London, 1828). For discussions of Thurston’s and Retzsch’s work, see Alan

R. Young, Hamlet and the Visual Arts 1709-1900 (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 2002), 90-91, 105-106, 142-145, 194-196, 207-209, 250-251, 271. 14 In the play, Antony and Cleopatra are repeatedly compared to Mars and Venus. Representing Mars and Venus as lovers with cupids toying with Mars’s discarded arms

15 For some additional examples, see Young, ,Kenny Meadows’s Illustrative Designs” (forthcoming).

(Sunday 13 September 1840), 290. Cymbeline was ,,sandwiched” between Hamlet and The

Taming of the Shrew, but in the 1843 three-volume edition it is flanked by Hamlet and Romeo and Juliet. 17 The five emblematic designs not discussed here are as follows: the title page and its

images of an acorn and an oak leaf; the image of a dead stag and two hunting spears to accompany the list of ,,Persons Represented”; the headpiece for Act 1, depicting Imogen

imprisoned in a cave by thorns but with a protective divine hand above her; the tailpiece for Act 1 of a bracelet and a diamond ring; and the emblematic illustration to accompany the song ,,Hark, hark, the lark.” Later in his career, Meadows supplied a set of designs for the woodcut engravings that appeared in Pearls of Shakspeare: A Collection of the Most Brilliant Passages Found in His Plays (London: Cassell, Petter, and Guilpin, 1860). His

four designs for Cymbeline include two remarkable emblematic images. One depicts a

snake wrapped around a tose to accompany Pisanio’s description of the ,,viperous slander” that has been perpetrated against Imogen (III iv). The other personifies Death

feasting to accompany Posthumous’s meditative speech on death after the battle towards the close of the play (V iii). °

18 Most of Meadows’s designs for the ,,Introductory Remarks” that precede each play in

Tyas’s edition incorporate an initial letter. Many of these designs are emblematic in character.

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

466

reminder of the diamond ring that Imogen (King Cymbeline’s daughter) gives to her husband Posthumous as he leaves Britain to begin his exile in Italy as punishment for marrying Imogen without her father’s permission. In the play, the ring serves as a powerful symbol of the unblemished faithfulness of Imogen, and, when Posthumous puts it on his finger and vows never

to remove

it ,,While

sense can keep

it on”

(I v 49), it also becomes

symbolic of his loyalty to her. As such, whether Meadows was aware of it or not, the foundation is created for an allegorical re-enactment of the Renaissance view that the diamond is a type of Christ in its purity and unassailable strength that can withstand both the trials sent by God and the deceptions and temptations of the Devil.'° In the play, Posthumous, while he is in Italy, temporarily loses the ring to Iachimo. This latter has wagered that he can go to Britain and seduce Imogen. Iachimo’s evidence that he has succeeded consists of a description of Imogen’s bed chamber, his possession of the bracelet that Posthumous had placed on her arm (a symbolic parallel to the ring), and a description of a mole below her left breast. However, lachimo’s supposed evidence, which

wins him the ring, has all been obtained by trickery.2 To foreshadow the heinous machinations of Iachimo, Meadows’s design for the ,,Introductory

Remarks” depicts the ring as being held by an evil-looking spider at the centre of its web, a very effective emblematic representation of the web of deception that Iachimo will spin in order to win the wager. By giving the spider a male human face, Meadows makes his intent that much clearer, since the face matches depictions of Iachimo in designs that Meadows created for later moments in the play. Presumably, since the design is an initial letter, Meadows did not create it until after he saw the accompanying

text, something that permitted him to engineer a dramatic juxtaposition of image and text, since the opening lines of the editor’s (John Ogden’s) introductory note speak of Imogen as a ,,spotless jewel”: , Of all the loved and loving female chatacters of Shakspere—although some may display a luster more intense—there is not one that cheers the eye with a more mild and modest radiance than the spotless jewel, Imogen.” 19 For another discussion of the emblematic significance of the diamond ring in Cymbe-

line, see Peggy Muñoz Simonds, Myth, Emblem, and Music in Shakespeare's Cymbeline: An

Iconographic Reconstruction (Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1992), 273, 280-85.

Simonds, among other things, discusses the use of the motif in emblem literature with

particular reference to an emblem in George Wither’s A Collection of Emblemes (1635), 111: 20 Iachimo’s chief machination is to have himself brought into Imogen’s bed chamber in a chest. When she is asleep, he climbs out of the chest, takes note of the way the room is decorated,

sees

the

mole

below

her

breast,

and

steals

the

bracelet

from

her

arm.

Meadows included an illustration of this dramatic and erotically-charged scene, but I have

not discussed it here since this particular design is not emblematic.

Young: Robert Tyas’s ,,Shakspere for the People” Project

467

Meadows’s design depicts the ,,spotless jewel” as if in the hands of the evil spider. However, as the play reveals, the satanic wiles of lachimo, who attempts unsuccessfully to seduce Imogen and then collects false evidence that he has succeeded, come to nothing. For the reader who already knows Cymbeline, Meadows’s design is a powerful emblematic reminder of a moral drama central to the thematic concerns of the play. To the reader yet unacquainted with the text, the design offers a visual riddle that can only be fully resolved when a significant portion of the play text has been read. For this latter kind of reader, the relationship between the symbolic picture and the play text is very much analogous to that found in many emblems. This is not to say that Meadows was consciously creating emblems. Rather, our experience and knowledge of the way emblems work is helpful in informing us how we might best ,,read” Meadows’s designs and their relationship to Shakespeare’s text. The second emblematic image that I would like to consider provides the headpiece for Act 2 (Fig. 2). Iachimo’s plot to gain nighttime access to Imogen’s bed chamber has just been set in motion at the close of Act 1. During the first scene of Act 2 while awaiting the enactment of Iachimo’s treachery (see Note 20), the audience observes the unpleasant idiocy of King Cymbeline’s stepson, Cloten. Iachimo then executes his plot in the very next scene (Act 2, scene 2). Later in scene 4, Iachimo returns to Rome and convinces Posthumous that Imogen, whom Posthumous thought was ,,As chaste as unsunned snow” (II v), has been unfaithful (,,she hath bought the name of whore” II iv). As headpiece for this Act, Meadows depicted a white bird, almost certainly a dove, in a cage upon a raised pedestal. Climbing up some steps towards the right side of the cage, and apparently not observed by the bird, is a fox. There can be no doubt that the white bird represents the chaste Imogen, while the fox represents the evil and cunning Iachimo.?! The image of a caged bird was common in nineteenth-century English literature.22 It also appears in the visual arts. In addition, it had a long 21 Cf. the emblematic headpiece that Meadows designed for Act 4 of Othello. This depicts a dove (Desdemona) being crushed or strangled by a snake. See Sillars, //ustrated Shakespeare, 276. 22 It is to be found, for example, in Charles Dickens’s The Old Curiosity Shop (1841) and Little Dorrit (1857), in Charlotte Bronti’s Jane Eyre (1847), in Alfred Tennyson's In Memoriam (1849), in Elizabeth Barrett Browning’s Aurora Leigh (1856), and in Margaret Gatty’s A Book of Emblems (1872). For discussions of the caged bird motif in English nineteenth-century literature, see Barry V. Qualls, The Secular Pilgrims of Victorian Fiction: The Novel As Book of Life (Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982), 89-92,

206 note 9; and Wendy R. Katz, The Emblems of Margaret Gatty: A Study of Allegory in

Nineteenth-Century Children’s Literature (New York: AMS

Press, 1993), 118-122,

133,

145, 159, 186. 23 On the motif in Dutch genre paintings, see E. de Jongh, ,,Erotica in Vogelpet-

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

468

history in emblem literature, appearing first in Guillaume de la Perrières Le

theater des bons engins (Paris, 1544). and it was particularly popular among

Dutch emblematists.24 However, although Shakespeare does refer to the motif in Cymbeline (see below), there is no evidence that Meadows drew directly from emblem literature for his emblematic design. That said, it should be noted that Meadows’s use of the caged bird motif in connection with Imogen is extraordinarily apt. As many commentators have remarked,

Cymbeline

makes

considerable

use

of bird

imagery,

particularly

with

reference to Imogen, who is associated at different times in the play with the nightingale, the lark, and the phoenix.” In his illustration, Meadows creates a further bird allusion for Imogen by depicting her as what appears to be a white dove, an obvious allusion to her chastity and her faithfulness in love to her husband Posthumous. By placing his bird (Imogen) within a cage, Meadows (whether consciously or not is impossible to know) echoes three recurring themes in emblems of caged birds. La Perriére (followed in translation by Combe) sees the bird as one who sings in the face of all adversity.2° This might be a fitting description of Imogen. Her husband falsely reviles her and plots to murder her, her chastity is assailed by both Tachimo and Cloten (having failed, this later plans to ravish her), and her step mother supplies a drug that instead of healing her sickness almost kills her. Seeking safety by disguising herself as a man with the very appropriate name Fidele, Imogen hides for a time in a cave. Ultimately, however, she survives her adversities, and her virtue, her fidelity, and her love for Posthumous remain intact.

Young: Robert Tyas’s ,,Shakspere for the People” Project

469

A second recurring theme, one present in the caged bird emblems of

Hooft, Arndt, Cats, and Ayres,?’ is particularly associated with the bonds of love and marriage8 The bird, it is to be understood, is the captive of love

and is happy and willing to remain imprisoned in its cage. In this context, the cage is emblematic of the bonds of love and marriage, and Meadows’s design appears to echo this. In Shakespeare’s play, Imogen remains faithful to Posthumous, who significantly early in the play places a bracelet on her arm (the same bracelet that Iachimo later steals) with the following words: … For my sake, wear this;

It is a manacle of love; I’ll place it Upon this fairest prisoner. (I it) Imogen accepts love’s bondage and remains true to Posthumous even

after the

symbolic

sign of her

,,imprisonment”

symbolic links connecting Posthumous

cage,

the ,,manacle

of love”, and

has

been

removed.

The

and Imogen’s marriage (the bird-

the diamond

ring)

are emphasized

by

Meadows’s choice of motif for the tailpiece of Act 1. This tailpiece, which is on the page opposite to the caged bird headpiece and thus on the same page opening, consists of a depiction of Imogen’s bracelet and Posthumous’s ring. It seems highly likely that Meadows, who on a number of occasions in the Tyas edition made use of the potential effects of juxtaposing designs across a single page opening (see below), expected his readers to perceive the various symbolic links involved in this instance. Later in the play, though not in connection with Imogen, Shakespeare makes a clear allusion to the caged bird motif. Arviragus and his brother Guiderius, the king’s sons who were stolen as babes, live in a cave, the same

that Imogen takes refuge in. Guiderius at one point refers to their cave as a prison, in that their life to date has afforded them only limited experience of spectief,” Simiolus, 3 (1968-9), 22-74. See also the examples of William Hogarth’s portrait of The Graham Children (1742), and John Singleton Copley’s portraits of Two Daughters of John and Frances Pinckney Gore (c. 1755) and of Mrs Metcalf Bowler (c. 1758). On the probable influence of emblem literature on these latter two works, see Roland

E. Fleischer, ,,Emblems and Colonial American Painting,” The American Art Journal, 20

no. 3 (1988), 23, 30-31. 24 The motif also appears in emblem books by Thomas Combe, Hadrianus Junius, Théodore de Béze, Mathias Holtzwart, Geffery Whitney, Joachim Camerarius, Nicolaus Taurellus, Denis Lebey de Batilly (Jean Jacques Boissard), Daniel Heinsius, Johann

Arndt, Sebastian de Covarrubius Orozco, Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Jacob Cats, Jacques Callot, Philip Ayres, Daniel de la Feuille, and Johann Heinrich Traugott.

25 See, for example, James Nosworthy, Introduction to Cymbeline, Arden Shakespeare

(London: Methuen, 1969), Ixxiii, Ixxxi-ii; and Simonds, Myth, Emblem, and Music, 198-

240, 26 Guillaume de la Perrière, Le theatre des bons engins (1544), No. 38; Thomas Combe, Theater of Fine Devices (c. 1593), No. 38.

the wider world. He likens them to unfledged birds who have ,,never winged

from view οὐ the nest” (III iii), but Arviragus responds: ,,... our cage / We

make a quire, as doth the prisoned bird, / And sing our bondage freely” (HI

iii)29

27 Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Emblemata amatoria (1611), No. 27; Johann Arndt, Vom Wabren Christenthum (1605/6); ,,lch hab das beste davon”; Jacob Cats, Silenus Alcibiadis, sive Proteus (1618), No. 13; and Philip Ayres, Emblematum amatoria (1683), No. 3. 28 As pointed out in Note 23, the caged bird appeared in some eighteenth-century portraits of married or betrothed sitters.

29 For a discussion of Arviragus’s reference to the caged bird motif, see Simonds, Myth,

Emblem, and Music, 174-182.

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

470

Closely linked to the emblematic motif of the caged bird as willing captive is a third recurring theme, representative examples being found in emblems by Junius, Hooft, and Callot.# The picture for Junius’s emblem, for example, shows a dove in a cage. Outside a fierce eagle threatens to harm the dove. Although the accompanying poem and motto focus upon the fear of the dove, the reader perceives the unstated irony that the captive dove is quite safe as long as it remains in its cage. The picture for Hooft’s emblem shows a caged bird that has been captured by Cupid. Outside the cage but threatening the bird are an eagle and a fierce dog. In similar vein, Callots picture shows a bird in a cage, below which sits a large cat. Unlike

Junius’s emblem, those by Hooft, which has the motto ,,Serva sed secura” [A slave but secure], and Callot, which has the motto ,,Captiva, sed secura”

[A captive but secure], are explicit concerning the benefits experienced by the caged bird, which has, according to this interpretation, the blessing of security. Alluding to this in the context of love and marriage, Hooft includes

in the background of his picture a woman reclining on the breast of a man,

her lover/husband and protector. The symbolic meaning of the caged bird is thus spelled out.

Meadows’s design for the headpiece for Act 2, scene 1, of Cymbeline,

with its inclusion of a fox creeping towards a caged bird, is particularly reminiscent of those emblems that depict creatures that pose a danger to

their prey, the bird. Meadows’s choice of a fox to represent the threat is

particularly appropriate and is reminiscent of the various fables by Aesop in which a crafty fox (not always successfully) encounters a bird. The bird’s perching out of reach in a tree rather than its being in a cage is usually what protects it3! In Meadows’s image of the caged bird threatened by the approaching fox, Imogen is clearly to be identified as the bird and Iachimo as the fox, whose wily ruses will in scene 2 enable him literally to creep up

upon his prey. No physical harm befalls her, but she is greatly harmed by the

falsities that Iachimo is able to employ against her after he has tricked his

way

into

her

bedchamber.

In

spite

of this,

however,

Imogen

remains

protected by the bond of marriage that she has freely entered upon. Nothing that assails her can ultimately harm her, for the evil fox is unable to enter the 30 Hadrianus Junius, Emblemata (1565), No. 39; Pieter Corneliszoon Hooft, Emblemata amatoria (1611), No. 28; and Jacques Callot, Vita Beatae Mariae Virginis Matris Dei Emblematibus Delineata (1646), No. 10.

31 For examples of fox-bird encounters in Aesop, see the fables of ,,The Fox and the Cock,” ,, The Fox and the Crow,” ,, The Fox and the Turkeys,” ,, The Fox and the Eagle,”

and ,,The Fox and the Stork.” Meadows would no doubt have been familiar with the editions and reprints of Aesop’s Fables Embellished with One Hundred and Eleven Emblematical Devices, with wood engravings by Thomas Bewick (London: J. Carpenter,

1813), and The Fables of Aesop, and Others. With Designs on Wood by Thomas Bewick

(Newcastle: T. Bewick, 1818).

Young: Robert Tyas’s ,,Shakspere for the People” Project

471

cage that protects her. Her unwavering fidelity to her husband, and her spotless inner virtue remain inviolate. The next three designs by Meadows that I wish to examine may be considered as a group. To understand them fully, it is first necessary to recall certain details in the play. All three designs relate to an aspect of Cymbeline that is removed from the wager plot involving Posthumous, Imogen, and lachimo, namely the account of the history of King Cymbeline, who rules Britain at the time of Augustus Caesar. Whereas the wager plot is central in the first two acts of the play, the dramatic action concerning the history of some important events in Cymbeline’s reign begins in earnest at the opening of Act 3. Loosely based on Holinshed’s Chronicles, this latter part of the play dramatizes the arrival at Cymbeline’s court of Caius Lucius, a Roman general. Lucius’s mission is to convey the displeasure of Augustus Caesar that Cymbeline has failed to pay the annual tribute to Rome that has been levied since the time of Julius Caesar. Cymbeline still refuses to pay, and the Romans subsequently send an army that Cymbeline’s forces then defeat. But then, having established a measure of political autonomy, Cymbeline reverses his earlier decision and promises ,,to pay our wonted tribute” (V v). Cymbeline’s action is a political success, so that in the last lines of the play, the British king is able from a position of strength to free his Roman captives and ratify a peace with Rome. When dealing with these matters in his text, Shakespeare introduces a vein of symbolism involving the Roman eagle. In Act 4, scene 2, the soothsayer,

Philharmonus,

describes

a vision

that he has

just had, which

interprets as prophetic of an impending victory for Rome:

he

Last night the very gods shewed me a vision (I fast, and prayed for their intelligence): Thus: I saw Jove’s bird, the Roman eagle, winged From the spongy south to this part of the west, There vanished in the sunbeams, which portends (Unless my sins abuse my divination) Success to the Roman host. (IV ii)

The events that follow, of course, prove Philharmonus’s interpretation to have been quite wrong, so in the closing lines of the play he revises his interpretation to suggest that the soaring and vanishing Roman eagle, ... foreshewed our princely eagle, The imperial Caesar, should again unite His favour with the radiant Cymbeline, Which shines here in the west. (V v)

472

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

There are, however, two other eagles in the play. There is the eagle bearing Jove that descends to earth as part of Posthumous’s vision in Act 5, scene 4, and there is Posthumous himself, who is described as an eagle in Act 1, scene 2. Significantly, Posthumous,

the British eagle, comes

to the

defense of his country and plays a major role in the defeat of the Roman eagle. As a result, readers may see the soothsayer’s divination as equivocal. As James Nosworthy points out regarding the two additional eagles, ,, The flight of Jove’s eagle can portend the actual descent of Jupiter upon his eagle in v. iv, where Jupiter has come to Britain to resolve conflicting issues. It also symbolizes the return and rehabilitation of Posthumous, who is elsewhere likened to an eagle.” This, then, is the context that informs

three designs by Meadows

de-

picting eagles. The first fittingly appears as the headpiece for Act 3 and the crucial scene in King Cymbeline’s court during which Caius Lucius is told that Britain will no longer pay the annual tribute money to Rome. Meadows’s design (Fig. 3) depicts a ferocious-looking eagle, its talons atop a sword that rests on the ground beside a large bag of money. It is an emblematic image of the dominant military power of Rome (the eagle) that is able to hold in check any British resistance (the sword) and exact tribute money (the bag of coins). If the reader of Tyas’s edition is unfamiliar with the play, the engraving offers a tantalizing mystery. The emblematic image

will be understood only when the text of Act 3, scene 1, has been read. For a

reader already familiar with the play, the design offers the opportunity for interpretive analysis and the satisfaction of recognizing what the image »means” even before the reading of the text makes all clear.

The other two emblematic designs involving eagles occur on facing pages in the Tyas edition and are obviously designed to be seen in juxtaposition.*? That on the left side of the page opening provides the tailpiece for Act 4 (Fig. 4), and the other, which is on the adjacent right side of the page opening, provides the headpiece for Act 5 (Fig. 5). Because there are only thirteen lines of type above the space at the end of Act 4, Meadows had

32 Nosworthy (ed.), Cymbeline, lxxiii, 137. Simonds offets a further reading and suggests

that Shakespeare’s audience would probably have read the eagle symbolism as an allusion to the decline of the Roman church in the face of the English Reformation (Myth, Emblem, and Music, 227). For her lengthy discussion of the iconography of the eagle and

its prevalent use in emblem literature, see 213-227. See also José Julio Garcia Arranz,

Ornitologia Emblemdtica: Las Aves en la Literatura Simbélica Ilustrada en Europa Durante

los Siglos XVI y XVII (Caceres: Universidad de Extremadura, 1966), 143-220. 33 On several other occasions in the Tyas edition, Meadows used the same technique of

placing engravings on opposite sides of a page opening to achieve a dramatic interaction that matched in some way the drama unfolding in the text. For a discussion of Meadows’s use of this technique, see Young, ,,Kenny Meadows’s Illustrative Designs” (forthcoming).

Young: Robert Tyas’s ,,Shakspere for the People” Project

473

the freedom to create a fairly large tailpiece engraving. However, rather than taking up all the available space, Meadows held back a little so that the size of his design would exactly match the headpiece engraving on the right side of the page opening. This latter design, which is placed above twenty-six lines of text, takes up roughly half the available page space. Although the two designs are matched in size and although they both depict a Roman military standard, they nonetheless offer the reader dramatically contrasting images. That at the conclusion of Act 4, when it is

clear

that

a battle

between

the

British

and

Roman

forces

is imminent,

depicts a Roman military standard as seeming reminder of the power and military might of the Roman empire. At the top of the standard is an eagle with outstretched wings, the eagle being considered by the Romans as the preeminently powerful bird, the favored bird of Jove himself. The eagle stands with its talons grasping a thunderbolt, another symbol associated with Jove.** Circling the body and head of the eagle is a wreath that presumably represents victory and Roman dominance. Below is the inscription »S.P.Q.R.” (i.e. ,,Senatus populusque romanus” [The senate and the Roman people]), the familiar motto of Roman governance. Seeing this powerful emblem of imperial Roman, the first-time reader of Cymbeline would no doubt conclude that Cymbeline’s forces will be defeated in the forthcoming battle. However, anyone familiar with the play would know otherwise, a point confirmed immediately as the eye travels across the page opening to the headpiece for Act 5. Meadows’s design for the right side of the page opening again depicts a Roman military standard, but in this instance the standard has been smashed to pieces. Its pole and wreath are in fragments, and the eagle and inscription ate inverted and rest upside down upon the ground. Below them is a broken sword to further signify military defeat. Behind is some ruined masonry, symbolic, perhaps, of the collapse of long-established Roman imperial rule. Although the crucial battle has not yet taken place, the result is here predicted by Meadows’s headpiece. Just why Meadows decided to give away to the reader such all-important plot information and so deflate the suspense that Shakespeare’s text has generated is unclear. Perhaps the opportunity to create the dramatic and emblematic juxtaposition of the two designs was too tempting to resist. My final example of Meadows’s emblematic designs for Tyas’s Shakespeare edition is the tailpiece for Act 5 of Cymbeline (Fig. 6). Elsewhere I have discussed how on occasion Meadows used a tailpiece at the end of a 34 When Jove himself appears in the play, the stage direction reads: ,JUPITER descends in

thunder

and

lightning,

sitting

upon

an

eagle;

he

throws

a thunder-bolt”

Ironically, it is to Posthumous that this quintessential Roman god appears.

(V

iv).

474

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

play to comment emblematically on some aspect of the entire play. The tailpiece for Act 5 of Cymbeline is of this kind since it appears to comment on the various plotlines that have reached a climax in the final scene of the play. It is a scene of reunions, forgiveness, and the promise of peace to come. Cymbeline is reunited with his two sons (Guiderius and Arviragus) and his daughter (Imogen); Posthumous is reunited with Imogen; Posthumous is forgiven by Cymbeline, as is lachimo by Posthumous; and peace is made between Britain and Rome. Meadows’s tailpiece design, which takes up half the final page depicts a young man with outstretched arms. A dove is flying downwards towards the uplifted palm of his right hand. The young man would appear to be Posthumous, since his face and clothing matches Meadows’s depiction of Posthumous in the design a few pages earlier where he is shown embracing Imogen (still dressed as Fidele) when they are reunited. Unlike this previous illustration, the tailpiece for Act 5 calls out for an emblematic interpretation. Here, the dove, which was last seen in the caged bird illustration at the head

of Act 2, is free but chooses to fly to the outstretched hand of Posthumous. The dove (Imogen), a bird commonly seen as representative of love, chastity, and marital fidelity, is symbolically reunited with its marital partner. As the reader well knows, the image is completely apt since Imogen has remained chaste and her love has been unwavering. Meadows’s emblematic image is thus a fitting summation of the wager plot that was central to Acts 1 and 2, central to the hardships that Imogen (as Fidele) endured in Acts 3 and 4, and central to the joyful reward for her faithfulness that is part of the drama of Act 5. However, Meadows’s design has a double function, since there is another way in which its emblematic properties can be read. A returning dove inevitably invokes thoughts of the dove that returns to Noah in Genesis 8:11. In the Bible, the dove returns with an olive branch, a sign that the flood sent as a punishment by God is receding, and that God will end the punishment and reward the obedient and faithful Noah by allowing him to find dry land. God is now at peace with humankind.% Iconographically, the dove (with or without an olive branch) has long been seen as a symbol of peace. Meadows appears to use the dove in his design, not just to symbolize the unblemished nature of Imogen’s love, but to symbolize the

newly-established peace between Britain and Rome,

the achievement of

35 Young, ,,kenny Meadows’s Illustrative Designs” (forthcoming). 36 In the visual arts, a descending dove is often symbolic of the Holy Spirit after the text And John bare record, saying I saw the spirit descending from heaven like a dove, and it abode upon him” (John 1:32). For a detailed account of the iconography of the dove, its various symbolic properties, and its frequent presence in emblem literature, see Arranz, Ornitologia Emblemätica, 543-600.

Young: Robert Tyas’s ,,Shakspere for the People” Project

475

which is the central concern of Acts 3 to 5 in Shakespeare’s play. Significantly, the final lines of Shakespeare’s text, which appear on the page immediately above Meadows’s design and are spoken by King Cymbeline, conclude the play with a paean to peace and concord: ... Publish we this peace To all our subjects. Set we forward: let A Roman and a British ensign wave Friendly together: so through Lud’s town march: And in the temple of great Jupiter Our peace we'll ratify: seal it with feasts.

Set on there. -- Never was a war did cease, Ere bloody hands were washed, with such a peace. (V v)

By creating an emblematic design that uses the motif of the dove to represent on the one hand the faithful love and chastity of Imogen and on the other hand the coming of peace to Britain, Meadows has skillfully brought together two central concerns of the play. As noted earlier, Shakespeare nowhere refers to the dove, although his play employs a great many allusions to birds. Meadows has added a very telling addition that as I have tried to show emblematizes very effectively key aspects of the play. *

* * KK

Discussion of this selection of emblematic designs that Meadows supplied for Cymbeline will, I hope, indicate several important characteristics of the work he did for Tyas’s edition of Shakespeare. Rather than providing designs that act as illustrations of moments in the unfolding narrative of the play, though he does do this on occasion, Meadows

often switches to

an emblematic mode that can function as interpretive and thematic commentary. To do this, he draws upon what appears to be a sensitive and careful reading of the text, together with a knowledge and understanding of established emblematic motifs. Although his emblematic designs may not have been drawn directly from emblem books, his work nonetheless shows

him to be an important precursor of the Victorian emblematic revival referred to towards the beginning of this essay (see Note 13).

476

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

Young: Robert Tyas’s ,,Shakspere for the People” Project

WORKS

Katz, Wendy R. The Emblems of Margaret Gatty: A Study of Allegory in Nineteenth-Century Children’s Literature. New York: AMS Press, 1993.

CITED

Aesop. Aesops Fables Embellished with One Hundred and Eleven Emblematical Devices, with wood engravings by Thomas Bewick. London: J.

Klein, Joan

Larsen.

,,Whitney’s

Emblem

Latet anguis

477

in herba

and

the

Carpenter, 1813.

Shakespeare Connection.” Emblematica 16 (2008): 151-172.

_.

Knight, Charles. Passages of a Working Life During Half a Century: With a Prelude of Early Reminiscences. 3 vols. London: Bradbury and Evans, 1864-

The Fables of Aesop, and Others. With Designs on Wood by Thomas

Bewick. Newcastle: T. Bewick, 1818.

1865.

Age, The. (Sunday 9 August 1840); and (Sunday 13 September 1840).

La Perriére, Guillaume de. Le theatre des bons engins. Paris, 1544.

Arndt, Johann. Vom Wahren Christenthum. Brunswick, 1605/6.

Arranz, José Julio Garcia. Ornitologia Emblemdtica: Las Aves en la Literatura Simbélica Ilustrada en Europa Durante los Siglos XVI y XVII. Caceres: Universidad de Extremadura, 1966.

Meadows, Kenny. Pearls of Shakspeare: A Collection of the Most Brilliant Passages Found in His Plays. London: Cassell, Petter, and Guilpin, 1860. Nosworthy, James. Introduction to Cymbeline. Arden Shakespeare Series. London: Methuen, 1969: xi-lxxxiii.

Ayres, Philip. Emblematum amatoria. London, 1683. Callot, Jacques. Vita Beatae Mariae Virginis Matris Dei Emblematibus Delineata. Paris, 1646.

Cats, Jacob. Silenus Alcibiadis, sive Proteus. Middelburg, 1618.

Publishers’ Circular, The. 2:33 (1 February 1839).

Qualls, Barry V. The Secular Pilgrims of Victorian Fiction: The Novel As Book of Life. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, 1982.

Retzsch, Moritz. Outlines to Shakespeare (Gallerie zu Shakespeare s Dramati-

Cleave’s Gazette of Variety (Saturday, 9 March 1839).

schen Werken). First Series. Hamlet. Leipzig and London, 1828.

Combe, Thomas. Theater of Fine Devices. London, c. 1593.

Shakespeare, William. The Works of Shakspere Revised from the Best Authorities: With a Memoir, and Essay on his Genius, by Barry Cornwall: Also, Annotations and Introductory Remarks on the Plays, by Many Distinguished Writers: Illustrated with Engravings on Wood, from Designs by Kenny

de Jongh, E. ,,Erotica in Vogelperspectief.” Simiolus 3 (1968-9): 22-74.

Dickens, Charles. Serial Number XII (1 March 1839) of The Life and Adventures of Nicholas Nickleby. London: Chapman and Hall. Fleischer,

Roland

E.

,,Emblems

and

Colonial

American Art Journal 20 no. 3 (1988): 2-35.

American

Painting.”

The

Hôltgen, Karl Josef. Aspects of the Emblem: Studies in the English Emblem Tradition and the European Context. Kassel: Edition Reichenberger, 1986.

Meadows. 3 vols. London: Robert Tyas, 1843.

Sillars, Stuart. The Illustrated Shakespeare, bridge University Press, 2008. Simonds,

Peggy

Munoz.

Myth,

Emblem,

1709-1875. and

Music

Cambridge: in

Cam-

Shakespeare's

Cymbeline: An Iconographic Reconstruction. Newark: University of Delaware Press, 1992.

Hooft, Pieter Corneliszoon. Emblemata amatoria. Amsterdam, 1611.

Thurston, John. /{ustrations of Shakspeare; Comprised in Two Hundred and

Junius, Hadrianus. Emblemata. Antwerp, 1565.

Sherwood, Gilbert, & Piper, 1825.

Thirty Vignette Engravings by Thompson, From Designs by Thurston. London:

478

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

Vizetelly, Henry. Glances Back Through Seventy Years: Autobiographical and

Young: Robert Tyas’s ,,Shakspere for the People” Project

479

FIGURES

Other Reminiscences. 2 vols. London: Kegan Paul, Trench, Trübner, 1893.

Wither, George. A Collection of Emblemes, Ancient and Moderne. London, 1635.

Young, Alan R. ,,Charles Knight and the Nineteenth-century Market for

Shakespeare.” Publications of the Bibliographical Society of America 103:1 (March 2009): 19-41.

_.

,Kenny Meadows’s

Illustrative Designs

for Robert Tyas’s ‘Shakspere

for the People’ Project (1839-43).” Papers of the Bibliographical Society of

America 104:2 (June 2010): 219-251.

___ Hamlet and the Visual Arts Press, 2002.

1709-1900. Newark: University of Delaware

INTRODUCTORY

REMARKS

F all the loved and loving female characters of Shakspere—although some may display a lustre more intense—there is not one that cheers the eye with a

more mild and modest radiance than the spotless

jewel, Imogen.

Harsh and difficult as sometimes is

the diction of the play,

the sweetness

of her

nature

o’erinforms it with delightful associations; we think of her as of the pine-apple in its prickly enclosure ; or as of the delicious milk in the husky shell of the cocoa-nut. In the clear heaven of that unclouded mind, the wearied spirit obtains glimpses of human truth and unsuspecting gentleness that well, indeed, “may make us less forlorn.” No impure thought can dwell in the atmosphere that is perfumed by her breath;

Diana;

her bed-chamber becomes

the very temple of

and we not only feel the poetic beauty, but

could almost believe the literal truth of Iachimo’s splendid hyperbole :—

Figure 1 (slightly cropped to left because of tight binding).

Initial letter ,,O” for Cymbeline, designed by Kenny Meadows

(engraved by Orrin Smith) for The Works of Shakspere, edited by John Ogden, 1839-1843.

480

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

Scene [.—Court before Cymseuine’s Palace. Enter Croren and two Lords. Clo. Was there ever man had such luck! when I kissed the jack upon an up-cast, to be hit away!

Young: Robert Tyas’s ,,Shakspere for the People” Project

>

5:

=

Ae

A

ACT

Ill

I had an hundred pound on’t: and then a whore-

son jackanapes must take me up for swearing ; as if I borrowed mine oaths of him, and might not spend them at my pleasure.

Figure 2 Headpiece for Act 2 of Cymbeline, designed by Kenny Meadows

(engraved by Orrin Smith) for The Works of Shakspere, edited by John Ogden, 1839-1843.

Figure 3 Headpiece for Act 3 of Cymbeline, designed by Kenny Meadows (engraved by Orrin Smith) for The Works of Shakspere,

I

by John Ogden, 1839-1843.

481

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numusmaiies

Young: Robert Tyas’s ,,Shakspere for the People” Project

483

| WR

Kf

VM

at

J'en) i

{1}.

Lf

|

ai 7

Figure 4 Tailpiece for Act 4 of Cymbeline, designed by Kenny Meadows edited by John Ogden, 1839-1843.

Figure 5 Headpiece for Act 5 of Cymbeline, designed by Kenny Meadows

(engraved by Orrin Smith) for The Works of Shakspere,

edited by John Ogden, 1839-1843.

Emblems, Emblematic Images, and Numismatics

484

APPENDIX

, CL

777

1

LT totes

OW

à

Figure 6 Tailpiece for Act 5 of Cymbeline, designed by Kenny Meadows (engraved by Orrin Smith) for The Works of Shakspere, edited by John Ogden, 1839-1843.

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS These are listed alphabetically by author. José Azanza Lopez An Emblematic Reading of a Regal Epistolary Exchange: Philip IV’s Letters to Sister Maria De Agreda, in the Light of Saavedra Fajardo Figure 1 Diego Saavedra Fajardo, Empresas politicas, Munich: Nicolaus Hen-

ricus, 1640, Jmpresa 87. “Auspice Deo.” Figure 2 Diego Saavedra Fajardo, Empresas politicas, Munich: Nicolaus Hen-

ricus, 1640, Figure 3 Diego ricus, 1640, Figure 4 Diego ricus, 1640, Figure 5 Diego

/mpresa Saavedra /mpresa Saavedra Jmpresa Saavedra

71. “Labor omnia vincit.” Fajardo, Empresas politicas, Munich: Nicolaus Hen43. “Ut sciat regnare.” Fajardo, Empresas polfticas, Munich: Nicolaus Hen67. “Poda y no corta.” Fajardo, Empresas politicas, Munich: Nicolaus Hen-

ticus, 1640, /mpresa 49. “Lumine solis.” Figure 6 Diego Saavedra Fajardo, Empresas politicas, Munich: Nicolaus Henricus, 1640, /mpresa 90. “Disiunctis vitibus.”

Michael E. Bath Sixteenth-Century Romayne Heads: Engravings by Virgil Solis Copied on Four Panels in the Victoria and Albert Museum Figure 1 Cupboard door of oak with carved medallion panels. 50 x 71 cm.

London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 798-1895, from the Peyre Collec-

tion. Photo courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Figure 2 Cupboard door of oak with carved medallion panels. 50 x 71 cm.

London, Victoria and Albert Museum, 799-1895, from the Peyre Collec-

tion, Photo courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Figure 3 Virgil Solis, etched and engraved ornament print, with imperial medallions and satyrs, c. 1550. London, Victoria and Albert Museum, E.1791-1923. Photo courtesy of the Victoria and Albert Museum. Figure 4 Medallion panel on cupboard door of oak from the Peyre Collection.

49

x 80

cm.

Edinburgh,

A.1895-506. Photo courtesy of National Figure 5 Medallion panel on cupboard Collection. 49 x 80 cm. Edinburgh, A.1895-506. Photo courtesy of National

National

Museums door of National Museums

Museum

of Scotland,

of Scotland. oak from the Peyre Museum of Scotland, of Scotland.

Appendix

488 Antonio Bernat-Vistarini and Tamaz Sajé Veritas filia Dei. The Iconography of Truth

Between Two Cultural Horizons in the Ithika hieropolitica Figure 1 The figure of Truth in Ithika hieropolitica, Kiev, 1712. Figure 2 Veritd in Ripa, Iconologia.

tersFigure 3 The allegory of Truth in the editions of Kiev 1712, Saint-Pe and 1764 rg etersbu burg 1718, and Vienna 1774. The editions of Saint-P our from missing is Moscow 1796 were not illustrated, while this picture copy of Lwéw 1760.

Figure 4 Botticelli, Calumny, c. 1494.

Figure 5 Printer’s device of F. Marcolini, from ἃ composition of Pietro Aretino, 1536. Figure 6 Guillaume de La Perrière, Morosophie, Lyons, 1553.

Figure 7 Bernini, Tomb of Pope Alexander VII. Allegory of Truth, one of the “Four Daughters of God,” 1671. Christian Bouzy

Latin Authors in the Emblemas Morales of Juan de Horozco

Figure 1 Juan de Horozoco, Emblemas Morales, (1589), Book II, emblem 16. Figure 2 Juan de Horozoco, Emblemas Morales, (1589), Book IT, emblem 23.

Figure 3 Juan de Horozoco, Emblemas Morales, (1589), Book ΤΙ, emblem 7.

Figure 4 Juan de Horozoco, Emblemas Morales, (1589), Book III, emblem 19. Figure 5 Juan de Horozoco, Emblemas Morales, (1589), Book II, emblem 4.

Joseph F. Chorpenning, O.S.F.S. A Pilgrimage with the Redeemer in the Womb: St. Francis de Sales’s 1610 Meditation on the Biblical Mystery of the Visitation

Figure 1 Hieronymus Wierix (1553-1619) after Bernardino Passeri (c. 1540-

1596), The Visitation, engraving in Jeronimo Nadal, S.J., Adnotationes et

List of Illustrations

489

José Julio Garcia Arranz The Whore of Babylon: Tradition and Iconography of an Apocalyptic Motif in the Service of Modern Religious Polemics Figure 1 Albrecht Direr, “Great Whore of Babylon Seated on the Seven Headed Beast Bestia Admired by the Ignorant” (woodcut), Apocalipsis

cum figuris, Nuremberg, 1498, fig. 13.

Figure 2 Lucas Cranach, “The Whore” (woodcut), illustration for the Septembertestament of Martin Luther, Wittenberg, 1522.

Figure 3 Anonymous Dutch, De contemptu mundi (copperplate engraving, c. 1550-1560), detail.

Figure 4 Anonymous Dutch, Alba s Mission in the Netherlands and the Effects of His Tyranny (copperplate engraving, 1572), print no. 3.

Figure 5 Sebastian de Covarrubias, Emblemas morales, Madrid: Luis Sanchez, 1610, Centuria I, emblem 75.

Lubomir Koneënyÿ The Emblem Theory and Practice of Bohuslav Balbin, S.J. Figure 1 /mpresa of Petrus Aloisius Carafa “Non ideo macular.” Sylvestro Petrasancta, De symbolis heroicis libri IX, Antwerp, 1634, I, 23. Figure 2 Bohuslav Balbin, impresa “Cum Extollor Deprimor.” Bohuslaus Balbinus, “Libellus Emblematum”

in Miscellaneorum lesuiticorum liber,

90. Prague, Library of the Royal Canonry of the Premonstratensians at Strahov. Figure 3 Impresa of the Cardinal Francisco Mendoza “/ngratis servire nefas.”

Jakob Typotius, Symbola varia Diversorum principum Ecclesiae et Sacri Imperii Romani, Prague, 1602, pl. 64.

Sacrosanct.

Figure 4 Emblem “Oculata fides.” Julius Wilhelm Zincgreff, Emblematum ethico-politicorum centuria, Heidelberg, 1664, no. 88. Figure 5 “In silentio et spe fortitudo mea.“ Bohuslaus Balbinus, Quaesita oratoria, Prague, 1677, 265.

|

meditationes in Evangelia, Antwerp, 1607. Photo: courtesy Saint Joseph’s

University Press, Philadelphia.

Figure 2 Hispano-Flemish School, The Visitation, fifteenth century. Photo:

|

Figure 3 Emblem L from Frangois Berthod, O.F.M., Emblesmes sacrez, Paris, 1665, 374-375. Photo: courtesy Saint Joseph’s University Press, Phila-

|

Museo Lazaro Galdeano, Madrid.

delphia. Figure 4 Anton II Wierix (1555/59-1604), The Transverberation of St. Teresa of Avila with the Holy Family, engraving, early seventeenth century. Photo: courtesy Saint Joseph’s University Press, Philadelphia.

| | | |

490

Appendix

Rafael Garcia Mahiques Aspects of the Fig Tree and its Fruit in Emblematics

Figure 1 Guillaume de la Perrière, La Morosophie, (1553), emblem 33. Figure 2 Francisco Nufiez de Cepeda, Empresas Sacras, (1682), empresa

XLVL Figure 3 Georgette de Montenay, Emblemes, ou Devises Chrestiennes, (1571),

65(a). Figure 4 Wolffgang Helmhard Freiherr von Hohberg, Lust-und Artzeney-

Garten des Kôniglichen propheten Davids, (1675), 108.

Figure 5 Carlo Labia, Horto Simbolico, (1700), 65.

Victor Minguez and Inmaculada Rodrigues The Urban Emblems of Daniel Meisner. The Image of the City as a Treasury of Knowledge (1700) Figure 1 Lübeck, in Daniel Meisner, Politica-Politica. Dass ist: Newes Emble-

matisches Buchlein darinen in acht Centuriis die Vornembste Stitt, Vestung, Schlüsser, etc ... der gantzen Welt gleichsamb adumbrirt und in Kupffer gestochen, mit ... Lateinischen und Teutschen Versiculn ... abgebiltet werden,

Nuremberg, 1700. Figure 2 Augsburg, Daniel Meisner, Politica-Politica ... Nuremberg,1700. Figure 3 Nuremberg, Daniel Meisner, Politica-Politica ... Nuremberg,1700. Figure 4 Jerez, Daniel Meisner, Politica-Politica ... Nuremberg, 1700.

Figure 5 Loja, Daniel Meisner, Politica-Politica ... Nuremberg, 1700. Sabine Médersheim

The Fervent Heart: Isabella de Spiritu Sancto’s Herzbiicher (Books of the Heart)

Figure 1 Books of the Heart, 48 (Wappentafel).

Figure 2 Books of the Heart, 8 (Relic of Teresa of Avila’s heart).

Figure 3 Books of the Heart, 222 (Humilitas-Superbia). Figure 4 Books of the Heart, 238 (Bee and Spider). Figure 5 Books of the Heart, 392 (Liber Memoriae).

List of Illustrations

491

Barbara Skinfill Nogal

Multiple Glances at the Mundus Symbolicus by Filippo Picinelli.

A Bibliographical Approach

Figure 1 Filippo Picinelli, Mundus Symbolicus, Coloniae Agrippinae, 1729,

title-page. Special Collections, Biblioteca Luis Gonzalez, El Colegio de Michoacan.

Figure 2 Filippo Picinelli, Mundus Symbolicus, Coloniae Agrippinae, 1729,

frontispiece. Special Collections, Biblioteca Luis Gonzalez, El Colegio de Michoacan. Figure 3 Image from Book XXV, which was used as a model for one of the emblems in the posthumous portrait of Captain Fernandez Faillo

de Boralla, Filippo Picinelli, Mundus Symbolicus, Coloniae Agrippinae,

1729, 264. Special Collections, Biblioteca Luis Gonzalez, El Colegio de

Michoacan.

Figure 4 Filippo Picinelli, Mundus Symbolicus, Coloniae Agrippinae, 1729, 304. Special Michoacan.

Collections,

144. Special Michoacan.

Collections,

Biblioteca

Luis

Gonzalez,

El

Colegio

de

Figure 5 Filippo Picinelli, Mundus Symbolicus, Coloniae Agrippinae, 1729, Biblioteca

Luis

Gonzalez,

El Colegio

de

Alan R. Young Kenny Meadows and the Emblematic Designs for Shakespeare’s Cymbeline in Robert Tyas’s “Shakspere for the People” Project (1839-1843) Figure 1 (slightly cropped to left because of tight binding). Initial letter “O” for Cymbeline, designed by Kenny Meadows engraved by Orrin Smith)

for The Works of Shakspere, edited by John Ogden,1839-1843. Figure 2 Headpiece for Act 2 of Cymbeline, designed by Kenny Meadows (engraved by Orrin Smith) for The Works of Shakspere, edited by John Ogden, 1839-1843.

Figure 3 Headpiece for Act 3 of Cymbeline, designed by Kenny Meadows (engraved by Orrin Smith) for The Works of Shakspere, edited by John Ogden, 1839-1843.

Figure 4 Tailpiece for Act 4 of Cymbeline, designed by Kenny Meadows (engraved by Orrin Smith) for The Works of Shakspere, edited by John Ogden, 1839-1843.

Figure 5 Headpiece for Act 5 of Cymbeline, designed by Kenny Meadows (engraved by Orrin Smith) for The Works of Shakspere, edited by John Ogden, 1839-1843.

Appendix

492

Figure 6 Tailpiece for Act 5 of Cymbeline, designed by Kenny Meadows (engraved by Orrin Smith) for The Works of Shakspere, edited by John

PUBLICATIONS OF PEDRO F. CAMPA

Ogden, 1839-1843.

Excluded are the many conference presentations, reviews, and newspaper atticles. Perhaps much of Pedro’s influence has been through his conference organization and presentations, and through his frequent encouragement to others.

Rafael Zafra Clarifications and New Data on the Works

of Juan de Horozco y Covarrubias Figure

1 Juan

de

Horozco,

Portrait by Dionisio

Linares, Toledo,

Public

Library. Figure 2 Folio 17 from Horozco’s Emblemas Morales, (1589) and folio 5

from his Tratado de la verdadera y falsa profecia, (1588). Figure 3 Folio 1 of Horozco’s Paradojas cristianas, (1592).

Figure 4 Page 1 of Horozco’s Doctrina de principes, (1605). Figure 5 Unpublished autographed document by Horozco, Segovia Cathedral Archive, signature F. 43

Books

Emblematic Images and Religious Texts. Studies in Honor of G. Richard Dimler,

SJ. Ed. Pedro F. Campa and Peter M. Daly. Philadelphia: Saint Joseph’s University Press, 2011. 364 pp.

Emblemata Hispanica. An Annotated Bibliography of Spanish Emblem Literature to the Year 1700. Durham, NC: Duke University Press, 1990. 248 pp. (With the assistance of Robert Vallier [University of Tennessee, Chattanooga],

and Charles Connell [West Virginia University]): Medieval Perspectives. Selected Proceedings of the XI Annual Conference of the Southeastern Medieval Association, I, 1. New York: Full Stop Press, 1986, 212 pp. Articles

‘Devotion

and Onomasiology:

The /mpresa for the Society of Jesus.” In

Emblematic Images and Religious Texts. Festschrift for G. Richard Dimler, S.J. Ed.

Pedro F. Campa and Peter M. Daly. Philadelphia: Saint Joseph’s University Press, 2010, 1-28.

“Emblem Books in Russia.” In Companion to Emblem Studies, Ed. Peter M. Daly. New York: AMS Press, 2008, 309-321; 568-572.

“Romanian Icons: A Contribution to Balkan Art.” Romanian Medievalia 1-1Π (2006): 187-202.

“The Space Between

Heraldry and the Emblem: The Case for Spain.” In

Emblem Scholarship. Directions and Development. Essays in Honor of Gabriel

Hornstein.

Ed.

Peter M.

Brepols, 2005, 51-82.

Daly.

Imago

Figurata Studies, vol. 5. Turnhout

494

Appendix

“Heraldry, Insignia, and the Rise of the Russian Emblem.” In Emblem Studies

in Honor of Peter M. Daly. Ed. Michael Bath et al. Saecula Spiritalia 41. Baden-

Baden: Verlag Valentin Koerner, 2002, 15-39.

“Addenda et Corrigenda to Emblemata Hispanica.” Emblematica (11 2001): 327-376.

“L'Age d'Or des Emblémes.” In L Epoque de la Renaissance. Crises et essors nouveaux (1560-1610). Amsterdam: Johns Benjamins Publishing Company, 2000, vol. 4, 200-210.

“Terms for Emblem in the Spanish Tradition.” In Aspects of Renaissance and

Publications of Pedro F. Campa

495

“Henry Green’s Notes Towards a Catalogue of Emblem Books,” Emblematica

I (1987): 341-344.

“Apuntes para ‘el yo no soy nadie,’ la iconografia de la muerte y la inmortalidad

en la obra de Carlos Rojas.” In En torno al hombre y a los monstruos. Ensayos criticos sobre la novela de Carlos Rojas. Studia Humanitatis. Ed. Christopher Soufas and Cecilia Lee. Washington: Scripta Humanistica, 1987, 30-43.

“Aspectos de la decadencia francesa en la obra de Gabriel Mir.” In Prosa

Hispänica de Vanguardia. 233-244.

Ed. Fernando Burgos. Madrid: Origenes, 1986,

Baroque Symbol Theory 1500-1700. Ed. Peter M. Daly and John Manning. New

“The Spanish Tristan Ballads.” Tristania (Autumn 198l-Spring 1982), 7, No. L2: 60-69.

“Carlos Rojas y el arte de la memoria.” In Literatura, arte, historia y mito en la

“Quinto Enio en la preceptiva literaria del Siglo de Oro.” In Estudios Clasicos

York: AMS Press, 1999, 13-26.

obra de Carlos Rojas.” Ed. Cecilia Castro Lee. Bogota: Universidad Central, 1998, 25-36.

“The Spanish and Portuguese Adaptations of Pia Desideria.” In Emblematic Perceptions. Essays in Honor of William Heckscher. Ed. Peter M. Daly and Daniel

S, Russell. Saecula Spiritalia, vol. 36. Baden-Baden: Verlag Valentin Koerner,

1997, 43-60.

(Madrid), C.S.1.C., 24 (1980): 143-149.

“The Spanish

(1978): 36-45.

Tristén: State of Research and New

Directions.” Tristania 3

“The Defense of Poetry in Spanish Renaissance and Baroque Poetic Theory.” In The Proceedings of the 23rd M.IF.L.C., (Richmond: Eastern Kentucky University Press, 1976), 90-95.

“La génesis del libro de emblemas jesuita.” Jn Actas del Congreso Internacional

de Emblemdtica. Ed. Sagrario Lopez Poza. La Coruña: Universidad de la Corufia, 1996, 42-60.

“Camilo José Cela-Translation of passages from Mazurka para dos muertos.” The Literary Review. Special Issue. The Literature of Democratic Spain. Spring 1993. 36. Number 3, 286-291.

“Los derechos de los Indios: Vitoria, Suarez, y las Crénicas.” In Actas del

Congreso Beresit II. Cofradia Internacional de Investigadores. Toledo: Impenta Provincial, 1992, 331-346.

“Diego Lopez’s Declaracién Magistral de las emblemas de Alciato: A Seventeenth Century Spanish Humanist View.” In Andrea Alciato and the Emblem Tradition. Essays in Honor of Virginia Woods Callahan. Ed. Peter M. Daly. New York: AMS Press, 1989, 223-248.

Forthcoming Articles

“James Astry (1700). English translator of Saavedra.” In The English Emblem in the Early Modern Period. Ed. Peter M. Daly. New York: AMS Press. “Eschatology, Soteriology and Trickery of Death in Spanish Funeral Em-

blems.” In Emblems of Death in the Early Modern Period. Ed. Monica Calabritto and Peter M. Daly. Geneva: Droz

NOTA VITAE Ignacio Arellano is Professor of Spanish Literature at the University of Navarre (Spain) He has been a visiting professor at numerous international

universities (Buenos Aires, Duke University, North Carolina at Chapel Hill, Dartmouth College, University of Delhi, Pisa, Minster, Toulouse). He

serves as a Member of the Editorial Board of journals such as Jnsula, Edad de Oro, Criticén. He is Director and chief researcher for the Spanish Golden Age Research Group (GRISO) based at the University of Navarre, where he directs a broad spectrum of research projects on the Golden Age. He has authored or edited more than 150 books on Spanish literature, with a particular emphasis on the Golden Age, and he has published more than 300 articles in specialized journals. He served as President of the International Asociation on the Golden Age (AISO) from 1996 to 1999, and still serves as its Honorific President. Some of his publications on emblematics include: »Motivos simbolos

emblematicos en el teatro emblematicos en la poesia

de Cervantes” de Cervantes”

(1997); ,,Visones y (1998); ,,Elementos

emblematicos en las comedias religiosas de Calderén” (2000); ,,Aspectos

emblematicos en los dramas de poder y de ambici6n de Calderén” (2002); »La cultura simbélica y alegérica en Los cigarrales de Toledo de Tirso de

Molina” (2003); ,,Elementos emblematicos en la Galatea y el Persiles” (2004) and Emblemätica y religion en la peninsula iberica (Siglo de Oro) (ed., 2010).

José Javier Azanza Lépez is a Professor of Art History at the University of Navarre (Spain), and Deputy Head of the Art History Department of this university. He is also a member of the board of directors for the Spanish Emblematics Society (Sociedad Española de Emblemiatica). His preferred areas of research interest include the analysis of public festivals, ephemeral art, and emblematics. His work in emblem studies includes participation in different national and international conferences, and he has authored more

than twenty publications related to this field of study. His books in this area

include: Exequias reales del Regimiento pamplonés en la Edad Moderna. Ceremonial funerario, arte efimero y emblemätica (2005), in collaboration with

José Luis Molins and Deleitando enseña: una leccién de emblemätica (2009), in

collaboration with Rafael Zafra. He is also the editor, with Rafael Zafra of

Emblemata Aurea. La Emblemdtica en el Arte y la Literatura del Siglo de Oro (2000).

Michael

Bath

is

Emeritus

Professor

of

Renaissance

Studies

at

the

University of Strathclyde in Scotland, where he taught English Literature

Appendix

498

until his retirement, co-authoring with Tom Furniss a book Reading Poetry

(London: Longman) in 1996. He is also author of The Image of the Stag:

Iconographic Themes in Western Art (Baden-Baden: Koerner, 1992). He has worked extensively on renaissance emblem books, served as Chait of the Society of Emblem Studies, and is a co-editor of the journal Emblematica. His book Speaking Pictures (London: Longman) came out in 1994, and the use of emblems in the hitherto little-known corpus of painted ceilings in Scotland led him into research on the applied arts in historic buildings, with a book Renaissance Decorative Paintings in Scotland (2003). He recently published Emblems for a Queen, on the needlework of Mary Queen of Scots, and he advises Historic Scotland on the refurbishment of the Royal Palace in Stirling, He received a festschrift in 2005. Antonio Bernat Vistarini is a professor of Spanish Golden Age literature at the Universitat de les Iles Balears (Spain). He has published extensively in

this area, including: Francisco Manuel de Melo 1608-1666. Textos y contextos del Barroco peninsular and numerous studies on Cervantes and on emblematic literature, as well as the Enciclopedia de Emblemas Espanoles

Ilustrados (with John T. Cull). He has edited works on Humanism and the Baroque by Graciän, Fray Luis de Leén, Ferrer de Valdecebro and others.

Nota vitae

499

the last twenty years in the best international collective works on the theme of emblems as well as in specialized editions in French government academic competition programs. Joseph F. Chorpenning, O.S.F.S. is Editorial Director of Saint Joseph’s University Press, and Chairman of the International Commission for Salesian Studies (ICSS). He holds a Ph.D. in Renaissance and Baroque Spanish Literature from Johns Hopkins, and a licentiate in Historical Theology (S.T.L.) from The Catholic University of America. He has published numerous journal articles, as well as essays in books, on a wide variety of topics, including the Spanish sentimental romance Cércel de Amor, St. Teresa of Avila, Caravaggio, the history and spirituality of the cult of St. Joseph and the Holy Family, St. Francis de Sales and the Salesian tradition of spirituality, and the thought of Pope John Paul II. He is the author/editor of a dozen

books and edited volumes, such as The Divine Romance: Teresa of Avila’s

Narrative Theology (1992); Francis de Sales: Sermon

Texts on Saint Joseph

(2000); Human Encounter in the Salesian Tradition: Collected Essays Commemorating the 4” Centenary of the Initial Encounter of St. Francis de Sales

Sajé he created the Studiolum digital edition project

and St. Jane Frances de Chantal (2007); and Joseph of Nazareth Through the Centuries, a collection of fourteen scholarly essays on the historical development of the cult of St. Joseph (2011).

the Asociacién de Cervantistas (for which he served as Secretary for years)

John T. Cull is a Professor of Spanish at the College of the Holy Cross Worcester, MA. He has published numerous articles on Spanish Golden Age literature, including studies on Cervantes, staging aspects of Spanish Golden Age plays and the influence of emblematics on Spanish literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. He serves on the editorial boards of

With Dr. Tamas

(www.studiolum.com). He is the Director of the Medio Maravedi collection of Medieval and Golden Age texts and studies. He serves on numerous editorial boards of prestigious international journals, including Cervantes (Cervantes Society of America), Conceptos, Studia Aurea and Imago. He has organized two international Conferences on Cervantes in collaboration with

Emblematica. Since 2007 he has been the Director of his University Press,

Edicions UIB.

several journals and presses, including that of Emblematica. With Antonio Bernat Vistarini he has published the Enciclopedia de emblemas españoles ilustrados (Akal, 1999). They have co-edited a number of other volumes

Christian Bouzy is a Professor of Spanish Golden Age literature at the

translation and study of the Libro de las honras que hizo el Colegio de la

literature. Following his doctoral thesis on the Emblemas Morales of Juan de

forthcoming in Saint Joseph’s University Press, and a Spanish edition of the same work that will be published by Olaneta.

and one on emblems

in collaboration

with

the Sociedad

Española

de

University Blaise Pascal de Clermont-Ferrand (France). His area of specialization is the study of the history of ideas through Spanish emblematic

Horozco, he dedicated an extensive study to the emblematic references in

the Tesoro de la Lengua of Sebastian de Covarrubias (with over 300 plates),

and continued his research on the influence of emblems on the works of the

great canonical authors of the seventeenth century: La vida es sueño by Calderôn de la Barca (1999), La Dorotea by Lope de Vega (2001), El Persiles

by Miguel de Cervantes (2003) and El discurso de las privanzas by Francisco de Quevedo (2009). He has published his results regularly over the course of

together, and currently have at press, along with Tamas Sajé, an English

Compania de Jestis en Madrid ... Emperatriz Maria de Austria (Madrid, 1603),

Peter M. Daly is past president of the Society for Emblem Studies, Professor Emeritus, and former Chair of the Department of German Studies at McGill University, Montreal. He has numerous publications on German and English literature of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, on the European emblem tradition, and on contemporary advertising. He is co-editor with G. Richard Dimler, S.J. of the series of illustrated biblio-

Appendix

500

cographies The Jesuit Series (1997, 2000, 2002, 2005, 2007) and a founding Brepols editor of Emblematica, ,,AMS Studies in the Emblem,” and the series ,,Imago Figurata.” He received a Festschrift in 2002.

Emblem

A Companion to

Studies appeared in 2007. He published an edition of Held’s

in German translation of Alciato (2007), and has finished a book on Alciato on essays of volume a Drysdall Denis with g England. He is preparin

Alciato’s emblems, and another volume of essays on Emblems of Death with Monica Calabritto. Having completed An Annotated Bibliography of Emblem

Studies 1990-1999 that will appear in AMS Press, he is currently working on bibliographies for the two following decades. Frederick A. de Armas is Andrew W. Mellon Professor in Humanities and Chair of the Department of Romance Languages and Literatures at the University of Chicago. He studies early modern Spain often from a comparative perspective, including visual culture. His books and edited collections

include: The Invisible Mistress: Aspects of Feminism and Fantasy in the Golden Age (1976); The Return of Astraea: An Astral-Imperial Myth in Calderén

(1986); The Prince in the Tower: Perceptions of »La vida es sueño (1993);

Heavenly Bodies: The Realms of ,La estrella de Sevilla“ (1996); A Star-Crossed Golden Age: Myth and the Spanish Comedia (1998); Cervantes, Raphael and

the Classics (1998); European Literary Careers: The Author from Antiquity to

the Renaissance (2002); Writing for the Eyes in the Spanish Golden Age (2004); and Ekphrasis in the Age of Cervantes (2005); Quixotic Frescoes: Cervantes and Italian Renaissance Art (2006) and Ovid in the Age of Cervantes (2010).

Bernard Deschamps is a research affiliate in the Department of German Studies at McGill University in Montreal. Originally trained as an orchestra musician, he has played the double bass with various symphony orchestras in Europe and North America for more than twenty years before turning his attention to German literature and philology. Although his main area of research is the work of Franz Kafka and Walter Benjamin, he has also devoted considerable attention to modern visual culture, as well as to media,

publicity, and image theory. He is also interested by the impact of computer technologies on the practice of the Humanities, especially in the area of emblem digitization and has presented research papers on that topic at several international meetings. He has taught courses in German and in English on a wide range of theoretical and literary manifestations of German culture, from German Romanticism to Colonialism and visions of the Other

at McGill University and at the Université de Montréal.

Aurora Egido is a Professor of Spanish Literature at the University of Zaragoza (Spain) and recipient of the distinguished Spanish government

Nota vitae

501

National Award for Research in the Humanities. She has published editions

of the works of Soto de Rojas, Calderén, and Gracian, and her many books

on literature and art in the Spanish Golden Age include: Fronteras de la poesia en el Barroco (1990), Cervantes y las puertas del sueño ((1994), El gran teatro de Calderén (1995) La rosa del silencio (1996), Las caras de la prudencia y Baltasar Graciän (2000), Humanidades y dignidad del hombre en Baltasar Gracidn (2001), De la mano de Artemia. Literatura, emblemätica y arte en el Siglo de Oro (2004), El Barroco de los modernos (2009) and El Aguila y la tela. Estudios sobre San Juan de la Cruz y Santa Teresa de Jestis (2010).

José Julio Garcia Arranz is a tenured professor in the Department of Art History of the University of Extremadura (Spain). Since the completion of his doctoral thesis on ornithological themes in European emblematic literature (which he is currently preparing in a complete and revised edition), he has presented his research on modern symbolic culture at numerous conferences and published his work in both Spanish and international outlets. Themes which have merited special attention in his published work include Baroque moralizing naturalism, the theory of the emblematic image, and the presence of hieroglyphs in Portuguese ceramic tiles of the eighteenth century. He is a founding member of the Spanish Emblem Society (Sociedad Española de Emblematica), having served as its Secretary from 1994 to 2005, and a member of the Hispanic Emblematic Literature research group, which is directed by Sagrario Lopez Poza. Rafael Garcia Mahiques is a tenured Professor of Art History at the Universitat de Valéncia. He began his professional career with iconographical studies on emblematics, applying methodological principles of iconology. He is currently President of the Spanish Emblem Society (Sociedad

Española de Emblemdtica). His publications on emblematics include, among others: Empresas Sacras de Nüñez de Cepeda (1988); Flora emblemätica: aproximaciôn descriptiva del cédigo icénico (doctoral thesis-1991); Empresas Morales de Juan de Borja (1998). Other publications include: La Adoracién de los Magos. Imagen de la Epifania en el arte de la Antigüedad (1992). More recently, he has published: /conografia e Iconologta (vol. 1). La Historia del arte como Historia cultural (2008); Iconografia e Iconologia (vol. 2). Cuestiones de método (2009). His research interests also include his participation in the

Conservation and Restoration of the Spanish Artistic Patrimony, and to this

end he is part of the research team dedicated to the project Recuperaciôn

integral de Basilica de la Virgen de los Desamparados de Valencia, under the

direction of the Universidad Politécnica de Valencia. He is also Director of the research group APES. Imagen y Cultura (www.uv.es/apesgrup).

502

Appendix

Lubomir Koneény is Director of the Institute of Art History, Academy of Sciences of the Czech Republic, and Professor of Art History at Charles University in Prague. In 1987 he was visiting member in the Institute for Advanced Study at Princeton, 1992-1993 was awarded a J. Paul Getty Grant Program fellowship, and a Mellon fellowship at the Warburg Institute, University of London, in 1998. In addition to extensively publishing on Renaissance and Baroque art and architecture, iconography, and on the history and theory of art history, he works in the field of emblematics. He

recently published two books: Mezi textem a obrazem: Miscellanea z historie emblematiky [Between Text and Image: Miscellaneous Studies on the History of Emblematics] (Prague: National Library of the Czech Republic, 2002),

and Za horou najdef udoli: Studie o ikonografii Utiku do Egypta v umini pozdniho stoedoviku a renesance [Beyond the Mountain You Will Find a Valley: A Study of the Iconography of the Flight into Egypt in the Art of the Late Middle-Ages and the Early Renaissance] (Prague: Artefactum, 2005); and currently is preparing a booklet on the history and reception of Alciato’s emblem

121

(,,Paupertatem summis

ingeniis obesse ne provehantur’),

and a

book on Jusepe de Ribera and the New Construction of the Five Senses. In 2006 he received a festschrift.

Victor Minguez is a Professor of Art History in the Department of History, Geography and Art of the Universitat Jaume I (Castellon, Spain). He is the principal researcher of the group Jconography and Art History. He is a specialist in the analysis of images of power, especially in the Renaissance

and Baroque periods. His books include: Los reyes distantes. Imdgenes del poder en el México virreinal (1995), Los reyes solares. Iconografia astral de la monarquia hispdnica (2001), Las ciudades del absolutismo. Arte, urbanismo y magnificencia en Europa y América. Siglos XV-XVIII (co-author, (2006) and La fiesta barroca. El Reino de Valencia (1599-1802) (co-author, 2010). He has been an organizer of a number of important international art exhibits.

Sabine Médersheim is Associate Professor of German Literature and Culture at the University of Wisconsin Madison (USA). Dr. phil. (German and Philosophy, Albert-Ludwigs-Universität Freiburg, Germany, 1992); teaching positions at the Universitat Freiburg, Germany and McGill University, Montreal, Canada. She edits the Society for Emblem Studies News-

letter and organizes the annual emblem sessions sponsored by the Society for

Emblem Studies at the Medieval Congress in Kalamazoo (Western Michigan

University). She serves on the advisory board of Emblematica and on the

editorial board of Monatshefte fiir deutschsprachige Literatur und Kultur. Her

research is focused on German literature and culture of the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries and Early Modern visual and material culture and the

Nota vitae

German,

503

European

and

global

emblem

traditions.

Her

books

include:

Domini Doctrina Coronat. Die geistlichen Emblembiicher Daniel Cramers

(Mikrokosmos; 1994) and facsimile editions of emblem books by Daniel Cramer (Emblematisches Cabinet; 1994) and Hieronymus Ammon (Imago Figurata Editions; 1999). She is co-editor with Sabine Gross of the special volume of Monatshefie on image and text. She is currently working on a study of the global reception of Johann Gossnet’s Heart of Man (1812). Her study on emblems and rhetoric in civil architecture (Decor und Decorum) is in preparation. Inmaculada Rodriguez is a tenured Professor of Art History at versitat Jaume I, and is a researcher for the group Iconography History, based at the same university. She is a specialist in the images of power, both in the realm of European Courts as well

the Uniand Art study of as in the

Iberoamerican colonial world. Her books include: La mirada del virrey. Iconografia del poder en la Nueva España (2003), El retrato en México: 17811867. Héroes, ciudadanos y emperadores para una nueva naciôn (2006), Las ciudades del absolutismo. Arte, urbanismo y magnificencia en Europa y América. Siglos XV-XVIII (co-author, 2006) and La fiesta barroca. El Reino de Valencia

(1599-1802) (co-author, 2010).

Tamas Sajé is an art historian, former fellow member of the Art History Institute of Budapest, professor at two universities in Budapest and presently, with Antonio Bernat Vistarini, co-director of the electronic publisher Studiolum (Palma—Budapest, www.studiolum.com). His field of research is sixteenth- and seventeenth-century iconography and emblematics, and his publications in this area include the first annotated edition of Cesare Ripa’s Iconologia (1593). He has organized several projects of source editions in collaboration with the Hungarian Academy of Sciences, the Cathedral Library of Kalocsa, one of the largest historical libraries in Hungary, the Calvinist Theology Library of Budapest, and with other collections and research institutions, including the Monastery La Real of Majorca. Together with Antonio Bernat Vistarini, he participated in the research project on the edition and study of the epistolary of Pedro de Santacilia y Pax, and he is a member of the editorial board of the Medio Maraved collection of Medieval and Golden Age texts and studies. He is an active translator from various languages, and has translated more than sixty publications in his field of research into or from Hungarian.

Appendix

504

Barbara Skinfill Nogal is Professor of Classics, UNAM (Mexico) and team

member for the Proyecto Mundus Symbolicus in the Center for the Studies of

Traditions (Centro de Estudios de las Tradiciones) of the Colegio de Michoacan. She is a participant in the translation, revision, and edition of the

encyclopedia of emblems Mundus Symbolicus by Filippo Picinelli (Coloniae

Agrippinae, 1729); her collaboration on this project has led to the development of two other lines of research: ,,The classical tradition in seventeenth-

century emblematics:

Filippo

Picinelli’s Mundus

Symbolicus

and

,,The

diffusion of emblematic literature in New Spain through the circulation of

its books”. She is co-author of Marcas de impresores y editores del siglo XVI. Muestrario iconogräfico del Fondo Antiguo de la Biblioteca Publica Uni-

versitaria de Morelia UMSNH (Motelia: PROART, Proyecto Iconografico de

marcas de Impresores, SECREA, Secretaria de Cultura de Michoacan, 2007).

She is also co-editor of three volumes of the Spanish translation of Filippo

Picinelli, El mundo simbélico (Zamora: El Colegio de Michoacan, 1999, 2006), and of Esplendor y ocaso de la cultura simbélica and Las dimensiones del arte emblemdtico (Zamora: El Colegio de Michoacan, Consejo Nacional de Ciencia y Tecnologia, 2002).

Alan R. Young has published extensively on English Renaissance literature and the literature of Atlantic Canada. He is now Emeritus Professor of English at Acadia University. His books on Renaissance topics include

Henry Peacham (1979), The English Prodigal Son Plays (1979), Tudor and

Jacobean Tournaments (1987), The English Tournament Imprese (1988), His

Majesty’s Royal Ship (1990), Emblematic Flag Devices of the English Civil Wars, 1642-1660 (1995), and Henry Peacham’s Manuscript Emblem Books (1998). Recently, he has written on aspects of the eighteenth- and

nineteenth-century afterlife of Shakespeare in Shakespeare and the Visual

Arts, 1709-1900 (2002) and ‘Punch’ and Shakespeare in the Victorian Era (2007).

All these works

reflect his abiding

relationship between words and visual images.

fascination with

the complex

Rafael Zafra is currently a Researcher for the Golden Age Research Group (GRISO)

of the

Department

University

of Hispanic

of Navarre

Literature

and

(Spain),

Literary

and

a professor

Theory

of the

in the

same

university. Although he specializes in the drama of Calderén de la Barca, the

subject of his doctoral thesis, whose work he continues to research, his fields of interest include a broad spectrum of the cultural history of the

sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, He has published studies on Spanish

Corpus Christi drama, paroemiology, emblematic literature—especially on Andrea Alciato—or the relations between art and literature and painting and theater. He is also very interested in the study of the arts as a vehicle for the

Nota vitae

505

transmission of knowledge and human experience. Among his books and articles in print are his edition of Bernardino Daza Pinciano’s Alciato

translation

españolas,

into Spanish,

1549 (2003)

Los emblemas de Alciato traducidos en rimas

and the monumental

critical edition of Sebastian

Covarrubias Horozco’s Tesoro de la lengua castellana o española (2006) in collaboration with Ignacio Arellano.

INDEX OF NAMES

Only persons named in texts are included,

not those mentioned in notes, figures, and works cited

Adelaide, Queen of Italy 278.

Aelian

258.

Aesop 279, 417. Agatha, St. 384. Alacrén, Diego, 200. Alba, Duke of 165. Albert of Austria, Archduke

434, Alberti, Leon Battista 299, 300. Alciato (= Alciat, Alciati, Alciatus), Andrea 17, 19, 33, 89, 109, 115, 153, 165- 169, 216, 217, 220, 224, 228, 231, 246, 249, 250, 251, 253, 378, 404, 412, 417. Aldovrandi 258.

Aresi, Paolo 246, 249, 250. Aretino, Pietro 291, 303, 304. Arévalo, Federico 399, Aristotle 258.

Arndt, Johann 469. Astolfi, Giovanni Felice 256. Atheneaus 298. Augustine, St. 257, 329, 379, 384, 385. Austin, Norman 112. Autun, Honorio de 382. Avila, Teresa of, St.

— Teresa de Jesus, Santa. Ayres, Philip 469.

Alessandri, Allessandro 255. Alexander the Great 126, 127, 145.

Bagolino, Sebastiano 195. Balbinus (Balbin), Bohuslaus 223-

Alexander VI, Pope

Baltasar Carlos, Prince 44, 45, 48, 53, 66.

Alexander VII, Pope

163. 74, 308,

Allen, Richard Hinckley

116, 120.

Alvarez, Fernando, de Toledo 164. Ambrose, St. 258, 385. Androuet, Jacques 398. Anna Sophie von HessenDarmstadt 429. Antonio, Nicolas 181-183, 187, 193, 196, 200. Antonino 401. Apelles 299, 300, 303, 304, 308.

Apuleius, Lucius 88. Aquiles, Julio 399.

2351.

Barber, John W. 217. Bartholomaeus Bassadona, Pietro 63. Basil, St. 258. Bazan, Alvaro de, Marquis 400. Beaudoin, Laurent 363. Beatus of Liébana, St. 161.

Beer, Jeanette 300. Berchorius, Petrus 380. Bernard, St. 307. Bernat Vistarini, Antonio Bernini 308, 438.

Berry, Jean, Duke 277.

239,

Index

508 Beyerlinck, Laurentio 248, 256. Beuchot, Mauricio

240.

Carafa, Petrus Alosius

Bing, Gertrud 302.

Caramuel, Juan de 401.

Bocchi, Achille 251, 403. Boethius 298. Bolswert, Boétius ἃ 133. Bonaventure, St. 307, 325. Bonhomme, Macé 303. Boodt, Anselmus Boetius 230.

Borges, Jorge Luis 144. Borja, Juan de 246. Botero, Giovanni

Campa, Pedro F. 11, 12, 87, 115, 182, 194, 223, 291, 292, 296.

255.

Bosch, Lynette 302. Bosch (Boschius), Jakob (Jacobius) 245. Botticelli 120, 299. Boucard, Lucien 366.

Bouhours, Dominique 245. Bourassa, Robert 356, 362, 364,

365. Brant, Sebastian 154, 155. Braun, Georg 398, 400, 408, 409,

412-415. Breydenbach, Bernhard von 398. Brownrigg, Henry 463. Brueghel 300, 434. Bruerton 111.

Carracci 304. Carretto, Galeotto

227.

300.

Cartari, Vicenzo 291, 302-304. Carrillo Cazares, Alberto

257, 258.

402.

Castro, Guillen de 111. Cats, Jacob 469. Catullus 88, 248. Caussin, Nicolas 227, 255, 376. Ceballos, Jerénimo de 135. Cepeda, Francisco Nunez de 377,

400. Cervantes, Miguel de 131, 203. Céard, Jean 14. Chantal, Jane Frances de, St. 323, 324, 326, 328, 330, 331. 51, 53, 61,

163, 279, 400.

Charles VII, King of France 127. Charlotta de Urquina (= Isabaella de Spritu Sancto) 434, 435.

Caecilius, St. 95.

Caesar, Augustus 112, 127. Calderén 15-37, 203. Calepino, Ambrosio 250. Caligula 132. Callot, Jacques 470.

Chaucer,

Cambiasi, Luca

Church, Tedd 364. Ciruelo, Pedro 184. Choul, Guillaume de 277. Clement VIII, Pope 198, 199.

400,

Cher, Hugo de, St. 384.

400.

Camerarius, Joachim 376. Camoens, 142. Camos, Marco Antonio de

120.

Chaugy, Françoise-Madeleine de 331, Checa, Fernando

128.

Cock, Hieronymus

Elizabeth I, Queen of England 305. Erasmus 231, 254, 255, 302, 304, 306. Erath, Augustinus 240.

Conrad, II Emperor 276.

Erizzi, Sebastiano 277.

240, 241.

Cramer, Daniel

445, 448.

Cranach, Lucas, the Elder 163, 165.

162,

Cuadriello, Jaime 246-259. Cuesta, Juan de la 186.

398.

Escalera Pérez, Reyes 246. Esquivel Estrada, Noé Héctor 240. Estrada de Gerlero, Elena Isabel

258. Ferdinand I, Emporer 279. Ferdinand, the Catholic, King of Aragon 53, 61, 137. Ferro, Giovanni 245, 249, 250,

Cull, John T. 15, 239.

Fiallo de Boralla, Fernandéz

Dali, Salvador 329.

Flor, F. Rodriguez de la 15, 242,

Dante

25, 130.

Danti, Carlo Pellegrino 399. Daza Pinciano, Bernardino Demen, Hermann 241.

165.

Diaz de Gamarra, Juan Benito 250. Dimler, G. Richard, S.J. 216. Dioscorides 374. Domitian, Roman Emperor 163. Drapeau, Jean 356. Drexel, Jeremias 216, 219. Dull, Jonathon R. 359. Dufault, Joseph Ernest 360. Duplessis, Maurice 343, 344. Diirbeck, Margarete 404. Dürer, Albrecht

162, 163, 165.

Edward VI, King of England 305.

Eglesfield, Francis 215, 219.

246,

247.

Daly, Peter M. 215, 216, 239.

Cerda, Luis de la 256.

Charles V, Emperor

Colmenares, Juan de, fray 182. Comite, Natal 248. Combe, Thomas 468. Commodi, Andrea 401,

Céllen, Thomas von

Cordus, Mutius 402. Costalius, Petrus 303. Covarrubias Orozco, Sebastian 4, 17, 88, 168, 169, 189, 190, 196, 200, 202, 212.

240,

Case, Thomas 110,111. Cassiodorus 385. Castellini, Giovanni Zaratino

509

Index

243, 400. Fuchs, Eduard

156.

Fulgentius a S. Maria, Father 432. Fulgoso, Baptista 255. Fulvio, Andrea 276, 277. Fürck, Sebastian 408. Fürst, Paulus 405, 406. Galileo 230. Gallego, Julian 203. Garau, Francesco 170.

Garcia Arranz, José Julio 28. Garcia Frias-Gheca, Carmen Garcilaso 203. Gelio, Aulo 248. Gerundio, father 247, 248. Gessner, Conrad 258.

Ghini, Guiseppe 292. Gilman, Steven 120.

110, 113, 119,

400.

Index

510 Giovio, Paulo 226, 245, 249, 250. Gomez Bravo, Eloy 240. Gémez Espelosin 154. Gonzalez, Aurelio 240.

Gordon, Donald J. 303, 306. Gossner, Johannes 220. Gottfried, Johan Ludwig 405. Gracian, Baltasar 15, 19, 20, 37, 52, 125-151, 170, Graciän de la Madre de Dios,

Jerénimo 192, 330. Greco, El 400.

Gregorio, Doménico de 193. Gregory XV, Pope

380, 437,

Grey, Jane 305. Greiffenberg, Catharina Regina von 429. Guadalajara Medina 156. Guéroult, Guillaume Guité, Chuck 357.

398.

Guzmän, Juan de 255. Hadrian, Roman Emporer 127. Haeften, Benedikt (Benedictus) van 133. Haight, Gordon S. 219. Haro, Luis de 66.

Heinrich (Heinricus), Nikolaus 44. Helmer, Johann Rudolf 405, 406,

408. Henkel, Arthur 20, 217, 430. Henri Il, King of France 277. Henry ΠῚ, Emperor 276. Henry VII, Emperor 279. Hermann, Fritz 408. Herrera, Anulfo 256.

Herrera, Juan de 199. Herrerôn Peredo, Carlos 246,

247.

Heyns, Zacharias

432, 444.

Hippisley, Anthony R. 292, 296. Hoefnagel, Joris 164, 399, 408,

415-417. Hogenberg, Franz 398, 400, 408, 409, 412-415. Hohberg, Freiherr von 383. Holbein, Hans, the Younger 163. Holmes, William 217. Homer 92, 298. Hooft, Pieter Corneliszoon

469,

470. Horace 88, 248, 411. Horapollo 258. Horozco,

Juan de 87-108, 181-

212, 401. Horst, Daniel

164, 165.

Hoyer, Michel 431. Hugo, Herman

133, 431, 444-

445, 448. Huisch, Josef 240, 241. Ignatius, St. of Loyola 325. Iranaeus 383. Isabel de Borbén, Queen of Spain, 47, 126. Isabella Clara Eugenia of Spain, Infanta 434, 444.

Isabella de Spiritu Sancto 429-459. Isevich,J. 295. Isidore (Isidorus) of Seville 258, 375. Isla, José Francisco de 248. Jaime 1 404. James, Will 360. Jerrold, Douglass 463, Jesuit. — Society of Jesus. Jode, Gérard de 398.

511

Index

John of the Cross, St. (Juan de la Cruz, San) 181, 192, 432, 437, 448, 449. John the Baptist 328. Joseph St., Christ’s foster-father 326-331. Jouvenal 88. Julius III, Pope 156. Junius, Hadrianus 470. Kagan, Richard 399. Kappler, Claude 154. Keller, George 406. Kennedy, Walter 307. Kerouac Ti-Jean (“Jack”) 360. Ketten, Johannes Michael von der 244. Kieser, Eberhard

395, 405, 406,

408. Kircher, Athanasius

258.

Knight, Charles 461, 462. Knoblauch, Johann 306, 307. Kommann, Heinrich 405.

Koorbojian, Michael 308. K6rte, Werner

162.

Kraft, Leonhart 408.

Libro de las honras 133. Lieboldts 405. Lipsius, Justus 48, 97, 255, 256. Livius 88.

Lôffer, Johann Eckard 408. Lope. — Vega, Lope de. Lépez, Diego 166. Lépez Poza, Sagrario 46, 77, 195, 239, 254, 255,

Loret, Jeronimo 258. Louis XIII, King of France 69. Louis XIV, King of France 75. Love, Nicholas

Loyola.

307.

— Ignatius of Loyola.

Lucan 78, 88, Lucarini, Alcibiade 249, 250. Lucas, Rosa 256, 257. Lucian of Samosata 299. Lucilius, Gaius 100. Lucretius 88, 91. Lufft, Hans 163.

Luis, fray 131. Luther, Martin

Labia, Carlo 384. La Fontaine 417.

Landwehr, John 182, 218, 430. Lapide, Cornelius a 257. La Perriére, Guillaume de 291,

303, 375, 468. Lauer, Robert 110. Lavilla Cerdan, Luis

Le Moyne (Moine), Pierre 245, 304. Lévesque, René 341, 342-345, 348, 354, 361, 362, 365. Leysser, Cornelius 215, 219.

306. Luzvic, Etienne Macrobius

Lazarillo, El 203. Ledda, Guiseppina 15. Le Jay, Gabriel Francois 245. Leo, Pope 163.

133.

374.

Madariaga, Juan de, fray 135. Mafeian

194.

153-156, 162, 163,

248.

Magngni, Franca 300. Malafarina, Gianfranco 399. Male, Emile 298, 308. Mallea, Salvador de, fray 136.

Manutio (Manuzio), Paolé 255.

512

Index

Mantegna 300.

Merian, Matthiaus

Marcal, Juan Bautista 403. Marcolini, Francesco 291, 303.

Merola, Jeronimo 128. Mignault (Minois), Claude 153.

Margarita of Austria, daughter of Emperor Charles V 303.

Marguerite de Boissot et Taxis 434,

Maria Jestis de Agreda, Sister, sister of King Philip IV of Spain 43-77. Maria Luisa de Orleans 401. Marin Diego 110. Marshall, William Martial 88, 248.

303, 304, 306.

Martini, Simone de 397.

Mary Tudor (Bloody Mary) 305. Mary, Virgin 230, 327, 382, 435, 440, 443. Masculo 248. Masen, Jakob 227, 228. Maurus, Rabanus 380.

Maximilian II, Emporer 154. Mayner, Alejandro 399, Mazepa

295.

McGinn, Bernard 156. McKendrick, Melveena McKerrow, R. B. 219,

Minguez, Victor 240, 252, 401, 395, Mohyla, Peter 294-296, Montenay, Georgette de 381, 383, 429.

Moya, Rodriguiz 400. Mulroney, Bryan Munster, Sebastian

110.

Medici, Allesandto de 303. Medici, Catherine de 277. Medici, Maria de 304, 435. Melanchthon 155, 306. Meisner, Daniel 220, 395-427, Melissa, Antonio de 256, Menander 302. Mendo, Andrés 401. Menestrier, Claude-François 244,

Panofsky, Erwin 118, 302. Paradin, Claude, 464. Parizeau, Jacques 342, 353, 362, 363, 367. Pascal, Blaise 93. Perac, Etienne Du 398. Pérez Martinez, Herôn

240.

Perseigne, Thomas of 381.

Peter the Great, Tsar

398, 399, 408,

409, 411, 413. Nadal, Jeronimo 325, 327. Nazianzus, Gregory, Archbishop

of Constantinople 410. Nero, Roman Emperor 163. Neumeister, Sebastian

513

292, 293.

Petrarch (Petrarca), Francesco

366.

88, 98, 33, 34.

Nieremberg, Juan Eusebio

170.

Noot, Jan van der 168. Novarini, Luigi 255.

255. Petronius

Petrus Thomas a Sancta Maria, Carmelite father 433. Peyre, Emile 280, 281. Philip II, of Spain 61, 66, 116, 118, 128, 138, 400, 416. Philip ΠῚ, of Spain 110, 113, 199, 200, 434. Philip IV, of Spain 43-77, 128, 131, 133):136,.137: Phillipus, Marcus Julius, Emperor Picinelli, Filippo 31, 239-271, 376, 378, 382-386.

Olivares, Count-Duke 50, 65, 67, 137. Onuphrius, St. 384. Opianus 258. Otero, Ferdandez de 136.

Pietrasanta, Silvestro 228, 229. Pindar 302.

Ortega, Marcos

Plantin (Plantijn), Christopher 4,

189.

Ortelius, Abraham 398. Orti, Marco Antonio 196, Ortiz, Lorenzo 134, 378. Otto I, Emperor 278. Ovid 88, 91, 116, 248, 279, 329, 411.

Palau, Antonio 182, 187, 189, 196. Palmireno, Lorenzo

255.

Pierguigi, Stefano 302. 226, 227,

210, 215, 218. Plautus 88, 230. Pliny 87, 88, 92-96, 258, 375, Pole, Cardinal 305.

Polygnotos

Pueyo y Abadia, Luis 244. Puttfarken 119, Pythagoras 125, 196. Quarles, Francis 215, 219. Quevedo

52, 142, 203.

Quizfizz (= Kenny Meadows) 463. Rojas y Ausa, Juan de 432.

Rollenhagen, Gabriel 231.

88.

(Philip the Arab) 402.

Ogden, John 466.

Meadows, Kenny 461-484.

245, 401.

398, 401, 408.

Index

191.

Pope, Alexander 308, 309. Porreno, Baltasar 132. Praz, Mario 218, 241, 430. Propertius 88,

Roso Diaz, José 155, 156. Rouille, Guillaume 276, 281, Rowe, Eleanor 280, Rubens, Peter Paul 304, 434. Ruiz Pérez, Pedro

256.

Ruscelli, Girolamo

246.

282.

Saavedra Fajardo, Diego de 43-85, 203, 231, 246, 249, 250. Saboya, Carlos Manuel de 127. Saj6, Tamas 295, 298. Sales, St. Francois de 323-340.

Salinas, Miguel de 255. Sallustius 88.

Sanchez, Luis 189. Santo Domingo, Isabel de 196. Sanz Ferreruela, Fernando

194.

Saubert, Johann 446. Saxl, Fritz 155, 302-308. Scaliger, Julius Caesar 258. Schedel, Hartman 398. Schône, Albrecht 217, 220, 224,

430. Schribner, Robert W. Schwartz, Lia 254.

156.

Sebastian, Santiago 401. pesos

77.

Index

514

Seneca 87, 88, 97-101, 256, 257, 297, 302, 416. Servus, Alexander

377.

Shakespeare, William 231, 461484. Sider, Sandra 430. Siebenmann, Gustav 417, 418. Sixtus V, Pope

183.

Skinfill Nogal, Barbara 239, 240, 245, 256. Skoropadsky, Hetman Ivan 295. Smith, Orrin 461, 462. Society of Jesus (Jesuit, which frequently replaces the sutname of the writer) 19, 125-131, 133, 134, 136, 137, 138, 141, 142, 144, 145, 170, 200, 216, 217, 219, 223, 225228, 230, 244-247, 257, 292, 325, 327, 344, 358, 378, 401. Solis, Virgil 275, 278-281, 284. Solérzano Pereira 246. Sondermann, Antonia

430, 436.

Stames, John 357. Stobeo (Stobaeus), Juan 255, 256. Stosic, Ljiljana 295, 296. Stradano, Giovanni 299, Suetonius 88. Sylvester, St. 384. Tacitus

88.

515

Index

Tesing, Jan 292. Textor, Juan Ravisior 26.

Victor, Hugo, St. 307.

Theodosius, Emprorer

Villanueva, Tomäs de, Archbishop 376. Virgil 87-90, 92, 97, 111-113, 117, 120, 248, 256. Visscher, Anna Roemers 429. Vitruvius 279. Vives, Luis 255. Vries, Vredeman de 398.

Villava,

402, 403.

Theophrastus 373. Tiberius, Maurice, Byzantine

Emperor 278. Tiberius IT 279. Tibullus 88. Tielolo 304. Titian, 116, 119, 299. Tito 401. Torres, Juan de 169. Tracy, Prudence 12. Tresguerras, Francisco Eduardo 251,252 Trevarent, Guy de 300. Trudeau, Pierre Elliott 344-346,

348, 349, 357, 364, 356, 365. Tyas, Robert 461-484. Typotius, Jakob 230.

Union Catalogue of Emblem Books

(UCAT) 217, 218.

Urquina, Mateo du 434. Valbuena Briones, Angel

15:35;

109. Valeriano Bolzani, Giovanni Piero 230, 258, 299, 374, 377, 378, 380, 383, 386. Vassellin, Martine 299, 300.

Tanis, James 164, 165. Tempest 402, 403.

Vaugeois, Denis 359. Veen (Vaenius), Otto van 431,

Terence 88. Teresa de Jesus, Santa 131, 181, 184, 185, 192, 196, 200, 201, 329, 330, 429, 432, 434-440, 443, 445, 447-449, Tertulian 302.

434, 444, 445. Vega, Lope de 109-124, 309.

Vega Ramos, Maria José 156. Vencel 87. Vermeer 400. Vico, Enea 277, 281.

246.

Wechel, Chrestian (Christian) 217. Weiner,J. 190, 193.

Wierix, Hieronymus 325. Willaert, Adriaen 303. Wissenschaftliche Buchgesellschaft Darmstadt 217. Wright, Elisabeth 113. Wright, MR. 115. Wyngaerde, Anton von den 399, 400. Young, Alan R. 217.

Wells-Cole, Anthony 279, 283.

Zapasko,J. 295. Zavala, Augustin Jacinto 253. Zholtovsky, P. 296. Zincgref, Julius Wilhelm 401.

Weston, David

Zoroaster 94, 95.

Weiss, Roberto

276. 218.

Whitney, Geoffrey 303, 464. Whitaker, Reg 356. Wierix, Anton II 330, 431, 443.

Zubritsky, Nokodium Zuccaro 300.

293.