Filippo Picinelli - Mondo Simbolico - 1669

The Symbolic World by Filippo Picinelli, printed in Milan by Francesco Vigone in 1669. It is the second edition, greatly expanded compared to the first of 1653. The date on the title page, MDCLXIX, corresponds to 1669.

[32] ,854,230

Book in good condition, parchment cover worn on the front board which is slightly detached, the first fascicle slightly loose, interior pages with some signs of humidity and small non-invasive stains; most of the pages are clean and fresh.

It is a large encyclopedia of Baroque emblematic art: it gathers images, mottos, and symbolic interpretations to be used in sermons, speeches, and poetry. Here the word imprese (feat/enterprise) indicates figures accompanied by a motto, capable of expressing a moral, religious, or personal idea.

The topics include stars, animals, plants, precious stones, religious objects, nautical, military, and musical utensils and tools. The volume thus documents how the culture of the seventeenth century attributed symbolic meanings to the natural world and to everyday objects.

Filippo Picinelli, born in Milan on November 21, 1604, was a member of the Regular Canons of St. Augustine (Canonici Regolari Lataranenses), a theologian, preacher, and writer. He studied philosophy in Cremona and theology in Piacenza; later he became prior and abbot of Santa Maria della Passione in Milan. Information about his life mainly comes from the autobiography included in the Ateneo dei letterati milanesi. The date of death is not unanimously established: several catalogs give 1678.

His central idea was that Creation could be read as a great book of symbols. The Symbolic World, his best-known work, gained European diffusion also through the Latin translation by Augustinus Erath, entitled Mundus symbolicus. Among his other writings are Lumi riflessi, the Ateneo dei letterati milanesi, and Le Fatiche apostoliche.