Andrea Alciati - Emblemata - 1781

A magnificent copy of Andrea Alciato’s Emblemata, printed in Madrid in 1781 by the renowned printer Pantaleón Aznar. This is an attractive Spanish edition from the late eighteenth century of the work that definitively established the genre of emblem literature in Europe.

This valuable scholarly pocket edition was published “sumptibus Regiae Societatis.” It follows a rigorous recension and includes the celebrated critical commentaries of the French scholar Claude Mignault (Claudio Minois), which are essential for interpreting the work’s moral and philosophical symbolism.

Contents and Structure:
The volume contains Alciato’s complete and definitive theoretical corpus, comprising 212 thematically arranged emblems. As a sought-after edition intended for the educational and intellectual milieu of eighteenth-century Spain, it presents a sober purely typographical format: each emblem consists of its corresponding motto, its Latin poetic epigram, and the subsequent explanatory notes, dispensing with the traditional woodcut illustrations in order to give priority to the study of the classical text.

An ideal copy for collectors of eighteenth-century books and for enthusiasts of emblem literature, humanist rhetoric, and the history of printing in Madrid.