The Modern Critical Reception of the English Emblem

This volume provides a review of the modern reception of the English emblem, as documented in the companion bibliography. With a few exceptions, modern criticism begins in the 1940s after the appearance of Mario Praz's "Studies in Seventeenth-century Imagery". The authors begin with a definition of the genre, review general studies of the European emblem, followed by general studies of the English emblem, which lead to a consideration of printed works to 1700 and manuscript emblems. The emblem also informed bookmaking in various ways and attention is paid to title pages, frontispieces, illustrations and broadsides. Since the emblem and impresa were an integral part of the material culture, the final sections deal with "applied" uses in education and social entertainment, and "extra-literary" uses in painting, tapestry, carving, jewellery, funereal monuments and imprese.