Ad 1: Fourth edition of this influential and important emblem book by the famous Hungarian humanist, antiquarian, numismatic, bibliophile and classical scholar Johannes Sambucus (János Zsámboky, 1531-1584) who spent much of his life in Vienna as council, librarian, diplomat and court historiographer to the Habsburg emperors Ferdinand I (1503-1564), Maximilian II (1527-1576) and Rudolph II (1552-1612). Sambucus was known for his very important library containing many classical manuscripts (some of them he has edited himself) including the Plantin edition of Horaces Ars poetica (1564).
Ad 2: The success of the first edition of Sambucus emblem book of 1564 gave Plantin the taste for the new genre. Only one year later (in 1565) Plantin published not only the very successful emblem book of his friend Hadrianus Junius (1511-1575), but he also republished the first and perhaps the most famous and iconic emblem book ever printed: the emblem book by the Italian humanist Andrea Alciati (1492-1550). The first edition had been published in Augsburg in 1531. The first authorized edition appeared in Paris in 1534 by Chrestien Wechel with new woodcuts, which edition became the standard edition. Wechel can be said to have set the standard for clear presentation of emblems (with each emblem beginning on a fresh page) featuring the motto or title ("inscriptio"), the emblem ("pictura") below that and then the verse text ("subscriptio"). Over 100 new editions followed to 1620 (testifying of the great success) establishing an entire new European genre: the emblem book. In 1536 the first French edition was published, translated by Jean Lefevre and illustrated by Jean "Mercure" Jollat (1490-1550). Translations into German, Italian and Spanish followed.
The first Plantin edition of Alciatis emblem book of 1565 (in 24mo) was soon followed by a second edition in 1566 (also in 24mo) and a third in 1567 (in 16mo, our edition), all illustrated with the same woodcuts.
Andrea Alciati (1492-1550) was an Italian jurist and writer, born in Milan. He is considered the founder of the school of legal humanists, but his most famous work remains his Emblemata. Starting as a companion to the Adagia of Desiderius Erasmus, the work became archetypal for a new way of relating art and literature through the glass of iconography.
With the engraved armorial bookplate of the French military physician and bibliophile Hyacinthe Théodore Baron (1707-1787), who owned an important library, mounted on the front pastedown. The head of the spine is partly chipped, the front hinge is weakening, with some loss of material near the foot. The work is lightly browned, with occasional foxing. Otherwise in good condition. Ad 1: H. Homann, Studien zur Emblematik des 16. Jhts., pp. 43-78; Landwehr, Emblem books Low Countries 712; M. Rooses, De Plantijnse uitgaven van "Emblemata", in: Tijdschr. voor boek- en bibliotheekwezen, 2 (1904), pp. 7-21; A.S.Q. Visser, Joan. Sambucus and the learned image. The use of the emblem in late Renaissance humanism (2005); USTC 401678; Voet 2171; L. Voet & G. Persoons, De emblemata van Joh. Sambucus, in: De Gulden Passer, 58/59 (1980-1981), pp. 5-16.
Ad 2: Green, Alciati, 78; USTC 409819; Voet 24.