The Emblemata cum commentariis of 1621
This is the largest edition of Alciato's Book of Emblems up to this time. It is just over a thousand pages in length, and includes, as the title page indicates, the commentaries of Claude Mignault (1573), Francesco Sanchez (1573), and Lorenzo Pignorio. It was assembled by Johann Thuilius, a professor of medicine at Breisgau in Germany.
The illustrations and a lot of the commentary for the Web edition have come from this text. The original, a quarto (signed a-e A-Z Aa-Zz Aaa-Rrr [-Rrr1] in 8s, paged I-LXXX, 1-[1004]), measures 22.2 x 16 cm (in the copy owned by W. Barker). We give a very few sample pages in a reduced form.
Folio a2 recto (title page). There is also a colophon at folio Rrr6 verso, which reads "Patuij ex Typographia Laurentij Pasquati. M.D.C.XXI."Page 26 The beginning of Emblem 4 (Ganymede).
Page 27 The next page of the Ganymede emblem, showing the layout of the commentary. We give a translation of this commentary.
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The principal editions: 1531, 1534, 1546, 1550, 1621
List of editions
Last modified 11 February 1998