The English Emblem Tradition: Volume 5: Henry Peacham's Manuscript Emblem Books (Index Emblematicus) - Hardcover

Young, Alan R.

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0802009875 ISBN 13: 9780802009876

Publisher: University of Toronto Press, 1998

Synopsis

The emblem was one of the most distinctive of Renaissance art forms, lending itself to the concrete manifestation of the deeply-rooted Renaissance belief in the interrelationship between painting and poetry. Emblems, typically consisting of a combination of motto, picture, and poem, had a didactic as well as illustrative function, and were used to expound an ethical or moral truth.

Henry Peacham's Manuscript Emblem Books is a collection of four emblem manuscripts by the noted seventeenth-century humanist scholar, Henry Peacham. The volume includes three books based on King James I's Basilicon Doron, and a fourth emblem book entitled Emblemata varia. The story of their genesis, composition, and dedications to King James and his eldest son, Prince Henry, offers some fascinating insights into the attempts by Peacham to obtain royal patronage.

In keeping with previous volumes in the Index Emblematicus series, the text and picture of each emblem is presented and accompanied by on-page translation and analysis.

About this title

About the Author

Alan R. Young is Professor Emeritus of Acadia University. He is a graduate of the University of Bristol, the University of East Africa, the University of East Anglia, and the University of Alberta. He began his teaching career as a Government Education Officer in Kenya and later taught English at Simon Fraser University, the University of Alberta, and Acadia University. He is Professor Emeritus of Acadia University. He is a member of the editorial board of the journal Emblematica and has published extensively on the Renaissance emblem, Shakespeare, the tournament, and Atlantic Canadian Literature. His books that deal with emblematic topics include a facsimile edition of Henry Peacham's Emblemata Varia (1976),Henry Peacham (1979), Tudor and Jacobean Tournaments (1987), The English Tournament Imprese (1988), His Majesty's Royal Ship: A Critical Edition of Thomas Heywood's "A True Description" (1990), The Art of the Emblem: Essays in Honor of Karl Josef Höltgen (ed. with Michael Bath and John Manning) (1993), Emblematic Flag Devices of the English Civil Wars 1642-1660 (1995), and Henry Peacham's Manuscript Emblem Books (1998). He has long been interested in the application of computer technology to research in the humanities. Three of the books mentioned above - The English Tournament Imprese, Emblematic Flag Devices of the English Civil Wars, and Henry Peacham's Manuscript Emblem Books - were based upon computer databases that recorded information concerning collections of emblematic material. His most recent books - Hamlet and the Visual Arts, 1709-1900 (2002) and Punch and Shakespeare in the Victorian Era (2007) - also made use of extensive databases of visual materials compiled by the author. The database for Hamlet has been published separately as part of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology's Shakespeare Electronic Archive.

Edition details

• Publisher: University of Toronto Press
• Publication date: 1998
• ISBN 10: 0802009875
• ISBN 13: 9780802009876
• Binding: Hardcover
• Language: English
• Number of pages: 400