Dead Emblems
De Bruck, Jacob. Les Emblemes Moraulx et Militaires Du Sieur Jacob De Bruck Angermundt Nouvellement mis en Lumiere. Strasbourg: 1616. A different emblem book than de Bruck’s Emblemata Politica, published three years later. It contains, besides the Latin verses, fifty verses in French, or German, as the case may be.
Emblems in the following books can be identified as a substantive part of Bacon’s inductive philosophy; plates of his invention:
J. Camerarius: Symbolorum et Emblematum, 1590
J. Cats: Silenus Alcibiadis sive Proteus, 1618
Boisardi: Emblemata, 1593
J. Bornitius: Emblemata Ethico Politica, 1664
J. de Bruck: Emblemata Moralia et Bellica, 1616
J. de Bruck: Emblemata Politica, 1618
J. de Brunes: Emblemata, 1624
Heinsius: Emblemata Amatoria, 1619
Heyns: Emblemata Moralia, 1625
Oræus Viridarium 1619
G. Rollenhagen: Emblematum, 1611, 1613
Schoonhovius: Emblemata, 1618
J. Typotius: Symbola Divina et Humana, 1600
O. Vænius: Amorum Emblemata, 1612
M. Claud Paradin: Devises Royales, 1622
Van de Velde: Emblemata, N. D.
Andrea Alciati: Emblematum Libre, 1531
Henry Peacham: Minerva Britanna, 1612
Geffrey Whitney: A Choice of Emblemes, 1586
With the exception of Bornitius, the foregoing volumes bear date within the period of Bacon’s lifetime, that is to say between 1560 and 1626. An earlier edition of Bornitius than 1659 is hard to find when the manuscript came into the hands of Gruter with other manuscripts of Bacon’s, published by him in the year 1653.
The following libraries hold this particular manuscript:
- British Museum Library.
- Konigliche Bibliothek, Berlin.
- Konigliche und Universitats Bibliothek, Breslau.
- Stadt Bibliothek, Breslau.
- Grossherzogliche Hofbibliothek, Darmstadt.
- Offentliche Bibliothek, Dresden.
- Kaiserliche Universitats und Landes Bibliothek, Strasbourg.
- Herzogliche Bibliothek, Wolfenbiittel.
- Hof und Staats Bibliothek, Munich.
- Det Store Kongelige Bibliothek, Copenhagen.
Many emblems constitute a subordinate part of Bacon’s system of induction. What his system really was is not well understood by those who never read the Novum Organum, nor is it comprehended by those who cannot plead that excuse.
There is plenary evidence that Bacon’s contemporaries had as little comprehension of it as the men of our time.
“It deserveth not to be read in schools but to be freighted in the ship of fools,” said Coke.
“It is like the peace of God,” said King James I., “It passeth all understanding.
Gallery of J. Bornitius' Emblems
