11.  Johannes Sambucus, Emblemata / Hadrianus Junius, Emblemata

An emblem book by a Hungarian humanist, Johannes Sambucus, first published in Latin in 1564 from Christopher Plantin. This is the first Dutch edition translated by Marcus Antonius Gillis van Diest, and is here bound with the second Dutch edition of Junius’s Emblemata.

Both are printed in Gothic type, with woodcuts for Sambucus by Arnold Nicolai, Gerard Janssen van Kampen (who were also responsible for Junius) and others, after the original design by Lucas d'Heere (of Ghent) and P. Huys. Although Sambucus's emblem book provided materials for English emblem writers such as Geffrey Whitney and Henry Peacham, the Dutch edition does not seem to have had a very wide circulation judging from the fact that this is the only edition.

The emblem with a motto 'the use of the books makes man wise' [1] also appears in Whitney. Some of Sambucus’s emblems carry a humanistic wit, as is that on the ‘Strife between Grammar, Dialectic, Rhetoric and Historiography’ [2] .

Other editions of Junius' Emblemata :   no.10

Adams, S219; J447; BL STC Nether., p.182; p.110; Landwehr, Low Countries, 596; 285; Praz, p.487; p.385; Voet 2178; 1483