14.  Joachim Camerarius, Symbolorum et emblematum

Joachim Camerarius, physician and botanist, owned a huge garden and botanical specimens in his native Nuremberg. This is the Book One of the 4-volume emblem book on animals and plants, all together containing 400 emblems. The engravings are by Hans Sibmacher (d.1611).

Book One (first published in 1590) contains 100 emblems of various trees, flowers, and fruits, while the other three books, published respectively in 1595, 1596, and 1604, deal with animals, birds and insects, and fish and reptiles. The collective edition was published in 1605.

The emblem of grapevine around a dead tree signifies friendship [1], showing that just as grapevine wraps itself around a dead elm tree, so true friendship last until after death.

The emblem of sunflower which always chases the sun [2], exhorts the need to turn one's mind constantly to the mercy of God. According to the prose commentary that follows the emblem itself, this flower 'Chrysanthmeum Peruviana' has become widely popular in the past several years. The motif of the sunflower is also used, with the same motto, as a device for a Scottish clan of Buchan.

Other Images : [3]

Landwehr, German, 167; Praz, p.295