Emblematica Lusitana e os Emblemas.
Hill, Elizabeth K.
Vasco Mousinho de Castelbranco. Emblematica Lusitana e os Emblemas.
Rubem Amaral, Jr., ed. Lisbon: Centro de Historia da Universidade
de Lisboa, 2005. 154 pp. index. illus. bibl. n.p. ISBN: 972-99298-6-6.
Portuguese emblems appeared later and in smaller numbers than in
other European countries and have received little attention even from
emblem scholars. Amaral's work aims to remedy this situation.
Although the commentary is in Portuguese, there are abstracts in
English, French, and Spanish. He begins with a general definition of the
emblem and recounts its history in Portugal. Although he correctly
distinguishes emblem from device, he does give accounts, rather
lengthily for this context, of the latter's use for such purposes
as architecture and festival banners and even finds emblematic elements
in Portuguese printers' marks. Although these accounts are
basically lists, with pictures that are not always clear, they are
potentially useful to the study of both emblematic and non-emblematic
visual imagery.
Amaral presents Quevedo's works as they were originally
published, in two groups, one in Discurso sobre a Vida e Morte de Santa
Isabel, Rainha de Portugal, e outras varias rimas and the other a
manuscript entitled Dialogos de Varia Doutrina. Although he called his
poems "emblemas," he did not, probably for financial reasons,
include pictures. Amaral has provided these, appropriating images from
Alciati, Paradin, and others that Quevedo almost certainly knew. This
clothing of a "naked emblem" can be a tricky, highly
conjectural, endeavor. We'll never know what sort of pictures
Quevedo would have used or whether he had actually ever seen those that
Amaral appends to his verses. Nevertheless, these pairings are
convincing and the volume is an enlightening, if specialized, view of
some little-known material. Although of interest mainly to students of
emblems and of Portuguese literature, this volume also has merits for
the general reader.
ELIZABETH K. HILL
St. John's University (Emerita)
