Iohannes Sambucus: Emblemata Nicolaus Reusner humanist courtier, poet and scientist published a coolection of cooperplate engravings with the portraits of outstanding men - virorum illustrum - in 1590 in Strassburg. There is one Hugarian among them, János Zsámboky (1531-1584), who is - according to the epigram attached to picture - was a remarkable phisician and poet. This polyhistor, who lived in Vienna in the last two years in his life, published the works of authors in Latin and Greek, among them Janus Pannonius and Antonio Bonfini, different maps and geographic descriptions (eg. "Hungaria", "Transilvaniae Descriptio" and "Illirium") and also his own poems in Latin. His international fame came with his "emblems". The original Greek meaning of this word is "symbol" although is used for a crest nowadays. At the time of Zsámboky it was a particular form of literature, which was made popular not long before Andrea Alaciati Italian legal scientist. The basic of this form was an allagorical picture - icon, pictura, imago, symbolon - which was fitted with a title named lemma, motto or inpiratio. At the bottom of the picture a poem decribed the meaning of the image, gave a key to understand the title and drew a lesson from all these. The book collecting these kind of works was named "emblemata" according to the plural in Greek. When Zsámboky went to Italy he felt for this form of art. Being a good poetaster he started to show his knowledge in antiquity and Latin language in this form. His book first came out in 1564 and was published six times within a short time. The author suddenly became famous, as one of the most talented poet of this form of literature. He was the first Hugarian poet whose - althoug Latin - poems were published translated into French and not long after his death in English as well. Iohannes Sambucus: Emblemata Property of the Győr Diocese Library Number of pages: 352 Size: 84 x 130 mm Binding: Hardcover 17 EUR     Iohannes Sambucus: Emblemata (Edition de Luxe) Property of the Győr Diocese Library Number of pages: 352 Size: 84 x 130 mm Binding: Sewed manually on ribs and bound in genuine leather with wooden boards Category: Literature 127 EUR