Glasgow University Emblem Website
The University of Glasgow, Scotland
I’m willing to bet a good majority of people reading this blog were not too familiar with emblems or never heard of them altogether before this; it’s completely understandable. Despite being very popular centuries ago, today the art form has sadly fallen into obscurity. Yet, there are still some enthusiasts, and more so scholars, who find the research and preservation of these emblem books to have particularly important historical and cultural value. One such institution which has made a name for itself in this arena is the University of Glasgow, Scotland.
The University at Glasgow became a center for the study of emblematic literature by a fortuitous bequest of Sir William Stirling Maxwell’s extensive collection of emblem books. Stirling Maxwell was a scholar, author, previous Chancellor of Glasgow University, and an avid collector of art and books. Among his library was possibly the largest private collection of emblem books and similar type literature in the world gathered from all parts of Europe in the early to mid 19th century.
Sir William Stirling Maxwell
From this collection the University has created the Center for Emblem Studies for which the Glasgow University Emblem Website was a natural outgrowth. In collaboration with other universities and institutions, Glasgow’s Emblem site has become, at least for me, an indispensable source for access to these old emblem books. On the website you will find facsimiles, translations, and some commentary on the emblems. There are also a variety of links to other resources related to emblematic study and literature.
A subsection of the website which I particularly enjoy is, Alciato at Glasgow, a page featuring facsimiles of 22 editions of Alciato’s Emblemata which were a part of Stirling Maxwell’s emblem collection. From the website:
“There are 22 browsable emblem books, in which the original Alciato texts are available in both transcribed and facsimile versions, although the longer, non-authorial commentaries of 1591, 1615, and 1621 are available only in facsimile.”
Most everything is translated from the Latin to English transcriptions and the site is fairly easy to navigate and leisurely browse. So, if you like what you’ve seen so far of the Alciato emblems I featured on this blog, you’ll definitely want to check this out.
I hope you will visit the Glasgow Emblem website and have a look around. I have no affiliation with them, nor have I ever attended there or even visited Scotland before, but they’ve done a great job of making these books accessible, so I wanted to give them a little praise and credit. If you do visit the website, let me know what you think. Maybe you’ll see an emblem that catches your eye and we can have a discussion about what it has to say.
“Never Procrastinate“, From the 1621 edition of Alciato’s Emblems. Image reproduced by permission of University of Glasgow Library, Archives & Special Collections.