The purpose of this volume is to make accessible to the modern reader the emblems of the great Italian jurist Andreas Alciatus not only in the original Latin but also in representative translations into French, German, Italian and Spanish published during the sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries. These emblems have been rendered accessible in three ways. Firstly, facsimiles of the emblems have been reproduced; secondly, the texts have been translated into English and the pictures have been briefly described; thirdly, indexes have been prepared to the key words and visual motifs, which are specially flagged in the translations and descriptions....

1492, May 8. Andrea Alciato was born in Milan or in Alzate, a village about fifteen kilometers south of Como, from which his family took its name. He was the only child of Ambrogio Alciati, a prosperous merchant, and Margherita Landriani, a member of a notable Milanese family.

1504-1506. As a student in Milan, he was given an excellent foundation in Latin and Greek thanks to Giano Parrasio, a noted and productive scholar, whose activity in recovering classical manuscripts, in re-establishing texts, and in the study of ancient coins and inscriptions provided the young man with an impressive example of...