Emblemata

Usually known simply as the Emblemata, the first emblem book appeared in Augsburg (Germany) in 1531 under the title Viri Clarissimi D. Andreae Alciati Iurisconsultiss.

Produced by the publisher Heinrich Steyner, the unauthorized first print edition was compiled from a manuscript of Latin poems which the Italian jurist Andrea Alciato had dedicated to his friend Conrad Peutinger and circulated to his acquaintances.

The word "emblemata" is simply the plural of the Greek word "emblema", meaning a piece of inlay or mosaic, or an ornament: in his preface to Peutinger, Alciato describes his emblems as a learned recreation, a pastime for humanists steeped in classical culture.

The preface reads in part (translated)[citation needed]: While boys are entertained by nuts and youths by dice, so playing-cards fill up the time of lazy men.

Just as one affixes trimmings to clothes and badges to hats, so it behooves every one of us to write in silent marks.