'Jean Jacques Boissard's Emblematum liber / Emblemes latins (Metz,1588). Metz, A. Faber, 1588': 'Facsimile Edition Using Glasgow University Library SM ... Introduction and Notes' (Imago Figurata, 5)

Boissard's Emblematum liber (1588) is one of the most complex and fascinating we possess: it comprises 42 emblems, each occupying an opening, with a quatrain in Latin by Boissard, a sonnet in French by Pierre Joly, and sophisticated engravings, many of them including more text, much of it in Greek. It is a daunting work but one which amply repays study and attention. Two particularly interesting features are 1) the autograph manuscript at the Bibliothèque de l'Institut in Paris which, as well as giving Boissard's own pictura, almost certainly used by the engraver, contains a prose commentary in French, and 2) the Brussels copy of the 1588 edition, a presentation copy to Louis Malarmey, which has Greek citations of relevance to our understanding of the emblems added, again in Boissard's own hand. Facsimile Edition, Using Glasgow University Library copy SM Add 415, with Introduction and Critical Apparatus.