III. Paper and format

André Alciat. Omnia... emblemata. – Anvers: Christophe Plantin, 1577. In-8.

Printed for the first time in 1531, the Emblematum Liber by André Alciat gave rise to a broad literary publishing phenomenon that flourished throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. From an early stage, Plantin included this work in his repertory, printing various editions in 16° format, reorganising the contents, supplementing it with commentaries and changing the corpus of images.

   In 1577 he republished it with the commentary by humanist Claude Mignault and selected the larger 8° format. Alciat’s book found itself literally transformed. In earlier editions, Plantin had respected the tripartite composition of the emblem by gathering together the title, the illustration and the epigram onto one page. With the 1577 edition, this page layout disappeared: the commentary and the gloss engulfed the space and relegated the emblems to the background. The spatial density also coincides with a time of crisis: the Spanish Fury (1576) had a sharp impact on the shop, and paper having become more difficult to source, each sheet had to be profitable.

Cultura Fonds: LC 5