Emblemata V.C. Andreae Alciati Mediolanensis iurisconsulti : cum facili & compendiosa explicatione, qua obscura illustrantur, dubiaq́ue omnia soluuntur,
Andrea Alciati's emblem book, first issued 1531 and here printed in 1622 by the Plantin office in Antwerp with Claude Mignault's Latin commentary, made for humanist readers decoding moral mottoes and verses. The 213 square woodcuts set small figures—gods, allegorical women, skeletons, armed men, animals—in open landscapes with hatched skies, hill towns and sketchy trees, giving designers compact emblem vignettes and ready-made symbolic shorthand.
