Emblematic structures in Renaissance French culture

by Daniel S. Russell

The emblem and the device (or impresa, as it was called in Italy) were the most direct and telling manifestations of a mentality that played a significant role in the generation and reception of discourse and art in Western Europe between the late Middle Ages and the mid-eighteenth century. Daniel Russell demonstrates how the emblematic forms developed and how they functioned within early modern French culture and society. He also attempts to show how the guiding principles behind the composition of emblems influenced the production of courtly decoration, ceremony, and propaganda, as well as the composition of literary texts as different as Maurice Seeve's Delie, Montaigne's Essais, and Du Bartas's Sepmaine.