Emblematic Structures in French Culture.

Ten years ago, in The Emblem and Device in France, Daniel Russell could justly bemoan the fact that "there exists no comprehensive study of the French emblem tradition" (14). His present volume answers this need admirably. Drawing on extensive research, Russell aims to situate any modern theoretical understanding of sixteenth-century emblem books within broader Renaissance cultural phenomena rather than attempting to define the genre strictly through formal characteristics. The flowering of emblematic structures in France - where emblems found their first true public between 1530 and 1560 - finds its origins in France's long tradition of joining literary invention with book illustration and in the delicate (and fruitful) balance maintained in Renaissance France between medieval reading habits and an interest in newly developed printing techniques. Alciato, Russell maintains, essentially "modernized a traditionally French way of presenting moral wisdom" (127).

As one might expect, a study of this sort covers an extremely divergent selection of texts, artifacts, and other court phenomena. Keeping to a methodological imperative already articulated in The Emblem and Device in France, Russell organizes his treatment of this wealth of material in largely historical fashion rather than grouping it into categories based on form or content. Such an approach, he contends, not only avoids circularity of argument but also respects the fundamental differences between ostensibly similar works. Readers may find this methodology confusing; Russell's introductions and conclusions tend to be brief, and it can be difficult to follow his arguments on a particular subject when discussion is split among different chapters. On the other hand, Russell's discretion is reassuring. He studiously avoids speculation, and one senses that each text examined is allowed to speak for itself. He does an excellent job, for example, of threshing out essential differences in articulations of the emblem genre in La Perriere, Corrozet, Coustau, and Aneau.

Nearly half the book concerns developments before Alciato's first edition of emblems (1531). In the first four chapters Russell examines medieval and late medieval antecedents, from early attempts at controlling pictorial allegory through typological symbolism and tituli to late-fifteenth-century illustrated texts (such as Brant's Narrenschiff) that adopted an emblem-like tripartite structure. Texts from various traditions - Fournival's Bestiaire d'amour, Le Noir's versions of Christine de Pisan's Epistre Othea, the late-fifteenth-century Proverbes en rime and Henri Baude's Dictz moraulx pour faire tapisserie, to name just a few are evaluated in the broader context of shifts in the ways readers conceived of secular allegory.

Three chapters follow that deal specifically with emblems in Renaissance France and with theoretical problems in defining the genre. Russell downplays the influence of Horapollo's Hieroglyphics and suggests that Alciato's first publisher in France, Wechel, may have been aiming the book primarily at the school trade, given Alciato's reputation as a pedagogue. Alba amicorum and other manuscripts from the latter part of the sixteenth century are analyzed to show that the "emblematic mentality" remained strong despite a decline in the number of emblem books published in France. The last two chapters carry the discussion of "applied emblematics" beyond the emblem form per se, from emblematic portraiture (Niccolo Bellin's 1545 portrait of Francois I) to emblematic images in literature (Marguerite de Navarre, Jean de Sponde, Du Bartas).

The work is well-illustrated throughout, although illustrations are lacking in one or two key discussions (e.g. the section on Brant's Narrenschiff). The greatest strength of this work is its extensive bibliography, which reflects the great depth of Russell's research. Scholars in emblem studies will find this book an indispensable resource.

FRANCIS T. BRIGHT University of Redlands