Amazon.com description: Product Description: Recognition of the great importance in Renaissance culture of the versatile and complex form of the emblem is increasingly widespread. This series aims to satisfy the needs of those who require access to texts in an edition as close to the original as possible. Each text in the series is preceded by a substantial essay specially written by an acknowledged authority on the text. In this volume, John Manning writes the preceding essay for Andrea Alciato's book of emblems. Although this work appeared in over 200 editions in the 16th and 17th centuries, this facsimile was approved by the author shortly before his death and can therefore be assumed to be his last word on his most popular book. The editorial tradition initiated by this particular book was to have a marked influence on the course of Emblemata publishing throughout the rest of the 16th and 17th centuries.