Product details
- ISBN 9780789215222
- Weight: 540g
- Dimensions: 152 x 152mm
- Publication Date: 17 Nov 2025
- Publisher: Abbeville Press Inc.,U.S.
- Publication City/Country: US
- Product Form: Hardback
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Discover the esoteric insights and enchanting imagery of the Baroque emblem book, a long-lost cousin of the tarot.
The emblem book, which reached the peak of its popularity in the 16th and 17th centuries, presented mysterious allegorical images—rather like those we now find on tarot cards—alongside Latin mottoes. A learned text explained the connection between image and motto, and the lessons each emblem held for the reader’s life. Drawing on sources such as medieval bestiaries and Aesop’s fables, emblem books reflected an enchanted view of nature in which our human lives were intertwined with plants, animals, the moon and the stars. World-renowned natural perfumer Mandy Aftel first encountered emblem books in the course of her researches into antique botanical illustrations, and quickly became entranced. Here she presents 100 emblems from perhaps the finest emblem book, the Symbolorum et Emblematum of Camerarius, originally published in four parts between 1590 and 1604. Aftel has sensitively tinted in watercolour the bewitching circular engravings of the Symbolorum, in which giant hands reach from the sky; lions, bears, and unicorns gambol; and distant spires beckon. The mottoes and explanatory texts are given in translation from the original Latin, along with Aftel’s own commentary. An illustrated introduction illuminates the history and magic of emblem book.
Symbolorum will be a treasure for anyone who is drawn to uncover ancient wisdom and feel the breath of the universe.
Mandy Aftel, an internationally known artisan perfumer and authority on natural fragrance, is the owner of Aftelier Perfumes and the Aftel Archive of Curious Scents in Berkeley, California. Her other books include Essence and Alchemy: A Natural History of Perfume, which helped sparked the natural perfume renaissance and has been translated into eight languages. Aftel's work has been featured in the New York Times, Vogue, Vanity Fair, and numerous other major outlets.
