ABSTRACT
Most scholars and students working on any aspect of emblem studies will have read the earlier authorities on the subject. Not that all readers are likely to agree on a list of authorities. Most of us know an emblem when we see one. But this does not mean that it is easy to discuss what might be called the genre of the emblem. At least one modern scholar1 who does know emblems considers the question “What is an emblem?” to be a non-question, although certain early modern Jesuits appear to have less diculty with the question. However, it is true that looking back today over the centuries in which emblems have enriched both the print and material cultures, there are far more examples than were present in the early modern period.
