Polish Emblems

Author: Stanisław Herakliusz Lubomirski

Title: Adverbia moralia (Mirobulli Tassalini Adverbiorum moralium sive de virtute et fortuna libellus)

Editio princeps: Warszawa 1688 in a publishing house of Schreibera

Artist: Tylman of Gameren.

Engraver: Jan Jerzy Helwig of Królewiec

Access: oldrprint

Short Description: The collection consists altogether of fifteen images and an unassisted engraving on a front page. It was republished eleven times in 17^th and 18^th century, in three cases it was included into collections of Lubomirski’s works. Fr. Antoni Chryzanty Łapczyński prepared a Polish translation of Latin inscriptions and subscriptions, which was printed in 1714. In 1730 a Russian translation also appeared.

Philosophical and reflective collection of Adverbs is dedicated to moral issues, emblems praise the virtues in a neo-stoic manner. Subscriptions have an apophthegmatic, artful form of elogia; they are arranged in an almost figural manner, for example in a shape of a cross or a triangle. All the subscriptions are bonded together by the same principle of text organization: each elogium is organized by a repeated, joining word, eg. “SEMPER” (“ALWAYS”) in Adverbium XII, from which the above engraving was taken.

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