In 1612, the Jerzy Schonfels’ printing house in Braniewo published Tomasz Treter’s posthumous work titled Symbolica vitae Christi meditatio. This cycle of ascetic and mystical reflections was considered by Janusz Pelc to be one of the most interesting emblem books written in the Polish Commonwealth. Also Tadeusz Chrzanowski, an art historian, referred to Treter’s work as quite a unique work of Polish emblem art. The same researcher quoted the originality of some of the concepts and ingenuity of many icons (lacking direct correlates among contemporary emblem collections). In 2018, Alicja Bielak wrote an article in which she identified the three 16th-century emblem works (i.e. Hadrianus Junius’ Emblemata, Claude Paradin’s Devises heroiques and Aneau Barthelemy’s Picta poesis) as graphic sources of Treter’s cycle. The main goal of this paper is to identify another, non-emblematic source of inspiration for the Polish author, namely the 14th-century encyclopaedia Summa de exemplis et rerum similitudinibus by the Italian Dominican Giovanni da San Gimignano. It is argued here that Treter might have come into contact with Giovanni’s treatise during his first stay in Rome (1569–1584) and transposed it into the language of emblems. The first section of the paper shortly discusses the life and work of the Italian Dominican, with the particular emphasis on his encyclopaedia. The core of the article consists of the comparison of Treter’s eight emblems with selected passages from Summa de exemplis and setting these emblems against the background of the European tradition. The following emblems are discussed in detail: Fides, Conversatio sancta, Spiritualis profectus, Humilitas, Poenitentia, Correctio fraterna, Fortitudo and Mansuetudo. The study concludes with the claim that even though Treter uses symbols rooted in contemporary emblem art, he interprets them in a different way than other creators did. On the other hand, one can observe a striking accordance between Treter’s interpretations and the ones by Giovanni da San Gimignano. Unlike other 16th and 17th century emblematists, the Polish priest provides a religious rather than a moral interpretation.
This edition and translation of the newly discovered emblem designs by Tomasz Treter (1547–1610) is complementary to Alicja Bielak’s article (this issue) on a manuscript attributed to the Canon of Warmia. Anna Treter’s translation was intended to be faithful to the original in terms of content and style. The edition is based on the manuscript MM 378 from Biblioteca Civica Angelo Mai in Bergamo (fol. 9 r.–21 r.). The 25 sketches of emblems to be elaborated on below open Treter’s private notebook, with entries dating from the period between 20 June 1569 and 2 March 1575, as evidenced by the dates inside the codex, which does not exclude the possibility that Treter made corrections and additions after 1575. The notebook includes designs of full-sized emblems with titles, mottos, epigrams and images. Sketches drawn with a quill present a general concept of a composition, without any details (disegni). The title of the notebook was proposed by the editor as the author did not name it. The name written on the spine of the codex (Imprese) is likely to have been supplied later by an unknown person. As far as the themes dealt with in the emblems are concerned, the epigrams are mostly excerpts from the works of Saint Gregory the Great, Saint Augustine and Tertullian, (which was every time cited in the explanatory notes). In the commentary, the sources of graphical inspirations are also traced to Claude Paradin. The other 73 designs from the Bergamo codex, not included in this edition, are sketches of the emblems Symbolica vitae Christi meditatio (Braniewo: Jerzy Schönfels, 1612).
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