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Editions on CD:

emblems

• Corpus of Spanish Emblem Books

• The Golden Age of European Emblematics

• Emblems of Wither & Rollenhagen

• Alciato, Emblemata. Critical Edition

• Emblems of the Society of Jesus

• Renaissance Books of Imprese

• Baroque Repertories of Imprese

symbols

• Hieroglyphics

• Animal Symbolism

• Mythographies

numismatics

• Renaissance Numismatics

• Complete Works of Hubert Goltzius

proverbial wisdom

• Erasmus’ Adagia. Versions and Sources

dictionaries

• Covarrubias, Tesoro de la lengua española

complete works

• Baltasar Gracián

Treasures of Kalocsa

• Book of Psalms
MS 382, c. 1438

 

Society of Jesus,
College of Madrid

Libro de las honras que hizo el Colegio de la Compañía de Jesús de Madrid a la M. C. de la Emperatriz doña María de Austria fundadora del dicho Colegio, que se celebraron a 21 de abril de 1603. Madrid: Luis Sánchez, 1603.

Steven N. Orso, in Art and Death at the Spanish Habsburg Court: The Royal Exequies for Philip IV (Columbia, MO: University of Missouri Press, 1989), explains in great detail the elaborate, ritualistic procedures observed in the Spanish court of the Austrias to celebrate royal exequies in commemoration of the death of a monarch.

The catafalque, a richly adorned small building, required a full team for its design and construction: architects, artists and craftsmen. The political and propagandistic program of the catafalque, decorated with weapons, trophies and candles, sought to inspire a reaction of awed wonder in the observer, when confronted with the grandeur and majesty of the deceased. The catafalque, then, imposing and majestic, had to communicate the eminence and virtue of the monarchy, the earthly incarnation of divine will, by means of its grave, dolorous and ostentatious decoration.

Normally, the royal funereal exequies would be celebrated some forty days after the death of the individual, which allowed sufficient time to plan and execute a studied iconographical program for which no expense was spared. The designers habitually resorted to a traditional repertory of images and symbols in order to provoke the desired reaction of admiration in the viewing public. The form of the catafalque, according to Orso, was usually that of a baldachin, an ornamental canopy of painted wood that protected the tomb of the deceased.

The catafalque would eventually become the manifestation par excellence of ephemeral art in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries. In order to reinforce, perhaps, a moral lesson of the transitoriness of all things human, the catafalque was dismantled a few days after the exequies, and many of the decorations were carried off by the public as souvenirs of the occasion.

The nearly total disappearance of an artistic, political and cultural artifact of such importance was made up for in part thanks to the custom of publishing books with descriptions of the exequies, books that sometimes reproduced in part or in whole the visual decoration of the catafalque and the tomb.

The anonymous Libro de las honras que hizo el Colegio de la Compañía de Jesús de Madrid a la M. C. de la Emperatriz doña María de Austria, fundadora del dicho Colegio, que se celebraron a 21 de abril de 1603 has the honor, according to Orso, of being the first book of its type in Spain to include illustrations of the royal exequies (51). Later on, the funereal solemnities for other queens – Margarita de Austria (1612), Isabel de Borbón (1644), Mª Luisa de Borbón (1688) or Mariana de Austria (1696) – would enjoy a much more extensive expression on the printed page, with books that we will edit in the future as part of the planned series of studiolum.

Nevertheless, spectacular and valuable examples of this genre can already be accessed on this CD: we are referring to the book signed by Pedro Rodríguez de Monforte (Descripción de las honras que se hicieron a la cathólica magestad de D. Phelippe quarto… en el Real Convento de la Encarnación, Madrid, 1666), and that of Francisco Antonio de Montalvo (Noticias fúnebres de las reales exequias de María Luisa de Borbón… Palermo, 1689).

This Libro de las honras… in honor of the patroness of the Jesuit College of Madrid, contains an initial description of the decoration of the church of the College, followed by a description of the catafalque. The book then reproduces the text of the funeral oration in Latin by father Juan Ludovico de la Cerda, and the sermon delivered by father Jerónimo de Florencia in which, by means of a gloss of the Book of Job, he emphasizes the ascetic quality of Maria de Austria during the final stage of her life, when she withdrew to the Monastery of the Descalzas Reales in Madrid, as well as her acts of charity on behalf of the poor in general, and also on behalf of some religious orders, especially the Franciscans and Jesuits.

The rest of the book consists of the hieroglyphs that were invented for the exequies, with their corresponding poems in Hebrew, Greek, Latin and Spanish. The predominant symbolism in these hieroglyphs alludes to the regal power of the Austrias, and abounds in eagles, imperial or regal crowns, etc., and other images appropriate to Jesuit imagery (IHS anagram, etc.)

It is important to point out the special taste for this type of exercise that was developing so intensely in the bosom of the Society of Jesus, and which would only grow stronger in its Colleges until the end of the Seventeenth century. In this particular instance we clearly observe the subtle use by the College of the death of its founder in order to promote itself and to establish the Society as a great defender of Catholicism in Europe.

This book has never been reedited since then. On the CD “Corpus of Spanish Emblem Books” we edit the only edition of this work.

 

Studiolum publishes this book on the CD “Corpus of Spanish Emblem Books.”

 

Hieroglyph 12

SICVT DIES PHAENICIS DIES MEI.
Iob 29

Con essos hermosos rayos,
Que rayan en tus cenizas,
Te renueuas y eternizas.

AVnque el Geroglifico de la aue Fenix ha aplicado à muchas personas, quiza jamas à nadie con la razon que à la Emperatriz Maria, tan vnica en el mundo, quanto ninguna otra Emperatriz. En lugar del Sol se pinta el glorioso nombre de IESVS, de cuyos rayos se enamora, y à cuyo calor se abrasa. Sinificase por ello el grande amor y deuocion que tuuo esta señora con el nombre de IESVS, y con la Compañia deste nombre. En lo que toca a la letra de la Escritura, se aduierta, que la Vulgata lee: Et sicut palma multiplicabo dies meos. Otra version buelue como aqui se cita, con fundamento, de que la palabra Griega de los Setenta, φοινιξ sinifica lo vno y lo otro: y lo vno y lo otro viene conforme al intento del Espiritu santo, que es dar à entender muchedumbre de años, en los quales, assi la palma, como la Fenix, excede la vna à todas las aues, la otra à todos los arboles.

Hieroglyph 16

SVCCIDE ARBOREM, ET GERMEN RELINQVE. DANIEL. 4

Hermosos pimpollos dexa,
Donde se conserue, y viua,
El que oy la muerte derriba.

LOs hombres de edad, son comparados à los arboles robustos y viejos, y ya carcomidos con los largos años: tal pintò Lucano al Capitan Pompeyo. Viene pues à proposito este mismo arbol, ya caydo, y derribado, para lo que la muerte hizo en derribar con su golpe à esta señora: pero quedaron deste arbol pimpollos, con que el de nueuo se viene à renouar: estos son sus gloriosos hijos y hijas, cuya memoria es y serà eterna en el mundo, cuya gloria sin par, cuya grandeza admirable.

Hieroglyph 21

VT PVPILLAM OCVLI

Queriendo tan fuerte escudo
Tan de veras ampararme,
Ninguno podra tocarme.

PAra declarar el amparo que hizo siempre la Magestad de la Emperatriz à la Compañia de IESVS, se pintan muchas saetas, que van encaminadas al nombre de IESVS, pero no llegan à el, porque ésta señora las recibe primero en su escudo. Quantas murmuraciones, mas agudas y penetrantes que saetas, quebrò y deshizo con su Imperial amparo? Quantas vezes se hizo dueño de los agrauios que nos hazian, satisfaziendo ella por nosotros, y descubriendo al mundo la verdad con que trata la Compañia? Al fin le parecia que era llegarle à las niñas de los ojos, todas las vezes que se hazia alguna cosa contra nosotros.

Hieroglyph 25

IN TVRBINE AVSTRI PROTEGET EOS. ZACH.

Con soplo del Austro viento
Se deshizo l’infeccion,
Que del infernal Dragon
Esparzio el dañado aliento.

NO es otra cosa la heregia, que vn Dragon espantoso, que vomita humo y fuego, con que inficiona las ciudades, los reynos, y todo el mundo. Esto sinifica el que estàs mirando, y este es el Dragon, que ha leuantado en tantas partes el lastimoso incendio que aora lloramos. Procurò ésta señora apartar en quanto pudo éste anhelito, y de hecho, mientras viuio, le apartò de muchas partes: para lo qual se pinta el viento Austro, que con su aliento desparrama el fuego del Dragon de manera que no vaya à dar en las ciudades.

 

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• 5.4: RSA: A Recapitulation

• 4.4: DVD edition of Covarrubias, Tesoro de la lengua española

• 18.3: Treasures of Kalocsa, Vol. 1: Psalterium MS 382

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silva

Discreet Reader

Sancho Panza and the Turtle

An Encounter with the Inquisition

Related to this book: Phoenix on the top of the palm tree

Canis reversus

His Master’s Voice

Virgil’s best verse

To eat turtle or not to eat it

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open library

• Bibliography of Hispanic Emblematics

• Horapollo, Hieroglyphica 1547

• Alciato, Emblemata 1531

• The Album Amicorum of Franciscus Pápai Páriz

• Ludovicus Carbo, De Mathiae regis rebus gestis (c. 1473-75)

• Epistolary of Pedro de Santacilia y Pax

medio maravedí

Texts and Studies of Medieval and Golden Age Spanish Literature