In 1549, Bernardino Daza Pinciano translated into Spanish one of the most influential books of European Renaissance and Baroque culture. Indeed, in 1531, with Milan native Andrea Alciato's Emblematum liber, the splendorous genre of emblem books was inaugurated. For the presentation of this translation, the author not only utilized one of the finest sets of engravings crafted for it to date, but he also included ten new emblems here, with the text in Spanish, before they were ever published in the original Latin. The importance of this book, therefore, extends beyond the domain of Spanish culture. Nevertheless, in spite of its importance, Daza Pinciano's unique edition was never republished in its entirety and without alterations. And it is not possible to overemphasize the influence of this work —nor that of emblematic literature in general— on all kinds of artists, architects, poets and dramatists over the course of practically two hundred years.

Rafael Zafra's introduction helps us to appreciate the work in its totality, and the extremely useful tables of correspondences among the distinct editions and the classifications of the emblems provide us a definitive orientation towards a book which, from its initial appearance until the the end of the seventeenth century, merited approximately 150 editions.

Given its enormous importance, we also include this translation on the Studiolum CD where we trace the entire tradition of original Spanish Emblem Books.