Emblematica, Vol. 17

"Emblems, Frames, and Other Marginalia: Defining the Emblematic," by Daniel Russell (1-40)

"emblems remain frustratingly marginal in relation tot he historical narratives of the various disciplines" (1) -- literally at the margins of many tapestries

emblema -- attached but removable ornament

"That kind of emblem was always a somewhat foreign object attached to, inserted in, or grafted onto something else and retained at best an ambivalent and marginal relation to that host." (2)

in descriptions of tapestries, marginal emblems slowly move to the center

"The number of emblem books produced during the early modern period and the number of editions printed shows very clearly taht emblematics certainly played an important role in that culture; the challenge arises in trying to explain how this came about and what that role may have been. It is the goal of this study to exploit the positive potential of that marginality for understanding the role of the emblem in the evolution of the episteme of the time." (3)

"Originating from a Greek verb meaning to throw, to put in, or insert, the Latin emblema referred to a detachable ornament, a graft, a mosaic or other inlaid work." (3)

was transmitted through legal meaning, and literary/rhetorical; see Dennis Drysdall (2005)

legal meaning: dates back to the Digest and "generally referred to detachable oranments on silverware as described in the legal documentation for the transfer of property by inheritance or sale", or to a container and its contents (3)

literary/figurative sense recovered by humanists in 15c; referring to "detachable rhetorical ornaments and commonplaces" -- stile a mosaic (4)

another related word, “Pegma”, word Coustau used to title his 1555 collection of emblems; see Hayaert [in French] – “pegme” entered French around 1550 from the Greek by way of Latin; in Latin it referred to furniture, like staging or bookcases; but also theatrical machinery designed to lift actors; later referred to framing and foregrounding – reliquary, shrine, niche, setting (5)

"Costau uses the singular form, pegma, suggesting that he was thinking of a library or gallery, or museum in which images and artifacts are arranged along with the texts in the frames on each page." (5)

both Alciato and Costau are jurists

parergon

"The emblematic process, then, may be seen as a framing practice used for cutting [7]fragments from traditional works or corpora and shaping them into new configurations of meaning as determined by the framing text. The standard model for the construction of an emblem sets the picture between the text of the inscriptio and te text of the subscriptio. As such, the typeset composition of the emblem adn its layout or mise en page made its text into a literal, physical frame as much as that text provided a new context and metaphorical frame for the modified interpretation of the image." (67) --cf's to dual language texts

Derrida, uses "parergon" to describe "Remarks" in Kant's third Critique

"A parergon is osmething that is situated at the extremities of the work. It is a limit or border. To the extent that the parergon is a frame, it defines and limits the artistic work. The frame is detachable, but not easily so. It is really part of both what is intrinsic and what is extrinsic to the work; it is both outside and inside. It can be ornamental, but it can be so in two contrasting ways: it can enhance the value of the work or it can distract, or detract, from it." (7)