Iconologia, or Moral Emblems, 1709
Cesare Ripa's dictionary of allegory, first published in Italian in 1593 and given here in the English edition of 1709, printed in London by Benjamin Motte with the figures engraved by Isaac Fuller at the charge of Pierce Tempest. Three hundred and twenty-six abstract ideas are drawn as human figures, four to a plate, with Ripa's own explanation of every attribute on the facing page. It is the book painters, engravers, sculptors and architects worked from for two hundred years, which is why so much allegory on public buildings can still be read: the key was printed alongside the picture.
