Author Description

Emblem books, which feature combinations of images and text with a moral lesson for the reader, grew out of the Renaissance and were most popular in the Netherlands. Enigmatic, erudite, and often pious, Dutch love emblems synthesized the traditions of European visual and literary arts—and in turn influenced architecture, painting, poetry, and interior design for centuries to come. Learned Love offers an introduction to this enthralling genre and celebrates the completion of Emblem Project Utrecht, an undertaking that digitized twenty-five of the most representative emblem books. This unprecedented volume explores the delicate network of visual motifs and textual mottos that characterize Dutch love emblems. Learned Love demonstrates how emblem books form a web of closely interrelated references, which the contributors liken to the Internet, and traces the cutting-edge digitization project from inception to finish. This book will interest anyone intrigued by the fruitful gray areas between image and text, scholarship and technology.