Dynasty and Devotion in the Emblematic Stammbuch

• In Event: Shaping Dynastic and University Identity through the Emblem: Papers in Honor of Daniel S. Russell (1938–2016)

Abstract

Two books that once belonged to Dorothea von Anhalt-Zerbst (1607–34), wife of Herzog August of Wolfenbüttel (1579–1666), bear eloquent testimony to the role of books in the creation of dynastic identity and familial memoria. The first is Andreas Friedrich’s Emblemata Nova; Das ist/New Bilderbuch... (1617); the other is Georgette de Montenay’s Stamm Buch/Darinnen Christlicher Tugenden Beyspiel/Einhundert außerlesener Emblemata... (1619). These two volumes were representative of one of the most popular genres of the period, the emblem book, and were also used as alba amicorum. They illustrate important aspects of early modern book culture and gender: the ownership of books by dynastic women and girls, the use of emblem books as Stammbücher, the creation of family piety and memory through these customized books, and the maintenance of dynastic memory through lines of female inheritance.

Author

• Mara R. Wade, University of Illinois at Urbana-Champaign