Personal Mottos of Humanists and Their Functions, Forms and Use in Provenance Research
| Pages | 50–61 |
|---|---|
| DOI | 10.37520/amnpsc.2022.007 |
| Keywords | Neo-Latin literature – symbola – personal mottos – emblems – authorship – provenance research |
| Type of Article | Peer-reviewed |
| Citation | VACULÍNOVÁ, Marta. Personal Mottos of Humanists and Their Functions, Forms and Use in Provenance Research. Acta Musei Nationalis Pragae – Historia litterarum. Prague: National Museum, 2022, 67(1-2), 50–61. DOI: https://doi.org/10.37520/amnpsc.2022.007. ISSN 2570-6861 (Print), 2570-687X (Online). Also available from: https://publikace.nm.cz/en/periodicals/acta-musei-nationalis-pragae-historia-litterarum/67-1-2/personal-mottos-of-humanists-and-their-functions-forms-and-use-in-provenance-research |
The personal mottos of intellectuals, called symbola, came into greater use under the influence of the Italian Renaissance and its ideas of true nobility, which is not acquired by descent but by education and virtue. Inspired by noblemen, scholars created their own personal representations, among the most common being personal devices, followed by emblems and portraits. The first symbols in the Czech lands are known to have appeared at the beginning of the 16th century, but their use truly developed in the Rudolphine period. Court intellectuals, university professors, teachers, clergymen and educated burghers had their own symbols at that time. Symbola were usually in Latin, with rare appearances in Czech and Old Greek, and sporadically in Hebrew and German. Twothirds of the contents were religious; other motifs concerned the way of life or Christian and ancient virtues. The content of personal mottos was most often inspired by Satellitium animi by Juan Luis Vives, Adagia by Erasmus of Rotterdam and other collections of sentences and proverbs or emblem books. The form was sometimes emblematic; among burghers, the so-called symbola cephalonomatica were common. These were personal mottos in which the first letters of the words formed the initials of the personal name and title of the Humanist. The symbols appear in the form of ownership marks in books as initial supralibros or handwritten ex-libris; in both forms, i.e. as the initials or the entire mottos, they were also used as pseudonyms. A provisional online inventory has been compiled as an identification aid for provenance research and authorship identification, and it will be expanded in future.
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