Achille Bocchi and the Emblem Book as Symbolic Form

the long version

Achille Bocchi and the Emblem Book as Symbolic Form examines the life and work (the Symbolicae Quaestiones) of one of the sixteenth century's greatest intellectuals. Esteemed by his contemporaries, Achille Bocchi was a renowned poet, teacher of rhetoric, local historian, publisher, and founder of a literary academy in Bologna. Part I of this study establishes the life of and intellectual context for Bocchi, who is here presented as a participant in the debates at the academy and university and as an individual whose views were shaped by the syncretic philosophical currents of his time. No evidence supports the widely held view that Bocchi concealed heretical leanings in his writings. Part II explores poetic theory and the role of the symbol in the development of Bocchi's symbola and also examines the rhetorical strategies of paradox and the symbolism of mythology as they shape the content of his work. The iconography of the emblematic units of poem, engraving, and motto in the Symbolicae Quaestiones and the related facade design for Bocchi's palazzo are revealed to be a programmatic statement of Bocchi's interrelated project, all of which were informed by the intellectual and cultural themes of his day.