Von Schwänen und Poeten

Abstract Andrea Alciato’s Emblematum libellus of 1534 is generally regarded as the beginning of the genre of emblematics. Using the emblem Insignia Poetarum (“The Poets’ Crest”) contained therein, this essay aims to show how the genre already reflects itself here in its origins. The second part of the article focuses on the transformations of the emblem in German-, French- and Spanish-language transcriptions of the 16th century. For in these modifications, a discussion about the activity of emblem writing and the understanding of emblems becomes tangible in both image and text.