Alciato at Glasgow gives access to twenty-two editions of the emblems of Andrea Alciato (1492-1550), the pater et princeps of the emblem genre. The editions date from 1531 to 1621, in the original Latin, and in French, German, Italian, and Spanish versions.

An emblem page, showing the digitised image on the left and transcribed text on the right

The site was developed as an extension of the earlier French Emblems at Glasgow site, which was funded by the Arts and Humanities Research Council under the Resource Enhancement Scheme. The Alciato site has benefitted from generous funding from the British Academy. All books digitised are from the Stirling Maxwell Collection in Glasgow University Library.  Four of the Alciato editions also feature on the French Emblems at Glasgow site; the Italian edition of 1551, also features on the The Study and Digitisation of Italian Emblems website, also based in the University of Glasgow. The Project is undertaken within the OpenEmblem initiative.  There are 22 browsable emblem books, in which the original Alciato texts are available in both transcribed and facsimile versions, although the longer, non-authorial commentaries of 1591, 1615, and 1621 are available only in facsimile. Apart from its index, the paratextual material of the 1621 edition, has not been transcribed. Extensive search functionality is provided and emblem images and text have been categorised using the Iconclass classification system for art and iconography.

Project website: https://www.emblems.arts.gla.ac.uk/alciato/