begin page 120 | back to top

QUERY

Gates of Paradise and Quarles’ Emblems

While I was doing some research for an article on For Children: The Gates of Paradise,11 This essay is shortly to be published in the Städel Jahrbuch, N.F. Bd. V, hrsgb. Klaus Gallwitz & Herbert Beck, Munchen 1975. I examined the numerous editions of Francis Quarles’ Emblemes (first published 1635). I also came across the last “regular” reprint of Quarles’ epigrams, a book produced in 1839 and furnished with totally new emblem-icons, the woodcuts done by Charles H. Bennett and W. Harry Rogers. Blake drew massively on the original illustrations in Quarles’ collection of emblems when making his designs for GP in the Notebook, and in turn the latter artists, it appears to me, must have known and used Blake’s inventions when engraving their designs.22 Cf. Alexander B. Grosart, ed., The Complete Works in Prose and Verse of Francis Quarles, vol. III, N.Y. 1967 (reprint of 1880/1881 ed.), pp. 103 ff. Cf. especially for GP 10: Bk. III, emblem viii (p. 146); for GP 6: Bk. III, emblem xii (p. 150) and Bk. V, emblem xiii (p. 181), and for GP 14: Bk. IV, emblem ii (p. 155). There are some other striking iconographic parallels with Blake’s emblem-designs in the Notebook, GP and some of the illuminated books. Does anybody have some information on Bennett and Rogers, or some idea where they might have seen works of Blake (especially GP), etc.?

D - 6000 Frankfurt am Main - 1
Marbachweg 356
Federal Republic of Germany.

Print Edition

  • Publisher
  • Department of English, University of New Mexico
  • Albuquerque, NM, USA
    • Editors
    • Morris Eaves
    • Morton D. Paley
    • Bibliographer
    • Thomas Minnick
    • Associate Editor for Great Britain
    • Frances A. Carey
    • Editorial Assistants
    • Virginia Masi
    • Jean Stalker
    • Circulation Manager
    • Debra Sackett

    Digital Edition

    • Editors:
    • Morris Eaves, University of Rochester
    • Robert Essick, University of California, Riverside
    • Joseph Viscomi, University of North Carolina at Chapel Hill
    • Project Manager
    • Joe Fletcher
    • Technical Editor
    • Michael Fox
    • Previous Project Manager and Technical Editor
    • William Shaw
    • Project Director
    • Adam McCune
    • Project Coordinator, UNC:
    • Natasha Smith, Carolina Digital Library and Archives
    • Project Coordinator, University of Rochester:
    • Sarah Jones
    • Scanning:
    • UNC Digital Production Center
    • XML Encoding:
    • Apex CoVantage
    • Additional Transcription:
    • Adam McCune
    • Jennifer Park
    • Emendations:
    • Rachael Isom
    • Mary Learner
    • Adam McCune
    • Ashley Reed
    • Jennifer Park
    • Scott Robinson
    • XSLT Development:
    • Adam McCune
    • Joseph Ryan
    • William Shaw
    • PHP and Solr Development:
    • Michael Fox
    • Adam McCune
    • Project Assistants:
    • Lauren Cameron,
    • Rachael Isom,
    • Mary Learner,
    • Jennifer Park,
    • Ashley Reed,
    • Adair Rispoli,
    • Scott Robinson
    • Sponsors
    • Funders
    • Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly
    • William Blake Archive
    • Carolina Digital Library and Archives
    • Use Restrictions
    • Copyright © 2015 Blake/An Illustrated Quarterly, all rights reserved. Items in this digital edition may be shared in accordance with the Fair Use provisions of U.S. copyright law. Redistribution or republication on other terms, in any medium, requires express written consent from the editors and advance notification of the publisher. Permission to reproduce the graphic images in this digital edition rests with the owning institutions.