Dear colleagues,
You are cordially invited to a free online lecture (9 February 2024 at 12 p.m. EST): “Rare
Virtues & Most Ingenious Men: Benito Arias Montano, Christophe Plantin, and the Remarkable Emblem Book Humanae Salutis Monumenta.”
In 1568, the erudite priest and scholar Benito Arias Montano made the arduous journey from his
homeland of Spain to the city of Antwerp to oversee the edition of the Polyglot Bible by the renowned press of Christophe Plantin. The two men struck up an ardent and enduring friendship while producing some of the most fascinating and historically significant
texts of sixteenth-century Europe. McMaster University’s Archives and Research Collections holds several books resulting from this partnership, including two copies of Arias Montano’s
Humanae Salutis Monumenta (Monuments of Human Salvation) — a lavishly illustrated emblem book with a complex publication history. Though both copies share the same title page, dated 1571, they are otherwise typographically and visually distinct. How
can this be?
Join Ruth-Ellen St. Onge, McMaster’s Distinctive Collections Cataloguing Librarian, on an exploration
of sixteenth-century emblem books, the friendship and working partnership of Arias Montano and Plantin, and the intricate and surprising differences between two copies of one book. This deep dive into the publishing history and physical features of
Humanae Salutis Monumenta aims to provide fresh insights into a time of great crisis and intellectual ferment.
This lecture is hosted by McMaster University Library’s Archives Alive program in partnership
with McMaster University Alumni.
Register using this link:
https://zoom.us/webinar/register/7117029337060/WN_YJ6K3R2YStyLooXIzk7Eqw#/registration.
Please feel free to share this invitation with other interested parties.
Best wishes,
Gillian
Gillian Dunks, M.A., M.A.S.
(she/her)
Archives Arrangement & Description Librarian
President, McMaster University Academic Librarians’ Association
Archives and Research Collections
McMaster University
905-525-9140 x 23361
McMaster University is located on the traditional territories of the Mississauga and Haudenosaunee nations, and within the lands protected by the Dish with
One Spoon wampum agreement.