The signs of spring are all around me as I write this review. After what felt like an interminable winter, the tulips have begun to emerge, and the first robin has appeared. Since we read the changing of the seasons by signs, it is hardly surprising that emblems, a genre that blends the visual, textual, and symbolic so tightly, would draw their inspiration primarily from the natural world. Emblems and the Natural World brings together seventeen essays that explore the inextricable link between emblems—in books, in art, and in architecture—and the natural world from which they gather their symbolism. Indeed, it is surprising that it has taken so long for a volume such as this to appear, as editors Karl A. E. Enenkel and Paul J. Smith acknowledge in their erudite and valuable introduction.

The editors have divided the collection into four parts: the first on zoological emblem books, the second on emblem books on physical phenomena such as comets and atmosphere, the third on natural emblems in applied (primarily courtly) contexts, and the fourth on the hermeneutic and didactic use of natural emblems. The longest section of the book—part 1—deals primarily with the work of Joachim Camerarius the Younger's Symbola et emblemata, and each essay introduces Camerarius afresh, which may feel redundant to the reader who consumes the book in its entirety. Many of the essays in the following three parts go farther afield for their source texts, and some move beyond text altogether, finding natural emblems on medals, buildings, and even fountains. Indeed, the variety of the essays makes the collection particularly well suited to Brill's Intersections series, which aims to present “interdisciplinary studies in early modern culture.” With its attention to text, visual art, architecture, book history, heraldry, and, of course, natural history, Emblems and the Natural World is certainly inter- and multidisciplinary and will appeal to a wide audience.

As many of the essays emphasize, the meaning of emblems of the natural world “is neither simple nor self-evident” (4). Emblems were designed to be riddles, of sorts, and emblematists walked a fine line between concealing and revealing their purposes. In that regard, Enenkel and Smith did well when they chose the first and last essays of the collection. Alison Saunders, who already has a strong publication record in the field of emblems and the natural world, begins the book by considering how “natural” natural emblems actually are. Emblems are symbolic, so do the animals, plants, and natural elements they incorporate have any relationship to real nature? Then, in the last essay of the collection, Sonja Schreiner discusses emblems as pedagogical tools. If emblems, even emblems that use natural images, create a language of symbolism, how does one learn that language? Emblematic significance, she argues, must be taught. In other words, emblems become a didactic tool to provide children and adults knowledge of the natural world. With their knowledge of emblems, the natural world, and the relationship between the two, readers can then understand the complexities of emblematic meaning. For instance, in his essay on a book of emblematic tapestries commissioned by Louis XIV, Frederik Knegtel argues that the natural world serves “to demonstrate that Louis XIV transcends this natural world” (416). The interplay between emblems and the natural world is intricate indeed.

Emblems and the Natural World is not simply a series of motif studies; instead, it offers the first major foray into what must become a vital subject of analysis for emblem scholars. The collection could inspire any number of responses, perhaps particularly from literary scholars and cultural historians. What, for example, are the implications of natural emblems on the history of gender and sexuality? Do natural emblems become a sort of shorthand in other genres; for instance, can they explain something like the bear in The Winter's Tale? Emblems and the Natural World, with its painstakingly researched essays and gorgeous and plentiful full-color illustrations, will surely inspire new growth in the field of emblem studies and further research into the complex literary and artistic symbolism of the natural world.