A mí no hable en emblemas: The Function of Emblematics in the Plays of Juan Pérez de Montalbán

Abstract

Abstract:In his miscellany Para todos: Exemplos morales, hvmanos, y divinos. En qve se tratan diversas ciencias, materias y facvltades (1632), the Spanish dramatist Juan Pérez de Montalbán inserted a rather lengthy treatise with the title, "Discurso del predicador" (ff. 192r-215r), in which he elaborates a lengthy list of books useful to the preacher for the embellishment of his sermons. This exhaustive catalogue of books both secular and divine includes many Renaissance and Baroque collections of emblems and imprese. What is more, Pérez de Montalbán contributed a poem to Vincencio Carducho's Diálogos de la pintura (1633) that describes an emblematic engraving of La Pintura (f. 162r). In view of the dramatist's clear familiarity with this phenomenon of combining words and symbolic images, this study explores the presence and function of emblematic influence in the dramatic works of Juan Pérez de Montalbán, the friend and disciple of Lope de Vega.