Emblematics as art of memory in Daniel Stolcius’ Viridarium chymicum

Abstract

This article examines Daniel Stolcius’ Viridarium chymicum as a genuine garden of reminiscence
—in platonic sense—, composed of emblems conceived not merely for moral
edification but for spiritual transformation. Building on Frances Yates’ suggestion that
emblems should be ‘contemplated from the point of view of memory, to which they
clearly belong’, the study highlights how the engravings of the Viridarium, elaborated
with argutezza simbolica (Tesauro), elicit retentissements (Bachelard) that activate the
imagination in its creative function, ultimately rendering it theophanic (Corbin), and
how, as a result of this numinous experience, the images of the emblems become part of
the treasury of spiritual memory. Hence, following Marsilio Ficino and Emanuele Tesauro,
the emblems of the Viridarium can be understood as hieroglyphs, that is, as metaphorical
images expressing the sacred, revealing the mysteries of nature and of the soul,
according to the alchemical magisterium.