Rare Virtues & Most Ingenious Men: Benito Arias Montano, Christophe Plantin, and the Remarkable Emblem Book Humanae Salutis Monumenta

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.