# Filippo Picinelli

Filippo Picinelli C.R.S.A. (21 November 1604 – 1686) was an Italian Augustinian canon, scholar and emblematist. He is best known for his emblem book Il Mondo simbolico, printed in Milan in 1653, which enjoyed great success in Italy and throughout Europe.

## Biography

Little is known about the life of Picinelli. The main source of information on this author is the short biography that Picinelli himself includes in his Ateneo dei Letterati Milanesi, a bio-bibliographical dictionary of Milanese authors. He was born in Milan, Italy in November 1604. At baptism he was named Carlo Francesco, but upon his entrance into the Augustinian Order (1614), his name was changed to Filippo. He studied philosophy in Cremona and theology in Piacenza, where he probably graduated. Once ordained a priest, he devoted himself to teaching in the colleges of his order; he also acquired a considerable reputation as a preacher. His preaching skills won him favour with several bishops, including Paolo Arese, bishop of Tortona, who encouraged Picinelli to publish his works. Later in his life, Picinelli was appointed abbot of Santa Maria della Passione in Milan. He died in Milan in 1686.
Picinelli published several works, in Latin and Italian, among which the following stand out: Applausi festivi o siano Panegirici varii (Venice, 1649), Foeminarum sacrae scripturae elogia (Milan, 1657), Lumi, e riflessi (Milan, 1667), Ateneo dei litterati milanesi, an important biographical source book for Milanese writers and artists (Milan, 1670), and Fatiche apostoliche (Milan, 1672-1674).

## Il Mondo simbolico

Picinelli believed that the world of God's creation could be read as a symbolic book. In 1653 he published his Mondo simbolico (Symbolic World), an encyclopaedia of emblems useful for scholars as a reference book. Picinelli's work was exceedingly popular among the intellectual elite of the Baroque era and went through several editions.
Picinelli's work is the culmination of a life-time's erudition, drawing on many Renaissance emblem books and medieval encyclopedias and bestiaries. It was intended for "orators, preachers, academicians, and poets," and contained many examples drawn from the works of his predecessors, particularly Alciato and Valeriano. For the material for his encyclopaedic survey of symbols, Picinelli drew also on old manuscripts, some of them unpublished, from Italian monasteries.
Picinelli's Mondo simbolico is divided into two parts, one devoted to natural objects (Corpora Naturalia), and the other to artifacts (Corpora Artificialia).
Picinelli's work was translated into Latin by the Augustinian monk Augustinus Erath (1648-1729), and in the process also expanded. This expanded Latin edition (first published in Cologne in 1681) went through several new editions and can be regarded as the most comprehensive emblem encyclopedia of the seventeenth century. The comprehensiveness of Picinelli's work made it a model for subsequent scholars, including Claude-François Ménestrier, Johannes Michael von der Ketten, Arthur Henkel and Albrecht Schöne.

### Books

* Ateneo dei letterati milanesi. Milan: Vigone. 1670. Retrieved 30 November 2024.
* Foeminarum S. Scripturae Elogia: Centuria Singularis. Nuremberg: Ziegerus. 1694. Retrieved 30 November 2024.
* Labores Apostolici. Vol. 1. Augsburg: Wohler. 1711. Retrieved 30 November 2024.
* Lumina reflexa. Frankfurt: sumptibus societatis. 1702 [1667]. Retrieved 30 November 2024.
* Mundus Symbolicus. Vol. 1. Cologne: Hermann Demen. 1681 [1653]. Retrieved 30 November 2024.
* Mundus Symbolicus. Vol. 2. Cologne: Hermann Demen. 1687 [1653]. Retrieved 30 November 2024.
* Sacrarum religionum maximae. Augsburg: sumptibus Laurentii Kronigeri et Haeredum Theophili Goebelii. 1696. Retrieved 30 November 2024.
* Symbola virginea. Augsburg: sumpt. Laur. Kronigeri & Haered. Theophilli Goebelii. 1694. Retrieved 30 November 2024.
* Tributa encomiorum. Kempten: impensis Laurentij Kronigeri & Haeredum Theophili Goebelij. 1697. Retrieved 30 November 2024.