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Minerva Britanna
Minerva Britanna, the 1612 book by Henry Peacham, widely acknowledged as the most sophisticated and intriguing English example of the enormous vogue of word and picture books produced during the Renaissance under the rubric of emblem books, remains a mystery in the 20th century. Many students of the authorship question over the years have suspected some link between this book and the Shakespeare mystery, partly because Pallas Athena -- known to the Romans as Minerva -- was proverbially known as the "spearshaker" and was the tutelary protrectress of arts and arms. This excerpt from the title page of Minerva Britanna shows the mysterious hand emerging from behind a theatre curtain, writing the enigmatic phrase "MENTE VIDEBOR" -- "By the Mind I Shall Be Seen."
Current resources on Minerva Britanna and Henry Peacham:
Middlebury Minerva. This fabulous resource includes an almost-completed archive of the entire contents of Minerva Britanna, prepared by Professor Timothy Billings and the students in his undergraduate Emblem Literature course. Not only is this site a treasure trove for the student of emblem literature, it is also a stunning example of the creative integration of the pedagogical process with web-based resources. Who wouldn't want to enroll in Professor Billings course? We can't imagine.
"The Not-Too-Hidden Key to Minerva Britanna: The Latin Phrase, 'by the Mind 'I' Shall be Seen' May Mean Just That". Roger Stritmatter's essay on Minerva Britanna suggests that there is more to Minerva than meets the i.
In this provocative article, David L. Roper proposes that the Henry Peacham manuscript of Titus and Andronicus is actually dated 1575, not 1595.
Peter Dickson on Henry Peacham and "Shakespeare". Why does the man who transcribed the only surviving 16th century manuscript copy of a Shakespearean play fail to mention "Shakespeare" in his 1622 survey of the literary history of the Elizabethan reign?
Peter Dickson on Henry Peacham and the First Folio of 1623. The same article as above, as it appeared in the Elizabethan Review.
