Théodore de Bèze’s Icones et Emblemata as a Narrative of a New Form of Church Unity. An Attempt at Interpreting Religiously Engaged Emblems

Abstract

The article deals with the collection of Icones et emblemata (1580) created by the Swiss reformer and successor of John Calvin in Geneva, Théodore de Bèze. The collection is not only a reminder of the turbulent period of the Reformation, religious conflicts and the construction of the Reformed church, but also in many aspects shows the complex relationship between Christian humanism and religious propaganda. The main goal of the article is to try to bring these relations closer through the analysis of selected emblems of the illustrated collection. The first part of the collection contains a collection of portraits and biographical notes of the Fathers and representatives of the Reformed Church from Germany, Switzerland, France, England and the Kingdom of Poland, and the second part refers to the humanist tradition with a collection of forty-four emblems, of which the discussed part contains a clearly anti-Catholic and philosophical message.