Emblematic imagery in Antonii Radyvylovskyi's sermons: to the question of sources

Abstract

The aim of the paper is to explore the emblematic imagery in Antonii Radyvylovskyi's sermons and to reveal its possible sources. The application of the interdisciplinary and comparative approach forms the methodological basis of the study, which helps to examine genetic relationships among the works belonging to different types of art, namely among the graphic emblem and its verbal representation (description) in Antonii's sermons. The novelty of the research lies in supplementing of the information concerning the literature read and used by the prominent Ukrainian preacher. On the thematological level, some examples of the imagery of the emblematical genesis elaborated by Antonii have been detected. Among them there are emblems depicting animate and inanimate nature, man-made objects, and mythological figures. The study has been accomplished with taking into consideration the broad cultural context, that is, the circulating of emblems in the cultural space of the Ukrainian Baroque. Conclusions of the paper demonstrates that Antonii Radyvylovskyi probably uses such early-modern emblematic books as Andrea Alciato's "Emblemata", Salomon Neugebauer's "Selectorum symbolorum heroicorum", Joachim Camerarius' "Symbolorum et emblematum", Silvester Petra Sancta's "De symbolis heroicis", as well as Michael Radau's manual on rhetoric entitled "Orator extemporaneus". All these sources are Latin books created both catholic and protestant authors. Their usage demonstrates the connection between the Ukrainian book culture and the pan-European cultural space.

Keywords

• emblem, lemma, emblem book, early-modern ukrainian sermon, manuscript, antonii radyvylovskyi.