The Abraham Cowley
Text and Image Archive
Emblem of Cambridge, Cowley's Alma Mater. From Sophocles, Tragoediae VII (Cambridge, 1665). Editor's
copy. Cf. David McKitterick, Four Hundred Years of University Printing and Publishing in Cambridge 1584-1984 (Cambridge, 1984), 35-36, and Drayton's Poly-Olbion 21 (Works, ed. Hebel, 4.416-17, 422). Since the mid-16th century, this figure officially signified Cambridge University, a motherly woman (Alma Mater) whose breasts stream with milk (cf. Ripa's Benignità, "Bounty" or "Charity") circled with the Latin motto, Hinc lucem et pocula sacra ("Hence [draw] light and sacred refreshment").
Related Links:
Ripa's Iconologia: Introduction, with a Sampling of Usually-Online Versions from 1603, 1709 (complete), and 1764-67
Other Emblem Links // Studies // Cosmic Coordinates //
Earth the Planter / Four Seasons' Fecundity
Return to Emblematica Index
