Emblems of Desire

A forgotten masterpiece of French poetry, Emblems of Desire is a selection of 449 love poems first published in Lyons in 1544. Full of passionate ironies and charged obscurity, Scève is considered a sixteenth-century Mallarmé. His oblique self-portraiture laid the groundwork for many contemporary poets. This edition is accompanied by fifty emblems created by the author. The illustrations and Latin mottoes contained within each emblem offer poignant, and often witty, responses to his poems.