The Abraham Cowley
Text and Image Archive



Emblem of Cambridge, Cowley's Alma Mater. Title-page 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