Urban emblems in the Eckardtisches/Zittauisches Tagebuch : A Preliminary Survey

In a long period spanning from 1731 until March 1907, a newspaper generally known as Eckardtisches or Zittauisches Tagebuch was published in the German city of Zittau. Between January 1774 and April 1812, it included full-page copperplates of urban emblems reminiscent in their composition of those created by Daniel Meisner and Eberhard Kieser in their Thesauri Philopolitici of 1623-1631: each carried a title (inscriptio), a coat of arms, a view of a city or building identified by name, an emblematic image (pictura), and an epigram (subscriptio). No fewer than 462 plates of emblematic or para-emblematic interest were printed in the Tagebuch in that period. From May 1812 onwards the engravings lose that character. The aim of this note is to list the plates of interest, study them briefly from the viewpoint of emblematics, describing their contents and identifying their sources if any, and perhaps arouse the interest of the emblem studies community towards this important, albeit late repository of iconographical imagery which has until now been overlooked.