Minerva Britanna

The Minerva Britanna

Minerva Britanna, the 1612 book by Henry Peacham, widely acknowledged as the most sophisticated and intriguing English example of the enormous vogue of word and picture books produced during the Renaissance under the rubric of emblem books, remains a mystery in the 20th century. Many students of the authorship question over the years have suspected some link between this book and the Shakespeare mystery, partly because Pallas Athena -- known to the Romans as Minerva -- was proverbially known as the "spearshaker" and was the tutelary protrectress of arts and arms.