Tres coronas para un rey

What is the true meaning of the famous emblem of Henry III of Valois? Does it perhaps symbolize the subordination of the two terrestrial crowns -those of France and Poland- to the "heavenly" crown, or the advent of a third "earthly" crown? Nuccio Ordine undertakes in this essay an exciting investigation into the collections of emblems and companies in 16th century Europe: he scrutinizes inscriptions, letters, portraits, diplomatic documents, literary and philosophical works, analyzes dances and festivals, typographic marks, bindings, the triumphal entries of kings and queens of the period. Exploring the artistic and literary environments of France and England, Ordine reconstructs the dense web of relationships that linked the court of the King of France with those of Queen Elizabeth I and Mary Stuart in a world plagued by religious conflict and imperialist ambitions. An exhaustive and illuminating essay on the Europe of the wars of religion and its great intellectuals.