“Make peace, not war”: An Anti-propaganda Triumph in Johannes Sambucus' Arcus aliquot triumphales et monumenta

In 1572, a year after the victory of the Christian naval force in the Battle of Lepanto, the Hungarian humanist and imperial historian Johannes Sambucus published Arcus aliquot triumphales et monumenta. The book illustrates triumphal arches with antique inscriptions and classical heroes and gods as an imaginary Triumphus. In analyzing the book as primarily an emblem book, rather than an imaginary pageant, this essay shows that it should be read as an “anti-propaganda” text. By deconstructing well-known emblems and reconstructing them in a different order on a triumphal arch, Sambucus seems to suggest that war should never come at the price of peace.