Jacqueline Mentzel

I first chose to join the emblem project due to the analytical experiences that the project offered. As an English and Mathematics major I gained a variety of knowledge in numerical and textual analysis, expanding my critical thinking and problem solving capabilities. The emblem project offered a new form of analysis which I had yet to explore, visual analysis. Although a great deal of meaning can be obtained from words, grammar, punctuation and numbers, I had yet to explore visual modes of meaning, which is one of the primary components of an emblem. The general structure of an emblem consists of the motto, the subscriptio, and most importantly for me, the pictura, in other words, the image within the emblem. The book I mainly worked with was Jacob Cats’ Moral Emblems, which I chose to work with due to the moral nature of the book. As a theoretical mathematician, I was familiar and interested in the logic behind morality and how it was expressed in the picturae of each emblem. I also chose to work with Cats due to the language of the book. I originally intended to work with Russian and possibly Polish, yet due to the scarcity of Russian and Polish emblems, I finally chose to work with English. I finished my Mathematics and English degrees at the University of Illinois, and am currently studying computer science after which I plan on applying to Graduate school in Computer Science and English.  Jacqueline was mentored by Professor Craig Koslofsky during Phase I.

http://libsysdigi.library.uiuc.edu/OCA/Books2009-12/moralemblemswith00cats/