The emblem is a wonderful invention of the Renaissance. The funny, mysterious, moralizing, learned or pious combinations of word and image in the crossover emblematic genre can be characterized as a delicate network of motifs and mottoes. This network served as a receptacle for the traditions of the European visual and literary arts. In its turn it influenced architecture, painting, love poetry, children's books, preaching and interior decoration. Together emblem books and the culture to which they belong form a web of closely interrelated references. It is surely no coincidence that digitised emblem books are among the most popular items found on what may be their modern counterpart: the World Wide Web. In 2003 the Emblem Project Utrecht set out to digitise 25 representative Dutch love emblems books. The love emblem is one of the best known emblematic subgenres, first developed in the Low Countries and soon popular all over Europe. To celebrate the completion of that work a conference was held on November 6 and 7, 2006. The focus of this conference was twofold: the Dutch love emblem and the process of digitising the emblems. This volume contains the selected papers of this conference, complemented by a general introduction and additional papers by the editors.