ARCANIS NODIS: The Emblematic Thesis Prints of the Roman College

In 1593, as the science of magnetism was undergoing important advances, the aristocratic students at the Jesuits’ flagship school, the Roman College, adopted as their academic emblem a lodestone—a naturally occurring magnetic rock—that attracts a string of iron rings by means of its own mysterious force, along with the motto ARCANIS NODIS (by hidden links). This clever device provides the interpretive handle for understanding a series of engravings with rare and often unique subject matter, commissioned by the young men of the college to embellish their thesis broadsheets. These enigmatic images riff on the poetic meanings of magnetism: attraction, direction, force, connectivity, and community. The paper explicates a selection of the prints and positions them in the context of the Jesuits’ educational agenda, with its humanist commingling of rhetoric and science. A catalog of all known thesis prints featuring the emblem is included in an appendix.