Emile, or On Education is a treatise on the nature of education and on the nature of man written by Jean-Jacques Rousseau, who considered it to be the "best and most important" of all his writings. Due to a section of the book entitled "Profession of Faith of the Savoyard Vicar", Emile was banned in Paris and Geneva and was publicly burned in 1762, the year of its first publication. It was forbidden by the Church being listed on the Index Librorum Prohibitorum. During the French Revolution, Emile served as the inspiration for what became a new national system of education.
Frontispiece to Rousseau's Émile by De Launay for the 1782 edition. The original caption reads: "L'éducation de l'homme commence à sa naissance" ("A man's education begins at birth").
Title page from a German edition of Émile
Swaddling is an ancient practice of wrapping infants in blankets or similar cloths so that movement of the limbs is tightly restricted. Swaddling bands were often used to further restrict the infant. Swaddling fell out of favour in the 17th century.
Votive offerings depicting swaddled babies from Agia Triada (Crete), Bronze Age, 2600-2000 BC., Heraklion (Iraklion), Crete. Archeological museum Iraklion
Swaddled baby and bad mother, 1505–1510, detail from The Temptation of St. Anthony by Hieronymus Bosch (ca. 1450–1516). Museu Nacional de Arte Antiga, Lisbon
The Cholmondeley Ladies and their swaddled babies. c.1600–1610