Due to its structure and layout that combine traditional elements of baroque emblems Theatrum mortis humanae tripartitum by Johann Weichard Valvasor (1682) is often described as an emblem book. However, an iconographic analysis reveals that the images and the text in Theatrum do not form an emblem unit, and consequently the classification is misleading. Valvasor’s work can nevertheless be related to the books of emblems, because the author of the engravings used many motifs from the most popular emblem books in an ingenious way: he integrated them in the decorative borders where among the variety of miniature plants and animals many emblematic images can be recognized.