Pattern Book of Ornament

The Pattern Book of an unknown Bernese artisan

A remarkable volume containing eight books of ornament and seven suites of prints, published at Amsterdam, Antwerp, Augsburg, Frankfurt am Main, Nuremberg, Prague, and Strasbourg, between circa 1562 and 1605, together with three series of drawings executed by a single hand on related papers manufactured at Bern in Switzerland between 1601 and 1608. The paper used by the binder for the paste-downs also was made at Bern, circa 1601–1608, and it may be inferred that the volume was assembled and bound there, probably about 1605.

Bern circa 1605

folio (block 309 × 210 mm, binding 323 × 230 × 75 mm), altogether 401 leaves, intact, the contents organised according to subject, not consecutively foliated.

paper the fifty-nine sheets of drawings in the volume are on two papers manufactured circa 1601 by Hans Düring, proprietor of the paper-mill ‘Zu Thal’ on the River Worblen near Bern, from 1598 until 1608: the figural alphabet and the heraldic escutcheons are on paper related to Lindt nos. 386–387; the drawings of fountains, statues, a tomb, and a cartouche are on paper related to Lindt nos. 511–512.

The binder’s endpapers are another Düring paper, manufactured throughout the period 1601–1609 (watermark of the climbing bear of Bern on a shield and three large balls below: related to Lindt nos. 269–270).

provenance Sotheby’s, ‘Music, Continental Manuscripts and Printed Books’, London, 28 May 1986, pp.38–42 lot 79 — Robin Halwas Limited (‘Catalogue 3: Illustrated and other rare books’, London 1995, pp.197–222, item 101)¹ — Private Collection, London

condition the print series retain large margins or have untrimmed sheet edges and are bound in quires; the first two series of drawings are similarly bound, while the drawings of the third series were mounted on guards by the binder. One work was re-margined by the binder up to the size of the volume. Generally, the contents are in fine state of preservation, with some prints in brilliantly fresh impressions (the condition of each item is stated below).

binding the volume is bound in white pigskin drawn over paper boards, the covers decorated in blind by three rolls of much earlier date:² a ‘doppelter Rund-bogenfries’ (width 15 mm), repeated to form a wide border; inside it a frame defined by a Biblical roll dated 1548 (Christ, ‘Data est mihi ois’ – David, ‘De Fructu ventris’ – Isaiah, ‘Sup Solium David’ – John the Baptist, ‘Ecce Agn[–] Dei’, approximately 220 × 20 mm); and within a panel filled by a roll with four heads-in-medallions and foliage (width 10 mm). The binder provided protective overlapping edges and four pigskin ties (remnants survive) and decorated the untrimmed page edges with a yellow-green wash.

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This highly interesting and well-preserved volume was compiled at Bern about 1605 to provide an architect or artisan with a convenient repertory of exempla for the ornamentation of architecture, sculpture, and metalwork. In it the owner assembled contemporary printed ornament and safe-guarded some drawings – probably his own – to ensure they were easily accessible whenever need for them arose.

The function of the volume as a pattern book is revealed by the underlying programme of the contents and its physical characteristics. Presented first are suites of woodcut and engraved alphabets, then a figural alphabet drawn in pen and ink with wash, after which appear suites of engraved ornament depicting Sea-Gods, the Liberal Arts, the Gods on Parnassus, the Virtues, emblems, and birds, followed by books of architectural ornament and models for surface decoration. At the end are drawings in pen and ink and coloured wash of fountains and statues, a tomb, and a cartouche, and a series of forty-five imaginative escutcheons, each bearing the civic insignia of a town in the region of Bern.

All the drawings in the volume were executed by the same hand. The relatively high finish of the figural alphabet and escutcheons suggests that those drawings are copies, made after studies and sketches, if not actually from completed drawings. It could be they were exe­cuted by an apprentice, copying drawings from workshop stock as an exercise and to absorb style and technique. The drawings of fountains have a somewhat freer, more impro­vised quality. They can not be identified as copies of contemporary projects (one is dated 1602) and perhaps are studies for unrealised projects.

The first two suites of drawings are executed on folded quires of paper of exactly the same make, very probably taken from the same ream (the series of escutcheons is on a related paper stock, these sheets mounted on guards by the binder). The drawings comprising each suite are of equal dimensions and have a lucid and systematic layout across the pages. The idea of preserving them by binding clearly was not an afterthought, but preconceived.³

The volume is in excellent state of preservation and shows no sign of any structural changes, such as additions, alterations, removal of parts, or repairs, which might confirm its practical use in a workshop. An alternative hypothesis, that it was put together by a collec­tor and not by an artisan, and is therefore an album or convolute instead of a pattern book in strictu sensu, is unsupported by physical evidence, and can be dismissed for a variety of reasons.

There is no mark of ownership inside the volume, no signature, no shelfmark, no label or inscription along the edges or on the spine, nothing which might prove that it was once placed in a library. The artless binding is further reason to doubt it was assembled for a collector. Moreover, the fifty-nine drawings in the album are not autonomous works of art by a master: they are unpretentious, anonymous works, and it is hard to accept that they might have been appreciated for their own sake, considered worthy of gathering into an album as collector’s items, at the time of binding.

When drawings appear within albums made by collectors, they are typically loose sheets obtained from various sources, often pasted-in or presented in passe-partout. The drawings in the present volume, however, are materially and structurally related. This material homogeneity of the drawings in our volume – their near-simultaneous execution by a single hand on related paper stocks structured in quires, immediately and locally bound – is persuasive evidence, if short of proof, that our volume was created as a pattern book of ornament for usage by an artisan.

A contemporaneous Sammelband in the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston, helps to illustrate the difference between our volume and one produced by a collector. That album was assembled by the bibliophile Ferdinand Hoffmann (1540–1607), Baron of Grünpuhel and Strechau, at Prague, probably in 1603. It contains thirteen suites or books of ornament and architecture (published circa 1567–1603) and a series of thirteen drawings on separate sheets by Giuseppe Arcimboldo, accompanied by a two-page letter from the artist to Baron Hoffmann proposing their elaboration as fresco decorations in his castle.⁴ It is thought that Baron Hoffmann bound the drawings, prints, and books together, in order to facilitate a future application of Arcimboldo’s plan. The binding is green-stained vellum, decorated in gilt with the collector’s heraldic insignia.⁵ Comparable volumes, assembled by other bibliophiles, are in the Bibliothèque royale de Belgique, Brussels;⁶ Kungliga Biblioteket, Stockholm;⁷ Graphische Sammlung, Staatsgalerie, Stuttgart;⁸ and Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel.⁹

Daniel ii Heintz

At the time our volume was assembled (circa 1605), Daniel Heintz the Younger (1574–1633) was establishing himself as the preeminent architect of Bern.¹⁰ Like many architects of his time, he had a multifaceted career, working as a construction engineer, water engineer, stonemason, sculptor, and architect. In 1596, aged twenty-two, he had succeeded his father as Stadtwerkmeister; in 1602, he was appointed Münsterbaumeister,¹¹ and the same year received a patent of nobility (together with his elder brother, Joseph) from the Emperor Rudolph ii in Prague. In 1604 he became a member of the Grossrat.

When he died in 1633, an inventory was taken of Heintz’s possessions. Numerous drawings were listed, but no books.¹² It seems that Heintz’s library already had passed to his nephew, the architect, painter, and cartographer Joseph Plepp (1595–1642), with whom Heintz had been collaborating on and off, for a dozen years. A perspective view of Plepp’s studio, drawn by Plepp himself in 1640, shows books upon a worktable, and others ranged on a shelf above the door; some of these might be Heintz’s books.¹³ After Plepp’s death, the books passed through the hands of heirs, until 1694, when sixteen books (in thirteen volumes) were donated to the Burgerbibliothek Bern.¹⁴ Nine of the donated books are still preserved in Bern.¹⁵

The ‘Heintz-Plepp’ library contained the treatise of Vitruvius in German (1575),¹⁶ Serlio’s collection of models of doors with texts in Italian and French (1551),¹⁷ and his first five books in German (1609),¹⁸ works on the orders by Vignola (c. 1562),¹⁹ Guckeisen (1598),²⁰ and Hondius (1620),²¹ Furttenbach’s treatises on civil (1628)²² and domestic architecture (1640),²³ works on mechanics and engineering by Besson (1578),²⁴ Fontana (1590),²⁵ and Daniel Mögling (1629),²⁶ a treatise on perspective by Brunn (1615),²⁷ and repertories of ornament by Guckeisen (1599)²⁸ and Veit Eck (1596).²⁹ Two books in the donation are unrelated to the practice of architecture.³⁰

Could our Pattern Book have belonged to Daniel ii Heintz, but become separated from the books he presented to Joseph Plepp? The physical evidence is inconclusive. Like our Pattern Book, the ‘Heintz-Plepp’ books contain no early marks of ownership: neither Heintz nor Plepp wrote his name inside any of the books.³¹ Four of the ‘Heintz-Plepp’ books (Vignola, Fontana, Serlio, Furttenbach) survive in contemporary Bernese bindings, individually bound in vellum over paper boards, the covers decorated in blind by a frame, and closed by green cloth ties. There is nothing which connects those bindings to the shop where our Pattern Book was bound. Another four ‘Heintz-Plepp’ books (Guckeisen and Ebelmann, Eck, Guckeisen, Besson) were once united in a Sammelband. Only a binder’s endleaf survives of the original binding: the paper is the same as a paper used for drawings in our album (Lindt nos. 511–512). While this is evidence of communal origin and date, it does not establish consanguinity.

The principal contents of the aforementioned ‘Heintz-Plepp’ Sammelband are compendia of architecture and columns with models of fashionable Schweifwerk ornament, devised by the Strasbourg joinery architects Jacob Guckeisen, Hans Jacob Ebelmann, and Veit Eck, and published at Cologne 1596–1599. These books were widely distributed and could have arrived in Bern by any number of means; it is worth noting, however, that Daniel ii Heintz is recorded in Strasbourg in 1596. Two similar model books are contained in the Pattern Book. Created by Gabriel Krammer, a joiner from Zurich who became cabinet maker to Rudolph ii in Prague, they were published at Prague in 1600 and 1602. The expeditious appearance of Krammer’s works in Bern is remarkable; could these books have been conveyed to Bern by Joseph Heintz, Daniel’s elder brother, who had entered the service of the Emperor in 1591 and become court painter? Or did Daniel Heintz himself travel to Prague in 1602 for his ‘Nobilitierung’, and return with the two books?³²

Little is known of Daniel ii Heintz’s early life, except that he was trained as a stonemason by his father, acquiring such proficiency that by the age of fourteen he was teaching in the Münsterbauhütte.³³ In 1597, aged twenty-two, he was admitted to the Gesellschaft ‘zum Affen’ in Bern, the guild of stone-masons, stone-cutters, quarry-workers and bricklayers, taking the trademark of his late father. About this time Daniel was painted by his brother Joseph (a self-portrait) together with their sister Salome (mother of Joseph Plepp).³⁴

The owner of our Pattern Book was interested in the still rather young art of calligraphy. The items bound first in the volume (four books and a single-sheet print) provide all the information a designer would need for the creation of different scripts and figural alpha­bets; mastery of these exempla is demonstrated by a drawn ‘Menschenalphabet’ and by a drawing of a strap-work frame that recollects the engraved borders enclosing some calli­graphic specimens in the Pattern Book. Calligraphy was taught in Bern by the schoolmaster Hans Kiener³⁵ and by Gabriel Hermann, who in 1594 established a Bern school of calligra­phy and in 1603 published there a book of Frakturschrift models.³⁶ Was the owner of the Pattern Book perhaps associated, either as a student or as a master?

After his appointment as Stadtwerkmeister, Heintz worked on projects initiated by his father, notably the Gesellschaftshaus ‘Zu Pfistern’ (1595–1598).³⁷ His earliest original pro­jects were private buildings in Bern and a variety of ornamental stone escutcheons: a figural ‘Wappenrelief’ for the front façade of the Zeughaus (1601),³⁸ sandstone reliefs on the south façade of the Kaufhaus (1599–1603),³⁹ Schloss Münchenbuchsee (1600–1603), and a ‘Wappentafel’ for Brügg (1605).

Decorating with civic insignia has a long tradition in Ratssaale and churches. Bound at the end of our Pattern Book is a series of forty-five drawings depicting the arms of the Bern ‘Landschaft’ (towns under Bernese dominion). The heavy modelling of the frames sup­porting the insignia indicates that the designs are intended for stonemasons, not for glass painters or metalworkers. The artist presents the insignia in the customary sequence, com­mencing with Burgdorf and concluding with Laupen, with the four Ämter jointly ruled by Bern and Fribourg (Mürten, Grasburg, Grandson, Orben) positioned at the end of the series. Vogtei Grünenberg (a shield charged with a ‘Zehnberg’) is a conspicuous addition to the series, and may lead to identification of the artist’s source, or to an application of his drawings.

Numerous design drawings are recorded in the post mortem inventory of Heintz’s studio, among them ‘2 Visierungen zum großen Kilchthurn, sampt etlichen Abrißen so darzu gehörendt’, ‘etliche Visierungen deß underen Thors allhir, deß Huses Bühren, deß Schloßes Nidouw, unnd anderen Orthen’, ‘1 Visierung einer Ballen’, ‘etliche Vierierungen von Waßerwärck’, ‘2 Visierungen zur Kilchmuren’, and ‘1 Visierung zum Müliwerck’.⁴⁰ Unfortu­nately, none of these drawings is known to survive. Three examples of Daniel ii Heintz’s draughtsmanship are known; none corresponds in function or typology with the drawings in our pattern book, and they are of no help in resolving the issue of attribution.

The earliest of the three drawings, signed and dated 1591,⁴¹ is a copy of a print of ‘Cleopatra’ by Jan Harmensz Muller.⁴² It may be no coincidence that two drawings in our Pattern Book likewise depend from engraved Mannerist prints. These are a drawing of a strapwork cartouche, related to designs by Jacob Floris, engraved by Harmen Janz Muller in 1564, and afterwards widely disseminated;⁴³ and a drawing of a freestanding funerary monument with the effigy of a sleeping bearded man, related to designs by Cornelis Floris first published by Hieronymus Cock in 1557.⁴⁴ Unlike the ‘Cleopatra’, which has been faithfully copied, the artist of these drawings appears to show independence toward his sources; he seems to have digested the graphic sources, and turned them into his own, per­sonal style.

The other two drawings associated with Daniel ii Heinz both appear in the Liber Amicorum of Claude de Villarzel and can be dated circa 1595. Their attribution to Heintz was made by Donald Galbreath in 1945 and is in need of review.⁴⁵ One drawing (folio 163 recto) depicts Cupid seated upon Venus’s knee, both armed with arrows; above left is a shield bearing the family’s insignia before 1602 (two lilies and Heintz’s Meisterzeichen),⁴⁶ and above right a scroll lettered ‘Il mal mi preme e mi spaventa il [peggio]’ accompanying a picture of a dove in an opened cage outside which hovers an eagle.⁴⁷ The image and the motto taken from Petrarch (Evil pursues me and fear of worse haunts me)⁴⁸ appeared in Hadrianus Junius’ Emblemata (Antwerp 1565), and thereafter in collections of emblemata amatoria. The inscription accompanying the drawing is imperfectly dated by Daniel Heintz, at Bern, 3 February 159[–]. The other drawing in the Villarzel Stammbuch associated with Heintz accompanies an entry by Anthoni ii Wyss, the son the Anthoni Wyss (1531–1588), a city councillor of Bern, dated at Geneva, 9 September 1595 (folio 160 verso). Galbreath suggested that that Daniel ii Heintz drew the accompanying scene depicting Venus and Cupid, and Wyss added his name and family insignia below.⁴⁹

The attribution of these Villarzel sheets to Daniel ii Heintz seems very questionable; neither exhibits the qualities of the signed ‘Cleopatra’ in Weimar, and it is likely that they are by the hand of an experienced Briefmaler, whose work appears throughout the Villarzel album. Additional examples of Heintz’s draughtsmanship will need to be identified, and more will have to be discovered about his artistic formation, to confirm or disprove the hypothesis that the Pattern Book belonged to him. In particular, it would be helpful to know if the drawings of fountains and of civic insignia in the Pattern Book are associated with any projects executed by Heintz.

At the moment, only the creation of the Pattern Book at Bern circa 1605 can be established. Although Daniel ii Heintz is the most likely compiler-owner of the volume,⁵⁰ this prove­nance remains entirely circumstantial.

Abbreviated References

amsterdam catalogue
Ornamentprenten in het Rijksprentenkabinet, i: 15de & 16de eeuw, compiled by Marijnke de Jong and Irene de Groot (Amsterdam 1988)

arbour
Roméo Arbour, L’Ère baroque en France. Répertoire chronologique des éditions 1585–1615 (Geneva 1977)

berlin katalog
Katalog der Ornamentstichsammlung der Staatlichen Kunstbibliothek, Berlin (Berlin 1939)

berliner
Rudolf Berliner, Ornamentale Vorlageblätter des 15. bis 18. Jahrhunderts (Leipzig 1925–1926)

berns mächtige zeit
Berns mächtige Zeit: das 16. und 17. Jahrhundert neu entdeckt, edited by André Holenstein (Bern 2006)

bonacini
Claudio Bonacini, Bibliografia delle arti scrittorie e della calligrafia (Florence 1953)

brussels catalogue
Henri H ymans, Catalogue des estampes d’ornement faisant partie des collections de la Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique (Brussels 1907)

doede 1958
Werner Doede, Bibliographie deutscher Schreibmeisterbücher von Neudörfer bis 1800 (Hamburg 1958)

forssman
Erik Forssman, Säule und Ornament. Studien zum Problem des Manierismus in den nordischen Säulenbüchern und Vorlageblättern des 16. und 17. Jahrhunderts (Stockholm 1956)

fuhring
Peter Fuhring, Ornament prints in the Rijksmuseum. ii: The seventeenth century (Amsterdam 2004)

grafica per orafi
Grafica per orafi: modelli del Cinque e Seicento: mostra di incisioni da collezioni italiane, 18 aprile–18 maggio 1975, catalogue of an exhibition held by the Istituto Universitario Olandese di Storia dell’Arte, by Anna Omodeo (Bologna 1975)

guilmard
Désiré Guilmard, Les Maîtres ornemanistes (Paris 1880–1881)

hamburg katalog
Katalog der Ornamentstich-Sammlung, compiled by Ludwig Döry (Hamburg 1960)

harvard catalogue
David P. Becker, The Practice of Letters. The Hofer collection of writing manuals 1514–1800 (Cambridge, ma 1997)

hollstein, German
F.W.H. Hollstein, German engravings, etchings and woodcuts, 1400–1700 (Amsterdam 1954–)

hollstein, Dutch
F.W.H. Hollstein, Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings, and woodcuts, ca. 1450–1700 (Amsterdam 1949–2007)

irmscher
Günter Irmscher, Kölner Architektur- und Säulenbücher um 1600 (Bonn 1999)

jervis 1974
Simon Jervis, Printed furniture designs before 1650 (Leeds 1974)

jervis 1986
Simon Jervis, ‘A Seventeenth-century book of engraved ornament’ in The Burlington Magazine 128 (1986), pp.893–903

lindt
Johann Lindt, The Paper-mills of Berne and their watermarks 1465–1859, Monumenta Chartæ Papyraceæ Historiam Illustrantia, x (Hilversum 1964)

mielke
Hans Mielke, ‘Hans Vredeman de Vries. Verzeichnis der Stichwerke und Beschreibung seines Stils, sowie Beiträge zum Werk Gerard Groennings’, unpublished dissertation, Freie Universität, Berlin 1967

ornament and architecture
Ornament and architecture: Renaissance drawings, prints and books, an exhibition by the Department of Art, Brown University, Bell Gallery, List Art Center, March 8 through April 6, 1980 (Providence, ri 1980)

röhrl
Boris Röhrl, ‘Nürnberger Schreibmeisterbücher. Eine Untersuchung zur typographischen Buchgestaltung von Neudörfer bis Baurenfeind’ in Gutenberg-Jahrbuch 1992
pp.146–160

schüling
Hermann Schüling, Theorien der malerischen Linear-Perspektive vor 1601 (Giessen 1973)

stadtbibliothek bern 1764
Bibliothecae Bernensis librorum typis editorum catalogus, compiled by Jean Rodolphe Sinner (Bern 1764–1767)

stadtbibliothek bern 1811
Verzeichniss aller auf der Stadt-Bibliothek in Bern, vorhandenen gedruckten Werke (Bern 1811)

stockholm katalog
Isak G.A. Collijn, Katalog der Ornamentstichsammlung des Magnus Gabriel de La Gardie in der Kgl. Bibliothek zu Stockholm (Stockholm & Uppsala 1933)

strübin rindisbacher 1995
Johanna Strübin Rindisbacher, ‘Zwischen Perspektive und Mörtelrezept: zum Bildungshintergrund von Joseph Plepp (1592–1642), dem bernischen Werkmeister, Maler und Kartenverfasser’ in Im Schatten des Goldenen Zeitalters: Künstler und Auftraggeber im bernischen 17. Jahrhundert (Bern 1995), ii, pp.141–164

strübin rindisbacher 2002
Johanna Strübin Rindisbacher, Daniel Heintz: Architekt, Ingenieur und Bildhauer im 16. Jahrhundert (Bern 2002)

vd 16
Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachbereich erschienenen Drucke des xvi. Jahrhunderts (Stuttgart 1983–1997)

vd 16 online
Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachbereich erschienenen Drucke des 16. Jahrhunderts
http://www.vd16.de/

vd 17 online
Verzeichnis der im deutschen Sprachraum erschienenen Drucke des 17. Jahrhunderts
http://www.vd17.de/

vienna katalog 1871
Illustrirter Katalog der Ornamentstichsammlung des k.k. Österr. Museums für Kunst und Industrie, edited by Franz Schestag (Vienna 1871)

vienna katalog 1889
Illustrierter Katalog der Ornamentstichsammlung des K. K. Österreich. Museums für Kunst und Industrie: Erwerbungen seit dem Jahre 1871, compiled by Franz Ritter (Vienna 1889)

vienna katalog 1889
Illustrierter Katalog der Ornamentstichsammlung des Österreichischen Museums für Kunst und Industrie: Erwerbungen seit 1889, compiled by Franz Ritter
(Vienna 1919)

warncke
Carsten-Peter Warncke, Die ornamentale Groteske in Deutschland 1500–1650 (Berlin 1979)

zauber der medusa
Zauber der Medusa: europäische Manierismen, catalogue of an exhibition held at the Wiener Künstlerhaus, 3 April–12 July 1987, edited by Werner Hofmann (Vienna 1987)

zauber des ornaments
Zauber des Ornaments. Austellungs- und Bestandskatalog des Kupferstichkabinettes [Staatliche Museen zu Berlin] (Berlin 1969)

zierschrift und initiale
Zierschrift und Initiale. Ausstellung der Kunstbibliothek Berlin von Mai bis August 1965 (Berlin 1965)

zwischen renaissance und barock
Das Zeitalter von Bruegel und Bellange. Werke aus dem Besitz der Albertina. Ausstellung, 9. Nov. 1967 bis 18. Feb. 1968, compiled by Konrad Oberhuber (Vienna 1967)

[Rogel, Hans]
Augsburg 1532 – 1592/1593 Augsburg

Capital und Versal Buech Allerhanndt Grosser und Kleiner Alphabeth, Zue den Haubtschrifften und Buechern, Deß gleichen in Canntzleyen unnd gemein, zuegebrauchen ganntz zierlich geordiniert. Durch Ulrich Hainly Brieffmaller Burgern Zue Augspurg, Jm Truckh verfertigtt.

Augsburg, Ulrich Hainly [circa 1600]

folio (album dimensions, bound along top edge, fore-edges left untrimmed), (12) ff., a suite of wood­cut title, ten partly-numbered woodcut plates (each 175 × 255 mm, borderlines), and terminal blank leaf; the prints imposed in pairs on whole sheets of paper, then gathered in a single quire (π⁶), and bound in on their own paper.

contents (folio 1) xylographic title; (f.2) six letters a–f signed v [sic] at centre left; (f.3) six letters g–m, block signed av (i.e. Augusta Vindelicorum); (f.4) six letters n–s, block signed av; (f.5) six letters t–z, block signed av; (f.6) single alphabet of twenty-four letters in four rows with in between vdmiæ (i.e. Verbum Domini Manet in Aeternum) | a[ugusta] virtvs vin cit vim v[indelicorum] | anno md lxxv. christi and numbered 2 at lower right; (f.7) three alphabets, block signed av; (f.8) three alpha­bets, block dated twice, 1568 and mdlxxv; (f.9) variations of the letter i, block signed av; (f.10) variations of letter w, block signed av; (f.11) further variations of letter w, block signed av and num­bered 5 at lower right; (f.12) blank.

paper watermark Gothic p, composed of two lines, surmounted by a shield (?), with letter a below (height 40 mm), in folios 1, 4, 7, 8, 10, 11.

In fine state of preservation.

A calligraphic model book by the Augsburg writing master, cutter of woodblocks, and publisher, Hans Rogel the Elder, presenting on ten plates six alphabets and single examples of heavily decorated Fraktur initials.

The work was first published in 1568 with the title and writing samples all cut white-on-black.⁵¹ In 1575 Rogel recut the same title and examples, in identical size, on this occasion rendering them black-on-white.⁵² After Rogel’s death (or that of his son, Hans ii Rogel in 1613), his set of white line woodblocks was reprinted by the Augsburg publishers Johann Ulrich Schönig (1589–1654),⁵³ Johann Jakob Schönig (1657–1694),⁵⁴ and Johann Christoph Wagner.⁵⁵ The set of black-on-white blocks was acquired by the local publisher Ulrich Hainly (Hainli, Hainlen), who substituted his own name on the title block.⁵⁶

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An edition by Ulrich Hainly apparently dated 1600 is cited by Breitkopf, who refers also to an edition, published at Basel by Ludwig König.⁵⁷ No other copy of any Hainly edition can be located by the writer.

Bound with

Frank (Franck), Paul
Gefrees (Oberfranken) fl. 1570 – circa 1610

Schatzkammer Allerhand Versalien Lateinisch unnd Teutsch, allen Cantzleyen Schreibstuben Notarren Schreibern und denen so sich des zierlichen schreibens befleissigen zudienst vnd wolgefallen von neüen in Drückh also verferttiget.

Nuremberg, Katharina Dietrich, ‘Jn verlegung Conrad Bauern, Buchhendlers’, 1601

folio (album dimensions), (68) ff. signed A–R⁴ plus three folding plates (bound after R4); not foliated or paginated.

contents xylographic title (verso blank), dedication printed letterpress (recto and verso), and sixty-six unnumbered leaves having woodcut initials printed on rectos only (twenty-four folios with one letter per page, twelve with two letters per page, eight with three letters per page, six with four letters per page, eight with six letters per page, and eight with twelve or more letters per page), plus three folding plates (each showing a different size of the initial i). Many letters have the initials pf incorporated in the design; the largest folding plate has also the date 1597.

Lower margins reduced by the binder to album dimensions, folio I3 thus folded-in to preserve the design, three specimens and several quire letters touched by his knife. Two of the three large plates have unrepaired tears along the folds, not resulting in significant loss.

First edition of a collection of more than four hundred initials drawn by a schoolmaster in Memmingen, dedicated by its publisher, Konrad Bauer (Agricola), 22 March 1601, to the Nuremberg writing-masters Adam Strobel and Augustin Wildsau.

‘Frank praktizierte eine neue, sich von dem reglementierten Formen des Johann Neudörfer d. Ä. lösende Manier, bei der jegliche geometrische Konstruktionsprinzipien verneint und die Buchstabenformen verunklart wurden durch die überreiche Beigabe von Zier- und Beistrichen’.⁵⁸

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Frank’s Schatzkammer anticipated by about six months (2 September 1601) a Schreibkunst published by Anton Neudörfer (1571–1628), scion of the famous Nuremberg family of calligraphers, and provoked Neudörfer to include in his book a bitter critique of Frank’s exemplaria and of his initial w in particular. Christoph Fabius Brechtel (1568–1622), the son of another famous writing master of Nuremberg, also entered the controversy, described by Doede as ‘eine echte sozusagen avantgardistische Kunstpolemik’.⁵⁹

These copies in public collections are known to the writer⁶⁰

● Berlin, Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, OS 4811⁶¹ ● Chicago, Newberry Library, Wing folio ZW 14.F842 (a portfolio containing two fragments of the book, one 23 leaves only, the other wanting title and ‘all after sig. R²’) ● Frankfurt am Main, Museum für Kunsthandwerk, Buchkunst- und Graphiksammlung, Inv.-Nr. LOZ 2790⁶² ● Halle (Saale), Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt, Af 5676, 2º (‘Verlust 2000’) ● Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (fragment of eight leaves only)⁶³ ● Nuremberg, Germanisches Nationalmuseum, 4°W 982 cg⁶⁴ ● Wolfenbüttel, Herzog-August-Bibliothek, Xb 4° 497 (‘Nach Doede fehlt 1 gef. Bl. am Ende’) ● Zurich, Zentralbibliothek, Z xvi, 29a

A new edition was published as Kunstrichtige Schreibart Allerhand Versalie[n] oder AnfangsBuchstabe[n] Der Teütschen, Lateinischen und Italianischen Schrifften aus unterschiedlichen Meistern der Edlen Schreibkunst zusammen getragen, at Nuremberg, by Christoph Gerhard for Paul Fürst, in 1655.⁶⁵

references Arthur Lotz, ‘Die deutschen Schreibmeisterbücher’ in Philobiblon 10 (1938), p.386; Bonacini no. 635; Werner Doede, Schönschreiben, eine Kunst (Munich 1957), figs. 52, 55, 64, 65; Doede 1958 no. 33 and pl.10; Hollstein, German, viii (Amsterdam 1968), p.183; facsimile edition with commentary by Joseph Kiermeier-Debre and Fritz Franz Vogel (Munich: Ravensburger, 1998)

Bound with

Bry, Theodor de
Lüttich 1528 – 1598 Frankfurt am Main

Nova Alphati [sic] Effictio Historiis ad singulas literas correspondentibus, et toreumate Bryanaeo artificiose in aes incisis illustrata: Versibus insuper Latinis et Rithmis Germanicis non omnino inconditis. Nejw Kunstliches Alphabet, gezirt mit schonen Figurn, deren Iede sich auff seinen Buchstaben accomodirt; artlich In Kupffer gestochen, durch die Bryen, Auch mit Lateineschen Versen und teutschen Reimen lustig beschrieben.

Frankfurt am Main, [Theodor de Bry], 1595

folio (album dimensions), (27) ff., signed A⁴ [B–G⁴] (–G4, blank cancelled), comprising: engraved title, letterpress dedication and preface (A2–A3), and twenty-four engravings (circa 210 × 155 mm, platemarks) each having Latin and German verses printed on verso, twelve prints signed I. Th. Bry sc ., two signed I. Th. B. FE (initials x, z), and ten prints unsigned (initials b, k, l, p, q, r, t, v, x, y); not foliated or paginated.

Two thin areas in print of letter v both owing to faults in the paper, a few extreme margins lightly discoloured, otherwise in fine state of preservation.

A remarkable figural alphabet decorated with strapwork ornament, birds, fishes, serpents, flowers, fruit, and musical instruments, intended to serve as models for craftsmen, especially goldsmiths.

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Printed on the verso of each leaf in Latin and German are epigrams descriptive of the designs. On the two leaves following the title-page are verses in Latin and German dedicated to Jean Jacques Boissard, thereafter verses in Latin addressed to Johann Adam Lonicer, and a preface in German, all printed by letterpress. Warncke has designated copies including this letterpress as first issue and copies without them as second issue.⁶⁶ An album of fourteen associated drawings is at Harvard.⁶⁷

These copies (of both issues) are known to the writer

● Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Print Room⁶⁸ ● Baltimore, Walters Art Museum, Research Library ● Berlin, Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, OS 5281 mtl⁶⁹ ● Besançon, Bibliothèque Municipale, Fonds ancien 61871 ● Cambridge, ma, Harvard University, Houghton Library, Typ 520.95.241 ● Charlottesville, University of Virginia, Typ 1595.B78 ● Chicago, Newberry Library, Wing ZW 15.126 ● Göttingen, Niedersächsische Staats- und Universitätsbibliothek, 2 BIBL UFF 195 ● Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe⁷⁰ ● Leiden, Bibliotheca Thysiana, 2177:1 ● London, British Library, 788.d.10 ● New York, New York Public Library, *KB+ 1595 ● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Arsenal, FOL–BL–1251 ● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Estampes et photographie, 4–KB–6 ● Paris, École nationale supérieure des beaux-arts, Réserve, LES 1124 ● Paris, Institut National d’Histoire de l’Art, Fonds Patrimonial, 4 Res 67 ● Paris, Musée du Louvre, Collection Edmond de Rothschild, Inv. 7511–7535⁷¹ ● Rome, Biblioteca Universitaria Alessandrina, vol. xiii f.18/18⁷²● Schweinfurt, Bibliothek Otto Schäfer, OS 903⁷³● Stockholm, Kungliga Biblioteket (Royal Library)⁷⁴ ● Vienna, Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst⁷⁵ ● Wolfenbüttel, Herzog August Bibliothek, Ui 442

The plates were copied and published at Cologne by Johann Bussemacher in 1613.⁷⁶

references facsimile edition A New Artistic Alphabet, designed by Theodore de Bry (Edinburgh 1880); Guilmard pp.368–369, no. 38; Hollstein, Dutch, iv (Amsterdam 1951), p.37 nos. 171–195; Bonacini no. 292; Warncke, ii, pp.81–84 nos. 692–716 (reproducing all prints); Hugues Demeude, The animated alphabet (London 1996), pp.98–101; facsimile reprint with commentary by Joseph Kiermeier-Debre and Fritz Franz Vogel (Munich: Ravensburger, 1997)

Bound with

Anonymous Bernese draughtsman

A figural alphabet of twenty-three letters, drawn by a single hand in black ink over pencil, all the letters formed by nude human figures alone or in groups of two or three.

[Bern circa 1600]

folio (album dimensions, fore-edges untrimmed), (23) ff., one letter on each page (each letter approximately 170 mm in height), versos blank; the drawings executed in pairs on whole sheets of paper, and bound in on their own paper (except z, attached to binder’s guard).

paper watermark two shields, each charged by a bear (the insignia of Bern) and surmounted by a crown (related to Lindt nos. 386–387).

Short scissor cuts in blank margins of four leaves (letters q, t, v, x) to protect the extremities from the binder’s knife (this proved unnecessary, as he left the leaves untrimmed).

All the letters of this handsome alphabet are formed by nude human figures alone or in pairs (except initial b, composed of three figures), holding strenuous, but plausible postures. Only in the designs of six letters (e, f, h, k, m, n) is there recourse to some prop (a tazza, floral garland, baton, fruit, the train of a woman’s robe).

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Some initials derive from Peter Flötner’s influential woodcut ‘Menschenalphabet’ of circa 1535, mediated by Theodor and Johann Israel De Bry, Alphabeta et characteres (Frankfurt am Main 1596), and by other copies.⁷⁷

Bound with

Hondius, Jodocus
Wakken (near Ghent) 1563 – 1612 Amsterdam

Theatrum Artis Scribendi, Varia Svmmorvm Nostri seculi, Artificum exemplaria complectens, novem diversis linguis exarata.

[Amsterdam, Jodocus Hondius, 1594?]

folio (album dimensions, bound along top edge, fore-edges left untrimmed), (28) ff., comprising title and twenty-seven unnumbered prints (entirely engraved, except for folio [18] where the engraved calligraphic specimen is enclosed by a woodcut cartouche lettered nil usu penna | sed arte); the majority of the prints imposed in pairs on whole sheets, gathered in quires, and bound in on their own paper.

contents [folio 1] title; [f.2] ‘Agesilaus Roy des Lacedemo’ (by Henrix); [f.3] ‘Alphabetum Flandricum’ (by Henrix); [f.4] ‘Alphabetum Capitalium Curs[oriorum]’ (by Hondius); [f.5] ‘Alphabetum Directorium’ (by Hondius); [f.6] ‘Pars altera Direc[orii]’ (by Hondius); [f.7] ‘Bien disoit vray Caton prudent et sage’ (by Van de Velde); [f.8] ‘Commet her und sehet an die werckh Gottes’ (by Van de Velde); [f.9] ‘Discretion est en l’homme’ (by Van Sambix); [f.10] ‘Evite et fuy les fauses et mauvaises accusations des hommes’ (by Van de Velde); [f.11] ‘Fuy mon enfant les disputes trop curieuses’ (by Van de Velde); [f.12] ‘Honnestete bien que ne soit en bruict’ (by Henrix); [f.13] ‘Mijn alderliefste’ (by Hondius); [f.14] ‘Tu doibs porter souverain honneur apres Dieu’ (by Jacomina Hondius); [f.15] ‘Like as the cutting of vines and other plants’ (by M. Martin); [f.16] ‘Yvrognerie est abomination a Dieu’ (by Hondius); [f.17] ‘Nettoyons la conscience, qui est ouverte devant les yeux’ (by Beauchesne); [f.18] ‘Quanquam sentiamus ac Anglicana’ (by Bales); [f.19] ‘Quelque homme reprocha a un aultre’ (by Hondius); [f.20] ‘Xerse Roy des Persans’ (by Henrix); [f.21] ‘O Herr Gott Himmelischer Vater’ (byVan Houthuys); [f.22] ‘Kleyne cloeckheit met Gods vreese’ (by Hondius); [f.23] ‘ect, tuam matrem & tuum patrem Honora’ (by Hondius); [f.24] ‘Litera Graeca’ (by Hondius); [f.25] ‘Il Mag.co M. Pietro Contarini’ (by Curione); [f.26] ‘Zenon Philosopho’ (by Hondius); [f.27] ‘Sig. mio Osser.mo in ricompensa di tanti travagli’ (by Curione); [f.28] ‘Rendez diligemment à toutes personnes’ (by Van de Velde).

paper watermark (1): shield, with diagonal bend (i.e. Strasbourg Bend), entwined letters lb (i.e. maker Blum of Lörrach) below (60 × 40 mm), in prints [1], [6], [7], [12], [21], [22], [24]; watermark (2): shield, quartered, with diagonal bend and rampant lion (insignia of Baden Hochberg), entwined letters lb below (70 × 50 mm), in prints [3], [4], [9], [10], [11], [15], [16], [17], [20], [26], [28];⁷⁸ watermark (3): crowned shield, indistinct charge between two columns, letters wr (i.e. maker Wendelin Riehel of Strasbourg) below (110 × 45 mm), in folio [18].

Irregular lower margin beneath the title print and the leaf frayed to the platemark, paper defect in another margin, otherwise in excellent state of preservation.

An anthology of specimen pages by contemporary writing-masters from various countries, including Jan van de Velde (five exemplars), Salomon Henrix (four), Carlo Ludovico Curione (two), Felix van Sambix, Peter Bales, M. Martin, Jean de Beauchesne, Jacques van Houthuys, Jacomina Hondius (one each), and of course Jacobus Hondius himself (eight signed specimens and two unsigned Greek and Hebrew alphabets presumably also by him), who produced all the copperplates. It is the first writing manual published in the Dutch Republic.

According to recent research,⁷⁹ the work was first published by Hondius in 1594 as a suite of forty-three engraved plates (title and forty-two unnumbered exemplars) accompanied by four pages of letterpress (a ‘Lectori salutem’ by Hondius and his discussion of eight ‘Regulae’).⁸⁰ Twenty-seven of the exemplars appeared within an elaborate strapwork cartouche, both exemplar and cartouche engraved on the same plate (152/164 × 207/224 mm);⁸¹ the other fifteen exemplars were engraved on smaller plates (circa 83 ×128 mm) and presented within a separately printed cartouche (two types: one engraved, 158 × 215 mm; the other woodcut 135 × 200 mm).

The letterpress preliminaries in the first edition were printed for Hondius by the Amsterdam printer-publisher Cornelis Claesz (active 1582–1609). Sometime after 1594, Claesz took possession of the copper plates, and until the sale of his business in 1610 he restruck them, reissuing Hondius’s manual without the letterpress preliminaries, but otherwise unchanged. In 1614 a new edition was published, with the imprint of Hondius’s son in law, Johannes Janssonius engraved on the title. By that date both of the separate cartouches had been lost and Janssonius supplied a new copper-engraved cartouche to frame all fifteen of the smaller exemplars.

The full complement of exemplars (forty-two) is not present our copy – fifteen plates are lacking. It can be no coincidence that all but one of these are the smaller exemplars presented within a separately-printed cartouche. Were they – and the preliminary letterpress – purposefully excluded by the owner? Or does the copy represent perhaps a Cornelis Claesz issue of the work, in which fewer exemplars were provided?⁸² The large number of ‘incomplete’ copies of the work allows for the further possibility that the buyer could decide the composition of his copy.⁸³

Hondius contracted with the Officina Plantiniana in Leiden to sell part of his edition in the autumn 1594 Frankfurt book fair;⁸⁴ the copy contained in our volume may have come to Bern around that date. Although in remarkably fresh state of preservation, the frayed corners of the title print betray its life before it was bound circa 1605. It thus is more likely to be an incomplete copy of an early issue, than a complete copy of some (as yet undefined) issue by Cornelis Claesz. An examination of the paper stocks in multiple copies might provide a conclusive answer.

references Guilmard p.493 no. 46; Berlin Katalog no. 5007 (first edition); Bonacini no. 813 (first edition); Hollstein, Dutch, ix (Amsterdam 1953), p.99 nos. 55–96 (first edition)

Bound with

Anonymous printmaker

Six Alphabets.

[Nuremberg? circa 1590]

Single sheet engraving (print 250 × 310 mm, platemark; sheet 300 × 380 mm, untrimmed edges), folded across the middle by the binder, the engraver’s or publisher’s name printed indistinctly or imperfectly erased from the plate.

paper watermark Gothic p on a crowned shield (70 × 45 mm).

In very good state of preservation.

The print displays (1) a twenty-four letter alphabet designed from tools and household implements (for example, a compass forms the letter a and scissors the letter x); (2) a twenty-four letter alphabet designed from single or pairs of human figures;⁸⁵ (3) a twenty-four letter alphabet in Fraktur capitals; (4) a Hebrew alphabet; (5) a Greek alphabet; (6) a series of imaginary ‘Egyptian’ letters.⁸⁶

The print is unidentified and may be unrecorded.

Bound with

Fuchs, Adam
Nuremberg 1583 – 1606 Nuremberg

Engravings of Sea and River gods.

Nuremberg, Heinrich Ulrich, 1605

folio (album dimensions), suite of nine prints on separate folios (eight circa 120 × 160 mm, one 170 × 120 mm platemarks), retaining broad margins.

The unnumbered prints are bound in this order (a) Triton, signed A Fuchs scalq H. Vllrich. ex: (Hollstein 63, as pl.9 in series); (b) River god on dolphin (H. 56, as pl.2 in series); (c) Sea god on two-headed monster (H. 60, as pl.6 in series); (d) Male and Female Sea gods on a Sea horse (H. 61, as pl.7 in series); (e) Reclining male figure with a goose, signed af (H. 57, as pl.3; (f) River god with bowl of cherries (H. 59, as pl.3); (g) River god with a sheep and putti (H. 4); (h) Young Sea god on Sea lion (H. 58, as pl.4); (i) Bacchus, signed af and dated 1605 (H. 55, as pl.1).

paper watermark crowned shield, with diagonal bend, surmounted by a cross (height circa 45 mm), in prints (a), (c), (f).

Extremely fine impressions in perfect state of preservation.

A fine series of nine prints of Sea gods, Tritons, and Naiads, engraved by Adam Fuchs after prints by Giovanni Andrea Maglioli (active at Rome 1580–1610), which in turn are derived from sarcophagi and other antiquities.⁸⁷ A tenth print of larger dimensions inscribed Paulys Mayr Inventor | 10 (102 × 290 mm) was added to the series by a later publisher (Hollstein 64).

Image

Five states of the prints are known:

i before numbers and signatures ii plates before numbers, three signed by the printmaker and dated 1605 iii plates numbered 1–9, same three plates (1, 3, 9) signed and dated iv plates numbered 1–9, same three plates signed and dated, publisher’s name H. Vllrich. ex: and date 1605 added on two plates (1, 9) v published by Paul Fürst in dated and undated editions

Our impressions are in an state between Hollstein’s ii and iv, i.e. before numbering of the plates, yet bearing Fuchs’ name and dated 1605 (on plates a, c, i), and with the excudit of Ulrich on plate i only.

Impressions of the prints in first state are rare (Hollstein records three impressions only, all at Coburg); sets of the prints in later states are recorded in

● Dresden, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Kupferstichkabinett (prints 1–7, 9; located by Kroll) ● Leipzig, Museum des Kunsthandwerks (prints 1, 2, 4–9; located by Kroll) ● London, British Museum, Prints & Drawings, 1932, 0217.14–22 (prints 1–9) ● Schleswig, Schleswig-Holsteinische Landesmuseen⁸⁸ ● Vienna, Graphische Sammlung der Albertina (prints 1–9; located by Hollstein) ● Vienna, Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst, KI 2275 F–46 S–7 (print 1 only?)⁸⁹

references Andreas Andresen, Der deutsche Peintre-Graveur (Leipzig 1864–1878), v, p.43 nos. 21–29; Hollstein, German, ix (Amsterdam 1975), pp.52–58 nos. 55–63; Renate Kroll, ‘Andreas Schlüter und der Sommerpalast Peters i ’ in Forschungen und Berichte, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin 17 (1976), pp.113–134 (especially pp.121–123)

Bound with

Passe, Crispijn i de
Arnemuiden 1564 – 1637 Utrecht

The Seven Liberal Arts: Grammatica, Dialectica, Rhetorica, Musica, Arithmetica, Geometria, Astronomia.

[Cologne circa 1600]

folio (album dimensions), suite of seven numbered prints on separate folios, each circa 165 × 95 mm (platemarks) with very broad margins (irregular fore-edges), two lines of Latin text beneath each print, signed Martin De Voss inventor. Crispian De Passe fe et excud. (or version thereof).

paper illegible watermark (eagle?) and countermark.

Light discolouration, tear in lower margin of ‘Astronomia’, otherwise in fine state of preservation.

Image

The complete series, engraved after designs by the Flemish painter Maarten de Vos (1532–1603).⁹⁰ The preparatory drawing for ‘Astronomia’ is in the Yale University Art Gallery, New Haven.⁹¹

These sets are known to the writer

● Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, Cabinet des Estampes 89891–89897⁹² ● London, British Museum, Prints & Drawings, D.6.1–7 ● Madrid, Biblioteca Nacional, Gabinete de estampas, ER/1493(37)–ER/1493(43)⁹³ ● Vienna, Hofbibliothek, HB 86, pp.158–159, 445–51⁹⁴

references Simon Laschitzer, ‘Berichtigungen, Ergänzungen und Nachträge zu “L’oeuvre gravé des van de Passe” décrit par D. Franken’ in Repertorium für Kunstwissenschaft 8 (1885), nos. 174–180; Hollstein, Dutch, xv (Amsterdam 1964), p.192, nos. 517–523

Bound with

Boissard, Jean Jacques
Besançon 1528 – 1602 Metz

Parnassus cum imaginibus Mvsarvm Deorumque praesidum Hippocrenes Omnia depicta sunt, & distichs Latinis illustrata.

Frankfurt am Main, Heirs of Theodor de Bry, 1601

folio (album dimensions), (36) ff., comprising: engraved title with inscription beneath Io. Theodor de Bry fecit, eight leaves of letterpress dedication and verses (signed *2–**5), portrait of the author

beneath letterpress heading (without name of engraver), twenty-five full-page engravings (255/270 × 135/180 mm, platemarks), and final blank leaf.

Light discolouration in extreme fore-margins, otherwise in fine state of preservation.

Image

First edition of a suite of engraved portraits of the inhabitants of Parnassus (Greek gods, nine Muses, and eight Classical poets).

Nineteen prints were designed and engraved by Jan Theodor de Bry (1561–1623) and six (nos. 2, 4, 5, 16, 17, 20) were engraved by Robert Boissard (circa 1570–after 1597) after designs of Jean-Jacques Boissard.

These copies are known to the writer

● Augsburg, Staats- und Stadtbibliothek, 2 Kst 42 (lacking plates 2, 16) ● Cambridge, University Library, LE.2.19 ● Halle, Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek Sachsen-Anhalt, AB 170022 (2) ● London, University of London Library (Senate House), D.–L.L. CC23 (lacking plate 16) ● Los Angeles, Getty Research Institute, NE654.B79 P37 1601 ● Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, 2 Arch 48 ● New York, New York Public Library, *KB +1601 ● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Rés. J 1834 (1) and FB–2090 ● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale, Estampes et photographie, Gc.13⁹⁵ ● Wolfenbüttel, Herzog-August-Bibliothek, Xb 4° 476

The work was reissued at Oppenheim by Theodor de Bry in 1613⁹⁶ and reprinted under the title Parnassus biceps (with eight additional plates) at Frankfurt am Main by William Fitzer in 1627.

references Roméo Arbour, L’Ère baroque en France. Répertoire chronologique des éditions 1585–1615 (Geneva 1977), no. 3242; not in Hollstein, unless to be identified with the nine prints of Muses in the entry for Theodor de Bry (Dutch, iv, Amsterdam 1951, p.45, nos. 14–22)

Bound with

Eisenhoit, Antonius
Warburg (Westfalia) 1553/4 – 1603

The Virtues.

Nuremberg, Balthasar Caymox, 1591

folio (album dimensions), suite of eight unnumbered prints (140 × 90 mm, platemarks), imposed in pairs on whole sheets of paper, gathered in two quires, and bound in on their own paper.

contents (a) ‘Iustitia est virtus suum cuique tribuens’, signed bc and Anton: Eisen: (b) ‘Fides est justitia in rebus creditis promissum seruans’, signed Baltasr. Caimox ex., and Anton Eis: (c) ‘Fortitudo est Fiducia et magnanimitas aut patientia et consta[n]tia’, signed bc and Anton Eisen: w w fecit. 1591 (d) ‘Temperantia est virtus cupiditates moderans’, signed bc and Anton: Eisen: f: (e) ‘Prudentia est virtus accurate perspiciens id quod in unaquaque actione decet’, signed bc and Anton Eis: 1591 (f) ‘Patientia est Fortitudo labores doloresque sustinens’, signed bc and Anton: Eisn: (g) ‘Spes unica nostra Salus, Vita, et redemptio Christus est’, signed bc and Anton: Eisen f. 1591 (h) ‘Charitas est justitia animos indissolubili nexu devinciens’, signed bc and Anton: Eisen: .

paper indistinct watermark (height 80/90 mm, an eagle?).

Light stain in lower margin of two folios, otherwise perfect state of preservation.

The complete series, published by Balthasar Caymox of Brabant, who had settled at Nuremberg in 1590. The impression of ‘Fortitudo’ seen by Hollstein was undated (our impression and the one in Berlin are dated 1591).

Image

These impressions are known to the writer

● Berlin, Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz⁹⁷ ● Lemgo, Weserrenaissance-Museum Schloss Brake⁹⁸ ● Münster, Landesmuseum für Kunst und Kulturgeschichte⁹⁹ ● Vienna, Graphische Sammlung der Albertina (located by Hollstein, German, viii, p.19)

references Annamaria Kesting, Anton Eisenhoit, ein Westfälischer Kupferstecher und Goldschmied (Münster 1964), nos. 11–18 and figs. 27–34; Hollstein, German, viii (Amsterdam 1968), p.19 nos. 5–12 and (q.v. Caimox) in volume v (1955), p.191 nos. 11–17 (seven prints only)

Bound with

[Passe, Crispijn i de]
Arnemuiden 1564 – 1637 Utrecht

Emblems (‘The cycle of the vicissitudes of human existence’).

[Cologne] 1601

folio (album dimensions), suite of eight unnumbered prints (each circa 100 × 125 mm, platemarks), imposed in pairs on whole sheets of paper, gathered in two quires, and bound in on their own paper (fore-edge margins untrimmed).

contents (a) ‘Sedvlitas vigeat, et opvm sic copia crescet mdci’ (b) ‘Felix terra cvlmvltarum est copia rervm’ (c) ‘Gignitvr ex nimio sic foeda svperbia lvxv 1601’ (d) ‘Invidia alterivs rebvs macrescit opimis 1601’ (e) ‘Iam cvm sangvineo fvrit hev bellona flagello’ (f) ‘Sera bonos nvnquam ad mores via, iam resipisce 1601’ (g) ‘Me pietas ivvat et fidei meditatio sanctae 1601’ (h) ‘Divitiis frvor en mvltoque labore paratis An. mdci ’.

paper indistinct large eagle watermark.

Superb impressions in fine state of preservation.

An anonymous series of emblems, each one depicting a female personification within an oval cartouche of strapwork, grotesques, garlands, animals, human figures, fantasy figures, and mascarons.

Image

‘The prints depict a kind of evolution or cycle in which one personified situation is the consequence of the preceding one: labour brings wealth, wealth pride, pride jealousy, jealousy bloody conflict, conflict poverty, poverty humility, and humility, finally, begets prosperity once again’.¹⁰⁰

The series is freely based on one created by Maerten van Heemskerck (1498–1574) and Maarten de Vos (1532–1603).¹⁰¹

These impressions are known to the writer

● Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Rijksprentenkabinet, RP–P–1964–4618.4625¹⁰² ● Berlin, Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, OS 239¹⁰³ ● Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, Cabinet des Estampes¹⁰⁴ ● Paris, Fondation Custodia¹⁰⁵

references Daniel Franken, L’Oeuvre gravé des Van de Passe. Catalogue raisonné (Amsterdam 1881), nos. 1220–1227; Berliner Taf.223 nos. 1–2 (Franken nos. 1222, 1227; Hollstein nos. 626, 621); Hollstein, Dutch, xv (Amsterdam 1964), p.210 nos. 619–626 (as ‘Emblems’); Warncke, i, figs. 258–259 (reproducing ‘Gignitvr ex nimio sic foeda svperbia’ and ‘Invidia alterivs rebvs macrescit opimis’)

Bound with

Collaert, Adriaen
Antwerp circa 1560 – 1618 Antwerp

Avivm Vivae Icones, in aes incisae & editae ab Adriano Collardo.

[Antwerp, Adriaen Collaert, circa 1595]

folio (album dimensions, bound along top edge, fore-edges left untrimmed), (16) ff., suite of title and fifteen unnumbered prints (130 × 190 mm, platemarks) on separate folios, retaining broad margins.

contents (a) title (transcribed above); (b) Perdix – Aquila, signed Adrian. Collaert fecit et excud. (Hollstein 1421/ i); (c) Strutio – Strutio ex China, signed Adr. Collaert fecit et excud. (H. 1424/ i); (d) Ciconia – Pauo, signed Adrian Collaert fecit et excud. (H. 1425/ i); (e) Gallus cornutus – Gallus Indicus, signed Adrian Collaert fecit et excud. (H. 1423/ i); (f) Gallina Africana – Phasianus, signed Adrian Coll. fecit et excud. (H. 1428/ i); (g) Psitaci duplex genus, signed Adrian Collaert fecit et excud. (H. 1422/ i); (h) Columbus plumipes, vittatus – Picus Cinereus, signed Adrian. Collaert fecit et excud. (H. 1426/ i); (i) Falco, signed Adr. Collaert fecit et excud. (H. 1427/ i); (j) Parus syluaticus – Sturnus, signed Adr. Collaert fecit et excud. (H. 1430/ i); (k) Upupa – Acanthis, signed Adrian. Collaert fecit et excud. (H. 1434/ i); (l) Galgulus – Passer, signed Adrian. Collaert fecit et excud. (H. 1429/ i); (m) Picae glandariae genus, signed Adr. Collaert fecit et excud. (H. 1435/ i); (n) Pica glandaria – Auriuittis, signed Adrian. Collaert fecit et excud. (H. 1435/ i); (o) Alcedo – Ardea, signed Adr. Collaert f. et exc. (H. 1432/ i); (p) Pica, signed A. Collaert fecit et excud. (H. 1431/ i).

paper watermark Gothic p (height 72 mm).

Title and verso of last print lightly stained (suggesting that the suite circulated unbound before compilation of our album) otherwise excellent impressions in fine state of preservation.

The original edition of Collaert’s pattern book showing birds in landscape backgrounds, including scenes of human activities and habitations, published at Antwerp as an unnumbered suite of title and fifteen plates.

Other impressions in this first state are in

● Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Rijksprentenkabinet, BI 326 I3; another set in the Bibliotheek, 326 I 3 ● Brussels, Bibliothèque Royale de Belgique, Cabinet des Estampes, S iv 2381–2397 ● Leiden, University Library, Bibliotheca Thysiana, THYSIA 942:3 ● London, British Library, 436 b 24 (1)¹⁰⁶ ● London, Wellcome Library, 7014/D ● art market¹⁰⁷

A second series of sixteen prints was later engraved by Collaert and an ‘editio secunda’ of all thirty-two plates was published by him after 1600 (the plates in the first edition are there numbered 16–32).¹⁰⁸ The full set of thirty-two matrices was struck again by Collaert and Theodoor Galle in partnership (before 1618),¹⁰⁹ by Frederick de Wit (after 1659),¹¹⁰ and by Johannes Galle (the matrices are recorded in an inventory taken in 1677).

references F.W.H. Hollstein, The New Hollstein: Dutch and Flemish etchings, engravings and woodcuts 1450–1700: The Collaert dynasty, Part vi, compiled by Ann Diels and Marjolein Leesberg (Ouderkerk aan den Ijssel 2005), pp.123–147 nos. 1404, 1421–1435

Bound with

Boillot, Joseph
Langres 1546 – after 1603

New Termis Buch, Von allerley grossen vierfüssigen Thieren zugerichtet, Mit beygefügter Thieren Contrarieteten, sampt etlicher massen Beschreibungen, gantz lieblich und lustig, gleichsam als zur hande, und in einem Spiegel vorgestellet, Allen Künstlern, Werckmeistern, Maalern, Bildhauwern, Schnitzlern, Goldschmiden, Schreinern, Glasmalern, und allen Liebhabern dieser Künsten, zu sonderbaren gefallen gestellt, und ans Liecht gebracht.

Strasbourg, [Antoine Bertram?], 1604

folio (album dimensions), (32) ff. signed ):(⁴ A–D⁶ E⁴, unpaginated, comprising: title printed in red and black within engraved border printed from two plates, three leaves of letterpress (‘Vorred An den kunstliebenden Leser’), and twenty-eight folios ornamented by fifty-five illustrations of which sixteen are woodcuts and thirty-nine engravings (latter circa 270 × 90 mm signed J. boillot).

Extreme margins of some leaves stained, otherwise in fine state of preservation.

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A German version of the author’s Nouveaux pourtraitz et figures de termes (Langres 1592), with its engraved title-border and text illustrations. The anonymous translator was possibly the printer Antoine Bertram, who had published an adaptation of Boillot’s treatise on pyrotechnics in 1603. The extensive prefatory material of the French edition is abbreviated and the original dedication and verses eliminated. The new edition thereby becomes a pattern book, addressed to artists, foremen, painters, goldsmiths and sculptors of all kinds (‘Allen Künstlern, Werckmeistern, Maalern, Bildhauwern, Schnitzlern, Goldschmiden, Schreinern, Glasmalern, und allen Liebhabern dieser Künsten’).

According to an early authority, our reprint was in fact printed at Basel by Ludwig König.¹¹¹ In recent years the book has begun to attract widespread scholarly attention.¹¹²

These copies in public collections are known to the writer¹¹³

● Amsterdam, Universiteit van Amsterdam, OTM: OM 63–1987 ● Berlin, Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, OS 3923¹¹⁴ ● Chicago, Newberry Library, Wing folio ZP 6471.604 ● London, British Library, 1269.h.2¹¹⁵ ● Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothek, 2 Math. a. 61 and 2 Mil. g. 77 (two copies) ● Vienna, Österreichischen National­bibliothek, 72.P.48 ● Waddesdon Manor, The National Trust, The James A. Rothschild Bequest, Acc. No. 3778¹¹⁶ ● Washington, dc, National Gallery of Art, N44.B6779 A45 1604¹¹⁷ ● Wolfenbüttel, Herzog-August-Bibliothek, A: 36.2 Geom. 2º (4) (‘Ex. unvollständig, nur [30] Bl. Vorhanden’)

references Forssman pp.144–147, 240; Warncke, i, p.101, note 170 (repeating the collation of the defective Berlin copy)

Bound with

Vredeman de Vries, Hans
Leeuwarden 1527 – 1609 Hamburg

Oval architectural perspective views for intarsia work.

Antwerp, Hieronymus Cock, [circa 1560–1566]

folio (sheets 297 × 195 mm, slightly smaller than album dimensions, two margins left untrimmed), (22) ff., complete series of engraved dedication and twenty unnumbered prints by Joannes and Lucas Van Doetecum in first state, all except dedication plate imposed in pairs on whole sheets of paper, gathered in quires (π⁸²π¹⁴), and bound in on their own paper.

contents (a) dedication to Count Peter Ernst von Mansfeld, subscribed Hieronÿmus Cock Pictor deuotissimo dedicabat, 210 × 160 mm platemark (Hollstein 51); (b) 160 × 211 mm platemark (H. 56); (c) 212 × 160 mm platemark, signed Vriese Invent (H. 69); (d) 162 × 212 mm platemark (H. 54); (e) 160 × 210 mm platemark, signed Vriese (H. 60); (f) 215 × 160 mm platemark (H. 68); (g) 163 × 213 mm platemark, signed Vriese Invent (H. 62); (h) blank leaf, conjugate with dedication plate (a); (i) 214 × 162 mm platemark, signed H. Cock. Excudebat Vriese Inven (H. 71); (j) 162 × 216 mm platemark (H. 55); (k) 163 × 212 mm platemark (H. 53); (l) 160 × 213 mm platemark, signed Vriese Inventor H Cock Excudebat (H. 66); (m) 162 × 212 mm platemark (H. 63); (n) 162 × 212 mm platemark (H. 67); (o) 212 × 161 mm platemark (H. 58); (p) 162 × 215 mm platemark, signed Vriese Invent Cock Excud (H. 70); (q) 162 × 215 mm platemark (H. 64); (r) 160 × 212 mm platemark Vriese Invent H Cock Excude (H. 61); (s) 162 × 215 mm platemark, signed Vriese Invento Cock excudebat (H. 65); (t) 160 × 215 mm platemark (H. 59); (u) 160 × 212 mm platemark (H. 52); (v) 161 × 212 mm platemark, signed Vriese Invent (H. 57).

paper watermark Gothic p surmounted by a quatrefoil (height 55 mm).

Before being bound in the album, the prints suffered insect damage to upper margins (reaching platemark of thirteen prints), however the impressions are excellent, and the state of preservation otherwise is perfect.

The first of four issues of this suite, subsequently published by Theodoor Galle with title Variae Architecturae Formae (1601 and after), and by Johannes Galle (circa 1636–1640).

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These sets in first state are known to the writer

● Berlin, Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, OS 2214¹¹⁸ ● Madrid, Escorial¹¹⁹ ● Rotterdam, Museum Boymans-van Beuningen, Tekeningen en prenten¹²⁰ ● Vienna, Hofbibliothek, HB 56.2., fols.19–25, nos. 54–74 (reproduced by Hollstein) ● Vienna, Graphische Sammlung der Albertina¹²¹

Janet Byrne identifies these prints as designs for intarsia work, ‘probably intended for bone or ivory inlaid in an ebony cabinet’.¹²²

references Mielke no. vi; Timothy Riggs, Hieronymus Cock (New York 1977), no. 208; Le Temple. Répresentations de l’architecture sacrée, exhibition catalogue, Musée National Message Biblique Marc Chagall, Nice (Paris 1982), pp.127–128 nos. 119–120; Hollstein, Dutch, xlvii (Rotterdam 1997), pp.69–87 nos. 51–71; The New Hollstein. Dutch & Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts 1450–1700. The Van Doetecum family, ii (Rotterdam 1998), pp.26–40 nos. 184–203

Bound with

Krammer, Gabriel
Zürich 1564 – 1606 Prague

Architectvra: Von Den Fvnf Seülen Sambt Iren Ornamenten Vnd Zierden Als Nemlich Tvscana, Dorica, Ionica, Corintia, Composita In Rechter Mas Teilvng vnd Proportzion. Mit Den Exemplen Der Bervmbten Antiqviteten So Dvrch Den Merern Tail Sich Mit Der Leer Vitrvvii Vergleichen. Avch Dar Zv nvtzlich Etliche Geometrische Stvcklein.

Prague, [no publisher named], 1600

folio (re-margined by binder to album dimensions), (34) ff., a complete copy, comprising engraved title, five unnumbered folios of printed text, and twenty-eight numbered plates (280/290 × 205/210 mm, mostly trimmed by binder along or within platemarks).

contents (a) engraved title (transcribed above), dated at foot ‘Zu Prag …1600’ (b) recto dedication to the Emperor Rudolph ii subscribed by the author at Prague, 20 March 1600; verso ‘Vorrede’ (c) recto and verso ‘Von der Geometria’ (d) recto ‘Von Tuscana der Ersten Ordnung’; verso ‘Von Dorica der Ander Ordnung’ (e) recto ‘Von Ionica der Dritten Ordnung’; verso ‘Von Corintia der Vierdten Ordnung’ (f) recto ‘Von Composita der Fünfften Ordnung’; verso ‘Von der Auffsetzung und Erhöhung der Seülen sambt iren wercken’ and privilege: ‘Mit Röm: Key: May: &c. Gnad und Freyheit auf Fünff Jahr mit nach zu drucken. Anno m. dc .’ (1)–(28) twenty-eight numbered plates (numerals 21–25, 27–28 here trimmed away by binder), variously signed by monograms gk or gab: k or Gabriel Krammer, three prints (nos. 3, 5, 6) dated 1598 and twelve prints dated 1599 (nos. 12, 13, 24 also bearing imperial privilege).

paper watermark (1): shield, divided vertically across the middle, with semi-eagle on the left and letter k (designating the mills of Kempten in Bavaria) on right (height 38 mm), (2): eagle, double-headed, with crown, with heart-shaped shield on its breast charged by letter k (height 75 mm).

Lower margin of engraved title (305 × 205 mm) folded-in to preserve the design, damage to its fore-edge; the five folios of letterpress trimmed by binder to within a few millimetres of the text; the prints trimmed along or inside platemarks, then re-margined to album dimensions at time of binding.

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Models by Gabriel Kammer (dated 1599; height of page 309 mm)

Original edition of this work exploring the decorative possibilities of the orders of columns, dedicated to the Emperor Rudolf ii by Krammer at Prague, 20 March 1600, and dated 1600 in the privilege/colophon.¹²³

Gabriel Krammer originated from Zurich and worked at the Prague imperial court from 1587 as the guards’ piper.¹²⁴ He was a talented joiner, who aside from interiors probably also shaped the exteriors of buildings. He wrote several textbooks on architecture and architectural ornamentation, which were distributed in several editions across all of Central Europe. In this manner, Krammer had a significant influence on the artistic production of the time. His work was valued as virtually the ‘official’ style of the Prague court in the area of interior design.¹²⁵

The writer locates these copies in public collections

● Berlin, Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, OS 1944 mtl¹²⁶ ● Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 50.6.4 (fragment only) ● Halle, Universitäts- und Landesbibliothek, AB 97261 (2) ● Hamburg, Museum für Kunst und Gewerbe (fragment only)¹²⁷ ● Munich, Bayerische Staatsbibliothe, 2A civ 97 ● New Haven, Yale University, Beinecke Library, Yna 31 +600 K ● Nuremberg, Germanisches National Museum (located by Irmscher) ● Olomouc, Research Library, III 9.070 ● Oxford, Bodleian Library, Arch. B c.23¹²⁸ ● Paris, Institut national d’histoire de l’art, 4 Est 127 ● Princeton, University, Marquand Library, NA2810.K86q¹²⁹ ● Stuttgart, Württembergischen Landesbibliothek, Ra 16 Has 1 ● Vienna, Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst, D 169 F–135 S–45 Z–1.19¹³⁰ ● Vienna, Universitätsbibliothek, III–79217

Two further editions, issued at Prague by Marco Sadeler, in 1606¹³¹ and 1608,¹³² are also rare.

Copies of the plates (engraved in reverse, with the exception of the title-plate and plates 1, 3, 5, 24) were published at Cologne by Johann Bussemacher, in 1610 (dated at end of the foreword, two issues or editions),¹³³ 1611, 1616,¹³⁴ and 1646.¹³⁵

references facsimile edition (Frankfurt am Main: H. Keller, 1895); Forssman pp.150, 245, no. 159; Jervis 1974 pp.38–39 nos. 243–260; Hollstein, German, xix (Amsterdam 1976), p.82, nos. 1–28; Warncke, ii, no. 840; Vd16 (Stuttgart 1987), K–2224; Günter Irmscher, Kölner Architektur- und Säulenbücher um 1600 (Bonn 1999), pp.139–143 no. i.2a

Bound with

Krammer, Gabriel
Zürich 1564 – 1606 Prague

Schweiff Bvechlein Manicherlei Schweiff, Laubwerk, Rolwerk, perspectif, vnd sonderliche gezierden, zu vilerhand arbeit auf dis vorgehende Architektur büchlein gerichtet.

Prague, [no publisher named], 1602

folio (album dimensions), (26) ff., a complete copy, comprising an engraved title, two leaves of letterpress, and twenty-three numbered plates (circa 210 × 155 mm, platemarks)

contents (a) engraved title (transcribed above), dated ‘Zu Prag Ano. 1602’; (b) recto and verso dedication, preceded by engraved vignette (insignia of the dedicatee, 132 × 152 mm); (c) recto dedication concluded, subscribed by the author at Prague 8 March 1602; verso blank; (1)–(23) twenty-three numbered engraved plates (no. [17] without number and here bound at end), all signed by Krammer with his name or monogram, and dated 1600 or 1601.

paper watermarks: two versions of a crowned imperial eagle (height of marks 75 mm).

The two leaves of letterpress lightly browned owing to poor quality of the paper, the prints in excellent impressions and fine state of preservation retaining broad margins.

The earliest known edition, dedicated by Krammer to Adam Gallus Popel von Lobkowitz (1557–1605), at Prague, 8 March 1602. An edition published at Frankfurt am Main by Levin Hulsius in 1600 is cited in the early literature;¹³⁶ however no copy has come to light.¹³⁷

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Title page (platemark 245 × 155 mm)

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All editions of the book are rare; these copies and fragments of the first edition are recorded

● Boston, Museum of Fine Arts, 50.6.4 (fragment only) ● London, British Museum, Prints & Drawings (cited by Hollstein) ● Nuremberg, Germanisches National Museum¹³⁸ ● Vienna, Österreichisches Museum für angewandte Kunst (cited by Hollstein as incomplete)¹³⁹

The book was reprinted at Cologne by Johann Bussemacher, in 1611,¹⁴⁰ 1612,¹⁴¹ without date,¹⁴² and by another publisher in 1633.¹⁴³

references Jervis 1974 nos. 261–283 (‘the original edition of 1602 is extremely rare’); Hollstein, German, xix (Amsterdam 1976), p.83, nos. 29–52; Warncke, ii, nos. 841–842 (reproducing prints 18–19); Irmscher pp.151–153 no. iii–2

Bound with

Bruyn, Nicolaes de
Antwerp 1571? – 1656 Rotterdam

Designs for frames.

Amsterdam, Assuerus van Londerseel, [after 1569]

Two prints (from a series of six or eight?), bound in the album on separate guards.

paper watermark in both prints an indistinct eagle (height circa 70 mm).

Fine impressions.

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Two designs for mirror frames ornamented with cupids, birds and animals, both etched (in reverse) from designs of Hans Vredeman de Vries published in 1569.¹⁴⁴

Print (a)
Cartouche, top centre and right a child holds a cord to which is attached a festoon of fruit
194 × 260 mm (platemark), with narrow, irregular margins.
Hollstein, Dutch, xlvii, p.261 no. 318 and p.279 (impression in Amsterdam reproduced); Amsterdam catalogue 176 a. 5; Grafica per orafi fig. 51

Print (b)
Cartouche, top centre and right a chimerical monster and a bird with a snake in its beak
193 × 260 mm (platemark), with narrow, irregular margins, lettered in four cartouches along bottom Assu | van | londer | excudit.
Hollstein Dutch, xlvii, p.258 no. 302 and p.270 (impression in Amsterdam reproduced); Amsterdam catalogue 176 a .2; Zauber des ornaments p.32 (reproduced)

Other impressions of prints in the series are in

● Amsterdam, Rijksmuseum, Rijksprentenkabinet¹⁴⁵ ● Berlin, Kunstbibliothek, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin – Preußischer Kulturbesitz, OS 236¹⁴⁶ ● Florence, Biblioteca Marucelliana, Vol. cix, nos. 1, 2, 4, 5, 7 (five prints of the series)¹⁴⁷ ● Paris, Institut national d’histoire de l’art, 4 Rés 32 (four prints of the series) ● Paris, Bibliothèque nationale de France, Estampes et photographie, Hd 46 Fol (located by Hollstein, Dutch, xlvii, p.258)

references Guilmard p.487 no. 32; Hollstein, Dutch, iv (Amsterdam 1951), p.25, nos. 237–242; Mielke, Anhang, p.209

Bound with

Anonymous Bernese draughtsman

Designs for Fountains, Statues, a Tomb and a Cartouche.

[Bern circa 1602]

folio (album dimensions), group of fourteen drawings on thirteen folios (the first two drawings are on recto and verso of one sheet, the remaining drawings on rectos only), executed by a single hand in black ink with grey or a yellowish-brown wash, often over pencil, the drawings in different sizes, the three largest are beyond album height and have a portion folded in.

paper watermark related to Lindt nos. 511–512

The first five drawings possibly are designs for fountain statuary and show

(1) Neptune, standing on a circular plinth

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Drawings 2 and 3: Designs for fountain statuary (height of each image 195 mm)

(2) a Wild man, standing on a square plinth, supporting a shield emblazoned with the emblem of Bern (a bear)

(3) a Female figure carrying a child with two infants at her feet (Charity)

(4) a Nereid playing a lyre

(5) a Soldier, standing on a square plinth, with drawn bow

All of the above are drawn in uniform size (height circa 195 mm), except the Nereid (height 140 mm).

Six of the remaining nine drawings are complete designs for fountains and occupy the entire album page:

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(6) a fountain designed with a rectangular basin ornamented by Neptune in his chariot pulled by sea-horses (long side) and by a River god (end), overlooked by a female figure atop a pedestal standing outside the basin. This female figure (Bellona?) carries a standard and supports a blank shield; the base of her pedestal is decorated by two mermaids, one of whom directs water spraying from her breasts into the nearby basin.

(7) a fountain designed with hexagonal basin decorated by acanthus ornament (also seen on the preceding sheet) and a grotesque mask; rising in the centre of the basin are three female figures issuing water from their breasts; above them is another basin, and overlooking it, a female figure (Abundance?) holding a cornucopia and supporting a blank shield.

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(8) a fountain designed with a square basin decorated by a grotesque mask and the same foliate ornament; within it are two Nereids with jets in their breasts, and on the tier above, a female figure, seated on a socle ornamented by two rams’ heads expelling water

(9) a design for a Tomb in the manner of Cornelis Floris. In the centre of the console is an incompleted heraldic escutcheon of strapwork ornament and grotesque masks; above a bearded, partially clothed figure is supine. Comparable designs by Floris, first engraved by Lucas or Johannes Doetecum and published by Hieronymus Cock at Antwerp in 1557, were widely disseminated across Europe.¹⁴⁸

(10) a fountain designed with a rectangular basin decorated in front by a shield (left blank) with lion rampant supporter and our draughtsman’s characteristic acanthus ornament at the corners. Within the basin rises a pedestal decorated by three putti astride Sea monsters, continuing up to a second basin, overlooked by Cupid.

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(11) a fountain designed with a basin in the form of a Greek cross, decorated by acanthus ornament. On a platform in the middle three putti are seen; above them is a round basin over which presides a Devil riding a Sea horse.

(12) designs for two columnar monuments, one surmounted by a lion rampant, the other an obelisk adorned by putti waving flags. Since water can be seen jetting from grotesque and animal masks around the base of each monument, these presumably are also fountain designs.

(13) a fountain designed with a rectangular basin decorated by acanthus ornament at corners. Inside is a pedestal supporting another basin, three Nereids (one seated on a web-footed sea monster) are gathered around the base, which is dated boldly 1602. Above is a second basin and three female figures (the Three Graces?) grouped around a column, with at top a blank escutcheon.

(14) design for a strapwork cartouche, ornamented by owls, fishes, flowers and fruits, in the manner of Jacob Floris. Comparable designs by Floris, first engraved by Herman Jansz. Muller and published by Hans Liefrick at Antwerp in 1564, were copied across Europe, and could have been assimilated by our anonymous draughtsman from a multitude of sources.

Bound with

Anonymous Bernese draughtsman

Civic Insignia of Swiss towns.

[Bern circa 1600]

folio (album dimensions), series of forty-five numbered heraldic escutcheons on twenty-three folios (two drawings on each folio, except for no. 34, presented singly), each folio trimmed to album dimensions (except no. 34, 240 × 210 mm), executed by a single hand in black ink with two shades of grey wash, often over pencil or black chalk, the sheets scored to align the escutcheons uniformly, above each escutcheon is written the name of the town.

paper watermark related to Lindt nos. 386–387.

Occasional off-setting on the blank preceding verso; in fine state of preservation.

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The insignia of forty-five towns in Kantons Bern, Aargau, Freiburg, and Waadt, uniformly drawn and presented.

The first escutcheon is unnumbered and shows beneath the heading ‘Burtolff’ the insignia of Burgdorf. Then follow a series numbered 1 to 40 (alternative spelling of place-name given within parentheses):

1. Thun – 2. Zoffigen (Zofingen) – 3. Arow (Aarau) – 4. Brück (Brugg) – 5. Lentzburg (Lenzburg). – 6. Nidow (Nidau) – 7. Büren – 8. Arberg (Aarberg) – 9. Erlach – 10. Sannen (Saanen) – 11. Landtshuott (Landshut) – 12. Biberstein – 13. Signou (Signau) – 14. Hüttwil – 15. Arwangen (Aarwangen) – 16. Schenckenberg (Schenkenberg) – 17. Iiuis (Vivis, Vervey) – 18. Wifflischburg (Wiflisburg, Avenches) – 19. Neuis (Neuss, Nyon) – 20. Orong (Oron) – 21. Peterlingen (Payerne) – 22. Yserten (Iferten, Yverdon) – 23. Romostier (Romamostier, Romainmôtier) – 24. Morse (Morsee, Morges) – 25. Milden (Moudon) – 26. Losanen (Lausanne) – 27. Grüenenberg (Grünenberg) – 28. Alen (Ällen, Aigle) – 29. Arbürg (Aarburg) – 30. Wietlistpach (Wiedlisbach) – 31. Wangen – 32. Drachselwald (Trachselwald) – 33. Undersewen (Unterseen) – 34. Inderlachen (Interlaken) – 35. Estschi (Aeschi, Eschi) – 36. Früttingen (Frutigen) – 37. Wissenburg (Weissenberg; Niedersimmenthal?) – 38. Obersibenthal (Obersimmenthal) – 39. Hasli – 40. Loupen (Laupen), and series numbered i to iiii: i. Mürten (Murten) – ii. Grasburg – iii. Gransong (Grandson) – iv. Orben (Orbe-Eschallens, or Orbach).

Bound with

Anonymous Bernese draughtsman

Design for a clockface.

[Bern circa 1630]

Drawing in brown ink over pencil, part-coloured in red, blue, green, and yellow, sheet size 395 × 330 mm, folded across centre.

paper watermark (eight 95 mm) of a climbing bear on a shield, three balls centred in the horizontal band of the crown, without countermark (similar marks Lindt nos 155–156 associated with Felix Güntisberger, circa 1665–1670; and Lindt no. 159 associated with Niklaus Malacrida, circa 1697–1700).

Short tears in sheet edges, edges also dust-soiled and stained.

The circular design displays in an outer ring the Roman numerals i to xii, in the middle ring the twelve signs of the Zodiac, and in the inner ring six gods or allegorical figures.

This drawing, loosely inserted in the album, is not by the hand which executed the drawings bound therein.