Some Notes on Early Woodcut Books, with a Chapter on Illuminated ManuscriptsMorris, William
History
Some Notes on Early Woodcut Books, with a Chapter on Illuminated Manuscripts
Morris, William
Illumination of books and manuscripts; Illustrated books; Printing -- History
In Augsburg Gunther Zainer has some initial I's of strap-work without
foliation: they are finely designed, but gain considerably when, as
sometimes happens, the spaces between the straps are filled in with
fine pen-tracery and in yellowish brown; they were cut early in
Gunther's career, as one occurs in the Speculum Humanæ Salvationis, c.
1471, and another in the Calendar, printed 1471. These, as they always
occur in the margin and are long, may be called border-pieces. A
border occurring in Eyb, ob einem manne tzu nemen ein weib is drawn
very gracefully in outline, and is attached, deftly enough, to a very
good S of the pen-letter type, though on a separate block; it has
three shields of arms in it, one of which is the bearing of Augsburg.
This piece is decidedly illuminators' work as to design.
Gunther's Margarita Davidica has a border (attached to a very large P)
which is much like the Ulm borders in character. A genealogical tree
of the House of Hapsburg prefacing the Spiegel des Menschlichen
lebens, and occupying a whole page, is comparable for beauty and
elaboration to the S of John Zainer above mentioned; on the whole, for
beauty and richness of invention and for neatness of execution, I am
inclined to give it the first place amongst all the decorative pieces
of the German printers.
Gunther Zainer's German Bible of c. 1474 has a full set of pictured
letters, one to every book, of very remarkable merit: the foliated
forms which make the letters and enclose the figures being bold,
inventive, and very well drawn. I note that these excellent designs
have received much less attention than they deserve.
In almost all but the earliest of Gunther's books a handsome set of
initials are used, a good deal like the above mentioned Ulm initials,
but with the foliations blunter, and blended with less of geometrical
forms: the pen origin of these is also very marked.
Ludwig Hohenwang, who printed at Augsburg in the seventies, uses a
noteworthy set of initials, alluded to above, that would seem to have
been drawn by the designer with a twelfth century MS. before him,
though, as a matter of course, the fifteenth century betrays itself in
certain details, chiefly in the sharp foliations at the ends of the
scrolls, etc. There is a great deal of beautiful design in these
letters; but the square border round them, while revealing their
origin from illuminators' work, leaves over-large whites in the
backgrounds, which call out for the completion that the illuminator's
colour would have given them. Bämler and the later printer Sorg do not
use so much ornament as Gunther Zainer; their initials are less rich
both in line and design than Gunther's, and Sorg's especially have a
look of having run down from the earlier ones: in his Seusse, however,
there are some beautiful figured initials designed on somewhat the
same plan as those of Gunther Zainer's Bible.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
Reviews
Reviews
No reviews yet
Be the first to share your thoughts on this work.
Join the Discussion
Join the discussion
Sign in to leave a comment or review.
Sign InorCreate an account