GERMAN BOOK-PLATES
I HAVE said that the use of book-plates, whether as commemorative of
gifts or as marks of ownership, originated in Germany. Here, well before
the close of the fifteenth century, we find at least three undoubted
book-plates, examples of which have survived until the present day, and
have recently been discovered fulfilling the function for which they
were originally intended.
Fastened to the cover of an old Latin vocabulary was discovered the most
ancient of these book-plates. It is printed from a wood-block, and is
rough in execution. It shows us a hedgehog carrying a flower in its
mouth, trampling over fallen leaves; above is the inscription, '_Hans
Igler, das dich ein igel kuss_.'
[Illustration: BOOK-PLATE OF HILDEBRANDE BRANDENBURG.]
Following, in point of date, closely after this curious book-plate,
comes a small woodcut, representing an angel who holds a shield, on
which is displayed a black ox, with a ring passed through its nose--the
arms of the Brandenburg family. A written inscription beneath it states
that the book for which it was intended, and in which it was found,
belonged to Hildebrande Brandenburg of Biberach, who presented it to
the Carthusian monastery of Buxheim, of which he was a monk. This
book-plate, which is rudely coloured, is struck off on scraps of paper,
printed on one side; a curious illustration of the then scarcity of that
material. Oddly enough, another very early book-plate--probably of
almost the same date as the last--was also found in a book which
belonged to the same monastery, and which had been given to it by
Wilhelm von Zell. This book-plate also is anonymous; but the volumes
that contained it, as in the last case, bear a written inscription,
recording the fact that they belonged to the monastery in question, and
were the gift of the person whose arms are figured in the book-plate
inserted.
From the fact that two of the three known fifteenth century book-plates
are connected with the monastery at Buxheim, it would seem as if the use
of a book-plate commended itself to the librarian of that monastery, who
commemorated the gifts of volumes by a book-plate bearing the donor's
arms.
In the sixteenth century, German book-plates became numerous, and of
their beauty there can be no doubt. There is a difficulty, however, in
accepting many of the early armorial woodcuts which one finds; and it is
this: Suppose the example is no longer doing duty in a volume as a
book-plate, there is really no means of being assured that the cut of
arms is a book-plate at all; for very many of these plates are void of
any inscription, save perhaps a text or motto. Some of these
book-plates are probably the work, or from the design, of Albert Dürer.
He certainly produced some undoubted examples; the earliest, actually
dated, in 1516. This is the Ebner book-plate (see p. 119). The
inscription on this leaves us in no doubt as to its intended use: 'Liber
Hieronimi Ebner, 1516.'
Eight years after completing the Ebner plate, Dürer engraved on copper a
Portrait plate of Bilibald Pirckheimer, a Nuremberg jurist of some note,
who became councillor to Maximilian I., and was the owner of a library,
whose subsequent history has been told in 'Books about Books' by Mr.
Elton in his _Great Book Collectors_. Now this Portrait plate, which is
dated 1524, was undoubtedly used by Pirckheimer as his book-plate. There
are plenty of known instances in which it may be still found fastened in
at the end of a volume. Whether or not it was intended for any other
purpose than that which I have here mentioned, we cannot say, for it
bears no inscription expressing its use. However--very possibly at the
same date--Dürer designed for Pirckheimer what was, without doubt,
intended for a book-plate, since it bears the inscription, 'Liber
Bilibaldi Pirckheimer.' This is, in many instances, found on the front
cover of volumes which also contain the book-plate last described
fastened on the back cover.
It is a very striking book-plate. A strangely large helmet, on which is
placed an equally large crest, surmounts a pair of shields. The dexter
one bears the arms of Pirckheimer--a _birke_ or birch-tree; whilst the
sinister bears those of his wife, Margretha Rieterin--a crowned mermaid
with two tails, each of which she holds in her hands. Pirckheimer's arms
show the curious punning heraldry of the time, the _birke_ being, no
doubt, a playful allusion to the jurist's name. Clasping the helmet are
two angels. On either side of the shield is a large cornucopia
apparently filled with grapes and vine leaves, and amongst these stands
a smaller angel holding one end of a heavy festoon, the other end of
which is fastened to a ram's head, the centre of the design. Angels,
apparently at play, are also represented below the shield. Examples of
this plate are not uncommon in English collections, many of
Pirckheimer's books having passed into the Library of the Royal Society,
and some of these having been sold as duplicates, when they were bought
up by collectors for the sake of the book-plate. Sir Wollaston Franks
points out to me that there is yet a third variety of Pirckheimer's
book-plate, which is signed 'J. B. 1529,' and is not the work of Dürer.
[Illustration]
The book-plate of Hector Pömer, provost of the Church of St. Laurence at
Nuremberg, dated in 1525, is also ascribed to Dürer, though it is signed
with the initials 'R. A.' This signature is probably that of the artist
who cut the design upon wood, for it is now maintained that Dürer
himself only made the drawings for the woodcuts known as his; the
mechanical operation of cutting being handed over to assistants. The
Pömer plate is the earliest dated book-plate which bears a signature
either of the designer or the engraver.
The size of this really fine example of early wood-engraving is 13
inches by 9. On the principal shield in the design we have what are no
doubt the arms of the monastery, the gridiron of St. Laurence,
quartering those of Pömer. The gridiron is on the first and fourth
quarters, whilst the second and third contain what is heraldically
described as _per bend sable (?) and argent, three bendlets of the
first_. We say 'sable,' because the dark mass which the artist has here
shown is probably meant to represent this, but any dark colour may have
been intended, as I have already endeavoured to show (see p. 23). These
last arms are very probably Pömer's, for, in one of the small shields
which appear in each of the four corners of the design, they occur
again--the other three shields being most likely filled with arms
quartered by the Pömer family. The helmet surmounting the principal
shield is without wreath, and the crest is a demi-nun. The motto, 'To
the pure all things are pure,' is given, as in other of Dürer's
book-plates, in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. In charge of the shield stands
St. Laurence himself, dressed in a monk's garb, and holding in his right
hand the instrument of his martyrdom, and in his left the palm of
martyrdom. The nimbus appears around his head. The beauty of the design
is apparent at the first glance, and it becomes more apparent as we
look into it.
Dr. Hector Pömer was the last Prior of the Abbey of St. Laurence in
Nuremberg. To him Erasmus gave a copy of his edition of the works of St.
Ambrose, issued from Froben's press. That very copy is in the possession
of the Rev. H. W. Pereira, and in each of the two thick volumes in which
the work is contained is Pömer's book-plate. One is struck with the
exquisite detail and treatment; as Mr. Pereira says, in describing the
plate, the expression and figure of St. Laurence is full of sweetness
and tender pathos.
The list of 'Armories' by Dürer, as printed by Bartsch in vol. vii. of
the _Peintre-Graveur_, gives us some twenty examples, any of which may
have been used as book-plates. Some idea as to whether or not an early
armorial plate is really a book-plate may, however, be gained by taking
its measurement. A very large engraving should be regarded with
suspicion, though not necessarily rejected as a book-plate on account of
its size. Sir Wollaston Franks possesses a magnificent book-plate,
measuring no less than 14 × 10 inches, which is at this moment still
fulfilling its original functions. This is certainly the largest example
yet discovered. It has been known to collectors for some time in what
was believed to be a perfect state, but the copy just mentioned shows
that what was thought to be the whole was in reality only a portion of
the design, since it lacked the elaborate framework, which is richly
embellished with weapons and ensigns, as well as with musical
instruments of every description. This book-plate belonged to Count
Maximilian Louis Breiner, a distinguished official of the Emperor of
Austria in Lombardy. A striking feature in it is the introduction, above
the arms of the owner of the plate, of those of Austria, surmounted by
the imperial crown, supported by a couple of cherubs. Both the design
and engraving are the work of Giuseppe Petrarca, who probably produced
them during the closing years of the seventeenth century.
[Illustration]
Quite in a distinct style from the other German book-plates mentioned is
that figured opposite, which may be dated about the year 1530. It is
interesting from its owner, one Paulus Speratus, an ardent preacher of
the Lutheran doctrine at Augsburg, Württemberg, Salzburg, and Vienna,
and afterwards Bishop of Pomerania, who proved himself ready to undergo
suffering in the cause he imagined to be right. He was born in 1484, and
died in 1554. The shading in the arms is very peculiar, expressing as it
does, on the first and fourth divisions of the shield, _argent_ and
_vert_ at a period, as we have seen, long anterior to the use of lines
or dots to express the metals or tinctures in heraldry. An explanation
is no doubt to be found in the fact that the artist only intended to
represent some light colour in the shaded parts, in the same way as in
the second and third divisions of the shield he desired in the thickly
inked parts to represent _sable_. The book-plate is now preserved in a
copy of the Psalms translated into Russian by Francis Skorina, and
printed at Wilna about the year 1525. The peculiar inscription on this
book-plate is referred to on p. 166.
We have spoken somewhat fully about these early examples of German
book-plates, because, both from the fact that they are the earliest
known to us, and that several of them are the designs of Albert Dürer,
they have a very special interest. Space precludes the possibility of
alluding in detail to later German examples, though they are, many of
them, exceedingly beautiful specimens of the engraver's art, as indeed
they may well be considering the men who engraved them--Lucas Cranach,
Jost Amman, Hans Troschel, Wolffgang Kilian of Augsburg, and the uncle
and nephew Giles and Joseph Sadeler.
Let me, however, speak very tersely of a few examples of the productions
of these artists, in order that the reader's attention may be attracted
should he come across a specimen of their work.
Two woodcuts by Lucas Cranach have certainly been used as book-plates,
though not designed by the artist as such, for they both appear among
other cuts in a work illustrated by him. Sir Wollaston Franks possesses
both varieties. In one, we have a half-length figure of St. Paul. He is
seated, and reading a book, the lines of which he follows with his
finger. His head is surrounded with the nimbus, whilst a shaggy beard
nearly covers the face. The right hand holds a double sword with the
points upwards; beneath this is the shield of the Elector of Saxony.
Above the upper line of the plate is an inscription, showing that it was
intended to mark the volumes belonging to the 'preachership'
('Predicatur') at Oringen. The other woodcut by Cranach is very similar
in design, but the figure represented is that of St. Peter, and it bears
the inscription 'Stadt Orngau.'
It is worth remarking that in one instance at least, on removing the
book-plate portraying St. Paul, a smaller hand-drawn book-plate was
found, which consisted of a shield half red and half white, and upon it
a key, placed in pale, countercharged. There is no inscription on this
book-plate, nor is there any margin shown--the paper being cut close to
the design.
Jost Amman is another German artist who leaves us in a difficulty as to
deciding as to which of his many armorial engravings were really
intended for book-plates. One undoubted book-plate by him, however,
exists, and this was designed for a member of the Nuremberg family of
Holzschuher--'Wooden shoes.' Wooden shoes, or sabots, appear as charges
on the shield, and afford another example of the punning heraldry which
was then fashionable in Germany. This is a fine book-plate, engraved on
copper, and signed 'J. A.'; its size, 7-3/4 × 6-1/8 inches. The shield
is supported by two angels and a lion.
Hans Sibmacher or Siebmacher was another Nuremberg engraver; he worked
there quite at the close of the sixteenth century and in the early years
of the seventeenth. He also executed a book-plate for a member of the
Holzschuher family. This is a more elaborate piece of work than Amman's,
though smaller (4-1/2 × 3-3/8 inches). Its characteristic feature is a
closely-woven wreath of leaves, with clusters of fruit and ornaments
introduced at intervals. Seated on this wreath, at the top of the
design, are two reading cherubs clothed in 'nature unadorned.' Below the
design is an oblong and indented bracket.
Hans Troschel's work as a book-plate engraver is illustrated by the
book-plate of yet another Nuremberg man--John William Kress of
Kressenstain, dated in 1619. In this we are shown a shield set in an
oval wreath of leaf-work. The helmet which surmounts it displays some
elaborate work; finely-cut mantling extends itself from this on the
right side and on the left; and above is a cornet, which encircles the
crest. The whole is enclosed in a circle of leaves and berries, somewhat
similar to that just described in speaking of Sibmacher's work; but
outside this, at each of the four corners of the plate, are small
shields surmounted by helmets and crests, and containing the arms of the
four families from which he immediately descended, their names being
given. Nestling amongst the mantling on the left side of the design is a
distinct shield, on which are depicted the arms of Susanna Koler, wife
of the owner of the book-plate.
Wolffgang Kilian (born 1581, died 1662) was an Augsburg man, and the
book-plate which bears his signature and the date, 1635, is that of an
Augsburg church dignitary--Sebastian Myller, suffragan-bishop of
Adramytteum, and Canon of Augsburg. In its ornamentation it bears some
resemblance to an English Jacobean book-plate. Above the shield is the
head of a cherub, on which the episcopal mitre is made to rest in a
somewhat comical manner; the cherub's wings protrude over the top of,
and into, the shield. The inscription is contained in an oval band;
outside this is an oval leaf-wreath, and outside this again an indented
frame. Wolffgang was a younger brother of the more noted Lucas Kilian.
Both brothers studied at Venice, and were pupils of their stepfather,
Dominick Custos, who was himself a designer of book-plates.
Of Giles Sadeler's work--the Count of Rosenberg's book-plate--I shall
speak directly (pp. 130, 131). An example of his nephew's engraving is
afforded by the book-plate of Ferdinand von Hagenau, dated in 1646.
In later times--the eighteenth century--other distinguished German
artists 'stooped' to book-plate engraving. Amongst them was Daniel
Nicholas Chodowiecki (the son of a Dantzig drug merchant), born in 1726.
Chodowiecki is best known as a book-illustrator, in which his great
knowledge of costume--at a period when the point was little
studied--stood him in good stead. His book-plates are probably few; only
four or five are known. One of the most elaborate in design is that of a
German doctor of medicine, dated in 1792, nine years before the artist's
death.
In this example much of the sensational style of the generality of his
work manifests itself. 'The book-plate,' says Lord De Tabley, 'in its
motive reminds us much of those allegoric framed certificates of
membership which various sick clubs and benefit societies accord to
their members at the present day. In the foreground, Æsculapius is
pushing out a skeleton draped in a long white sheet, with a scythe
across its shoulder. The god is sturdily applying his serpent-twined
staff to the somewhat too solid back of the terrible phantom. Behind,
beneath a kind of pavilion, lies a sick person in bed; his hands are
upraised in silent thankfulness as he watches the prowess of the healing
deity.' The book-plate was engraved for Dr. C. S. Schintz. Besides this,
Chodowiecki engraved, about 1770, a book-plate for himself, and, about
ten years later, one for the French seminary at Berlin.
[Illustration]
The book-plate of Dr. Schintz calls to mind a somewhat earlier German
example, engraved by Boetius from a design by Wernerin (whose signature
appears on some varieties of the plate), about the middle of the last
century. It is figured opposite, and is perhaps the most gloomy
book-plate that it ever entered into the mind of man to conceive. A
skeleton sits upon a coffin, or a coffin-shaped tomb, holding in his
right hand a pair of scales, and in his left a scythe; in the lighter
balance of the scales is a scroll, bearing the inscription, 'Dan. v. 25,
_Mene Tekel_'; in the background we see monuments, Lombardy poplars or
cypress-trees, and a distant landscape. This uninviting picture is
contained in a frame, inscribed, in a medallion above, 'E Bibliotheca
Woogiana,' and below, _Nominor â libra: libratus ne levis unquam
Inveniar, præsta pondere, Christe, tuo_,--a motto in which the owner
makes a play upon the derivation of his name from _wage_, the German for
a weight or balance, and asks the bestowal of divine weight on the day
of soul-weighing.
As compared with German book-plates, those of other countries are sadly
deficient in artistic composition. The former, particularly examples of
the seventeenth century, are ornate and well designed.
Take, for instance, the really magnificent book-plate of Peter Vok,
Ursinus, Count of Rosenberg, dated '1609.' It is engraved on copper, and
measures 10 inches by 6. In a central circular medallion, 3-2/3 inches
in diameter, is depicted the owner, arrayed in armour, and seated on a
richly caparisoned war-horse, plumed, and going at full speed across a
landscape of hillocks. On his breastplate is an escutcheon bearing his
arms; a knight's sword is in his hand. Round the margin of the medallion
runs a wreath of roses. Platforms come out on either side of the
medallion, and on each of these there stands a figure about 5 inches in
height; the one on the left is a female symbolical form, clad in flowing
drapery, and holding in one hand the cup of the Eucharist, and in the
other a cross. A somewhat similar figure stands on the right, holding in
her hand a tablet, inscribed _Verbum Domini manet in eternum_.
The medallion rests upon two bears--an allusion, of course, to the
family name of the owner, _Ursinus_--crouching between the two female
figures described. The face of the altar-like platform below is divided
into one central and two lateral compartments, of which the side ones
project forward. On the right lateral slab is an escutcheon, charged
simply with the Rosenberg rose; whilst on the left we see the family
arms, as on the breastplate, but surmounted with an ermine-faced crown.
On the central slab is a skull resting on two shin-bones.
Reaching across the upper portion of the design is an oblong tablet,
with indented shelly scroll-work edges, and a background border of large
full-blown roses, with thorny stems. With the inscription, which is
appropriately pompous, I need not trouble the reader; but I have thought
it worth while to give here (following Lord De Tabley's example, and
using sometimes his words) a very full verbal picture of this truly
magnificent book-plate, in order that the pitch of elaboration to which
a German book-plate can be carried may be understood. Suffice it to add
that this work of art was engraved by Giles Sadeler, the Antwerp-born
engraver, who, after studying in Italy, was invited by the Emperor
Rudolph II. to enter his service at Prague; in short, to become what he
styles himself in his signature to this book-plate--'Engraver to His
Imperial Majesty.'
Less elaborate, yet very beautifully engraved, are the book-plates used
in the Electoral Library of the Dukes of Bavaria at Munich. On one,
dated in 1618, the largest variety of which is 7 inches high and 5-1/2
broad, we have the arms of the Duchy enclosed by the collar of the
Golden Fleece. Winged Caryatides support the Electoral crown, whilst
below is an arabesqued platform, on which is the inscription: _Ex
Bibliotheca Serenissimorum Utriusque Bavariæ Ducum_, 1618. A smaller
variety of this plate is figured opposite. Some twenty years later, a
still larger and more ornate book-plate (10 × 7 inches) was designed for
use in the same library. Here the arms are in an oval frame, surrounded
by the Golden Fleece; on the right and left are inverted cornucopiæ, and
the crown is held aloft by four cherubs. All the book-plates of this
library exist in a great variety of design, and nearly all the varieties
are found in different sizes.
[Illustration]
These examples are typical of many other German book-plates; the
conception of the design is excellent, and its working out is equally
good. In later times, the work on book-plates perhaps deteriorated,
because it fell, to a large extent, into inferior hands. Yet Germany
can show several very creditable examples in the eighteenth century.
Some of those which give the view of a library interior are decidedly
pleasing; they appear soon after the commencement of the century. The
libraries represented have usually one or more mythological inmates;
but, in one instance, the owner is in possession, and is seen hard at
work amongst his volumes.
In concluding this chapter, it may be noted that examples of
name-tickets are found in Germany as in other countries. Perhaps the
earliest is one (first noticed, I believe, by Mr. Weale) in a copy at
the Bodleian Library of a German Psalter printed at Augsburg in 1498.
This reads, 'Sum Magistri Georgii Mayrii Monacencis' [_i.e._ of Munich],
with the motto, 'Melius est pro veritate pati supplicium, quam pro
adulatione consequi beneficium.' The same inscription has been written
in ink on the title-page, with the added date 1513, and afterwards--no
doubt a few years later when the label was printed and placed in the
book--crossed through.
The most complete work on German book-plates that has yet made its
appearance is Herr Warnecke's _Die Deutschen Bücherzeichen_, Berlin,
1890; but a work properly classifying the different styles of German
book-plates, and affixing to these styles covering dates, has yet to be
written.