Letter and Image - I

Anonymous German Artist
Initial G with God the Father, Holy Ghost and Christ
ca. 1550-75
woodcut
(excised from printed book)
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Girolamo Rossi after Pier Leone Ghezzi
Initial S with The Resurrection
1712
etching and engraving
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Lucas Kilian
Ornamental Alphabet - Letter S
1627
engraving
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Pier Leone Ghezzi
Initial F - Christ washing Feet of St Peter
ca. 1720
engraving
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Pier Leone Ghezzi
Initial F - Christ washing Feet of St Peter
ca. 1720
etching
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Kunstsammlungen, Dresden

Anonymous Printmaker
Pressmark of François Regnault, Paris
ca. 1500
woodcuts and letterpress
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wolfenbüttel

Anonymous Printmaker
Pressmark of Lucas & Leonhard Alantsee, Vienna
1517
woodcut and letterpress
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Hans Wolff Glaser
Indigenous Woman and Daughter from Polar Region
put on display in Antwerp
1566
hand-colored woodcut and letterpress (broadside)
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Wolfgang Kilian
Dedication to Emperor Ferdinand II
1611
hand-colored engraving
Herzog Anton Ulrich Museum, Braunschweig

Anonymous German Artist
Ex Libris - Seidler
(Apollo with Nymphs in Grotto)
ca. 1750-1800
etching (printed in sepia)
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Anonymous German Artist
Ex Libris - Walspeck
ca. 1550-1600
etching
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Jacques Callot
Varie Figure Gobbi
(title-page to portfolio of prints)
1616
etching and engraving
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

Robert Vaughan
The Portraitures at Large of Nine
Moderne Worthies of the World
1622
engraving (title-page)
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Johann Adam Schweickart
Double Herm of Epicurus and Metrodorus of Lampsacus
1743
etching
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Hieronymus Wierix after Ambrosius Francken
Fall of Man
1578
hand-colored engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Martin Wiegel
Satirical Figure of Landsknecht
ca. 1560
hand-colored woodcut and letterpress
(broadside)
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

I am Sardis, the chief city of Lydia, who stand under flowery Timolus, by the stream of Maeonian Hermus. I witnessed first the birth of Jove, for I refused to betray the secretly born son of my own Rhea. It was I, too, who nursed Bacchus, and I saw him shining with broader flame in the lightning-flash. First in my fields did Autumn, the giver of wine, milk from the udder of the grape-cluster the golden juice. Everything combined to adorn me, and old Time often saw me envied by the most flourishing cities.

I am the house of Anastasius, the emperor, slayer of tyrants, and I alone far excel all cities of the Earth. I am a cause of wonder to all, since the architects, seeing my height, length, and vast breadth, were minded to leave the huge pile unroofed; but skilled Aetherius, the most eminent master of that laborious art, devised my shape, laying the first-fruits of his toil before our stainless emperor. Therefore, stretching on all sides my vast bulk, I surpass the celebrated wonders of the Italian land. Beauty of the Capitoline hall, give place to thy betters, even though thy roof of bronze dazzles the eye. Hide, Pergamus, thy splendid ornament, the grove of Rufinus, narrow now beside the halls of this limitless palace; and thou, Cyzieus, standing fast on the long cliff. The pyramids are not capable of vying with me, or the colossus, or the Pharus; I alone surpass a great legion of buildings. My prince himself, after his victory over the Isaurians, completed me, the house of the Dawn, shining with gold, on all sides exposed to the breezes of the four winds. 

I am hung round wealthy bridal beds and am the net, not of the huntress Artemis, but of the tender Queen of Paphos. I cover the sleeper with a many-meshed web, so that he in no way loses the life-giving breeze.

Come here for a little, traveller, and reclining in the greenwood shade rest thy limbs from thy long and toilsome journey. Here amongst the plane-trees the fresh streams of water running at its will leap forth beautifully from many-mouthed fountains. Here in spring the soft violets mixed with roses empurple the ground. Look how, engarlanding the fresh meadow, the luxuriant ivy twines its flowing hair. The river runs between its foliaged banks, grazing the base of the self-sown grove. Such is Eros. What other name would be appropriate for a place replete in every way with charm and loveliness?

Musonius built me with great labour, this large and imposing house exposed to the north wind's blasts. Yet did he not avoid the dark house of Fate, but abandoning me he dwells underground. In a narrow bed of earth he lies, and I, his chiefest delight, am given up to strangers.

– from Book IX (Declamatory and Descriptive Epigrams) of the Greek Anthology, translated and edited by W.R. Paton (1917)