Letter and Image - III

Anonymous German Printmaker
Hand as Devotional Mnemonic
1466
hand-colored woodcut
Universitätsbibliothek Heidelberg

Stefan Hamer
Burning of a Witch who Set Fires
1533
hand-colored woodcut and letterpress
(broadside)
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

Erhard Ratdolt
Chart of Lunar and Solar Eclipses
1496
color woodblock print and letterpress
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Anonymous Printmaker
Pressmark of Pietro Maria Bertano, Venice
1615
woodcut and letterpress
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Anonymous Printmaker
Pressmark of Giovanni Battista Bozolla, Brescia
1562
woodcut and letterpress
Museum für Angewandte Kunst, Vienna

Matteo Capcasa
De Coelesti Vita by Giovanni da Ferrara
(title page with pressmark)
1494
woodcut-and-letterpress
Herzog August Library Wolfenbüttel

Edward Burne-Jones and William Morris
The Well at the World's End
1896
woodcut and letterpress
Graphische Sammlung, ETH Zürich

attributed to Benedetto Bordone
Triumphal Procession
(from the Hypnerotomachia Poliphili of Francesco Colonna
published by Aldus Manutius in Venice)
1499
woodcut and letterpress
Hamburger Kunsthalle

Johann Baptist Homann
Ex Libris - Godefridus Thomas
1700
engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Hans Thoma
Ex Libris - August Rasor
1898
drawing (print study)
Städel Museum, Frankfurt

Anonymous German Printmaker
Ex Libris - Martin Reinhardt
ca. 1750-1800
etching
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Crispijn de Passe the Elder
Seven Virtues - Chastity
ca. 1600
engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Crispijn de Passe the Elder
Seven Virtues - Sobriety
ca. 1600
engraving
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
Graphic Work of Ernst Ludwig Kirchner
by Gustav Schiefler
ca. 1926
color woodblock print on linen
(bookbinding)
Kupferstichkabinett, Staatliche Museen zu Berlin

Giovanni Maggi after Bartolomeo Rossi
"La Pigna" installed at the Vatican
(oversize Roman bronze fountain ornament)
1600
etching
Herzog August Bibliothek, Wulfenbüttel

Heinrich Vogtherr the Elder
Bunches of Grapes growing Hair
and foretelling the Apocalypse
1542
hand-colored woodcut and letterpress
(broadside)
Graphische Sammlung, Zentralbibliothek Zürich

The way down to Hades is straight, whether you start from Athens or whether you betake yourself there, when dead, from Meroe. Let it not vex thee to die far from thy country. One fair wind to Hades blows from all lands.

Stranger, I, Priapus, was set up on this sea-beaten rock to guard the Thracian strait, by the sailors, whom I had often rushed to help when they called upon me, bringing from astern the sweet Zephyr. Therefore, as is meet and right, thou shalt never see my altar lacking the fat of beasts or crowns in the spring, but ever smoking with incense and alight. Yet not even a hecatomb is so pleasing to the gods as due honour.

Blest god of the harbour, accompany with gentle breeze the departing sails of Archelaus through the undisturbed water as far as the open sea, and thou who rulest over the extreme point of the beach, save him on his voyage as far as the Pythian shrine. From thence, if all we singers are dear to Phoebus, I will sail trusting in the fair western gale. 

Come and rest your limbs awhile, travellers, here under the juniper of Hermes, the guardian of the road – not a mixed crowd, but those of you whose knees ache from heavy toil and who thirst after accomplishing a long day's journey.  There is a breeze and a shady seat, and the fountain under the rock will still the weariness that weighs on your limbs. Escaping the midday breath of Autumn's dog-star, honour Hermes of the wayside as is meet.

Fowler in search of reeds, move not with naked feet in the forest paths of Egypt, but fly far from the grey-eyed snakes; and hastening on thy way to shoot the birds of the air, beware of being poisoned by the earth.

If thou rememberest, O man, how thy father sowed thee, thou shalt cease from thy proud thoughts. But dreaming Plato hath engendered pride in thee, calling thee immortal and a "heavenly plant." "Of dust thou art made. Why dost thou think proudly?" So one might speak, clothing the fact in more grandiloquent fiction; but if thou seekest the truth, thou art sprung from incontinent lust and a filthy drop. 

– from Book X (Hortatory and Admonitory Epigrams) of the Greek Anthology, translated and edited by W.R. Paton (1917)