Calligraphy Letterform Album

'Kalligraphische Schriftvorlagen' (calligraphic writing styles) was produced in the 1620s in Germany by the scribe, Johann Hering.



















































Johann Hering (?1580-1647) compiled his album of elaborate calligraphic letterforms, innovative type arrangements and traditional alphabets over a ten year period in the 1620s and 1630s in the Kulmbach region of Bavaria. (Or it was produced sometime during this time frame: it's not clear)

I tend to believe - and I may well be wrong - that Hering's album is more along the lines of a practice manuscript for himself rather than being a true copybook or modelbook* for educational purposes. The majority of the writing is in German (with occasional Latin) and many of the written pages are obviously copied from the bible, particularly the Book of Psalms.

[*Modelbooks: see here & here]

There is next to nothing by way of commentary online about either Hering's life or the background to his amazing album. He is simply described as a 'writing master'. A number of published books are attributed to Hering - most or all on the type/font arts - and one of his handwriting manuals was apparently republished in German in 1982 (although I didn't actually find much of a trail online).

• Johann Hering's 80-page 'Kalligraphische Schriftvorlagen' is regarded as one of the treasures of the Bamberg State Library (I think it has only recently been uploaded)
• Worldcat Identities entry.
• CERL Thesaurus entry.
• Worldcat entry for 'Das Schrift- und Kunstbüchlein' (1982 republication)
• Previously: calligraphy (something of a catch-all phrase, as are most of the thematic bookmarks at Delicious - that include post summaries - relating to the BibliOdyssey blog)
• Luc Devroye's giant page of calligraphy & type design resources.

Gods of the Ancients

'Images Depicting the Gods of the Ancients' by Vincenzo Cartari was first published in 1556. The engravings below are from a 1624 edition (in Italian).















































'Le Imagini De gli Dei de gli Antichi' by Vincenzo Cartari (with illustrations based on designs by Bolognino Zaltieri) was recently made available online via Wolfenbütteler Digitale Bibliothek.
[this is the 1664 edition, in the original Italian, with the woodcuts (that first appeared in the 3rd Ed.) replaced by engravings of modest artistic merit perhaps, yet possessing a not insignificant - continuing - contemporary influence].

Misteraitch, at the venerable (and retired) Giornale Nuovo, covered this book some years ago, displaying some woodcut scans from an earlier edition, and including some very useful commentary which is recommended; but I shan't repeat it here. The engravings above seem to be both reversed and modified from the original woodcut layouts.

Instead, as an adjunct, I'll paste in below the (complete and unaltered) translated commentary on Cartari's book from a rare book exhibition at the University of Navarra (in Spain) [LINK]:

"Mythological matter was one of the sources and themes used in literature and art of the Renaissance and Baroque periods, both in its more pagan and hedonistic as its symbolic and moralized version. The myths came to the sixteenth century by two ways: the deformed but very influential medieval transmission, and collected by his humanist philological recovery of ancient texts and testimonies.

One of the works that contributed to the systematization and dissemination of this rich heritage throughout the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries was the work of Italian poet Vincenzo Cartari 'I Imagini Antichi degli degli Dei, nelli cualisono degli Antichi descritte religione him, riti e parrot ceremony with di molto agiunta principalia l'e con l'Imagini Esposizione in epilogue di suo ciascheduna and significance'.

Cartari, of which little else is known other than it was in the service of the house of Este, is known almost exclusively for this work and a versified translation of the Tuscan in meters Fasti of Ovid published in Venice in 1551.

The book is divided into 15 chapters, each of which is one of the main gods and lesser gods and heroes in some way related to it. The subject of each chapter comes from the texts of ancient poets translated by Cartari as Italian poems.

The cause of the success of the work was in addition to its originality in presentation, the only of its kind available in a vulgar tongue. This success was further increased from the 1571 Venetian edition by Ziletti Giordani, who illustrated with 89 large woodcuts opened by Bolognino Zaltieri dimensions.

Samples of undoubted interest aroused by the book are the successive reprints of the original Italian and translations of it made into Latin and French Verdier in 1581.

The copy owned by the Library of the University of Navarra belongs to the first edition of this Latin translation published in Lyon in July Guichard, Barthelemy Honorat and Michel Etienne. The engravings with which it is illustrated are very similar to those of Zaltieri, but sometimes are smaller and are often printed in mirror."

• The University of Mannheim has what appears to be a 1581 Latin edition of the 'Gods of the Ancients' (click 'Titel...' for thumbs) -- these are a more sophisticated digital rendering of the original woodcut illustrations, I'd say. It's also probably a more reliable legend for distinguishing Gods in the images above than I might otherwise fumble to misconfabulate.
• Wikipedia has a small entry for Vincenzo Cartari.
• But again, I recommend reading the entry at Giornale Nuovo for salient background information.
• Follow along at Twitter, if you are so inclined: @BibliOdyssey
• ADDIT (Dec. 2012) 'Neu-eröffneter Götzen-Tempel' at U Heidelberg (I'm pretty sure this is the German version of the 'Gods of the Ancients' (images aren't as good quality as those above to my mind).

Stripping Turtles

The very rare, 2-volume series, 'Anatome Testudinis Europaeae', by LH Bojanus was published in 1819-1821 (in Latin), and includes 39 stipple engravings by F Lehmann after drawings by the author.

[The images below have been cropped and background cleaned]

Following completion of his medical training in Germany, Ludwig Heinrich (Louis Henri) Bojanus (1776-1827) somehow obtained a position at the University of Vilnius (Lithuania) as a professor of veterinary science.

Bojanus eventually specialised in comparative anatomy, an emerging discipline - originally steeped in philosophy - that had been championed by contemporary German thinker-polymaths such as Goethe, Lorenz Oken* and Johann Baptist von Spix*.

"[At] the University of Vilnius, Bojanus became the chairman of the school of “livestock medicine.” He was the first to describe the organ of secretion (kidney) of the lamellibranchia mollusk (Bojanus organ), but he erroneously identified it as the lung.

He studied equine anatomy and embryology and contagious animal diseases (anthrax, plague, and others). He established zoological and zootomical departments at the University of Vilnius, created the first helminthological collection in Russia, developed a curriculum, and introduced a program of veterinary studies. Bojanus’ basic works were in embryology, zoology, medicine, veterinary science, and zootechnology." [source]

Bojanus published a wide variety of scientific papers and was an Honorary Member of the Swedish Scientific Academy, but it was the turtle anatomy set that was his most famous publication and these volumes are still cited as primary sources.

• The two volumes of 'Anatome Testudinis Europaeae' by Ludwig Heinrich Bojanus (1819-1821) are available from the fabulous Biodiversity Heritage Library (from Harvard University).
• The Bojanus turtle anatomy volumes at the Internet Archive.
• At least Vol. 1 is available from the AnimalBase at SUB Göttingen (I think they are presently digitising Vol. 2).
• I noticed in passing that the 2-volume set - "not in good condition" - was selling for more than $US8000. I also saw mention of a reissue of the set in the early 20th century, but I've not been able to find a copy of the books in English.
• A short Bojanus biography at Wikipedia.
• A paperback edition of 'Anatome Testudinis Europaeae' is available from Amazon.
• Previously: The Embryology of Turtles ::: Turtle Diary.

The Yuko Shimizu Book

All images below © Yuko Shimizu

(posted with permission)

Blow Up 3 © Yuko Shimizu (2010) [book]

DJ Slip Mat (A Nice Set) © Yuko Shimizu (2006) [book]

When I Opened My Eyes © Yuko Shimizu (2009) [book]

Heinrich Popow^ © Yuko Shimizu (2008) [book]

Fear © Yuko Shimizu (2007) [book]

The Snow Machine © Yuko Shimizu (2002/3) [book]

Now Hear This 2 © Yuko Shimizu (2007) [book]

Isis the Cat © Yuko Shimizu (2007) [book]

The Unwritten 1 © Yuko Shimizu (2004) [book]

Neil Gaman^ © Yuko Shimizu (2007) [book]

These delightful pop-graphics -- if I may so dub them -- were scanned by me from New York freelance illustrator Yuko Shimizu's first monograph, published by Gestalten in Berlin in 2011 [Amazon].

Yuko was kind enough to pass on a copy of this (very) handsome book recently. It features a comprehensive overview of her comicesque and culture-melding graphics (she's originally from Japan), produced over the last decade or so. It is a beautiful product and highly recommended.

Previously: Yuko's Progression from two years ago shows the evolution from sketch to final illustration in Yuko's work. There's also links to interviews and the like.

Beechey's Voyage

'The zoology of Captain Beechey's voyage / compiled from the collections and notes made by Captain Beechey^, the officers and naturalist of the expedition, during a voyage to the Pacific and Behring's Straits performed in His Majesty's ship Blossom, under the command of Captain F. W. Beechey ... in the years 1825, 26, 27 and 28, by J. Richardson ... [et al.] ; illustrated with upwards of fifty finely coloured plates by Sowerby' ----------> Harvard University.

• Alternatively: NYPL :: BHL :: Googlebooks :: Internet Archive :: Amazon.
• Frederick William Beechey at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online.
• Undoubtedly via @john_overholt & Houghton Library Blog