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Early Binding Stamps of Religious Significance in
Certain
American Libraries: A Supplementary Report
by
Eunice Wead
A STYLE OF BOOK DECORATION WHICH HAS attracted very little attention in this country and yet offers ample opportunity for study, is the infinitely varied blind-stamped binding of the 15th and first half of the 16th century. Some years ago an article by the present writer entitled "Binding Stamps of Religious Significance in Certain American Libraries" appeared in The Colophon (Part 20, 1935), describing examples found in a comparatively small number of libraries. Since then the search has been extended from the Library of Congress and other eastern libraries to the Huntington Library in California, and an interesting new group of stamps seem worth reporting upon and illustrating. The scope is limited as in the previous paper, and the intention is not to reproduce designs which may easily be found in books familiar to students of binding, but to offer a few which to the writer at least are new. It is a pleasure to acknowledge the permission kindly given by the various libraries and individual owners to illustrate the bindings under discussion.
Since bindings decorated in blind, that is without the use of gold or color, are less familiar to book collectors than the more ornate specimens with gold ornament, it may be well to explain briefly the technique of producing them. The earliest and simplest method was to make relief impressions, one at a
The reader concerned with the background of this subject must certainly consult the work of three English authorities—Weale, who pioneered in the 1890's in publishing an account of the blind-stamped bindings of the South Kensington Museum[1] and whose unfinished research on similar bindings in the British Museum was continued by another hand;[2] Goldschmidt,
Examples of blind-stamped bindings are not hard to find in
Our illustrations are produced from photostat negatives of pencil rubbings made directly from the books. Negatives are used rather than positives, as they are clearer. The exceptions are Fig. 4, made from a photostat of the book itself, not from a rubbing, and Fig. 21, which is a positive. All illustrations are of the actual size of the originals.
The panel stamp being the latest is also the highest development artistically of decoration in blind, so we begin with a specimen found quite unexpectedly during the recent war, when the treasures of the Army Medical Library of Washington
Cyril Davenport's Cameo Book Stamps (1911) illustrates by a line drawing a similar but not identical panel with the same inscription, while Dr. Ilse Schunke[6] describes under the heading "Pietà Meister," but does not illustrate, a panel which seems to be identical in both design and size. It should be noted that her description is in an article on Cologne rolls and panels, but
Another panel of possible Flemish origin and much artistic charm is on a small binding in the library of Union Theological Seminary in New York (Fig. 2). It covers an octavo imprint from Antwerp (Rosemond, Confessionale, 1518) together with one from Paris of 1503 and another from Leipzig of 1518. An inscription on a flyleaf reads: "liber B Mariae in Huisborg", i.e. the Benedictine monastery Huyseburg in the diocese of Halberstadt. The upper cover shows a graceful halo-ed figure with flowing hair and draperies, who seems to be pouring something from her bowl into a bowl or plate held by a small figure whose head comes only as high as her knee. The tiled pavement and the wall against which she stands are decorated with a conventional flower which may be a rose, and this together with her gesture of bounty suggests that the lady may be St. Elizabeth of Hungary. Thanks are due to Dr. Edgar Wind of the Art Department of Smith College for this attribution. Mr. Hobson (in a letter to the writer) commented that no other panel of her is known, and that her usual crown is not discernible in this not very clear impression. As to this latter objection, a checking of numerous references in the Princeton and other iconographic indexes reveals several representations with halo but no crown, and it is hoped that raising the question here may invite further discussion. Incidentally, Holbein's painting of St. Elizabeth in the Munich Gallery shows a similar attitude, but here the crown is visible. In our reproduction of the binding, the dark tongue at the right is the leather clasp extending from the lower cover.
A panel of a quite different sort, though less decorative and in our example badly worn, has nevertheless proved to be of great interest. This represents one of the angels of the Apocalypse (Fig. 3) on a binding belonging to Holy Name College, Washington, D. C. (Alexander de Hales, In Psalmos, Venice, 1496). The central figure stands out against a starry background,
In the Walters Gallery in Baltimore is a panel which presumably has not been reproduced, though it is described by Weale (R490) as of Burgundy origin, and shows the Annunciation beneath a crocketed canopy. The binding of lightish brown calf encases an early 15th century vellum manuscript Book of Hours of Paris use. The identical panel with some of the same and some different border stamps is on a binding belonging to Mr. J. Christian Bay, Librarian Emeritus of the John Crerar Library, Chicago. Here the design appears on both covers of a charming illuminated manuscript of the Hours of the Blessed Virgin, and shows, like the Walters binding, evidence of French origin and ownership. The manuscript belonged as recently as 1906 to the famous library of George Dunn of Woolley Hall, near Maidenhead. Our illustration (Fig. 4) is
There must be many examples of panels, rolls and single stamps of interest in the possession of other American book collectors. One of them, Mr. Howard Goodhart of New York, has been kind enough to permit illustration of a pair of panels on the binding of a late 15th century Dutch manuscript on paper of Thomas à Kempis. One of them represents St. John holding a chalice (Fig. 5), the other St. Barbara standing beside her tower (Fig. 6). Goldschmidt (no. 210) describes a St. John panel from Antwerp which is similar, though slightly larger in each direction. This difference may perhaps be explained by the differing amount of shrinkage in the leathers. Mr. Good-hart's manuscript is from the fine old collection of Sir Thomas Phillipps of Middlehill, near Cheltenham.
Turning now to the earliest form of decoration in blind in general use, the single stamp, the two examples which follow have come from the Henry E. Huntington Library in San Marino, California. A small quarto printed in Cologne by Ulrich Zell[7] shows in a lozenge Adam and Eve, the tree and the serpent between them, Eve holding the fatal apple in her left hand (Fig. 7). Adam and Eve stamps of other shapes have been illustrated, but not this lozenge, so far as discovered. The book once belonged to the Praemonstratensians in Ratisbon. A curious lozenge which may possibly be meant for Eve is on a Strassburg folio of about 1481.[8] It is impressed upon a reddish brown binding whose wide center panel is crossed by diagonal fillets, the resulting spaces filled by this tool. Comparison with some of Cranach's work has suggested to at least three iconographers that this is intended for Eve (Fig. 8).
New Testament subjects are much more numerous than those
The Adoration of the Magi is found not infrequently upon panels, but it is a complicated design, and is much less common as a small single stamp. Weale-Taylor describes but does not illustrate an octagonal stamp (Fig. 10), evidently the same as the one which appears upon another Huntington Library binding, covering a folio imprint of Ulrich Zell[10] and once the property of the monastery of St. Ludgarde in Werden on the Ruhr. A delicate square stamp of the same theme (Fig. 11) is on a Latin Bible, printed by Rusch of Strassburg in 1480. It now belongs to the Library of Congress, and was formerly in the library of the Canons Regular of the Holy Cross in Cologne. The subject was particularly popular in that city, for the bones of the Three Kings are believed to rest there. This tool has been described, but not illustrated, by Ilse Schunke in her work on Cologne bindings referred to above (p. 360).
As for representations of the saints, Catherine of Alexandria with her wheel is often found. The John Boyd Thacher Collection of the Library of Congress has a quarto printed by Froben in Basel in 1496,[11] bound in lightish brown calf over deeply bevelled boards, the center filled with a floral diaper. Of several small stamps, the significant ones are in the upper and lower borders of the upper cover. One is a large rectangle containing a full-length figure of St. Catherine (Fig. 12), the other a small circle with the initial A, or possibly monogram TA, with small letters tentatively read as w and p on either side. There
Many other stamps representing saints are in the rich collections of the Huntington Library, among them the three following examples. A delicate little octagon contains St. George and the Dragon (Fig. 13) upon a folio in rough calf printed by Koelhoff in Cologne in 1474.[12] Unfortunately the book is not in good condition and there are no inscriptions or other marks of provenance. There are panels representing St. George, but rarely does he appear on single tools. A folio printed in Venice in 1472 by the famous Jenson[13] has found its way into a German pigskin binding which belonged in the 18th century, at least, to the library of the bishopric of Eichstadt in Bavaria. Its interest lies in the rectangular stamp of St. Sebastian (Fig. 14), accompanied by circular stamps of the Annunciation, the Virgin and Child within a glory, a lion rampant, and a lozenge of the Paschal lamb.
Whether saint or Virgin, a stamp which has led to considerable research is on an incunable in the Houghton Library at Harvard (Albertus Magnus, Opus in Evangelium, Strassburg, Mentelin, ca1474). This pigskin folio once belonged to the aforementioned Dominican monastery in Vienna, as attested by an inscription (Conventus Viennensis ordinis FF Praedicatorum) and the characteristic stamps of this bindery, an open crown between the initials P and W. It came eventually into the possession of James Russell Lowell who gave it to the Harvard Library. There is a variety of familiar stamps including the Virgin and Child and the Holy Face, but the one which is a puzzle contains in a circle a halo-ed female figure, leading by her left hand a very recognizable devil (Fig. 15). His horns show plainly and he walks on his two feet as his right arm is
Where does this lead us? One looks for legends of the Virgin and the devil, and finds that the Theophilus story might with a stretch of the imagination apply. Briefly cited, this 6th-century Cilician churchman, an early prototype of Dr. Faustus, sold his soul to the devil, but his contract was retrieved by the Virgin and publicly burned. The small figure balancing the devil might then be intended for the church of which Theophilus refused to become the bishop. There are several representations of this legend in stained glass and sculpture, for instance a bas-relief at Notre Dame in Paris, but they show little resemblance to this stamp. Unconvinced by this interpretation, we seek among the legends of women saints and the devil, and one expert in iconography suggests St. Dymphna, represented in art with a fettered devil at her feet or leading a devil bound. She is an obscure 7th-century saint venerated at Gheel, near Antwerp, whither she fled from Ireland. Her father pursued her, however, with his immoral advances, and murdered her, and on this spot a church was erected in her memory. At this shrine lunatics and those possessed of devils were miraculously cured. Another woman saint who disciplined the devil was Juliana, who held him by a rope around his neck and scourged him, but this attribution seems less adequate, so let us call her St. Dymphna, until a better suggestion is made. The impression on the binding in the British Museum is very indistinct, as the
Tools of religious symbols were very common—the pelican in her piety, the lion, unicorn and numerous others. One which is new to the writer is a hand raised in benediction (Fig. 16). It is one of several small circular and oval stamps on the white pigskin binding of a folio Bible printed by Richel in Basel no later than 1474, and belonging like so many of our other examples to the Huntington Library. The covers are divided by triple fillets into small compartments, each of which contains a single stamp. Other designs are an acorn, and the gothic letters 'eps' (with a tie above), i.e. episcopus. Inscriptions indicate continuous German ownership—Liber Campidonensis, i.e. from the Benedictine establishment at Kempten in Bavaria, and several private owners including the German collector Vollbehr whose incunabula, among them the Gutenberg Bible, were bought by the Library of Congress in 1930.
Another example from the Huntington Library is a single impression of a strange rectangular tool showing a figure with arms upraised, probably an orant (Fig. 17). It is on the binding of a Basel imprint of about 1477.[15] Fifteenth-century inscriptions show that it belonged to the monastery of Mount Calvary near Emmerich, and a later stamp reads: Bibl. Publ. Basiliensi. The design of the binding is simple, with only two stamps besides the Sacred Monogram and the orant.
There is a great variety of designs with religious initials or legends or scrolls. A charming 14th-century Book of Hours at the Walters Gallery (W293) has within a small square the gothic initials 'IM', standing presumably for Ihesu Maria, and beside them is a graceful flower which may be the lily, symbol of the Virgin (Fig. 18). The stamps are arranged in columns as is usual in French bindings, and among them are two forms of fleur-de-lis and a paschal lamb.
The Huntington Library has two Basel-printed folios which once belonged to the Priory of St. Maynulf, Boddiken, Westphalia, and were probably bound there. Both have the familiar distinctive label in gothic letters 'maynulf9' as well as 'ihesus' and 'maria'. One of them[16] adds the label 'iohēs bapt' (Fig. 19) while the other[17] has in the center of its upper cover a large lozenge with a halo-ed figure holding a church in his right hand. The impression is too indistinct to reproduce, but a good imagination aided by description of the attributes of St. Maynulf is able to detect the antlers of a stag lying beside him. Weale-Taylor (131) describes the labels but does not illustrate them.
Many other examples of monastic ownership marks have been found in this study, stamps representing both patron saints and names of monasteries, as for instance the gothic labels 'berchem', an establishment in the province of Antwerp, and 'codex sancti maximi', i.e. of Treves. Illustrations of numerous stamps of this type are available in Goldschmidt and other authorities. There is a special point about our example of this St. Maximin binding, whose ownership is marked not only by the label but also by two inscriptions. This is the use, only once, of a tool showing a two-handled basket tipped so that its contents of fruit or possibly eggs are clearly visible. The binding is on a quarto printed by Koberger of Nuremberg in 1494[18] and belongs to the Library of Congress. On the upper cover are large circular stamps of the Evangelists. The lower cover is centered by a floral diaper from which the basket hangs, and there are also two circular stamps, one of a conventional rose, the other containing a small shield within a vine-like border, very indistinct (Fig. 20).
A second example of the basket stamp appears on a photostat from Mr. Hobson, with the information that it is on a
Goldschmidt (no. 31) discusses a binding from the workshop of St. Maximin with a stamp showing the arms of the abbey. Though lacking the basket stamp, it has presumably at least three in common with our second example, the photostat. But without illustrations one cannot be sure, for the same sorts of conventional tools were the property of many different binders. Nor can we reconcile the small shield in our first example with the arms of the abbey which he describes. So here is one more question to await further evidence. But the little basket used so sparingly, as if for identification rather than for decoration, is enough to pique one's curiosity, even though it cannot claim to have religious significance, and it would be a satisfaction if one could prove it a distinctive mark of St. Maximin.
It is hoped that these notes may show that in the field of blind-stamped bindings there is a great deal not only of iconographic interest, but also a chance for real research. For instance, the relation of designs in the single stamps to those found in other minor arts is obvious to an alert observer in Gothic churches who sees in the small sculptured details and
Notes
W. H. J. Weale, Bookbindings and Rubbings of Bindings in the National Art Library, South Kensington, 2 V. (London, 1898, 1894).
Early Stamped Bookbindings in the British Museum . . . mainly by the late W. H. J. Weale, completed by Laurence Taylor (London, 1922).
English Binding before 1500 (Cambridge, 1929), and several monographs published by the Bibliographical Society, London, are concerned primarily with blind-stamped bindings. He has also written extensively on other styles.
London, Bibliographical Society, 1944. cf. p. 108. Mr. Hobson's death on January 5, 1949, is an immeasurable loss to students of binding, and it is good to know that there is a possibility of publishing his most recent work, on binding styles assignable to individual collectors, although it was not entirely completed. The writer takes satisfaction in acknowledging here his great help and encouragement over a period of years, both by correspondence and personally in his London office.
Ilse Schunke, ed., Beiträge zum Rollen-und Platteneinband im 16. Jahrhundert (Leipzig, 1937), p. 360.
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