University of Virginia Library

Bookbindings in the Libraries of Prague
by
ERNST KYRISS [*]

FOR HUNDREDS OF YEARS THE SEAT OF THE Przemysls, royal family of the Czechs, and, in the fourteenth century, simultaneously the capital of the Holy Roman Empire, Prague owes her reputation in the various branches of learning in large measure to the founding of her University in 1348. As a royal residence from the tenth until the beginning of the seventeenth century, the city contained a considerable number of libraries established by the religious orders, the Metropolitan Chapter, the University, and the nobility. With a single exception, the rich collections of old manuscripts and printed books which existed in an earlier day were sacrificed to the ravages of war and other vicissitudes and were not brought together again until much later. The greatest losses were sustained at the end of the Thirty Years War when the Swedes took with them as booty all sorts of objects of art as well as the main parts of the libraries, especially the famous Rosenberg Library, at the time of their invasions of Bohemia and Moravia. Investigations conducted in Prague libraries in recent years in connection with studies of decorated mediaeval bindings have revealed clearly lacunae which have arisen in this manner.

The wealth of the city in book collections is obvious in the following list of libraries whose holdings were examined for this study: The University Library with the libraries of the Princes Lobkowitz, Prince Moritz von Lobkowitz from Raudnitz, the Convent of the Knights of Malta (Hospitallers), and the Benedictine monastery Emaus; the library of the National Museum; the

library and the Museum of Arts and Crafts; the library of the Municipal Archives; the library of Prince Kinsky; the library of Strahow monastery; the library of the Metropolitan Chapter; the libraries of the Augustine, Capuchin, and Franciscan monasteries; and the library of the Convent of the Red Star Crusaders. A systematic investigation covered manuscripts, incunabula, and imprints prior to 1530, insofar as their bindings were decorated with blind stamps. From subsequent periods up to the eighteenth century only those books were chosen which were once in the possession of well known persons or could be differentiated from ordinary library books in some way or another.

In all, 3,020 volumes were studied, of which sixty-nine belong to the period after the Reformation. 1,705 volumes belong to the University Library; 448 to the Metropolitan Chapter; 370 to Strahow monastery; 198 to the National Museum; eighty-four to the Augustines; seventy-nine to the Red Star Crusaders; fifty-nine to the Franciscans; thirty-two to the Capuchins; twenty-five to the Museum of Arts and Crafts; twelve to the Municipal Archives; and eight to the library of Prince Kinsky.

The only library in Prague whose holdings go back to the time of its foundation and have not been diminished by wars, conflagrations, and other calamities is that of the Metropolitan Chapter. On the other hand, the famous library of Strahow monastery was not re-established until the second half of the seventeenth century, and virtually nothing remains of its original holdings. The provenance of the surviving portions of the oldest part of the library of Prince Moritz von Lobkowitz from Raudnitz may be traced to the founder, Bohuslaw Lobkowitz von Hassenstein, the greatest humanist of Bohemia. In the University Library there is also the former library of the Celestine monastery of Oybin near Zittau, dissolved in the sixteenth century and turned over at that time to the University Library in the Clementinum. Parts of the library of the Danish statesman Henrik von Rantzau are also preserved here, brought to Prague by Wallenstein after he had taken Rantzau's castle in Breitenburg near Itzehoe by storm in 1627.

The oldest decorated binding in Prague adorns parchment manuscript A 133, a Latin psalter of the twelfth century, in the Metropolitan Chapter. Both covers, like the manuscript itself,

come from Paris and are reproduced by Podlaha.[1] In addition, there is another parchment manuscript of about the same age, B 16;2, containing the De libero arbitrio of Aurelius Augustinus, from the library of Johann Herttemberger de Cubito. Podlaha describes this manuscript on pages 162-165 of his study of the library of the Metropolitan Chapter, and he assigns it to the end of the twelfth century. The general aspects of the execution of the binding and the stamps identify it as contemporary with the manuscript, for it has the characteristic smooth spine with barely perceptible bands (two in this case) and thick covers common to Romanesque bindings. An additional characteristic that may be noted in Figs. 1-3 is the frequent use of stamps whose limits are not marked by special lines for this purpose. In contrast with Ms. A 133, richly decorated with fifteen different stamps of which half represent persons, only five ornamental forms are used (Fig. 1). The yellow leather binding is sparsely decorated. The rectangular middle field of the covers is enclosed by four frames, of which the second and the fourth (reckoned from the edge) are broader and set with stamps, while ribbon-shaped undecorated diagonals divide the middle. Each of the triangular areas formed by the diagonals is decorated with a single stamp. This arrangement of the rectangle is unusual, to judge from available illustrations of other Romanesque bindings. Two clasps closing towards the rear unite the two covers, which measure 198 mm. (height) by 142 mm. (breadth). Presumably the manuscript was bound in what was formerly German-speaking territory.

The University Library also owns two parchment manuscripts whose Romanesque bindings, just as the preceding one, were hitherto unknown. The first, Ms. XIV G 48, which contains the Summa Raymundi, is from the last quarter of the thirteenth century, while the second, Ms. XIV H 3, which contains G. Paraldus' Tractatus de virtutibus, was probably written at the beginning of the fourteenth century. Their bindings, which are only decorated with a few stamps representing animals and flowers, are presumably contemporary with the manuscripts. Fig. 2 reproduces the stamps on Ms. XIV G 48. The edges of the boards, covered with brown leather, are consistently rounded to a smooth surface

on the front covers. Two clasps which once hooked into place on the back cover were removed in later times. The spine is similar to that of the preceding book except that there are three double bands. Three frames, of which only the middle one is broad and decorated, surround a rectangle that is divided into two parts by a vertical middle band. Both of the two narrow rectangular areas are decorated with a vertical row of stamps. This type of decoration, quite common at the time, is found, for example, in Plates III and IV of the late G. D. Hobson's essay on "Some Early Bindings and Binders' Tools."[2] The dimensions of the covers are 200 mm. by 130 mm. No definite evidence as to the provenance of the binding is available, since the stamps vary somewhat from previously identified forms. The five stamps depicted in Fig. 3 are found on the binding of XIV H 3, a French manuscript. Since the first stamp also appears in quite similar form on the binding of Cod. CCXLII of the Landesbibliothek in Karlsruhe,[3] it may be assumed that the book was bound in Paris. The boards are covered with red leather, and their edges are consistently rounded. Four clasps which once closed towards the rear and nine out of ten studs are lacking. The spine is distinctly rounded and reveals the well-defined forms of four double bands. This circumstance permits us to suppose that this binding was executed somewhat later than the two previously mentioned. On the front cover the rectangular middle area is surrounded by four frames, on the back cover by three, of which the first and the third (reckoned from the edge) are narrow and undecorated. The middle area of the front cover is divided in two parts by a vertical line drawn through the middle, while that of the back cover is divided by two vertical bands into three narrow rectangles, each of which is decorated by a row of stamps. The covers are 190 mm. by 132 mm. The rarity of these early decorated bindings, which have been repeatedly and exhaustively treated in the literature, is readily apparent from the fact that the latest study by Hobson[4] reveals only 106 identified volumes in all. The reason lies partially in the fact that in the early period the decoration of leather bindings probably consisted predominantly of blind lines and partially in that a large proportion of these older manuscripts were rebound towards the end of the fifteenth century.

Some hundred years after the latest Romanesque binding, parchment manuscript C 104 in the Metropolitan Chapter was bound and decorated with only two stamps. According to a manuscript entry, the binding was executed in 1404. The binder of this book, De diversitate novitiorum, dated by Podlaha[5] in the beginning of the thirteenth century, identifies himself as Prior Martinus from an unknown Bohemian monastery. His name appears again as a purchaser in the two manuscripts VIII B 16 and III D 15 of the University Library together with a note indicating that he came from Wyschehrad, a sector of Prague, with the dates 1412 and 1410 respectively. In Ms. VIII B 16 it is also indicated that he was a prior at that time. The fact that parts of a parchment record from the Strahow monastery were used as the protective leaf preceding the first page at the front of both manuscripts may not be accepted as definitive proof that the monk belonged to this monastery. The following thirteen manuscripts in the University Library came from the same shop: IX A 4, XVII A 1, IV B 25, III C 1, V C 8, IX C 1, X C 6, I D 24, V D 6, XIII D 22, I F 29, X G 16, IV H 2. All were probably bound in the first quarter of the fifteenth century by Prior Martin or one of his colleagues. As decoration for their covers ten different stamps are used, among which the two-tailed, crowned lion rampant in a rhomboid frame appears in two versions, the later of which is enclosed with lines. Bindings from this early period also are numbered among the rarities and have been described only in individual instances in the literature.

From the second half of the fifteenth century on we have the period of the Gothic binding with its extraordinarily great wealth of stamp forms, going up into the thousands, and decorations. While the stamps probably were cut only by secular craftsmen, both secular and clerical craftsmen executed the bindings. But provenance from definite shops is still largely unknown today, partially because these binders almost never entered their name in a book and partially because they had no proper guild. Therefore, the search for bookbinders, especially in the tax lists, is extraordinarily difficult. Name stamps of the masters and the

monasteries or their arms, which were ordinarily used in only a few of the bindings, are also quite rare. Erfurt is an exception, and A. Rhein has listed the twenty-five names identified thus far.[6] Individual names, for example, Bartholomäus, Jodocus, Severinus, etc., usually refer to saints. Further data on the characteristics of the decorated German binding may be found in Ernst Kyriss, "Der verzierte gotische Einband des deutschen Sprachgebietes."[7]

In dealing with such a large quantity of books as the some 3,000 volumes examined in Prague, only those which fall in certain well defined groups may be mentioned and designated by call number, viz., (1) those for which the name of the binder or the location of the shop is perfectly clear, (2) those bound for a known patron, or (3) those whose bindings are superior to the great majority of ordinary bindings. As far as the imprint date usually given in the following notes is concerned, it should be observed that it is only an approximate indication of the date of the execution of the binding, since books are not necessarily bound at the time of printing or may be rebound years later. The earliest date means only that the activity of the shop did not begin before this time, and the latest means that it continued at least until that time. All references to dates in the following notes are made with these limitations on their significance.

Many monasteries had their own binderies, in some of which hundreds of bindings were executed. Thus I have been able to assign 430 bindings to the Heilsbronn monastery[8] and 768 to the Augustine monastery in Nuremberg.[9] The libraries of Prague contain 183 volumes from the following seventeen monasteries scattered from Lübeck to Vienna and from Trèves to Olmütz:

The following forty-eight volumes may be assigned to fourteen bookbinders whose names are known:

In addition there are the following binders whose residence is unknown at the present:

This enumeration may be concluded with eighty books for which there is a known patron, which were bound in a particular year, or which have a stamped inscription with the name of a saint:

There were 707 bindings produced in thirty-seven Bohemian binderies, and twelve in seven Moravian binderies, but it has not been possible to ascertain the binder or the exact location of the shops. Seven groups, to each of which at least thirty volumes may be assigned, will be discussed later in detail together with 449 Bohemian bindings. From Augsburg and the surrounding territory 103 bindings from twenty-two shops could be identified. Sixty-one books were bound by fourteen Nuremberg binders whose names are not known. The intimate relations between Prague and Leipzig are emphasized in the 305 volumes which came from ten shops in the Saxon metropolis. The following ninety-one volumes may be ascribed to the following cities:

766 bindings were the work of 225 unknown binders who operated in Germany, although the exact location of their shops has not yet been ascertained. From foreign countries, six French and seventy-six Italian bindings were identified. Bindings decorated with ribbons containing inscriptions in German may be listed among those which have been repeatedly discussed and reproduced in the literature, most recently by K. Holter.[30] They are ascribed to Austria in the region between Kremsmünster-Wilhering and Krems-Güttweig during the period from 1460 to the beginning of the 1490s. Although Podlaha[31] reproduces the binding of Ms. D 6 of the Metropolitan Chapter in his Fig. 190, Ms. I C 15 and Ms. VI G 4b of the University Library are noted here for the first time. With these two bindings the number of previously identified bindings with inscriptions on ribbons is increased to forty-two.

Of the nineteen cuir-ciselé bindings Bollert[32] has identified the following from the libraries of Prague:

Additional cuir-ciselé bindings identified by Podlaha[34] are in the

The remaining eleven cuir-ciselé bindings are in the University Library (Ms. IX B 2, VII C 19, VIII C 5, VI D 19, Inc. 41 D 7, 41 F 12, and, in the Lobkowitz-Raudnitz Library, Inc. II Ab 19, II Da 25, IV Kb 22, VI Ba 23/1) and the Metropolitan Chapter (Inc. E 2). This volume was bound by B. Trnka, and the title "Decreta patr" is incised only on a cross strip at the upper edge of the front cover, whereas the remainder of the binding is decorated with individual stamps. The two rhomboid stamps, the crowned double eagle and the unicorn, indicate relations to the cuir-ciselé bindings described by H. Herbst[35] and which appear in connection with the name stamp mair bb. The bindings are probably the work of several different artists of the cuir-ciselé. Mss. VII C 19, III D 22, and VI D 19 may be assigned to a shop dating from the beginning of the fifteenth century. Mss. IX B 2 and A LXXIX 1 belong to a somewhat later period. Inc. 41 F 12, Ms. C 5, Ms. Liber contractuum, and the four volumes from Raudnitz date from the last quarter of the fifteenth century. Representations of musicians (Fig. 4), soldiers, school scenes, and animals in this last group undoubtedly make it one of the most interesting. The use of this technique on half-leather bindings is also unusual and unknown in the literature. The outer frame of the front cover of Inc. 41 D 7 contains the incised inscription "liber / domini / geor/gi plebani. The remaining bindings should probably be considered as individual jobs.

Drawings on leather showing foliage forms are found in the University Library on Mss. VI A 11, XVII C 22, VI F 10, and Inc. 39 A 39 as well as Ms. A 58 of the Metropolitan Chapter and XVI D 8 of the National Museum. The last book differs from the others in that here only the abbreviated two-line title "Bn̾hard9 srṽ cṽcṽ / cātico♃ appears on the upper edge of the front cover. It has been pointed out elsewhere that the rarity of books with the cuir-ciselé and drawing on leather may be ascribed to the manner of their execution.

Two half-leather volumes from the first half of the sixteenth century may be considered unica. They are Inc. F 32 of the Metropolitan Chapter, depicted by Podlaha in Plate XII of his catalogue of incunabula in the Metropolitan Chapter, and Ms. XII D 4 of

the National Museum. On the upper edge of the front cover of both the title appears in three lines and is carved in wood. In the case of the second volume the title reads "prima.pars / speculi. sancto/ralis.1.5.2.2." (Fig. 5). The background of the inscription is blue. Fig. 5 also shows rubbings of the three rolls with which the cover was decorated, significant for showing the transition from Gothic to Renaissance styles.

A more detailed consideration of the shops to which we may assign any large proportion of the books described thus far leads us first to the Celestine monastery of Oybin. Volumes which came from this monastery may be found in the following libraries:

These seventy-five volumes are decorated with thirty-four different stamps, of which the most frequently used are reproduced in Fig. 6. Characteristic for this monastery is the letter S in a square with a semi-circular elevation at the top. It is always impressed in a special place and in most instances between the crown with five points. The Bohemian lion also appears on a few volumes in the form of a shield. The inscribed ribbon "h.lucas" was encountered only twice. This shop operated from about 1472 until at least 1515.

The following books of the Augustine monastery of Segeberg near Lübeck came to Prague with the library of Heinrich von Rantzau:

Of the twenty-eight stamps which appear on twenty volumes there is a roll of a foliate staff and a panel in pomegranate form as well as the letter m in a small rectangle. The active period of this bindery extended from about 1483 until 1507.

Fifty-four early manuscripts were presumably rebound between 1478 and 1514 in the Premonstratensian monastery of Weissenau, located in Wuerttemberg between the mediaeval trade center Ravensburg and Lake Constance. The larger proportion has already been enumerated by P. Lehmann.[36] While I was able to secure evidence of eighteen different stamps on ninety-seven bindings, only four were used here, among them a frequently employed roll showing a pair of dragons with their necks intertwined. This pictorial theme is not infrequently encountered on Gothic bindings of Southern Germany. With a single exception all of the manuscripts belong to the library of Lobkowitz-Raudnitz: Ms. 234, 241, 245, 247, 248, 266, 411, 422, 424-435, 437, 438, 440-442, 444, 449, 469-472, 474, 476, 479-482, 484, 486, 488, 489, 494, 496, 499-501, 506, 508, 521, 527, 528, 530, 539. In addition there is DA IV 42 from Strahow monastery.

Of two binders who were residents of Prague, one was accustomed to signing his name on about half of his bindings with the stamp "bartholomeus," always in a special place. He was active between 1478 and 1489, and fifty-six volumes executed by him are in the following libraries:

Of his twenty-five different stamps, the most commonly used are two versions of the Bohemian lion and the two-tailed mermaid.

Half of the thirty-four volumes from the second binder are

decorated with the coat of arms of the city of Prague. His sixty-three stamps illustrate, inter alia, the double-headed heraldic eagle and the Bohemian lion, which, like the municipal arms, are present in different versions. There are also a mermaid and a shield with the unidentifiable initials C W. The books of this master are in the following libraries: This binder flourished between 1487 and 1499. In the interest of completeness, it should be noted that Prague's municipal arms appear on bindings in various forms during the subsequent centuries, a fact which may be verified by investigations in the Municipal Archives.

It was probably in the first quarter of the sixteenth century that Rev. Bartholomeus Trnka of Krumau was active as a binder. In a parchment manuscript of the University Library, VI B 9, containing the Martyrologium fratrum minorum, he advises that this book was rebound by him in 1527. A quatrefoil stamp surrounds a coat of arms with a wreath and four initialed semi-circles. The initials BT in the upper semi-circle are unquestionably an abbreviation of his name. Of the seventeen stamps identified thus far Fig. 7 shows the ones most frequently used. The following eighteen bindings from his shop are in four different libraries:

The binder of the Helia Ssech was also a resident of Bohemia. According to his own statements in the first volume of Inc. 65 A 3 (Cop. 6241) of the National Museum, he was an "administrator" in Leitomischl and a minister of the Gospel. In addition to initials and entwined borders, the first printed page contains two coats of arms illuminated with gold and colors. They also appear on some of his bindings in the same design but as a single stamp. One coat of arms consists of a two-pronged fork, the other of a simple cross. Presumably this binder was active between 1481 and 1494 as revealed by a study of nineteen of his bindings in the following libraries:

The inscribed ribbon with the word "maria" in two versions and the four rhomboid symbols of Matthew, Mark, Luke, and John are found among the thirty-six different stamps.

Two binders worked for Bohuslaw Lobkowitz von Hassenstein, probably in Komotau. The active period of the older one extends from 1475 to 1486, and thirty-four of his bindings are in the following libraries:

He had only fifteen stamps with which to decorate his bindings, among which are the rhomboid heraldic eagle in two versions and the lion rampant.

The most productive Bohemian binder was the younger man with 171 identified bindings. Except for Inc. 43 D 8 and Lobkowitz II Ec 16 in the University Library, 73 D 6 in the National Museum, and Inc. C 1839 in the Museum of Arts and Crafts, all the books are from the Raudnitz Collection.[39] Of the sixty-two stamps that he used there is one round stamp which shows a rhomboid field and a lion rampant on a shield divided into four parts. Of the twelve stamps which are used on at least one-seventh of the bindings, nine are reproduced in Fig. 8. The roof-shaped Gothic chain of tendrils appears in five forms. This binder, like his predecessor, and in contrast with the customary style of the time, bound his books almost exclusively in half-leather and arranged the clasps in the Italian style (reaching from the front cover to the back cover). His active period dates from the end of the fifteenth century until 1510, when his patron died.

Among the individual stamps which are characteristic for the Bohemian shops are the two-tailed lion, which appears in numerous variations, as well as the otherwise rather unusual mermaid with two fish-tails. One binder, who is presumed to have worked in Wittingau between 1474 and 1500, had among his forty-four different stamps (used on thirty-eight volumes) a small rectangular form with a group representing the Crucifixion and an inscribed ribbon with the name "ulricus". From the group the following bindings have been identified

A peculiar characteristic of this master was his habit of frequently combining the stamps in broad, richly decorated transverses as the upper and lower limits of the covers (Fig. 9).

Two other shops, of which fifty and seventy volumes respectively have been identified, may be dated at the end of the fifteenth and beginning of the sixteenth centuries and reveal a heavy dependence on Leipzig with respect to the forms of the stamps, the division of the covers of the books, and the use of at most five different stamps on a single book. The first binder had eleven stamps, among which were an ornamental open blossom, a roll and three roof-shaped Gothic chains of tendrils. His books are in the following libraries:

The second master had seventeen stamps, among them a Gothic foliate staff designed in a negative image and five roof-shaped chains of tendrils. His books are in the following libraries:

Fifty-one volumes form another group which includes printed books from the years 1472-1507 and are in the following libraries:

The forty-three different stamps include, inter alia, the monogram ih̄s in a pointed oval, x-s in a circle, and a small six-leaf blossom in a circle which is enclosed in a lozenge.

The conclusion of this enumeration includes volumes which reveal among their seventeen circular stamps the crowned two-tailed mermaid, the Bohemian lion and the letter m. Eight manuscripts and forty printed books from 1476 to 1488 are preserved in the following libraries:

The remaining portion of this essay deals with books which were once in the possession of well-known persons. It includes the period from the fifteenth to the eighteenth centuries. The oldest volumes belonged to Johann von Kolowrat, a member of the old Bohemian noble family that appears as early as the beginning of the eleventh century. He was "administrator" of the archdiocese of Prague and died in 1483. Most of his books were richly illuminated in gold and other colors and adorned with his coat of arms. Pictures of these illuminations are reproduced by Podlaha in Die Bibliothek des Metropolitankapitels, Figs. 294, 302, 309-311. In Inc. Ab 42, C 50 and F 12 Kolowrat made a manuscript entry indicating that he had bought them in 1482. The Metropolitan Chapter has the following thirteen incunabula which belonged to him: A 1, Ab 42, B 12, C 50, E 6, 12, 14, 114, F 6, 7, 12, G 10, J 11; and Inc. 40 A 7 of the University Library and Ms. XVI D 13 of the National Museum also were in his library originally.

Of books which were once in the library of Canon Johann Herttemberger de Elbogen de Cubito the University Library owns Ms. A 79; 1 and Inc. 39 D 46, and the following thirteen volumes are in the Metropolitan Chapter: Ms. A 28; 2 (Podlaha Die Bibliothek des Metropolitankapitels, Fig. 103), A 28; 3 (Podlaha, Fig. 105), A 73; 2, B 16; 2 (supra), and Inc. B 25, 71, C 8, 30, 31, 37, 94, J 20, 56. Inc. C 8 bears a manuscript notation that it was bought in 1493, while Ms. A 73; 2 has a note that it was bought in 1495.

Manuscript 418 of the library of the Princes Lobkowitz consists of medical treatises written in 1490 and 1491 by Dr. Ulrich Ellenbog in Memmingen, where he also had the book bound. Ellenbog was born around 1435 in Feldkirch and served, inter alia, as episcopal physician in Augsburg and personal physician of Archduke Sigismund of Tirol, and died in 1499 as municipal physician in Memmingen.

The National Museum owns Inc. 66 A 7 (GW 3114), printed before 1473 in Strassburg and bound in Erfurt, originally in the library of Ellenbog's Nuremberg contemporary and colleague, Dr.

Hartmann Schedel (1440-1514). Schedel, a Nuremberg physician, was accustomed to identifying all his books with a red mark of ownership, usually inside of the front cover. The family coat of arms, designed around a Negro's head, was usually painted on the lower edge of the first written or printed page. Most of his library, which once consisted of more than 600 works, is a well known treasure of the Staatsbibliothek in Munich. Accordingly, it is quite unusual to find his books in other libraries. Schedel is famous above all for his Weltchronik, printed in 1493 in Nuremberg in two editions with Latin and German texts and illustrated with almost 1,800 woodcuts, the most richly decorated printed book of the fifteenth century.

A third great book collector was the Nuremberg jurist and humanist, Dr. Christoph Scheurl. In his case, too, only scattered examples of his books may be located in public libraries, since the collection remained in the ownership of the family. Scheurl was born in Nuremberg in 1481 and died there in 1542. Inc. 42 D 35 of the University Library, containing three Venetian imprints of 1494 and 1495 (H 12220, HC 10824, and C 4555), is in an Italian binding and has an ownership notation dated 1500. In addition, on the inside of the front cover is the wood-cut bookplate Scheurl-Tucher (Warnecke no. 1896[40]), while that of Scheurl and his two sons is pasted on the inside of the back cover.

The student Andreas Schwob of Freystadt left nine books, of which four are in the University Library (Inc. 41 C 14, D 15, G 5, 42 G 27) and five in Strahow monastery (Inc. DN IV 5, DO II 14, VI 32, DQ III 1, 18). According to notes in his own hand, he bought them in 1490-1493 while he was a student in the University of Leipzig. It may be assumed that Schwob studied theology, since the books contain fifteen theological treatises, one historical and one legal work. Such notes, rather uncommon in general, can give (inter alia) information about the locality in which the bindings were executed.

Far out ahead of other sixteenth century collectors, Peter Vok von Rosenberg holds first place with the rich library collected at his estates in Bechin, Krumau, and Wittingau. When he died without issue at the age of seventy-three, all his property reverted to the crown. In 1647 his books were transferred to Prague,

but in the next year they were sent to Sweden as booty of war.[41] A book plate engraved by Aug. Sadeler in 1609 was executed in three different sizes and is used as the mark of ownership. In general the largest was used for folios (Warnecke, Plate XVI), and only in Ms. VII F 25 of the University Library could an example of the smallest be found. In spite of the sequestration, a hundred volumes could be found in Prague: Moreover, fifty-six have the ownership mark of the Augustine monastery in Wittingau, nineteen that of the monastery in Borovany. The binding of the printed book 22 G 303 (1596) in the University Library has an oval panel stamp in black, fifty-nine mm. in height in the center of both the front and back covers. One panel reproduces the arms of Rosenberg with the numeral 1586, the other only a thirteen-line inscription within a frame (also inscribed).

From the library of the older brother, Wilhelm von Rosenberg (died 1592), one volume has been located in the University Library and another in the Provincial Archives. On the front cover of both books his arms appear as a panel stamp, but in two different forms. The first book (54 B 13) is in the University Library and was printed in Bohemia in 1574, and the second, Ms. Wodnian 9, was bound in 1560 according to the stamped inscription.

The University Library's 1544 imprint with call number 12 H 141 is identified by a coat of arms accompanied by an inscription on the front cover indicating that it was once the property of the president of the Prague Appelate Court, Johann von Hasenburg.

It may probably be dated in the middle of the sixteenth century.

Printed books 19 C 92 of 1597 and 14 J 176 of 1551 in the same library have a bust of Tycho Brahe in an oval inscribed frame on the front cover and his coat of arms in black or gold impressions on the back cover. Both panels are reproduced by Bogeng[42] in a form somewhat smaller than the original. The older book, Erasmus Reinholdus' Prutenicœ tabulœ cœlestium motuum, is the presentation copy of the author to Counts Johann Georg and Johann Albert von Mansfeld, according to a manuscript note in red ink. Tycho himself has written in the volume that he bought it in Prague in 1601. Born in 1546 in Denmark, Tycho lived in his native land until 1597 and then spent the last four years of his life in Prague.

The mark of ownership of the Danish statesman, historian, and wealthy art patron Henrik von Rantzau has been identified in eighteen volumes. From 1556 until his death in 1598 he was "Statthalter" of Slesvik-Holstein, and, as we have already noted, his books came to Prague as booty of war. Identified volumes are located in the following libraries:

In addition to these early bindings decorated with single stamps, six additional ones from a later period have been identified on which the decoration consists of rolls and panel stamps. In the University Library there are 14 A 42, H 13, 16 H 48, while the Knights of Malta owned C VI K 232; 6, 7, 9 (three volumes). Judging from the latter, Rantzau had four different panel stamps, two with his arms and the inscription "Heinrich Rantzau Stathalter" and two with the arms of his wife and different inscriptions. The smaller pair of panel stamps with the notation "Christinna von Halle" is described by Haebler.[43] The larger panel stamps, used on 14 A 42, printed in 1572 and bought by Rantzau in 1574, vary from the others in the use of the numerical date 1572 in the panel of the man and in the use of the spelling "Christinae von Halle" (Fig. 10). In addition to the panel stamps, rolls with the initials G.V. are used (described by Haebler[44]).

Castiglione's Il libro del cortegiano of 1541, shelved in the University Library as 13 J 114, represents the end of the sixteenth century. According to an inscription impressed in the center field of the rear cover, the richly gilded binding of brown leather drawn over cardboard covers was probably executed in Rome between 1541 and 1547 for Apollonius Philaretus, the papal secretary. Its rarity was established by Hobson,[45] who, although he dealt with this collector in detail, did not know this book. All in all, he could identify only nine bindings. The general execution and the decoration of the cover is similar to the one reproduced by Hobson as Plate 54.

The two following centuries have produced only a few worth-while items for the University Library. The parchment-bound imprint of 1694 with the call number 5 J 62 comes from the collection of the old Bohemian noble family of Sternberg. A coat of arms within an oval laurel wreath with the inscription "Ignatius Carolus Comes de Sternberg" is impressed in gold in the center of the cover.

A German book, C II D 58, from the first quarter of the eighteenth century, belongs to the Knights of Malta, and a Czech folio, 54 A 36, of the same period, belongs to the University Library. It is quite certain that both of them were printed and bound for the bibliophile Count Franz Anton von Sporck (born 1662). They are richly decorated with woodcuts, among which the baronial arms frequently appear. The coat of arms of the patron within a baroque frame is the sole decoration of the cover and appears in the form of a panel stamp 289 x 214 mm. in size. Another German book, Die Tugend-Schule der Christen, a Prague imprint of 1715, is also preserved in a similar binding in the State Library in Eichstätt with call number Lit. N IV 160 (Fig. 11) and in the Library of the Landesgewerbemuseum in Stuttgart under No. 3822. Sporck was a patron of all fields of art. Among other projects, he maintained a theatre in Prague from his private

fortune, and Kilian Ignaz Dientzenhofer was one of his architects. In Kukus, his estate in north Bohemia, he established his own press. He died in Lissa in 1738.

After this inspection of the treasures of the libraries of Prague, it may be stated that the Bohemian capital attained a high level of achievement in the narrow field of the book arts, and close relations with Germany have been noted. But the high competence of these craftsmen, designers, stamp cutters, and bookbinders only becomes apparent after a study of the fine craftsmanship and well handled materials in bindings which are hundreds of years old.

Notes