The Art of the Pen: Calligraphy from the Court of the Emperor Rudolf II

Lee Hendrix/ Thea Vignau-Wilberg

ISBN 10: 0892366222 / ISBN 13: 9780892366224

Published by J Paul Getty Museum Pubns, 2003

About this Item

1st edition. 64 pages. 7.25x5.25x0.50 inches. In Stock.

Seller Inventory # x-0892366222

Bibliographic Details

• Title: The Art of the Pen: Calligraphy from the Court of the Emperor Rudolf II
• Publisher: J Paul Getty Museum Pubns
• Publication Date: 2003
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 0892366222
• ISBN 13: 9780892366224
• Binding: Hardcover
• Condition: Brand New
• Weight: 0.23 kilograms

About this title

Synopsis

Flamboyant calligraphy selected from the marvelous Mira calligraphiae monumenta

The court of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II produced nothing more amazing than the Mira colligrophioe monumenta, a flamboyant demonstration of two arts-calligraphy and miniature painting. The project began when Rudolf's predecessor commissioned the master calligrapher Georg Bocskay to create a model book of calligraphy.

A preeminent scribe, Bocskay assembled a vast selection of contemporary and historic scripts. Many were intended not for practical use but for virtuosic display. Years later, at Rudolf's behest, court artist Joris Hoefnagel filled the spaces on each manuscript page with images of fruit, flowers, insects, and other natural minutiae. The combination of word and images is rare and, on its tiny scale, constitutes one of the marvels of the Central European Renaissance.

The manuscript is now in the collections of the Getty Museum. Forty-eight of its pages are reproduced in this book, containing samples of classic italic hands; historical, invented, and exhibition hands; Rotunda, a classicizing humanist script based on Carolingian miniscule; classically based scripts; and Gothic blackletter and chancery.