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

Vignau-Wilberg, Thea, Hendrix, Lee

The court of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II produced nothing more amazing than the "Mira Calligraphae Monumenta", a brilliant amalgamation of two arts - calligraphy and miniature painting. The project began when Georg Bocskay, a pre-eminent scribe) assembled a vast selection of contemporary and historic scripts ranging from the latest Italic and humanist writing to antique Roman and German Gothic. 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. This marvel of the Central European Renaissance is now in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum. A selection from its pages is presented here in this book, which will be of interest to scholars, collectors, bibliophiles and art historians.

Collectability score

The Art of the Pen (Getty, 2003): the calligraphy model book made for Emperor Rudolf II, with Joris Hoefnagel's painted insects, fruit and flowers.

EAN

9780500511275

Publisher

Thames & Hudson Ltd

Published

5 May 2003

Pages

64

Available copies

• Very good
  £12.99