DOI issue:
Obsah
DOI article:Germ, Tine: A curious collection of curious deaths in Theatrum mortis humanae tripartitum by Johann Weichard Valvasor: context, sources, invention
DOI Page / Citation link:https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.52446#0060
the Forum of Constantine, is set in a landscape with
a few trees and a minor architectural scenery in the
distance.35 In his présentation of the death of the
Vestal Oppia (Theatrum mortis, 151), who was buried
alive, Koch believed, contrary to historical facts, that
she was buried up to her neck.36 Only her head is
seen above the ground, similar to the head of the
infamous army leader Agazo (Theatrum mortis, 165),
whom Croatian soldiers captured and buried up to
his neck, thereupon crashing his head with cannon-
balls, as Valvasor’s account tells us. Koch inventively
presented the scene as a grotesque bowling game
(Figs. 3 and 4). Yet another example is the death of
Emperor Maxentius (Theatrum mortis, 159). Koch
depicted it by placing the emperor as a horseman
on a stone bridge which collapses under the weight.
Since Valvasor does not specifically mention that the
emergency bridge across the Tiber was composed
of boats, thus having being a pontoon bridge, the
draughtsman reasonably depicts a common masonry
bridge which collapses — somewhat illogically — under
the weight of a single horseman.37
In a way, Koch’s “errors” are welcome for the
understanding of the genesis of the illustrations:
35 The modest architecture in the background can by no means
be understood as an allusion to Constantinople which is not
mentioned in Valvasor’s Latin verses at ail, whereas it is only
indicated as a “big city” in the German verses.
36 Valvasor does not tell how Oppia was buried, therefore Koch’s
interprétation is pure fantasy — the Vestal is buried up to her
neck, with only her head above the ground. Such a mode of
punishing Vestals was unknown in Rome. What exactly was
the punishment for the Vestals who broke their covenant of
virginity is in detail described by Plutarch in his Parallel Lires
(Numa Pomphilius, 10,4-6). If a priestess of Vesta was found
guilty, she was buried alive in an underground cell with some
food and water in it, which masked the fact that a consecrated
person was executed.
37 The emergency bridge composed of boats is reported by
several Roman writers. Valvasor quotes as his source the
biography of Emperor Constantine in the book De Caesaribus
by Sextus Aurelius Victor and Epitome de Caesaribns, which is
no longer attributed to Victor today. Of the early authors,
Lactantius (De mortibus persecutorum, 44) and Eusebius of
Caesarea (HistoriaEcclesiastica, IX, 9 in Vita Constantini, xxvn;
xxxvm) also report on Maxentius’s death.
38 The Valvasor Print Collection, housed in the department
of the Metropolitan Library at the Croatian State Archives,
they call attention to the fact that the drawings that
served as models for the engravings were indeed
original inventions and did not copy some already
existing visual présentations of historical motifs,
which the artist could have found in Valvasor’s sub-
stantial print collection or in illustrated books in his
library.38 This becomes very clear if the engravings of
the Theatrum are compared to illustrations that were
designed by Mathäus Merian the Eider (1593—1650)
for Gottfried’s Historical Chronicle. Let us take the
engraving featuring a dragon (Theatrum mortis, 155)
as an example: in his concept of the design, Koch
follows Valvasor’s verses which say that a dragon
that lived in the Bagradas River in Tunisia devoured
several soldiers who were trying to quench their thirst
on its banks. A wider context — the mention that the
soldiers, under the command of an unnamed king,
were besieging a city and had set up their camp by
the river where the dragon lived — is left out by the
draughtsman. The motif of the army’s encounter
with the dragon, in which the beast is destroyed after
all, is not included either. The illustration is focused
on the dramatic moment when the dragon attacks the
soldiers, but the river where the beast has supposedly
Zagreb, numbers 6690 prints and 931 drawings and water-
colours, which Valvasor grouped into eighteen volumes.
Volume IV was missing already in 1815, in the era of bishop
Maksimilijan Vrhovec, thus seventeen volumes survive today.
The entire Valvasor Print Collection is available in a facsimile
édition: GOSTISA, L. (ed.): Iconotheca Valvasoriana 1-18.
Ljubljana 2004 - 2008. The prints in Valvasor’s collection
and the question of their influence on the artists of the po-
lymath’s circle were most extensively studied by the Croatian
art historians Stella Übel, Renata Gotthardi-Skiljan and Mirna
Abaffy. The recentmost contribution to this field, with earlier
literatuře: PELC, M.: Theatrum humanum. llustrirani letci igrafika
17. stolječa kao grcalo vremena. Primjeriig Valvasorovegrafické gbirke
(Nadbiskupije gagrehacke. Zagreb 2013. Also Valvasor’s library is
now owned by the Metropolitan Library of the Archdiocese
of Zagreb and is housed in the Croatian State Archives,
Zagreb. A catalogue of books in the Valvasor Library is
available in a modern édition: KUKOLJA, B. - MAGIC, V.
(eds.): Bibliotheca Valvasoriana, katalog knjignice janega Vajkarda
Valvasorja. Ljubljana —Zagreb 1995. For the Valvasor Library
see also: MAGIČ, V: Die Bibliothek Valvasors. In: FÜSSEL,
S. (ed.): Gutenbergjahrbuch, TI. Mainz 1997, pp. 331-341. For
the minor part of Valvasor’s library (about 100 books) which
was not sold to Zagreb but kept by the original owner until
his death, see: POTOCNIK, M.: Valvasorjeva navezanost na
nekatere svoje knjige ob konců življenja. In: Zgodorinski časopis,
67, No. 1/2, 2013, pp. 28-58.
58
a few trees and a minor architectural scenery in the
distance.35 In his présentation of the death of the
Vestal Oppia (Theatrum mortis, 151), who was buried
alive, Koch believed, contrary to historical facts, that
she was buried up to her neck.36 Only her head is
seen above the ground, similar to the head of the
infamous army leader Agazo (Theatrum mortis, 165),
whom Croatian soldiers captured and buried up to
his neck, thereupon crashing his head with cannon-
balls, as Valvasor’s account tells us. Koch inventively
presented the scene as a grotesque bowling game
(Figs. 3 and 4). Yet another example is the death of
Emperor Maxentius (Theatrum mortis, 159). Koch
depicted it by placing the emperor as a horseman
on a stone bridge which collapses under the weight.
Since Valvasor does not specifically mention that the
emergency bridge across the Tiber was composed
of boats, thus having being a pontoon bridge, the
draughtsman reasonably depicts a common masonry
bridge which collapses — somewhat illogically — under
the weight of a single horseman.37
In a way, Koch’s “errors” are welcome for the
understanding of the genesis of the illustrations:
35 The modest architecture in the background can by no means
be understood as an allusion to Constantinople which is not
mentioned in Valvasor’s Latin verses at ail, whereas it is only
indicated as a “big city” in the German verses.
36 Valvasor does not tell how Oppia was buried, therefore Koch’s
interprétation is pure fantasy — the Vestal is buried up to her
neck, with only her head above the ground. Such a mode of
punishing Vestals was unknown in Rome. What exactly was
the punishment for the Vestals who broke their covenant of
virginity is in detail described by Plutarch in his Parallel Lires
(Numa Pomphilius, 10,4-6). If a priestess of Vesta was found
guilty, she was buried alive in an underground cell with some
food and water in it, which masked the fact that a consecrated
person was executed.
37 The emergency bridge composed of boats is reported by
several Roman writers. Valvasor quotes as his source the
biography of Emperor Constantine in the book De Caesaribus
by Sextus Aurelius Victor and Epitome de Caesaribns, which is
no longer attributed to Victor today. Of the early authors,
Lactantius (De mortibus persecutorum, 44) and Eusebius of
Caesarea (HistoriaEcclesiastica, IX, 9 in Vita Constantini, xxvn;
xxxvm) also report on Maxentius’s death.
38 The Valvasor Print Collection, housed in the department
of the Metropolitan Library at the Croatian State Archives,
they call attention to the fact that the drawings that
served as models for the engravings were indeed
original inventions and did not copy some already
existing visual présentations of historical motifs,
which the artist could have found in Valvasor’s sub-
stantial print collection or in illustrated books in his
library.38 This becomes very clear if the engravings of
the Theatrum are compared to illustrations that were
designed by Mathäus Merian the Eider (1593—1650)
for Gottfried’s Historical Chronicle. Let us take the
engraving featuring a dragon (Theatrum mortis, 155)
as an example: in his concept of the design, Koch
follows Valvasor’s verses which say that a dragon
that lived in the Bagradas River in Tunisia devoured
several soldiers who were trying to quench their thirst
on its banks. A wider context — the mention that the
soldiers, under the command of an unnamed king,
were besieging a city and had set up their camp by
the river where the dragon lived — is left out by the
draughtsman. The motif of the army’s encounter
with the dragon, in which the beast is destroyed after
all, is not included either. The illustration is focused
on the dramatic moment when the dragon attacks the
soldiers, but the river where the beast has supposedly
Zagreb, numbers 6690 prints and 931 drawings and water-
colours, which Valvasor grouped into eighteen volumes.
Volume IV was missing already in 1815, in the era of bishop
Maksimilijan Vrhovec, thus seventeen volumes survive today.
The entire Valvasor Print Collection is available in a facsimile
édition: GOSTISA, L. (ed.): Iconotheca Valvasoriana 1-18.
Ljubljana 2004 - 2008. The prints in Valvasor’s collection
and the question of their influence on the artists of the po-
lymath’s circle were most extensively studied by the Croatian
art historians Stella Übel, Renata Gotthardi-Skiljan and Mirna
Abaffy. The recentmost contribution to this field, with earlier
literatuře: PELC, M.: Theatrum humanum. llustrirani letci igrafika
17. stolječa kao grcalo vremena. Primjeriig Valvasorovegrafické gbirke
(Nadbiskupije gagrehacke. Zagreb 2013. Also Valvasor’s library is
now owned by the Metropolitan Library of the Archdiocese
of Zagreb and is housed in the Croatian State Archives,
Zagreb. A catalogue of books in the Valvasor Library is
available in a modern édition: KUKOLJA, B. - MAGIC, V.
(eds.): Bibliotheca Valvasoriana, katalog knjignice janega Vajkarda
Valvasorja. Ljubljana —Zagreb 1995. For the Valvasor Library
see also: MAGIČ, V: Die Bibliothek Valvasors. In: FÜSSEL,
S. (ed.): Gutenbergjahrbuch, TI. Mainz 1997, pp. 331-341. For
the minor part of Valvasor’s library (about 100 books) which
was not sold to Zagreb but kept by the original owner until
his death, see: POTOCNIK, M.: Valvasorjeva navezanost na
nekatere svoje knjige ob konců življenja. In: Zgodorinski časopis,
67, No. 1/2, 2013, pp. 28-58.
58