Dodgson, Campbell: Catalogue of early German and Flemish woodcuts: preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum (Band 1): [German and Flemish woodcuts of the XV century] (London, 1903)

281

Division A.—SeJiool of Nuremberg.—Diirer.

7ra<xi 8t/cata i/eftetv.1 Frorn the breast to the feet of Philosophy there runs
a slanting tablet, growing wicler towards the bottom, like a ladder, which
bears the following abbreviated inscriptions : ©, M, A<r, Trj, Ap, Per, Ao,
Tpa, On a scroll at the foot of the ladder is Diirer’s monogram. The
figure of Philosophy is surrounded by a great wreath composed of four
kinds of leaves : vine, laurel, maple, (?)2 and oak. The wreath is inter-
rupted by four medallions, containing busts of Egyptian, Greek, Roman,
and German sages. At the top is Ptolemy, holding an armillary sphere,
in a circle inscribed, egipciorvm sacerdotes et chaldei. Pfe is followed
by Plato r., with the inscription, grecorvm philosophi. At the bottom
a single laurelled head does duty for Virgil and Cicero, described as
latinorum poetae et rhetores. Lastly, Albertus 1. represents ger-
manorvm sapientes. In the corners outside the wreath are four men’s
heads, typical, in the first instance, of the chief winds, but also, witli their
attributes, of the four elements and four temperaments. The first head,
breathing flames, near the vine, is described as Eurus, Ignis, Coler(i)cus;
the second, breathing lilies and roses, near the laurel, as Zephirus, Aer,
Sanguineus; the third, in pouring rain, near the maple, (?) as Auster,
Aqua, Flecmaticus; and the fourth, with icicles hanging from the oak-
leaves, as Boreas, Terra, Melancolicus. These inscriptions are placed at
the ends of two open spaces left at top and bottom of the wooclcut. Tn
the middle of the upper space is the inscription :—

“ Sophiam me Greci vocant Latini Sapienciam,3
Egipcii & Cbaldei me inuenere Greci scripsere
Latini transtulere Germani ampliavere.”

In the middle of the lower space are four elegiac verses :—

“ Quicquid habet Coelum quid Terra quid Aer & aequor
Quicquid in humanis rebus & esse potest
Et deus in toto quicquid facit igneus orbe
Philosophia meo pectore cuncta gero.”

Siagle border.

[219 x 148.] ’Well-preserved impression; margin [4-15]. Watermark, Ha. 39.
On the back is the text of sig. a vi r. of the book, “ Quatuor Libri Amorum,” 1.302, with
the heading ad maxmyl . regem.

Purchased at the sale of the Hebich collection, at Messrs Amsler and Eutliardt’s,
Berlin, 23 Feb. 1885.

The signature on this woodcut authorises tlie attribution to Diirer of the unsigned
companion cut P. 217. The style of cutting resembles that of the Roswitha cuts.
Thu whole group probably dates from the end of the xv century.

1 These half-lines are quoted from the gnomic poem of the Pseudo-Phocylides,
vv. 6, 7. See Bergk, “Poetae Lyrici Graeci,” pt. ii, p. 456 (Lipsice, 1866 ; 8vo).

npcora 8ebv ri/xa, /ceTe7rsira 5e creio yovrias.

Tlacn 5'acaio. vefxeiv, /iTjSe icpicnv is x^Plv fk/ce.

“Phocilidis Moralia,” in Greek and Latin, forrned part of the first dated book which
issued f'rom the Aldine Press, “ 0. Lascaris Erotemata,” etc., 2 pts., Feb.-Marcb, 1495,
Hain *9924; Proctor 5546.

2 The leaf is not that of hemp, as suggested by Betberg, the only writer who has
attempted a description of the wreath. The symbolism of the leaves appears to be
connected primarily with the winds rather than the temperaments.

3 Tliis line alludes to a quotation from Afranius in Aulus Gellius, xiii, 9, § 3.

“ Usus me genuit, peperit Memoria,

Sophiam me vocant. Graii, vos Sapientiam.”

I am indebted to Mr. G. O. J. Webb, of Magdalen College, Oxford, for this reference, and
for several suggestions towards the interpretation of the woodcut,