DOI Page / Citation link:
https://doi.org/10.11588/diglit.28460#0354
320
Early German and Flemish Woodeuts.—Part II.
coutributed to the delay in the appearance of tlie first edition. Another cause of
delay was the uncertainty about the nomenclature of the three gates. The names
ultimately adopted for the two side portals, “ Porten des Adels ” and “ Porten des
Lobs,” were cut on the same block as the amended names of the ancestors, and the
titles w'ere similarly pasted on after the edition had been printed off. But the fact
that the text of Stabius contains the titles finally approved shows that the completion of
the former was postjioned to the last possible moment. At length, on 17 February,
1518, in a letter from Maximilian to liis daughter,1 we hear for the first time of a copy
being actually despatched. Maximilian tells her that lie is sending the Arch, and
requests her to return by the bearer the one that he had sent before; this must have
been the miniature, which she had kept, accordingly, for more than two years. On
20 May, 1518, Stabius received a grant of 200 florius per annum, presumably as a
reward on the completion of the work.2 Diirer received a similar grant on 8 September,
1518.3
Tiie Editions.
Of the whole Triumplial Arch there have been five editions.
1. The first edition, the printing of which was begun in the spring of 1517, but not
completed till January or February, 1518. An interesting reference to this edition, of
tlie date ld April, 1522, is printed in the Yienna Jahrbuch, iii, Eegest 2970.
2. That printed at Yienna by order of Archduke Ferdinand in 1526-28. The
Archduke ordered certain incomplete sets already existing to be completed, and as many
more copies to be printed as the blocks would bear, three hundred of which were to be
delivered to him, tho rest to be kept by the printer to defray his expenses (Jahrbuch, iii,
Eegest 2868). This edition was supervised by Treitzsaurwein, Stabius having died
in 1522. Treitzsaurwein himself died in 1527. On 15 November, 1528, Ferclinand
issued instructions to his successor for the distribution in Austria of copies of this
edition (Eegest 1757).
8. That printed by Eaphael Hofhalter at Yienna in 1559 for Archduke Cliarles, son
of Fei'dinand I.
4. The incomplete edition printed by A. Mollo and Co. at Vienna in 1799 for Adam
Bartscli, who supplied twenty-one subjects, of which the original blocks had been lost,
by etchings of his own.
5. Tlie edition, partly in facsimile, printed by Adolf Idolzhausen at Yienna in
1885-6, in 86 sheets, as a supplement to the Jalirbuch der hunsthist. Samml. d. allerh.
Kaiserhauses, Bd. iv. The original blocks in the Hofbibliothek were used, with the
addition of one block now in the Austrian Museum, while tlie missing subjects were
supplied by photomeckanical reproductions made frorn an impression of thc 1559
edition. The numbers of the plates in the fifth edition are used to'distmguisk the
subjects in the following description.
No existing impression has been described wliich can be said with certainty to
belong to the second edition. The latter, probably, resembled the first in almost all
particulars, including the corrections, but it may be supposed that the rejected titles of
the side gates had been removed from the blocks before the second edition was printed,
and the labeis added with the new titles would in that case have nothing beneatl:
them, as is also thc case in the third edition. A copy of the second edition, however,
could be at once distinguished from the third by the presence of the original figure of
Eudolph I and the absence of the twenty-fourth historical subject.
The first edition, to which the Britisli Museum|impression belongs, is distinguisked
from the third and later editions by the following pecuiiarities :—
1. The two side portals of the arch (pl. 12 and 15) were formerly entitled, 1. “ Die
Porten der Eere,” r. “Die Porten der Obnsten Freuntschafft.” 4 In the first edition these
earlier inscriptions were concealed under slipsof paj er of a darker colour, which bore the
corrected inscriptions, 1. “ Die Porten des Lobs,” r. “ Die Porten des Adels” (see pl. 36).
1 Le Glay, op. cit. ii, 374.
2 Jahrbuch, i, Eegest 466.
s lbid. Eegest 474. Diirer expressly mentioned the Arch in the claim which he
addressed to Charles V to lrave tliis grant confirmed. See Lange and Fuhse, p. 384.
4 An examination of the blocks shows tlmt even tliese were not the original titles.
They appear to have bcen adopted at the same time as the title of the middle gate,
“Die Portenn der Eeren Vnnd Mackt,” which was not, however, changed again, whereas
the second titles of tlic side gates were quickly abandoned in favour of the third.
There is nothing to show the form of the first set of titles, since the pieces of wood
which contained them were not preserved.
Early German and Flemish Woodeuts.—Part II.
coutributed to the delay in the appearance of tlie first edition. Another cause of
delay was the uncertainty about the nomenclature of the three gates. The names
ultimately adopted for the two side portals, “ Porten des Adels ” and “ Porten des
Lobs,” were cut on the same block as the amended names of the ancestors, and the
titles w'ere similarly pasted on after the edition had been printed off. But the fact
that the text of Stabius contains the titles finally approved shows that the completion of
the former was postjioned to the last possible moment. At length, on 17 February,
1518, in a letter from Maximilian to liis daughter,1 we hear for the first time of a copy
being actually despatched. Maximilian tells her that lie is sending the Arch, and
requests her to return by the bearer the one that he had sent before; this must have
been the miniature, which she had kept, accordingly, for more than two years. On
20 May, 1518, Stabius received a grant of 200 florius per annum, presumably as a
reward on the completion of the work.2 Diirer received a similar grant on 8 September,
1518.3
Tiie Editions.
Of the whole Triumplial Arch there have been five editions.
1. The first edition, the printing of which was begun in the spring of 1517, but not
completed till January or February, 1518. An interesting reference to this edition, of
tlie date ld April, 1522, is printed in the Yienna Jahrbuch, iii, Eegest 2970.
2. That printed at Yienna by order of Archduke Ferdinand in 1526-28. The
Archduke ordered certain incomplete sets already existing to be completed, and as many
more copies to be printed as the blocks would bear, three hundred of which were to be
delivered to him, tho rest to be kept by the printer to defray his expenses (Jahrbuch, iii,
Eegest 2868). This edition was supervised by Treitzsaurwein, Stabius having died
in 1522. Treitzsaurwein himself died in 1527. On 15 November, 1528, Ferclinand
issued instructions to his successor for the distribution in Austria of copies of this
edition (Eegest 1757).
8. That printed by Eaphael Hofhalter at Yienna in 1559 for Archduke Cliarles, son
of Fei'dinand I.
4. The incomplete edition printed by A. Mollo and Co. at Vienna in 1799 for Adam
Bartscli, who supplied twenty-one subjects, of which the original blocks had been lost,
by etchings of his own.
5. Tlie edition, partly in facsimile, printed by Adolf Idolzhausen at Yienna in
1885-6, in 86 sheets, as a supplement to the Jalirbuch der hunsthist. Samml. d. allerh.
Kaiserhauses, Bd. iv. The original blocks in the Hofbibliothek were used, with the
addition of one block now in the Austrian Museum, while tlie missing subjects were
supplied by photomeckanical reproductions made frorn an impression of thc 1559
edition. The numbers of the plates in the fifth edition are used to'distmguisk the
subjects in the following description.
No existing impression has been described wliich can be said with certainty to
belong to the second edition. The latter, probably, resembled the first in almost all
particulars, including the corrections, but it may be supposed that the rejected titles of
the side gates had been removed from the blocks before the second edition was printed,
and the labeis added with the new titles would in that case have nothing beneatl:
them, as is also thc case in the third edition. A copy of the second edition, however,
could be at once distinguished from the third by the presence of the original figure of
Eudolph I and the absence of the twenty-fourth historical subject.
The first edition, to which the Britisli Museum|impression belongs, is distinguisked
from the third and later editions by the following pecuiiarities :—
1. The two side portals of the arch (pl. 12 and 15) were formerly entitled, 1. “ Die
Porten der Eere,” r. “Die Porten der Obnsten Freuntschafft.” 4 In the first edition these
earlier inscriptions were concealed under slipsof paj er of a darker colour, which bore the
corrected inscriptions, 1. “ Die Porten des Lobs,” r. “ Die Porten des Adels” (see pl. 36).
1 Le Glay, op. cit. ii, 374.
2 Jahrbuch, i, Eegest 466.
s lbid. Eegest 474. Diirer expressly mentioned the Arch in the claim which he
addressed to Charles V to lrave tliis grant confirmed. See Lange and Fuhse, p. 384.
4 An examination of the blocks shows tlmt even tliese were not the original titles.
They appear to have bcen adopted at the same time as the title of the middle gate,
“Die Portenn der Eeren Vnnd Mackt,” which was not, however, changed again, whereas
the second titles of tlic side gates were quickly abandoned in favour of the third.
There is nothing to show the form of the first set of titles, since the pieces of wood
which contained them were not preserved.