Gutenberg and the Master of the Playing Cards.

Lehmann-Haupt, H.

Verlag: Yale University Press, New Haven, first edition, 1966, 1966

Two-tone cloth, gilt cover device, printed in red and black, 29 cm, 8vo, xii, 83 pp, plates, ills(some colour). From the introduction: "A series of fortunate circumstances has produced a body of evidence pointing strongly to the possibility that Gutenberg, the inventor of printing with movable type on a press, had a major share in the early development - if not the actual invention - of copper engraving. Relief printing from type and intaglio printing from engraved plates have hitherto been considered separate, independent graphic processes. Now it appears that the earliest known copper engraver, the so-called Master of the Playing Cards, was associated with Gutenberg. It is possible to prove that the iconography of the Master was not, as hitherto believed, his own invention, but developed from sources used simultaneously and in the same locality by illuminators active in Mainz in the 1450s, among them artists connected in some way with Gutenberg's workshop. A new concept of Gutenberg's creative dream is emerging. There remains little doubt that he envisaged the typographic reproduction in color of the medieval liturgical manuscripts current in his time. He was developing mechanical means for the multiplication of manuscripts, including not only the writing, the initials, and the calligraphic ornamentation but apparently also illuminated miniatures and borders. The engravings of the Master of the Playing Cards, it seems, were not created a priori for a card game, but as technical stepping-stones toward the multiple reproduction of miniatures. Only when Gutenberg's financial disaster closed the Mainz workshop to him were these engravings utilized commercially for the production of playing cards." Contents Part One: The Evidence; I : Introduction; The Giant Bible of Mainz; The Bible Miniatures and the Engravings of the Master of the; Playing Cards The Erroneous Dating of the Playing Cards The Scheide Bible; Other Illuminated Early Mainz Imprints Other Mainz Manuscripts after 1450; II: The Göttingen Model Book The Stadel Model Leaf Further Miniatures after 1450 The Hortus Sanitatis Woodcuts; III : The Cleves Hours; Other Manuscripts before 1450; The Savoyard Manuscripts; The Vienna Tankards; Manuscripts after 1450 Cited by Lehrs; The Publication Date of the Playing Cards; The Hypothetical Mainz Model Book; Part Two: The Interpretation; IV : Gutenberg's Creative Intentions; The Technical Nature of Gutenberg's Invention; The Evidence of the 1457 Psalter; "Getté en Molle"; A modern Experiment; Current Practices in Steel Engraving; Sulfur Casts in the Fifteenth Century; Gutenberg's Mirrors for the Aachen Pilgrims; V : The Chronology of Early Copper Engraving; Gutenberg, Employer of Skilled Specialists; The Parallel Biographies of Gutenberg and the Master of the; Playing Cards Gutenberg's Capital Resources; VI: Technical Difficulties in Typographic Production of Miniatures; The Importance of the Outline Drawing; Tracing; Pouncing; Hand Coloring; The Adaptation of the Copper Engravings as Playing Cards; The Problem of the Playing Cards Solved; An Unanswered Question; Conclusion; Index; General Index; Index of Miniatures and Playing Cards; .Comparative Table, (in pocket). Covers and endpapers somewhat stained (smokestaining?), otherwise Very Good. With a dustwrapper band around the front board as issued. Bestandsnummer des Verkäufers ABE-49213

Bibliografische Details

Titel: Gutenberg and the Master of the Playing ...
Verlag: Yale University Press, New Haven, first edition, 1966
Erscheinungsdatum: 1966
Einband: Hardcover
Zustand des Schutzumschlags: Schutzumschlag
Auflage: 1. Auflage