A companion impression to that of the Saint Christopher (Rylands 17249.2). Although the borders of these two woodcuts differ, they are printed with the same ink, coloured in the same way and they display sufficiently close similarities in the cutting technique to convince that they originate from the same workshop.<\/p>
The Saint Christopher bears a xylographic date of 1423, which has historically led to a similar date being posited for the Annunciation, but analysis of the watermark links the paper on which the Saint Christopher is printed to a cluster of other papers produced in Ravensburg and in use within a geographical area centred around Ulm between 1428 and 1435. This, coupled with art historical evidence and strong formal parallels with stained glass, panel paintings and altarpieces from Ulm dated to the 1430s, suggest that both impressions in fact date from between 1435 and 1450. See: Potten, Edward, 'A series of uncertainties: dating the Buxheim Saint Christopher', in: Goldfinch, J., Tokunaga, S. and Kato, T. (eds.), Provenances and Producers: Copy-Specific Features of Incunabula (Leiden: Brill, 2023).<\/p>
Campbell Dodgson's Woodcuts of the Fifteenth Century in the John Rylands Library Manchester (Manchester: Manchester University Press, 1915), page 12, incorrectly attributes ownership of the Buxheim Laus Mariae manuscript in which the Saint Christopher and Annunciation impressions are pasted to Jacobus Matzenberger, parish priest of the church of the Blessed Virgin Mary at Memmingen.<\/p>
One of a group of four closely-related impressions taken from woodblocks depicting this composition of the Annunciation, the others being Germanisches Nationalmuseum, Nuremberg, H 49, National Gallery of Art, Washington, Rosenwald Collection 1943.3.452, and Library of Congress, Washington, FP - XV - A000, no. 26.<\/p>
Despite bearing affinities with French and Flemish art and book illumination, Peter Schmidt concludes that the Annunciation, like the Saint Christopher, belongs to a group of South German works. The closest parallels are to glass and panel painting in Ulm executed in the 1430s and 1440s. See: Schmidt, Peter, 'The Annunciation', in Parshall, Peter and Schoch, Rainer (eds.), Origins of European Printmaking: Fifteenth-Century Woodcuts and Their Public (New Haven, CT: Yale University Press, 2005), pages 112-115.<\/p>
Image size: 290 x 210 mm.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Former Owner(s)", "value": "Gundelfingen, Anna von, 1400?-1432; Spencer, George John Spencer, Earl, 1758-1834; Reichskartause Buxheim" }, { "label": "Binding", "value": "
Early fifteenth-century full German calf, decorated with a pattern of fillets; remains of five metal bosses to each cover, which were wanting by the time a paper title label was added to the rear cover in the fifteenth century at Buxheim; remains of an earlier manuscript annotation directly to the leather, which is now illegible; bent and slotted catchplates to the rear cover, of a pattern which were in use by the late-fourteenth century, of a characteristic design (see Adler, Georg, Handbuch Buchverschluss und Buchbeschlag (Wiesbaden: Reichert Verlag, 2010), Abb. 5-61d, page 102, where a similar catchplate is recorded on bindings from the Austrian convents at Lambach and Gaming and used by various Viennese workshops between 1427 and the third quarter of the fifteenth century); the wooden boards are larger than, rather than flush with, the text block; the binding is upside-down and back-to-front. This orientation is odd, but careful examination suggests that it has always been thus: there is no evidence that this is a binding that has been re-used, no evidence of re-stitching, and the head and tail bands look as one would expect.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Acquisition", "value": "
Part of the library of the Earls Spencer, acquired in 1892 by Enriqueta Rylands from John Poyntz Spencer (1835-1910), 5th Earl Spencer, for The John Rylands Library.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Title", "value": "The Annunciation" }, { "label": "Funding", "value": "Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC); Deutsche Forschungsgemeinschaft (DFG)" }, { "label": "Bookseller(s)", "value": "Horn, Alexander, active 1814" }, { "label": "Project Information", "value": "
Created as part of the Incunabula Cataloguing Project, funded by the John Rylands Research Institute and Library, and the research project: '\u2018Werck der bücher\u2019 Transitions, experimentation, and collaboration in reprographic technologies, 1440\u20131470', funded by the AHRC/DFG. John Gandy is Project Cataloguer on the Incunabula Cataloguing Project. 'Werck der bücher' is led by Dr Stephen Mossman, Senior Lecturer in Medieval History, Department of History, School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, (SALC), University of Manchester, and Edward Potten, Principal Consultant, Department of History, School of Arts, Languages and Cultures, (SALC), University of Manchester.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Publication", "value": "Swabia: publisher not identified" }, { "label": "Date of Creation", "value": "between 1435 and 1450" }, { "label": "Origin Place", "value": "Germany, Swabia" }, { "label": "Language(s)", "value": "Latin" }, { "label": "Physical Location", "value": "The John Rylands Research Institute and Library" }, { "label": "Extent", "value": "1 sheet. Leaf height: 305 mm, width: 220 mm." }, { "label": "Classmark", "value": "17249.1" }, { "label": "Subject(s)", "value": "Christian art and symbolism; Wood-engraving--15th century; Early works to 1800; Mary, Blessed Virgin, Saint--Annunciation; Annotations (Provenance)--Germany--15th century; Blind tooled bindings (Binding)--Germany--15th century; Calf bindings (Binding)--Germany--15th century" }, { "label": "Physical Description", "value": "
The impression of the Annunciation survives, with a companion impression of Saint Christopher catalogued separately, pasted to the front and rear boards of a manuscript of the Laus Mariae by the Carthusian Konrad von Haimburg (Hainburg), completed in 1417: Rylands Latin MS 366.<\/p>
The vellum pastedowns and paper flyleaves front and rear bear evidence of early fifteenth-century annotation. These fall into three categories: annotations present on the vellum used as pastedowns prior to the binding of the Laus Mariae; annotations added to the vellum pastedowns prior to the insertion of the woodcuts, but after binding; annotations added to the paper flyleaves either before or after the insertion of the woodcuts. None assist materially with the dating or localising of the impressions of the Annunciation and Saint Christopher. For a detailed description of these inscriptions see: Potten, Edward, 'A series of uncertainties: dating the Buxheim Saint Christopher'.<\/p>
Hand coloured in green, yellow, pink and scarlet.<\/p>
The top left corner of the impression is damaged, the portion depicting God the Father now wanting.<\/p>
The paper on which the Saint Christopher impression is printed bears a watermark: a bull's-head, without facial features, the shape of the ears unclear, and with a characteristic narrow muzzle and a stem surmounted with a six-pointed star. The distance from the top of the stem to the bottom of the muzzle is c. 92-95 mm, and at the widest point between the horns 33 mm. The chainlines in the paper are impossible to deduce, due to the length of time it has been pasted to the wooden board, but it appears that the watermark sits between chainlines. For a detailed description of the watermark and its impact on the dating of the impression see: Potten, Edward, 'A series of uncertainties: dating the Buxheim Saint Christopher'.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Abstract", "value": "
Impression on paper depicting the Annunciation. The Archangel Gabriel, vested as a deacon in alb, stole, and dalmatic, with wings of peacock's feathers, kneels at the entrance of a chamber paved with tiles, the vaulted roof of which rests on a slender column. A scroll with the angelic salutation, 'ave gracia plena dominus te' winds around the column. To the right kneels the Virgin Mary, who rests her left hand on a book, which bears the partly legible inscription 'ecce anc la dni'. On a shelf over the desk, covered with a cloth, on which the book lies, stands a lily in a vase. Through an inner arch a second chamber, with flat ceiling and rectangular rather than arching windows. The wall beneath the two round-headed windows of the outer chamber is hung with brocade, showing a leaf pattern upon a black ground. Through the outer arch, over Gabriel's head, the transmission of the Holy Ghost made manifest by the Dove on three beams of light emanates from the mouth of God the Father. The whole framed in a double border.<\/p>" }, { "label": "Collection", "value": "Block Book Collection" }, { "label": "Bibliography", "value": "