Mira calligraphiae monumenta: a sixteenth-century calligraphic manuscript inscribed by Georg Bocskay and illuminated by Joris Hoefnagel

Abstract

"In 1561-62 the master calligrapher Georg Bocskay, imperial secretary to the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, created the Mira calligraphiae monumenta as a demonstration of his own preeminence among scribes. Years later, Ferdinand's grandson, the Emperor Rudolf II, commissioned Europe's last great manuscript illuminator, Joris Hoefnagel, to embellish his work. The resulting book is at once a treasury of extraordinary beauty, a landmark in the cultural debate between word and image, and one of the most intriguing memorials of Rudolf II's endlessly fascinating rule in Prague. This updated second edition of the complete facsimile of the codex, now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, is supported by scholarly commentaries and biographies of both artists"--

Contents

Mira calligraphiae monumenta : an overview / Lee Hendrix -- Georg Bocskay, the calligrapher / Thea Vignau-Wilberg -- Joris Hoefnagel, the illuminator / Thea Vignau-Wilberg -- Writing model book / Lee Hendrix -- Constructed alphabet / Thea Vignau-Wilberg -- Codicological description of the manuscript.