Nature Illuminated: Flora and Fauna from the Court of Emperor Rudolf II (Getty Trust Publications: J. Paul Getty Museum)

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Description

The court of Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II produced nothing more amazing than the Mira calligraphiae monumenta, a brilliant demonstration of two arts–calligraphy and miniature painting. The project started when Rudolf’s predecessor, Ferdinand I, commissioned master calligrapher Georg Bocskay to create a model book of calligraphy. A preeminent scribe, Bocskay assembled a vast selection of up to date and historic scripts.

Years later, at Rudolf’s behest, miniaturist Joris Hoefnagel filled the spaces on each and every manuscript page with insects, fruits, flowers, and other botanical images. The combination of word and illustration is rare and, on its tiny scale, constitutes one of the vital marvels of the Central European Renaissance.

Nature Illuminated reproduces forty-one pages from the original codex. Those who love and collect beautiful books will be eternally fascinated by Hoefnagel’s imagery and invention. The accompanying remark identifies and explains the main points of Hoefnagel’s exquisitely crafted illuminations.
An important legacy of the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II is the Mira calligraphiae monumenta, a manuscript comprised of illuminated pages of calligraphy. Around 1561 a master calligrapher wrote the text as proof of his preeminence among scribes. After his death, a master illustrator was once employed to illuminate his writing, and the outcome is a rare combination of words and images in small-scale drawings–regarded as one of the vital wonders of Renaissance Europe. This book culls different plates from the collection that are each and every unique, consisting of lavishly executed text in Roman and Hebrew letters accompanied by realistic and detailed drawings of plants, animals, and insects.

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