Lee Hendrix

Thea Vignau-Wilberg

Georg Bocskay

Joris Hoefnagel

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 began when Rudolf's predecessor commissioned the master calligrapher Georg Bocskay to create a model book of calligraphy. A pre-eminent scribe, Bocskay assembled a vast selection of contemporary and historic scripts ranging from the latest Italic and humanist writing to antique Roman and German Gothic. Many were intended not for practical use but for virtuosic display - lines filled with vines, mirror writing, and tiny micrography. Years later, at Rudolf's behest, court artist Joris Hoefnagel filled the spaces on each manuscript page with images of fruit, flowers, insects, and other natural minutiae. The combination of word and image is rare and constitutes one of the marvels of the Central European Renaissance. The manuscript is now in the collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum. A selection from its pages is presented here as testimony to the artistic imagination and skill of its creators.

Calligraphy from the Court of the Emperor Rudolf II

The Art of the Pen

In 1561–62 the master calligrapher Georg Bocksay, imperial secretary to the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, created the Mira calligraphiae monumenta as a demonstration of his own pre-eminence 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’s endlessly fascinating rule in Prague. This complete facsimile of the codex, now in the J. Paul Getty Museum, is supported by scholarly commentaries and biographies of both artists. Bocksay assembled a vast selection of contemporary and historical scripts for a work which summarized all that had been learned about writing up to that date—a testament to the universal power of the written word. The finest white vellum and lavish use of gold and silver highlighted his flamboyant technical prowess and extraordinary sureness of hand. Hoefnagel took his commission to decorate this marvel, now accompanied by an alphabet of Roman majuscules and Gothic miniscules, as a challenge to prove the superiority of his art over Bocksay’s words. Every resource of illusionism, colour and form was employed in a rich, striking, and witty scheme. Brilliant grotesques of all kinds—flowers, fruit, insects, animals, monsters and masks—counterpoint the lettering and elaborate on the nature of the universe, the word of God, and the glory of His temporal representative, the Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II. Of consuming interest to scholars, collectors, bibliophiles and art historians, this remarkable opus will also be a key source of inspiration for graphic designers, typographers, practising calligraphers and devotees of the art of the book.

A Sixteenth-Century Calligraphic Manuscript Inscribed by Georg Bocksay and Illuminated by Joris Hoefnagel

Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta

Associate Curator of Drawings Lee Hendrix

A selection of forty-one pages of the manuscript Mira calligraphiae monumenta, comprising Joris Hoefnagel's illumination of Georg Bocskay's model book of calligraphy, now in the manuscript collection of the J. Paul Getty Museum.

Flora and Fauna from the Court of the Emperor Rudolf II

Nature Illuminated

Included in the magnificent pages of the Mira calligraphiae monumenta are two alphabets. Executed by an unknown hand, the first consists of Roman capital letters; the other is Gothic lower-case letters. As with the calligraphy of Bocskay described above, these alphabets were embellished by Joris Hoefnagel, a painter at the court of Rudolf II. In embellishing the alphabets, Hoefnagel employed symbols and heraldic objects--masks, animals, plants, obelisks--to convey the power and greatness of the emperor. An Abecedarium contains the thirty-eight pages from the Mira codex that display Hoefnagel's virtuosity in decorating the alphabets. Calligraphers, graphic artists, and all lovers of beautiful books will delight in Hoefnagel's artistry.

Illuminated Alphabets from the Court of the Emperor Rudolf II

An Abecedarium

From the Library of Emperor Rudolf II : a Complete Facsimile of Europe's Last Great Illuminated Manuscript, Inscribed by Georg Bocskay and Illuminated by Joris Hoefnagel

Now back in print, “the ultimate book-lover’s gift book” (Los Angeles Times) In 1561–62 the master calligrapher Georg Bocskay (died 1575), imperial secretary to the Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I, created Mira calligraphiae monumenta (Model Book of Calligraphy) as a demonstration of his own preeminence among scribes. Some thirty years later, Ferdinand’s grandson, the Emperor Rudolf II, commissioned Europe’s last great manuscript illuminator, Joris Hoefnagel (1542–1600), to embellish the work. The resulting book is at once a treasury of extraordinary beauty and a landmark in the cultural debate between word and image. Bocskay assembled a vast selection of contemporary and historical scripts for a work that summarized all that had been learned about writing to date—a testament to the universal power of the written word. Hoefnagel, desiring to prove the superiority of his art over Bocskay’s words, employed every resource of illusionism, color, and form to devise all manner of brilliant grotesques, from flowers, fruit, insects, and animals to monsters and masks. Unavailable for nearly a decade, this gorgeous volume features over 180 color illustrations, as well as scholarly commentary and biographies of both artists to inspire scholars, bibliophiles, graphic designers, typographers, and calligraphers.

Thea Vignau-Wilberg

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