ST CYPRIAN – ERASMUS & JOHANN FROBEN – AMBROSIUS HOLBEIN TEUTOBURG FOREST & MAJOR WOODCUT SUITE – BASEL, 1521

A remarkable pair of historical composite display sheets assembled from the principal original woodcut and letterpress illustrations of the 1521 Basel edition of St Cyprian of Carthage, Opera Divi Caecilii Cypriani Episcopi Carthaginensis, edited by Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam and printed by the celebrated humanist printer Johann Froben. Detailed comparison with the digitised copy preserved by the Pitts Theology Library at Emory University confirms that the various apparently separate ornamental components mounted upon these sheets originated in this same 1521 publication rather than being miscellaneous Frobenian fragments from unrelated books. Emory independently catalogues five major graphic elements in its copy: the historiated title-page border, Johann Froben’s printer’s device, an animal-and-putti headpiece, an extensive ornamental page border and a narrative woodcut of Venus and Cupid; all of these major components are represented within the present two-sheet assemblage. The volume additionally contains smaller historiated initials within the text, meaning that these sheets should not be described as containing literally every illustrated feature of the book, but they preserve substantially the complete group of its principal large-scale independent woodcut compositions.

The first sheet preserves the celebrated title-page composition of the 1521 edition. At its centre is the original letterpress title “Opera Divi Caecilii Cypriani Episcopi Carthaginensis”, above the imprint “Apud inclytam Basileam ex officina Frobeniana. An. M.D.XXI.” Surrounding it is the monumental historiated woodcut border designed by Ambrosius Holbein, elder brother of Hans Holbein the Younger. Institutional records at both Eton College and Emory identify the border in this edition, while Emory describes its upper scene specifically as the Germanic victory over the Roman army at the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest.

Across the upper register, the battle of AD 9 is represented as an extraordinarily dense Renaissance military panorama. The protagonists are explicitly named ARMINIVS and VARVS QVINTILIVS, identifying the Germanic leader Arminius and the Roman commander Publius Quinctilius Varus. Standards, infantry, weapons and struggling combatants crowd the composition, commemorating the destruction of Varus’s Roman forces and one of the decisive reversals of Roman imperial expansion beyond the Rhine. Emory confirms that this historical battle scene forms the head of the original title-page border.

The lateral borders incorporate a complex moral programme of allegorical female figures amongst elaborate Renaissance architecture and grotesque ornament. Among the surviving inscriptions are TEMPERANCIA, IVSTITIA, CARITAS, FORTITVDO, IGNORANTIA and VERITAS — Temperance, Justice, Charity, Fortitude, Ignorance and Truth. The border therefore combines Roman history with the Renaissance personification of virtues and vices. Emory likewise describes the Virtues and Vices as completing the historiated border.

The lower section incorporates the classical story of the Calumny of Apelles, accompanied by the inscription referring to Apelles avenging himself through such a picture. The subject derives from the ancient literary description of the lost allegorical painting attributed to Apelles and transforms the title page into a sophisticated Renaissance humanist programme concerned with falsehood, judgement, truth and justice.

The second display sheet can now be much more precisely understood. Rather than an arbitrary group of ornaments from various Froben books, it is a reconstruction using further major woodcut elements from this same 1521 Cyprian edition. The long vertical grotesque borders and extensive lower ornamental band correspond with the full-page ornamental frame used within the book. Emory’s surviving institutional example shows the same long left-hand sequence of urns, masks, grotesques and serpentine forms, the same foliate right-hand border, and the same extraordinary lower band populated by putti, fantastic animals and Johann Froben’s caduceus device.

Also preserved is the separate headpiece of putti and animals, showing naked putti interacting with lions or other fantastic beasts around Renaissance vessels. Emory independently catalogues this precise block as a “Headpiece” from the 1521 Cyprian and describes it as featuring “putti and animals”.

Another especially attractive component is the narrative strip depicting Venus and Cupid. Emory identifies the scene explicitly as Venus and Cupid riding in a chariot while Cupid strikes his victims with his magical arrows. The block is an excellent example of the seemingly surprising mixture of Christian patristic scholarship and classical mythological imagery found in the decorative vocabulary of Renaissance humanist printing.

At the centre of the second sheet is Johann Froben’s printer’s device, consisting of two crowned serpents entwined around a staff or caduceus with a bird above, set between richly ornamented architectural columns. Emory catalogues this exact block independently as the “Printer’s Device of Johann Froben”, and Eton confirms that the 1521 book carried Froben’s device on its final verso.

The edition itself is an important product of the celebrated partnership between Erasmus and Froben. The title explicitly credits Erasmus with the extensive scholarly labour of correcting the text, restoring material from ancient exemplars and separating works considered falsely attributed to Cyprian. The colophon dates completion at Basel to November 1521. Eton records the edition as a folio of [24], 515, [33] pages, with signatures a–z⁶ A–Y⁶ Z–2A⁸, the Ambrosius Holbein title border, another woodcut border on a2r, Froben’s printer’s device on the final verso and historiated initials. Bibliographical references include VD16 C6509 and Adams C3150.

The physical history of the present pair must be clearly understood. At an unknown later date, these original 1521 printed components were carefully excised from their original leaves and laid down onto stiff paper stock, apparently with the deliberate intention of preserving and displaying the remarkable graphic programme of the book. The title-page elements have been reconstructed into an approximation of their original arrangement, while the second sheet gathers the principal remaining independent ornaments and devices into a single decorative composition. This intervention means that they are not intact original book leaves; however, identification against a complete institutional copy now demonstrates that the pair represents an unusually comprehensive surviving assemblage of the major woodcut programme of a single Erasmus/Froben publication.

Condition

Very good decorative condition overall. All printed elements are original early-sixteenth-century woodcuts and letterpress components which have been excised from their original leaves and laid down at a later date onto stiff paper backing. Numerous joins between the separate elements remain visible, particularly on the second sheet, and are intrinsic to its history as a later composite arrangement. There is expected age-toning, occasional light spotting and marking, minor surface wear and slight handling and edge wear to the backing sheets. The original woodcut impressions remain exceptionally strong and detailed, with the extraordinarily intricate Ambrosius Holbein title border retaining excellent definition. Please examine all photographs carefully, as they form an important part of the condition description.

Author

St Cyprian of Carthage (c.200–258).

Editor: Desiderius Erasmus of Rotterdam (c.1466–1536).

Printer: Johann Froben (c.1460–1527).

Artist: Ambrosius Holbein (c.1494–c.1519), designer of the principal historiated title-page border.

Title: Opera Divi Caecilii Cypriani Episcopi Carthaginensis.

Place: Basel.

Date: 1521; colophon dated November 1521.

Edition: Second Erasmus/Froben edition, following the 1520 edition.

Format: Two later composite display sheets assembled from original woodcut and letterpress elements from the 1521 edition.

Sheet Size: Approximately 28.7 × 22.4 cm each.

Major Illustrations Represented

Ambrosius Holbein’s historiated title-page border with the Battle of the Teutoburg Forest; Virtues and Vices; the Calumny of Apelles; ornamental page border; animal-and-putti headpiece; Venus and Cupid; Johann Froben’s printer’s device.

Technique

Original woodcut and letterpress on sixteenth-century paper, subsequently excised and laid down onto later stiff paper.

Bibliographical References

VD16 C6509; Adams C3150.

Historical Importance

A particularly unusual survival from the great humanist publishing culture of Renaissance Basel. Direct comparison with the institutional 1521 copy at Emory demonstrates that these two later display sheets preserve substantially the complete suite of major independent woodcut illustrations and ornaments from the volume, including the important Ambrosius Holbein Teutoburg Forest title border and Johann Froben’s printer’s device.

Authentication

Handled, inspected and researched in-house. The mounted components are original early-sixteenth-century printed material from the 1521 Johann Froben edition and not modern reproductions.

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