to what today we would call a autograph book?
between 1596 and 1647, art dealer and
diplomat Philipp Hainhofer traveled around Europe amassing an
incredibly rich collection of signatures in the “Große Stammbuch,” or
“Album Amicorum.”
Hainhofer’s
register is replete with the marks of Cosimo II de’ Medici, Holy Roman Emperor
Rudolf II, and Christian IV of Denmark and Norway, to name a few. Covered in
red velvet, “Album Amicorum” was part of a larger trend to record family,
friends, and acquaintances that began in the 16th Century,the elaborateness of
the illustrations directly corresponds to the signatory’s status and rank in
society, above Holy Roman Emperor Rudolf II,
above left:
August II of Braunschweig-Lüneburg, 1613, above right: Ursula Duchess of Württemberg, 1614, Hainhofer
compiled the signatures during the course of 50 years, beginning when he was a
college student. As he gained religious figures and royalty as clients, he’d
ask them to sign his book and commissioned about 100 detailed illustrations to
sit alongside,
also featured in the work were a number of Latin poems like the one above,
last week The Herzog
August Bibliothek purchased the centuries-old tome—which was thought
to be lost until it emerged in a London auction in 1931—for about $3.1 million, it is the library’s second attempt to acquire the historic book after August the
Younger of Braunschweig-Lünebur, who was Hainhofer’s friend, failed to buy for
the Wolfenbüttel, Germany-based institution in 1648, what story's this book could tell!
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