Beschreibung:

DILICH, Wilhelm]. De Electoribus Saxonicis Sacri Romani Imperi Archimarschallis libri tres conscripti . [Marburg? ca. 1593] AUTOGRAPH MANUSCRIPT ON PAPER. Small 2° (290 x 190 mm.), 102 leaves, including final blank, watermark: Briquet Aigle 155 (Babenhagen/Eltville 1593). Collation: 1 2 + 1 , 2 6 , 3 4 , 5 6 , 6 6 , 7 4 , 8 6 , 9 1 0 + 1 , 10 6 , 11 1 0 , 12 6 , 13 8 + 1 , 14 4 , 15 8 , 16 6 + 1 . [16]+180 pp. 32/35 lines and headline, written area approx. 145 x 95 mm., written in brown ink in a fine humanistic italic hand. (Occasional light marginal foxing.) 29 FULL-PAGE PEN-AND-INK DRAWINGS, i.e. 23 portraits and 6 armorials. Contemporary vellum over pasteboard, tooled in gilt (now turned black), centre-piece with raised strapwork ornament incorporating the arms of Saxony (upper cover) and Brandenburg (lower cover), floral roll border and strapwork cornerpieces, edges gilt (ties lacking), in velvet-lined half morocco case. PROVENANCE: 18th-century stamp of the Majorats Bibliothek (i.e. the entailed fideis library) zu Pitschen (in Silesia, today Byczyna, Poland). Wilhelm Dilich know also as Dilich-Schäffer (1571-1650), the chronicler, studied at Wittenberg and later at Marburg. In 1592 he was appointed official draughtsman to the court of Landgraf Moritz of Hessen. In 1590 he had already written a chronicle of the Electors of Saxony, with the same title as above, but without illustrations, which he presented to Landgraf Moritz. This is now in the Royal Library at Dresden (MS Q141). The present work is an unknown later illustrated version of this, perhaps executed for publication. Dilich became one of the most accomplished illustrators of the topography and history of Hessia and Saxony, travelling throughout the country and writing his own texts and commentaries. In 1624 he became official cartographer, architect and topographical artist to the Duke of Saxony. Many of his topographical and historical drawings were engraved and published, some at his own expense (list in Thieme-Becker), of which the Hessische Chronica is the most famous. Although the present manuscript is anonymous and only signed 'D' at the end of the preface, it is undoubtedly in the same fine calligraphic hand as his other known autographs (cf. W. Schade, Dresdener Zeichnungen 1969, p. 32, and other literature below). The 23 pen-and-ink portraits are of the finest quality and some of the later portraits are based on originals by Cranach the elder and the younger, and Melchior Lorichs, to which Dilich added dramatic expression and background. Even the putti supporting the six armorials are unusually inventive. THE SUBJECTS OF THE DRAWINGS ARE: page 15. Johann Friedrich I der Grossmütige (1503-54). The city of Trier in the background, a procession passing through the streets. page 41. A putto holding the armorial of Hermann von Lüneberg. page 43. Hermann Billung (d. 973), with spear and sword, seated at a table. page 47. Benno (d. 1007) standing at a balustrade above a river. page 51. Bernhard I (d. 1011) standing by a window. A landscape of castles outside. page 57. Orthulf (d. 1070) standing under a tree. Soldiers and a burning castle in the background. page 61. Magnus (d. 1106) fashionably dressed, plumed hat, a city in the background. page 69. Lothar von Supplinburg (later Emperor Lothar III, d. 1125), as a bearded old man standing at a balustrade. page 73. Putto holding the armorial of Lothar. page 81. Heinrich der Stolze (d. 1139), bearded in profile, a renaissance castle at back. page 85. Putto holding the armorial of Heinrich. page 97. Heinrich der Löwe (Henry the Lion, d. 1195), astride a prancing horse. page 107. Bernhard II (d. 1212), a young man leaning on his sword. page 109. Putto holding armorial of Bernhard II. page 115. Albert I (d. 1263) seated at a table in his tent, a busy river landscape at back. page 119. Albert II (d. 1312) seated in his tent in luxurious dress. page 123. Rudolph I (d. 1347) wearing armour. page 125. Armorial of R