Allegory with the Coats of Arms of the Empire and the City of Nur

Details

Bartsch 162; Meder 285, 3. Buchausgabe; Schoch/Mende/Scherbaum 273.1, 3. Buchausgabe.

Descrizione

Outstanding, clear and evenly printed lifetime impression from “Die Reformation der Stadt Nürnberg”, published in Nuremberg on 20 January 1521. It served as the title page of the 1521 and 1522 editions of the Nuremberg city charter, first printed in 1484. Two angels dressed as monks hold a crowned coat of arms showing the imperial double-headed eagle and the two coats of arms of the Free Imperial City of Nuremberg. Two allegorical female figures, interpreted as Iustitia and Liberalitas or Abundantia, sit above a band of clouds (cf. Schoch III.165.273.1). The woodblock was in the collection of the Nuremberg artist Hans Albrecht von Derschau at the beginning of the 19th century and after his death passed into the holdings of the Berlin Kupferstichkabinett via Rudolf Zacharias Becker. – The upper borderlines redrawn. A few tiny brown stains, two tiny tear-nail-sized holes in the upper edge. Verso with remnants of former mounting, otherwise in good condition.