V. Changing the concept of illustration

Pseudo-Épiphane. Physiologos, Anvers: Christophe Plantin, 1588. In-8.

Humanist and secretary to Pope Sixtus V, Gonzalo Ponce de Léon composed his own version of the famous Greek bestiary attributed to the Cypriot Bishop Epiphanius (d. 402) as an illuminated manuscript in Greek and Latin (1585). A printed edition was published in Rome in 1587, illustrated with 25 woodcuts. The delivery of a copy to Christophe Plantin seems to have sparked its republication.

   Plantin placed the two versions of each text no longer in succession but on facing pages. He had the wood blocks from the Roman edition reproduced as etchings. Not signed, they are the work of Pieter van der Borcht, draughtsman and engraver of wood blocks and metal plates, active first in Malines and later in refuge in Antwerp, where Plantin offered him lodging, beginning in 1572. Van der Borcht was skilled in etching, a technique of engraving on copper that was easier to master and faster to execute than burin.

   He regularly produced massive numbers of etchings for the Plantin firm, especially in the 1580s. Plantin, who had returned to Antwerp in 1585 after two years spent in Leiden as university printer, wished to maintain a high-quality product, illustrated to high standards for a declining market, even within the complicated context of the Eighty Years’ War.

Mazarine: 8° 34070