The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
The Digital Walters is a branch of The Walters Art Museum Manuscripts Department.
This friendship book was bound in 1615 for Joannes Carolus Erlenwein (Hans Carl Erlenwein), a student in the seminary at Fulda. The value of this book lies not only in the heraldry of fifty-five aristocratic German families at the time, but from the printed book contained within it as well: the complete first (and only) edition of Isaac Hillaire's Speculum Heroicum, including half-page engravings by Utrecht artist Crispin de Passe the Elder. The personal inscriptions in the book, the majority from his classmates at Fulda, date from 1615 to 1619, with several additional hands visible throughout. One hand has written the family names over the coats of arms on most of the personal messages from 1615; a later hand (possibly from the Erlenwein family) has added notes to many pages on the dates of births, deaths, marriages, and offices held; an even later hand created an almost complete index of the family names in the book on the last pages, and is possibly the same hand that added a second set of notations on important dates to several pages. It should be noted that the family names are spelled up to three or four different ways in the course of the friendship book; the primary spelling followed here is taken from the personal inscriptions.
Cataloger: Herbert, Lynley
Cataloger: Joyal, Stephanie
Cataloger: Noel, William
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Copy editor: Joyal, Stephanie
Contributor: Bockrath, Diane
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Noel, William
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Toth, Michael B.
Conservator: Evers, Jennifer
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
Kaiserwerth and Fulda, Germany
Binding dated 1615 CE
book
Original Binding
Seventeenth-century binding, vellum over paste-board, with ornaments and stamps in black; upper cover inscribed "Ioannes Carolus Erlenwein, Caesaris Insulanus, 1615;" spine decorated with stamped hearts with flowers springing from them; yap fore-edges with slots for now missing silk ties; edges of pages marbled
The primary language in this manuscript is Latin. The secondary languages of this manuscript are French, German.
Created as friendship book for Ioannes Carolus Erlenwein of Kaiserwerth, Germany, in 1615 for his time spent at the Fulda Seminary; inscribed and decorated by his classmates, whose names are listed in the index on the last page
Owned by Erlenwein family through at least 1769, when the birth of "Joh. Math. Erlenwein" was recorded as the last in a list of descendants on page 1
Erasmushaus Antiquriatt, Basel, Switzerland, until March 2011
Maggs Bros., Berkeley Square, London, 2011
Museum purchase with funds provided by the Rare Book and Manuscript Acquisition Fund and the W. Alton Jones Foundation Acquisition Fund, 2012
Kaiserwerth and Fulda, Germany
Binding dated 1615 CE
book
The primary language in this manuscript is Latin. The secondary languages of this manuscript are French, German.
Created as friendship book for Ioannes Carolus Erlenwein of Kaiserwerth, Germany, in 1615 for his time spent at the Fulda Seminary; inscribed and decorated by his classmates, whose names are listed in the index on the last page
Owned by Erlenwein family through at least 1769, when the birth of "Joh. Math. Erlenwein" was recorded as the last in a list of descendants on page 1
Erasmushaus Antiquriatt, Basel, Switzerland, until March 2011
Maggs Bros., Berkeley Square, London, 2011
Museum purchase with funds provided by the Rare Book and Manuscript Acquisition Fund and the W. Alton Jones Foundation Acquisition Fund, 2012
This friendship book was bound in 1615 for Joannes Carolus Erlenwein (Hans Carl Erlenwein), a student in the seminary at Fulda. The value of this book lies not only in the heraldry of fifty-five aristocratic German families at the time, but from the printed book contained within it as well: the complete first (and only) edition of Isaac Hillaire's Speculum Heroicum, including half-page engravings by Utrecht artist Crispin de Passe the Elder. The personal inscriptions in the book, the majority from his classmates at Fulda, date from 1615 to 1619, with several additional hands visible throughout. One hand has written the family names over the coats of arms on most of the personal messages from 1615; a later hand (possibly from the Erlenwein family) has added notes to many pages on the dates of births, deaths, marriages, and offices held; an even later hand created an almost complete index of the family names in the book on the last pages, and is possibly the same hand that added a second set of notations on important dates to several pages. It should be noted that the family names are spelled up to three or four different ways in the course of the friendship book; the primary spelling followed here is taken from the personal inscriptions.
Cataloger: Herbert, Lynley
Cataloger: Joyal, Stephanie
Cataloger: Noel, William
Editor: Herbert, Lynley
Copy editor: Joyal, Stephanie
Contributor: Bockrath, Diane
Contributor: Emery, Doug
Contributor: Noel, William
Contributor: Tabritha, Ariel
Contributor: Toth, Michael B.
Conservator: Evers, Jennifer
Conservator: Quandt, Abigail
These are pages that we pulled aside that disrupted the flow of the manuscript reader. These may be bindings, inserts, bookmarks, and various other oddities.
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