Jodocus Hondius's Theatrum artis scribendi examined anew

Abstract

After examining thirty-one copies of Jodocus Hondius's Theatrum artis scribendi the author has concluded that there are two distinct editions of the book and in addition a number of indeterminate issues. The first editionwas published in Amsterdam in 1594 by Hondius himself (and sold by, inter alios, the Leiden Officina Plantiniana). It consists of a copper-engraved title page, four pages of letterpress preliminaries, and 42 copper-engraved exemplars showing specimens of various scripts (twenty-three gothic hands, seventeen humanistic, one Greek and one Hebrew) by eleven writing-masters (including Hondius himself). Of these exemplars twenty-seven have been engraved within an ornamental cartouche. The other fifteen have been printed from smaller plates within two different separately printed cartouches; one of these is copper-engraved and used to enclose three exemplars, the other is woodcut and is used for twelve exemplars. Some time after I594 the plates for the book were acquired by the Amsterdam publisher/bookseller/printer Cornelis Claesz, who issued copies with all the plates of the first edition in the same order, but without the letterpress preliminaries. In I6I4 Hondius's son-in-law, Johannes Janssonius, published an edition with his imprint newly engraved on the title page. Here, too, the order of the exemplars is identical to that in the first edition. However, the two separately printed cartouches used in the first edition (one copper-engraved, one woodcut) were apparently no longer available; they have been replaced by a copper-engraved cartouche obviously obtained by cutting or sawing the 'Alphabetum Hebraicum' exemplar out of its original plate. Seven copies of the Janssonius edition have been traced in public collections. Research into the paper of the surviving copies might reveal whether issues were brought out after the Janssonius edition - containing a title-plate from which the Janssonius imprint has been removed. Hondius's life, education and career in London are briefly touched upon, as well as the incentives that made him publish a book like the Theatrum. Never before had a compilation like this been published, containing work from other writing-masters from various countries. Afterwards Hondius's concept was put into practice only sporadically: once in the seventeenth century in the Dutch Republic, and a few times in the following century in England and Spain. The contributing writing-masters and Hondius's reasons for choosing them are discussed, as well as the various cartouches, the contents of the preliminaries, and the symbolic significance of the title plate. The article concludes with a plate-by-plate description of the first edition.