Protestant Judith: Female Images on the Reformation Book Bindings of the 16th century from the Holdings of the Russian State Library

Abstract

The article examines the features of the Reformation book bindings of the 16th century, in particular, the appearance of cliches in the decor of binding, used for stamping, with the new frequently used iconographic subjects with female images of Judith, Jael, Esther, Lucretia, the allegory of Righteousness, and others, as well as captions. For the first time, there are described the Reformation subjects and captions on the cliché bindings of the books, kept as part of the displaced cultural valuables in the Russian State Library (RSL). The article serves to disclose the RSL collections and to introduce into scientific circulation the new scientific material on the design of German Renaissance covers of the Reformation era. For the first time, the author presents the deciphering of the iconography of subjects and captions accompanying these images, and references to the Sacred texts, which are absent, either totally or partially, on these bindings. Captions to the images are presented in the original language with the translation into Russian. Images on the bindings are analysed from the point of view of confessional affiliation of their owners. The article notes that biblical dramas appeared in the theatre of the 16th century. Martin Luther wrote about it in the Preface to the Books of Old Testament in the first edition of the Bible in German in the translation of Luther, published by Hans Lufft in1534 inWittenberg. In the Preface to the Books of Judith and Tobit, Luther formulated the concept of the ancient Judaic drama, setting the task to revive the tradition of sacred didactic dramaturgy. Great success enjoyed the drama “Judith” by Sixt Birck, German playwright of the age of Reformation. The author particularly strengthens the didactic tasks of Protestant texts, interpreted as moral teaching and preaching. The article may be of interest to art historians, historians of book and binding, as well as museum workers.