Model Book of Calligraphy

This fine work originated over the course of thirty years, resulting from generations of patrons and artisans alike, it was commissioned by Holy Roman Emperor Ferdinand I (1503–64) and completed under his grandson Rudolf II (1552–1612). The Mira calligraphiae monumenta is a splendidly adorned calligraphic model book originally written by Georg Bocksay (d. 1575), the imperial court calligrapher, and which was masterfully decorated after his death by Joris Hoefnagel (1542–1601). Hoefnagel’s illuminations are rooted in the Ghent-Bruges school of the 15th and 16th centuries, but also show signs of the emerging style of Netherlandish still life painting.

30 Years of Artistic Labor

After the project was originally conceived of by Ferdinand I, work began on the Model Book in Vienna between 1561 and 1562, when Bocksay laid down his masterful calligraphy on parchment, but it was not until 1590 that Rudolf II commissioned Hoefnagel with artfully filling out the pages. Soon the manuscript was filled with plants, fruits, flowers, animals, insects, and cityscapes. Large letters were constructed with hybrid creatures and fanciful masks. Hoefnagel was arguably attempting to assert the superiority of imagery over the written word at a time when the illuminated manuscript was a fast-dying book form. His artwork is a mixture of naturalism and illusionism: highly detailed, three dimensional depictions of apples cut in two and reptiles with iridescent skin. The imperial Kunstkammer or Cabinet of Curiosities provided models of various bones, shells, fossils, and other natural specimens for the artist to study up close. Finally, Hoefnagel employed a brilliant color palette as well as gold and silver to illustrate virtually every page of the manuscript, making him one of the last of the great illuminators.

A Highly Coveted Work

After its second imperial patron and owner died in 1612, the manuscript passed through various private hands before coming into the possession of the Austrian engineer and metalsmith Albert Milde in 1887. After passing through another set of hands, it was acquired by the German art collector Friedrich Ludwig von Gans in 1916. Two more private owners had this magnificent piece of Renaissance illumination all to themselves before it was sold in 1986 to the J. Paul Getty Museum, which had been aggressively collecting illuminated manuscripts since inheriting $1.2 billion dollars in 1982. It remains an important part of the fabulous collection in Los Angeles to this day.