FIGURATIVE ALPHABETS
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This figurative alphabet is from a late 14th century pattern book for illustrators. It was a creation of the architect Giovannino de'Grassi. Click on the images below for larger pictures.
A similar figurative alphabet was engraved by the Master E.S. around 1465. Later owners of some of the prints misidentified them as the work of Martin Schongauer and added his M + S monogram to them.
A German article, Kupferstichalphabet des Meisters E.S. nueste illustrierte welt-chronik für 1499 by Baurat Wilhelm Bühler, published in Studien zur Deutschen Kunstgeschichte in 1934, contains the complete set of prints, and identifies certain elements of each letterform as things whose names begin with that letter:
Angriff, Abwehr, Lehrs
Beize, Lehrs
Coronierung d. Cäcilia
Joannes d. Däufer (Täufer), Donator
Eintracht
Folgsam
Gauch, Gol
Haushalt
Jagd
Köhler, Kreigswerber
Linkshänder
Mädchenheim
Nötigung, Neckerei
Obmacht, Ohnmacht
Papagei
Habsburg in der Quere zur Schweiz
Rana (Frosch), Ratte
Schlecken
Trachen (Drachen)
(St. Christoph) Ufer, Vogel, Wasser
Xylophon (Handglocken)
St. Yürgen mit Angel
Züngeln
