Suzanne Karr Schmidt

GRISPOLDI Gaspar (anche Gaspare) - SG Collezione Stampe Pochissime le notizie biografiche. La sua attività è documenta a Venezia (e non solo) nel primo quarto del secolo XVII.

I think so?! Not any weirder than Lucretia getting the Doge's "horn" on the previous page. There's at least one other muse-related print by the artist, so we'll get to the bottom of this soon!
www.sgcollezionestampe.it/grispoldi-ga...

Also, since the print is signed Gaspar Grispoldi, there's a chance it's in here, once again chez Newberry: i-share-nby.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01...

I'll tell you tomorrow if it's in the 1639 book! Or lmk if you find it elsewhere first....

Collaged frontispiece.

Title page of Pietro Sardo book on Venetian architecture, from 1639.

A 17th C. Owner Did This!

Now I know where the main engraving is from: Pietro Sardi on the Dogal Horn of Military Architecture (1639), and it's at the Newberry! (Case folio U 26 .784)

And Saints Marco and Tedeo have sculpture columns by Piazza San Marco. More tomorrow after I look at the book!
3/?

I only have time occasionally, but it gives me the excuse to figure them out!

Detail of collaged Saint Lucretia from the book.

Alarmy image, probably from the British Museum or another large museum.

There's Mark's Lion again, but, who are the women in the added central cartouches? 🤔
One's a previously unknown-to-me Saint Lucretia! She hailed from Merida Spain (unlike self-sacrificing Lucretia from Classical Rome). Here she is in a reversed copy of a 17th c. Martinus van den Enden engraving.
2/?

Frontispiece with SS. Mark (with his lion!) and Theodore holding a hat over an added St Lucretia, which is above ak 'portrait of the author at age 79.'

Frieze of Muses surrounding a pasted in saint, name undecipherable ..

Collage Craze

Here are the end pages of the 1553 Venetian book from yesterday, at the Newberry. None of these composite images seem original to the book, which is all woodcuts, not engravings. These aren't just single engraving, but very layered, with bonus saints in the middle.
#ThingsInBooks
1/?

You tell me!

Detail of added fleur de lis.

Milan with the fleur de lis.

Milan with the lion.

Finally, Back To Milan!

I didn't notice any snide additions to Venice, but there IS a reuse of the Milan woodblock! That little, possibly ducal Valois, fleur-de-lis on the flag is new, and they didn't add the lion.

Arrivederci! Tomorrow let's look at this book's crazily collaged pastedowns!
9/9

Flag with extra tower.

Annotated woodcut view of Württemberg.

Fan of Baden Württemberg?

There was an early 15th c. Milanese noblewoman, Antonia Visconti, who was also a countess of Württemberg, but I doubt there was any relationship here... Nice auxiliary tower and flag, though!
8/?

Yes, but this is definitely more specific...

Woodcut of destruction of Tripoli.

Sure Looks Like Tripoli-Epidaurus-Thebes to Me!

These three share the same woodblock, but the doodler only intervened once, in 1291, when Muslim forces overran Tripoli (in current Lebanon). Reusing city views was common in chronicles from 1493 on, especially when readers couldn't visit.
7/?

Tripoli under attack with more buildings on right in browned ink.

Full page of Tripoli.

More Destruction?

Tripoli this time. Haven't I seen that woodcut somewhere before? 🤔
6/?

Top left corner of Jerusalem woodcut with two towers added.

Jerusalem, with some damage at right, and doodles on the left.

Rebuilding?

The other additions are to well known cities like Jerusalem, which the doodler appears to have found too sparsely built up even as it was being broken down at the lower right. There are also decorations throughout.
5/?

After a fashion! Especially if, as I have just learned, Milan stole an iron lion statue from Venice that was prominently displayed near this gate!

Detail of towers with added flags and a crescent.

City of Edesta woodcut, with added shading and flags on top.

Full page showing Edesta (Edessa), around 1140?

Crescent Moon of Edessa

Here the reader added two flags and a crescent moon to the upper turrets, as well as decorative shading throughout this ancient Mesopotamian city, likely in reference to its 1144 siege and overthrow by the Turkic Imad al-Din Zengi and to later Ottoman control.
4/?

Tower filled in, falling off a turret.

City of Capua under various sieges.

Spartacus?!

This book isn't ALL Milan-Venice rivalry... There are also extra doodles on historical civic destruction that wasn't depicted as quite destructive enough! Here's the ancient city of Capua, where the gladiator Spartacus trained, which later fell to the Romans, Vandals, Muslims, etc.
3/?

This book dates to 1553, so sadly probably not! So far, Katharina Ost's suggestion 👇 seems to make the most sense, and fits my initial sense that there was some performative territorial marking involved, if possibly by someone from Milan, not Venice!
bsky.app/profile/kath...

Intriguing! I was expecting the owner to be Venetian, given the publication location and the ongoing Milan-Venice rivalry...

So maybe it's not a passive aggressive would-be territorial grab after all? 🤔

No other annotations seem as specific, but they're nifty in other ways, will post more above!

Title page with woodcut border of classical dudes.

Colophon with the real date, 1553.

City Views and Classical Dudes

Here's the #NewberryLibrary book, a chronicle by a Father Jacopo Phillipo, published in 1553 Venice: i-share-nby.primo.exlibrisgroup.com/permalink/01...
2/?

There is such a range of lion-ness to be had! This 16th c. one is definitely Venetian though...

I did wonder if it was a territorial thing, aka All Your Milan Is Belong to Venice...
I'm mostly finding up to mid 15th c. incidents between the territories, not any c. 1553 when this book was published... But old habits and animosities die hard!

Woodcut detail of gate to Milan, with browned doodle of a winged lion over the arch.

Wider image of lion on gate.

Woodcut of the city of Milan, with a lion drawn in over the gate.

What's the Lion of St. Mark doing in MILAN?!

Someone doodled the famous winged feline symbol of Venice onto Milan, and I want to know why! There are pen and ink additions throughout the city woodcuts as well as some wacky collage elements...
#Caturday #NotALion
#NewberryLibrary
#marginalia
1/?

Our copy of this fine publication appeared while I was out of the house, and was strategically left open to this page in a dim spot. Almost fell for it!! 🦐

Coffee and honey cake.

😋

Black goat in a shield woodcut, upright and grinning at you. Big initial D on the right.

Wouldst Thou Like to Live Deliciously?*

*Having a tough time deciding on where to go get coffee this morning! #NewberryLibrary (Wing ZP538 .F928)

Not. The. Flannel. Shirt.

Thank you!! We have plenty of Skiapodi in our collection, so this is a must for the Newberry!

Maybe? Does his book have hidden tabs? If so, I want one!

Or is that Snaggle-Toothed Charmer? 💀