Albrecht Dürer, the second son of Albrecht Dürer, goldsmith, was born in the good city of Nuremberg on the 21st May, 1471.
Like Benvenuto Cellini, born some thirty years later, young Albrecht Dürer’s first experience of handiwork was in the goldsmith’s craft; but with a difference, as Benvenuto Cellini learned the goldsmith’s art against his father’s will. On St. Andrew’s Day, 1486, young Albrecht had the joy of inducing his father to apprentice him for three years to Michel Wohlgemut. This step, important in the young artist’s life, is especially important in our consideration, as, with the aid of Anton Koburger, the princely printer, who was Albrecht Dürer’s godfather, Michel Wohlgemut founded the great Nuremberg school of wood-engraving. From 1490 to 1494 Dürer was on his travels, and spent some while in Venice, where he was again in 1505 to 1507. On the 14th July, 1494, after his home-coming from his first wanderings, he was married to Agnes, the daughter of Hans Frey. For the rest, this is not the place for a history of his works. His noble life was closed on the 6th of April, 1528, and thus before he had reached the age at which many artists have done their best work; but what vast treasures he had wrought within those fifty-seven years!
The following five ex libris have been, on good authority, distinctly ascribed to Albrecht Dürer’s art: two varieties of a woodcut made for Willibald Pirckheimer, of Nuremberg, one with and one without the well-known motto “Sibi et Amicis.” This is a fine armorial plate with helmet, and arms of himself and his wife. One of three ex libris used by Johann Stab, a learned mathematician and poet, a friend of Albrecht Dürer. This is an armorial plate, and is distinguished by having a laurel wreath; but no inscription. In the Albertina Museum at Vienna is Dürer’s original drawing in violet ink for the armorial woodcut bookplate of his friend Lazarus Spengler, Recorder of Nuremberg. The armorial woodcut ex libris of Johann Tscherte, exhibiting a satyr and dogs. Tschert, in Bohemian, means a satyr or devil.
Besides the foregoing, there exist several sketches by Dürer which can hardly have been intended for anything but bookplates; and also, before passing from Dürer, the large bookplate for Dr. Hector Pömer, the last Prior of the Abbey of St. Laurence in Nuremberg, must be mentioned. In itself a beautiful work of art, it bears a date, 1525, and the wood-engraver’s initials, “R. A.” The drawing is worthy of the hand of Dürer himself, and “R. A.” probably cut the block in Dürer’s studio, from the great master’s own design. On the chief shield are the arms of the monastery, the gridiron of St. Laurence quartering the arms of Pomer. By the shield, stands St. Laurence holding in one hand a gridiron, and in the other the martyr’s palm. The motto: “To the pure all things are pure,” is given, as was Dürer’s wont, in Hebrew, Greek, and Latin. At the bottom of all is the owner’s name, “D. Hector Pomer Praepos S. Lavr.”
Before quite leaving Dürer, the earliest dated German bookplate should be named, as some think that he had a hand in it, especially as it was for a friend of his, Hieronymus Ebner von Eschenbach, born in Nuremberg on the 5th of January, 1477, educated at Ingolstadt, and afterwards in the household of the Emperor Maximilian, he became a learned lawyer and judge. He was a friend and ally of Martin Luther, and engaged in a cultivated correspondence with many of the leaders of that age.
Following the start given by Albrecht Dürer, Nuremberg continued to be the home of bookplate engraving; but very soon copper-plate engraving took the place of woodcuts.
Two of the best engravers were two brothers, Hans Sebald Beham, born in 1500, and Barthel Beham, born in 1502. Both were skilful engravers, and both were expelled their native city as heretics. The elder engraved the plate for one of Dr. Hector Pomer’s smaller ex libris, and the younger brother engraved the two varieties of bookplates for Luther’s friend, Hieronymous Baumgartner. He also engraved a plate for Melchior Pfinzing, provost of a church in Mainz.