REINHARD BECK.
| WOLFGANG KÖPFEL. |
Although Reinhard, or Renatus, Beck was only in business for about eleven years, 1511–1522, he had several Marks, which differed chiefly in their extraneous ornament, as will be seen from the accompanying examples. Two books, sine nota, which Mr. Quaritch assigns to Beck’s press, of the date 1490, are remarkable for the large number of woodcuts which they contain, relating principally to plants, animals, gardening operations, rural architecture, so that the Mark of “ein wilder Mann” is so far in keeping with the nature of his publications. Fourteen or fifteen Marks, several of which are only variations of one type, have been identified as having been used by Wolfgang Köpfel (whose surname sometimes appears in its Greek translation of Cephalæus) between 1522 and 1554: the most remarkable, of which we give a reproduction, appears to have been used very rarely, notably in “Zehn Sermones” of Luther, 1523; a much commoner type is the smaller example, which appeared in various books issued between 1526–1554. Georg Ullricher von Andlau, 1529–36, confined himself to one type (see [p. 1]), that of the Cornucopia or Horn of Plenty, of which there are seven variants. The more elaborate of the two Marks of Matthias Biener, or Apiarius, 1533–36, appears in Oecolampadius’ “Commentarius” on the Prophet Ezekiel, 1534, and is an evident pun on the printer’s surname. Several of the dozen Marks used by Craft Müller, or Crato Mylius, 1536–62, are exceedingly bold and picturesque, although, with the exception of the Ceres, they are all variants of the leonine type: the Ceres was apparently used only in his first book, “Auslegung oder Postilla des heil. Zmaragdi,” 1536.
WOLFGANG KÖPFEL.
CRAFT MÜLLER (CRATO MYLIUS).