Conditions Governing Use

The Library believes that all or nearly all material in this collection is likely to be in the public domain, free of copyright restrictions. Visit our Permissions and Publishing page for more information about use of Special Collections materials. The library can provide copyright information upon request, but users are responsible for making their own determination about lawful use of collections materials.

Conditions Governing Access

This collection is open for research.

Preferred Citation

MSS 16913, John Gottfried Watenbach calligraphy book, Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia.

Immediate Source of Acquisition

This collection was purchased from Musinsky Rare Books by the Small Special Collections Library, University of Virginia on May 4, 2023.

Content Description

This collection contains an oblong folio book (197 X 328 mm) of calligraphic samples created by Johann Gottfried Watenbach, of whom we have no information. He was German or Austrian and possibly a student at the time of the creation of the work. The book contains sixty-five unnumbered leaves, written on rectos only, in pen and ink, pencil, watercolor, and gouache, containing a title leaf, with the author's name and colored figures. It is bound in 18th-century half blind-ruled calf and marbled paper over boards, plain pastedown endpapers. There is a watermark of a key within a crowned shield flanked by the letters H.B.

The book begins with the scribe's name, "Johann Gottfried Watenbach," which includes gouache and watercolor figures, an angel, and smaller human figures. Then follows seven leaves dedicated to alphabet sampling, followed by forty-nine pages of highly ornamented calligraphic Biblical quotations or prayers in German, of which thirty-six leaves have illustrations colored in watercolor or gouache, thirteen are uncolored or with only touches of color, and eight leaves have drawings (some unfinished) and no text. Prophets, saints, and angels are depicted alongside German captioning, while hunters, traders, musicians, preachers, and soldiers are shown within the city and countryside, engaged with everyday life. Several ancient philosophers, exotic birds, and plants are included in the young student's drawings. Quotations are presented in the Latin script style, translated to German from the Lutheran Bible. Then follows forty-seven mostly blank leaves, two with unfinished pencil drawings, and ending with nine pages of manuscript in Dutch written in a different 18th-century hand, written sometime after 1772.

Subjects and Indexing Terms

• Calligraphy
• Musinsky Rare Books
• Teenagers