Alchemy discussion forum > Request for information > Help required > 'Green Man' image in Fama Fraternitatis & della Porta
Alchemy discussion forum > Request for information > Help required > 'Green Man' image in Fama Fraternitatis & della Porta |
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Paul Ferguson Member 
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The attached images are found in a) the 1615 Cassel edition of the Fama Fraternitatis and b) the 1591 Johannes Wolfius edition of Giambattista della Porta's De furtivis Literarum Notis. Can anyone shed any light on these images? They seem to be part of the 'Green Man' tradition, but note the rings on the moustache. Attached Image (viewed 1138 times): |
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Paul Ferguson Member
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Image from the Wolfius. Attached Image (viewed 1101 times): |
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Rafal T. Prinke Member 
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I am greatly interested in this and another ornament, both of which are often found in the same books. They also appear in the first edition (1604) of Sendivogius, the one on the title page is attached here. I do not think it has any particular "hidden meaning" -- both look like plain ornaments. My interest in them is to identify the printer of the Sendivogius book which is traditionally said to have been published in Prague but neither the place nor the printer is named in the book itself. I was quite excited when I discovered that the Le Preux family in Geneve and Losanne used the same image on the title pages of many (but not all) books published by them. But then I discovered the same in other prints so my temporary conclusion is that it was not a printer signet but rather ornament being part of a font set. Thus the solution should be sought among font-cutters (which I never pesued). Obviously, font material may have been sold or inherited so it will not be easy to trace. Attached Image (viewed 954 times): |
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Rafal T. Prinke Member
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And here is the "Green man" ornament which appears inside the same first edition of Sendivogius, just filling up empty space between chapters. Attached Image (viewed 1026 times): |
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Rafal T. Prinke Member
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And also a Jean Le Preux publication with the "Green Man" (but this is not typical, he and Franciscus most often used the other image on the title page). Attached Image (viewed 936 times): |
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Rafal T. Prinke Member
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Typical use is this book by Theodore Beze. Interesingly, the same Le Preux published Bernard Penot's _De denari_ -- but without the ornaments in question. Attached Image (viewed 1024 times): |
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Paul Ferguson Member
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Hi Rafal, Very interesting - thanks. So we have the 'Green Man' in the following books in chronological order: 1591 - DE FURTIVIS LITERARUM NOTIS - Della Porta - Johannes Wolfius - London 1599 - TRAITE DE L'EGLISE - De Mornay - Jean Le Preux - Geneva 1604 - DE LAPIDE PHILOSOPHORUM TRACTATUS DUODECIM - Sendivogius - ? - Prague(?) 1615 [sic] - FAMA FRATERNITATIS - Anon. - Wilhelm Wessell - Cassel Sorry to be a bore, but do you know of any other instances of this emblem in any other books of this period? Last edited on Mon Apr 22nd, 2013 09:47 pm by Paul Ferguson |
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Rafal T. Prinke Member
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Hi Paul, Here is another one -- a political pamphlet with no author or printer. Attached Image (viewed 941 times): |
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Paul Ferguson Member
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Thanks. According to David Gentleman (Design in Miniature, p. 28) the Green Man is found as a printer's device in Augsburg as early as 1477, but he does not specify the book. Ronald Millar founded the Company of the Green Man to study this image. I will contact them to see if they can shed any light: http://freespace.virgin.net/polter.geist/greenman.htm |
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Rafal T. Prinke Member
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Very interesting! I have checked Carlos Gilly's _Cimelia_ and there are three Rosicrucian replies which have the same ornament on the title pages. Two are without place or printer's name, and one published by Palthenius in Frankfurt. |
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Paul Ferguson Member
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Rafal T. Prinke wrote:Very interesting! I have checked Carlos Gilly's _Cimelia_ and there are three Rosicrucian replies which have the same ornament on the title pages. Two are without place or printer's name, and one published by Palthenius in Frankfurt. Yes, here's the 1612 Haselmayr (scroll down): http://tinyurl.com/acy3xmv |
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Paul Ferguson Member
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Apparently Schramm's 23-volume "Der Bilderschmuck der Frühdrucke" is the standard reference for the early German woodcuts to be found in books. The individual volumes actually seem quite affordable in paperback: http://www.abebooks.fr/search/sortby/3/an/Schramm+/tn/+Bilderschmuck I also found a Dutch theological Green Man device here: http://www.forumrarebooks.com/Pamphlet-Dutch-Voorlooper-over-adriani-smoutii.html |
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Paul Ferguson Member
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Paul Ferguson wrote:Thanks. The image will be in the next e-newsletter of the Company of the Green Man (June) to see if any of their 400 members can shed any light on it. The Company's Photostream is here: http://www.flickr.com/photos/thecompanyofthegreenman |
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Paul Ferguson Member
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I can't look at this title-page from the 1575 edition of Diophantus of Alexandria without feeling there are certain resonances with the two images from the Sendivogius. Attached Image (viewed 1674 times): |
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Paul Ferguson Member
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Here is the full page. Attached Image (viewed 1172 times): |
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Rafal T. Prinke Member
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I have just found the same graphics in Ashmole's Theatrum chemicum Britannicum on p. 256 and 373. The typeface seems definitely different from other examples listed above so it seems such graphics were circulated separately among printers. Last edited on Sat Jul 20th, 2013 02:22 pm by Rafal T. Prinke |
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Paul Ferguson Member
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Rafal T. Prinke wrote:I have just found the same graphics in Ashmole's Theatrum chemicum Britannicum on p. 256 and 373. The typeface seems definitely different from other examples listed above so it seems such graphics were circulated separately among printers. Well spotted, but... "Even as early as incunabula decorative printer's devices occur, which were intended to fulfil a sort of trademark function as proof of authorship, copyright and quality seal..." http://www.kettererkunst.com/dict/title-page-printers-device-colophon-publishers-device-explicit-incipit-binders-signet.shtml This would suggest that the devices were unique to the printer and that each printer would have their own green man carved or engraved for their exclusive use, so it should be possible to trace the publisher of the Sendivogius if we can find other examples of the same design. The Company of the Green Man have kindly put my more general enquiry on their blog: http://thecompanyofthegreenman.wordpress.com/ |
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Laura OKeefe Member
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I have just now found both variants of this graphic used in various places in Jeronimo Osorio's five-volume work, Concionum Ioannis Osorii Societatis Iesu, printed by Jan van Keerberghen in Antwerp in 1597. Keerberghen was using them as tailpieces. Last edited on Fri Jul 26th, 2013 07:21 pm by Laura OKeefe |
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Rafal T. Prinke Member
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Thank you Laura! So it seems they are almost everywhere and, as Paul suggested, very detailed inspection of individual versions would be needed. Still, it is fascinating how this apparently meaningless ornament spread so widely! |
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Paul Ferguson Member
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Rafal T. Prinke wrote:Thank you Laura! So it seems they are almost everywhere and, as Paul suggested, very detailed inspection of individual versions would be needed. Still, it is fascinating how this apparently meaningless ornament spread so widely! This book may shed some light: http://tinyurl.com/ol49gp5 |
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Paul Ferguson Member
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Rafal T. Prinke wrote:Thank you Laura! So it seems they are almost everywhere and, as Paul suggested, very detailed inspection of individual versions would be needed. Still, it is fascinating how this apparently meaningless ornament spread so widely! Also to be found throughout Paracelsus's De Vita Longa: http://books.google.fr/books?id=SQo8AAAAcAAJ&printsec=frontcover&hl=fr&source=gbs_ge_summary_r&cad=0#v=onepage&q&f=false |
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Laura OKeefe Member
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At Paul Ferguson's request, I'm attaching an image from another Green Man "sighting." This one appears as the title page vignette to Walter Montagu's Miscellanea Spiritualia, printed in London in 1648 for W. Lee, D. Pakeman, and G. Bedell. Sorry, I was unable to reproduce our library's scan of the entire title page as the file size is too big. Attached Image (viewed 714 times): |
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Laura OKeefe Member
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More "little Green Men"! This one appears as a tailpiece on p. [16] (first group) of v. 1 of the work I mentioned here on July 26, Osorio's Concionum Ioannis Osorii Societatis Iesu, printed in Antwerp in 1597 by Jan van Keerberghen. Attached Image (viewed 777 times): Last edited on Mon Aug 12th, 2013 05:37 pm by Laura OKeefe |
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Laura OKeefe Member
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And here's our mustache-ringed friend, also as a tailpiece, on p. [15] (first group) of vol. 3 of the same work by Osorio. If anyone would like to see the bibliographic record for it, it's: http://library.nysoclib.org/record=b1260541 Attached Image (viewed 723 times): |
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Laura OKeefe Member
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And by request, two more, both from works of Tycho Brahe. This one appears on p. 309 of his Epistolarum Astronomicarum Libri, originally printed in 1596 at Brahe's private press in Uraniborg, and reprinted by Gottfried Tampach of Frankfurt in 1610. Attached Image (viewed 671 times): |
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Laura OKeefe Member
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This figure is in Brahe's De Mundi Aethereirecentioribus Phaenomenis, first printed in Uraniborg in 1588, in Prague (in 1603?), and by Tampach in Frankfurt in 1610. It's on page [9] (first group; leaf **). As you can see, in this example there are leaves of foliage instead of mustache rings, which supports the theory that this type ornament is an aspect of Green Man imagery--though as I examine it in this enlarged version, it looks more like the face of an animal: teeth bared, whisker pads, lines apparently depicting fur below the eyes. Attached Image (viewed 792 times): |
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Paul Ferguson Member
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Courtesy of Daniel Ronnstam, some more Green Man vignettes, with Shakespearean overtones this time. Comments? Attached Image (viewed 589 times): |
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Paul Ferguson Member
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Another... Attached Image (viewed 645 times): |
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Paul Ferguson Member
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And another... Attached Image (viewed 698 times): |
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Paul Ferguson Member
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Daniel Ronnstam and Paul Lappin have now set up an Internet project to map all the occurrences of the "moustachioed" Green Man printer's ornament in published books. Explanation here: http://oakislandproject.com/wp/a/the-trail-of-the-green-man-investigation Map here: https://mapsengine.google.com/map/u/0/edit?mid=zZI9LTyGoino.kav10X6-wwsU Spreadsheet here: https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1ddDOWtK-Njy9mwPFcuoa7N_XwXbq1HCkhuD59sfOqX4/edit#gid=0 Facebook page here: https://www.facebook.com/groups/243831572487291/ There is also an Imgur account for the image scans (see Facebook page for link). If you would like to contribute or get involved then please contact them via the Facebook page above or direct at info@oakislandproject.com They are also seeking a (volunteer!) moderator for the project to input data, etc. Please pass this message on to anyone who might be interested in participating in this project. Thank you. Last edited on Thu Apr 24th, 2014 09:18 pm by Paul Ferguson |
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Paul Ferguson Member
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Rafal T. Prinke wrote:Very interesting! I have checked Carlos Gilly's _Cimelia_ and there are three Rosicrucian replies which have the same ornament on the title pages. Two are without place or printer's name, and one published by Palthenius in Frankfurt. Any chance you could put scans or photos of these three images on here Rafał? |
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