1548 Gypsies, Frederick III, Vogtherr, Holbein, folio leaf with 2 woodcuts

“Zigeuner ist eine stigmatisierende oder romantisierende Fremdbezeichnung für unterschiedliche sozio-kulturelle, häufig nichtsesshafte europäische Minderheiten (Jenische, Fahrende, Heimatlose). In Quellen des 15. Jahrhunderts taucht der Begriff erstmals zur Bezeichnung von Pilgerreisenden auf, die angeblich aus Ägypten stammten. Ab dem 16. Jahrhundert benutzten die Obrigkeiten den Begriff zur Bezeichnung von Landstreichern oder Vagabunden (Randgruppen). In frühneuzeitlichen Quellen der Schweiz wurden die sogenannten Zigeuner anders als die einheimischen Bettler auch als heyden-volck oder heyden-gesind bezeichnet.” HLS, Bernhard C. Schär

Original woodcut leaf from the first issue of Stumpf’s famed Swiss Chronicle of 1548

Large folio leaf.

36 x 22.5cm

Fine detailed woodcut by Heinrich Vogtherr depicting Gypsies first entering Switzerland in 1418.

Verso with an additional woodcut by Hans Holbein of Frederick III (German: Friedrich III, 21 September 1415 – 19 August 1493), Holy Roman Emperor from 1452 until his death. He was the fourth king and first emperor of the House of Habsburg. He was the penultimate emperor to be crowned by the pope, and the last to be crowned in Rome.

Heinrich Vogtherr (the Elder) (1490 in Dillingen an der Donau – 1556 in Vienna) was an artist, printer, poet and medical author of the Reformation period. 

He has worked for almost all of the Strasbourg printers. In 1536 he founded his own printer business in which he printed only his own works, such as "Christian Losbuch", two "Anatomies", and the immensely popular, several times reprinted "Art Booklet", a type specimen book for artisans. Starting in 1538, he began lived for a while in Basel. His family in Strasbourg he would only sporadically see (as of 1542), as if he was forced, for financial reasons, to travel around all the time. So he went to Speyer, Basel, back to Strasbourg, several times to Augsburg and finally to Zurich, where he lived from 1544 to 1546 at Christoph Froschauer's premier printing workshop. For whose workshop he created in this relatively short period, a surprisingly comprehensive and quality- full work, including more than 400 woodcuts for the "Swiss chronicle" (1547/48) by Johannes Stumpf. Vogtherr's finally had to leave Strasbourg due to the lack of jobs for book illustrations. In 1550, he was summoned to Vienna by Ferdinand I, Holy Roman Emperor (Emperor at that time was still his brother Charles V who abdicated in 1556, the year of Vogtherr's death).

Fine condition.