Beck, Leonhard. Pfintzing, Melchior [Maximillian I, of Germany]

Theuerdank [Die Geuerlicheiten und eins tells der Geschichten des . Ritters herr Tewrdanckhs

      Johann Schoensperger, Augsburg: 1517. - Folio Single leaf on paper. First Edition. Light paper toning and some staining. Woodcut #35 ascribed to Leonhard Beck. A wood scene with a mounted huntsman, a figure holding a device, a rearing horse, a man attacking a boar with a double-handed sword, and a castle in the rear. This famously beautiful font was designed by the court calligrapher and personal secretary to Maximillian -- Vinzenz Rockner and cut by Jost Dienecker of Antwerp. The Theuerdank fraktur is almost "modern" and was the model for many subsequent designs. It is embellished with ornamental flourishes . Leonhard Beck (c. 1480 - 1542) was a painter and draughtsman in Augsburg, Germany. His drawings for the Theuerdank were based on the designs of the Emperor Maximillian."One of the most important patrons of art in the sixteenth century was the German emperor Maximilian I. He has been noted as the last great knight of Europe and the "patron of humanistic romanticism".1 His life is best known to us today because he had such an interest in the arts, mainly as a means of immortalizing his existence. The Theuerdank is one of three large books that Maximilian commissioned. The other two, Weisskunig and Freydal were to be the first and third installments, respectively, of a trilogy highlighting Maximilian's life. Only Theuerdank was published before his death.Theuerdank, literally meaning "The Knight of Adventurous Thoughts", is an allegory in the form of epic verse that retells the adventures of Maximilian as he traveled to woo his future wife, Mary of Burgundy. Although she died after only five years of marriage, Maximilian regarded the years of his courtship as the ideal romantic interlude and the epitome of a knightly adventure. Mary was indeed the daughter of his own knightly hero, Charles the Bold of Burgundy. The book is largely fictitious, characterizing Maximilian as a chivalric knight in the Arthurian sense. The text is supposedly written by Melchior Pfintzing, a friend of Maximilian, but Maximilian himself probably composed the majority of the work. VD 16 B1649-51. Fairfax/Murray 330.