Or is it a perfectly ordinary-sized man and a giantess? Another popular album amicorum motif which seems, indeed, to have originated in the albums — the earliest I’ve found is dated 1598 [BELOW] — which was then picked up by the print-books (Vita Corneliana, 1624 BELOW) — and has endured
dated 1598. Stuttgart, WLB, Fromann Collection, cod. hist. fol. 888-31, f.96v. from the album of Jakob Petzke, dated 1617. Wroclaw, University Library, Department of Manuscripts, Akc. 1969/145, p.198. Legend: Aus dergleichenn glas/ kompt mancher hasStuttgart, WLB, Frommann Collection, cod. hist. fol. 888-3, f.162v. [n.d.]miniature signed in 1633 by the young painter, Adolf Boy (1612-78). Muzeum Narodowe w Gdanskufrom the print-book Vita Corneliana ([Berlin] 1624), engraved by Peter Rollos [here as reprinted c.1680 in Le Centre de l’Amour]. The Latin is a quotation from the opening of Martial’s 78th Epigram in Book 11, addressed to a bridegroom named Victor: “Use female embraces, use them, Victor/ and let your penis learn the work unfamiliar to it”from the Allemodisch Stambuch published by Peter Rollos in Berlin in the 1630s; etchings signed WGF or, possibly, for W.G. Fecit — either way, not an engraver known to me]design for shooting target, 1609. Coburger Scheibenbuch, f.49r. Kramer & Kruse ( Coburg 1989), p.82, note that the standing figure is Count Johann Casimir von Sachsen-Coburg’s dwarf, Jacob Eckel, and that the perimeter inscription is a variant of the proverb found in Rollenhagen’s Froschmeuseler (1595) — but were evidently unaware of the album precedents for this motif? 19C. from Max Bauer, Sittengeschichte des deutschen Studententums (Dresden 1926)
Applied uses
In subsequent centuries it was very popular with the makers of gingerbread moulds
enamel-painted glass, Franken, 1675×1725. London, Victoria & Albert Museum, 1907-1855. Inscription reads: Ein Jeder nehme seines gleichen, So darff er nicht die letter steigen [everyone takes his equal, so he doesn’t have to climb the ladder]enamel-painted glass, Central Germany, 18C. Inscription: Ein jeder nehme seines gleichen/ So darf er nicht die Laetter steigen. Zurich, former Biemann Collection,
19 & 20C
cartoon by Rowlandson, 1811. BM impression modern stock photo.
Malcolm Jones
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