Embellished Matriculation Manuscripts (15th to 17th C)

"The Matriculation Register of the Basel Rectorate, recorded in manuscript form from 1460 to 2000, contains semester and annual information notices added by each successive rector as well as lists of enrolled students, thus providing an important resource for the history of the University of Basel. In addition, Vol. 1 contains records in illustrations and text of the opening of the university. The rich book decoration in the first three volumes is particularly notable. The work of 3 centuries, it is easily datable due to the chronogical order in which it was added and thus provides a welcome demonstration of the art of miniature painting in Basel."

A selection of manuscript page images shown below come from the first three matriculation volumes, covering the period 1460 to 1764, courtesy of Basel University Library. The three volumes are in order from oldest to newest, but the sequence of images displayed from each volume is - fairly obviously - not in date order. Under each image is the name of the rector in charge and their service period, corresponding to the approximate production date of the manuscript page decoration.

Rector Ulrich Coccius (1563/64)

Rector Augustin Lutenwang (1510/11)

Rector Werner Schlierbach (1506/07)

Rector Melchior von Baden (1496)

Rector William Greaves (1493)

Rector Heinrich Vogt (1490/91)

Rector St. John Siber (1487/88)

Rector Otto Blades (1472)

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The above images...
Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, AN II 3: Matriculation Register of the Rectorate of the University of Basel, Volume 1 (1460-1567)
Link to e-codices overview page & access to digitised manuscript of Volume 1.
The manuscript and images remain the property of Basel University Library,  are covered by a CC 3.0 license and appear here with permission.

Rector St. John Brandmüller (1587/88)

Rector Felix Platter II (1651/52)

Rector Johann Jakob Faesch (1630/31)

Rector Martin Chmieleck (1613/14)

Rector Thomas Cook (1602/03)

Rector Sebastian Beck (1617/18)

Rector Heinrich Justus (1599/1600)

Rector Emanuel Stupanus (1631/32)

Rector Johann Rudolf Burckhardt (1620/21)

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The above images...
Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, AN II 4: Matriculation Register of the Rectorate of the University of Basel, Volume 2 (1586-1653)
Link to e-codices overview page & access to digitised manuscript of Volume 2.
The manuscript and images remain the property of Basel University Library, are covered by a CC 3.0 license and appear here with permission.

Rector Johann Friedrich Burckhardt (1665/66)

Rector Christopher Faesch (1672/73)

Rector James Rudin (1676/77)

Rector Luke Gernler (1659/60)

Rector Peter Falkeisen (1655/56)

Rector Jacob Burckhardt II (1698/99)

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The above images...

Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, AN II 4a: Matriculation Register of the Rectorate of the University of Basel, Volume 3 (1654-1764)

Link to e-codices overview page & access to digitised manuscript of Volume 3.

The manuscript and images remain the property of Basel University Library are covered by a CC 3.0 license and appear here with permission.

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In addition to providing a chronological record of academic life at the University, these beautiful Basel matriculation manuscripts show differences in tastes, customs and directives of the many rectors in charge of the institution and cultural developments in the local territory. As official documentary records, these books may well have been the subject of outside inspection (benefactors, nobility, religious leaders &c), so political considerations will have influenced the nature of the content at any given time as well. There are periods where calligraphic flourishing is missing for whatever reason. Introductions for each teaching semester (in verse or prose, alphabetic or seasonal) varied in style and length as rectors and decades rolled along. The decoration of the manuscripts, although obviously extensive, was tamped down or sparse, in some periods: in particular, during the religious upheavals of the Reformation in the 16th century.

The manuscripts are also priceless catalogues of three centuries of (the presumably) regional artist output. Some of the artists/scribes are listed in the descriptions that accompany each manuscript, although they are often only identified ("artist Hand-B" &c) rather than being specifically named. Among other forms of decoration, the matriculation volumes contain cryptic allegorical motifs, elaborate coats of arms (they dominate), embellished grotesque and baroque architectural structures, cartouches and occasional rector and faculty portraits. Many of these border designs and frames serve to visually enhance mottoes, a rector's c.v., poetic verses and the like. Obviously additions have been made over the centuries and not all of the contents can be accurately dated or attributed. In one instance, a rhyming couplet of verse accompanied by the initials SB was added and is judged to have been inserted by the renowned Sebastian Brandt (of 'Ship of Fools' fame), who taught law at the university towards the end of the 16th century. All the text, throughout each of the manuscripts, is in Latin.

The only outside commentary I could find mentions that one of the painted miniatures among these matriculation volumes shows some evidence (esoteric specifics about a room seemingly filled with pieces of art - image 5th from bottom) that Basel University was one of the earliest places to evolve from the personal collector mentality - kunstkammer* - towards public educational displays of artifacts in the form of galleries and museums.

These manuscripts are owned by Basel University Library and are posted online through the e-codices portal: the Virtual Manuscript Library of Switzerland. Some 40+ Swiss libraries contribute materials for display through this outstanding multi-institutional website. It should be noted that e-codices are very particular about rights and permissions in relation to their clients' works and I would strongly advise you to contact the specific client institution and seek prior permission to display or reuse any of their materials. This is mostly to do with monitoring their national heritage and ensuring proper attribution for the works are used. I have happily corresponded with a few of their libraries and the central portal in the past without incident.

• Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, AN II 3: Matriculation Register of the Rectorate of the University of Basel, Volume 1 (1460-1567)
• Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, AN II 4: Matriculation Register of the Rectorate of the University of Basel, Volume 2 (1586-1653
• Basel, Universitätsbibliothek, AN II 4a: Matriculation Register of the Rectorate of the University of Basel, Volume 3 (1654-1764)
• Addit: A [pdf] article about Basel's early collector culture with small reference to this series (in Deutsch).

A Japanese "book of Falconry"

These woodblock illustrations of falcon 
training come from a mid-1860s

album called 'Ehon Taka Kagami' 
(~The Illustrated Mirror of Falconry)

"Kawanabe Kyôsai (Gyôsai) (1831-89) was a Kano painter, printmaker, and illustrator, the son of a Samurai. At the age of six he entered the studio of Utagawa Kuniyoshi^, and from the age of nine became a student of the academic Kano school, studying under Maemura Towa and then Tohaku Chinshin, who gave him the name "Toiku". He exhibited at the Vienna International Exposition in 1873, and at the first and second Paris Japanese Art Exhibitions of 1883 and 1884. In the early years of the Meiji period (1868-1912) he attained considerable popularity with his political caricatures, for which he was arrested and imprisoned in 1870. His famous 'Kyosai Gadan' (1887), an attempt to show a variety of traditional Japanese and Chinese painting styles, was widely appreciated in Europe, and was issued with English captions for the export market.

Kyosai's 'Ehon Taka Kagami' is the major resource on Japanese falconry, with wonderful woodcuts of hawks, field work, breeding, hoods, gloves, and other associated tools and items of equipment. It records the ancient Japanese methods of care, raising, and training of the Siberian Goshawk, considered the best variety for use in falconry since ancient times. Harting 371. Schwerdt III p. 245; see G. Schack. Kyosais Falkenjagd." [source]

"A major resource on Japanese falconry, the capture, taming & teaching of falcons, the grooming, feeding and culture of the bird of prey. Wonderful illustrations of falcons, the associated tools & equipment, stands, methods of warming in winter before the hunt, winter hunting, respect for. On the flushing to expose game birds to be hunted by the falcon, the kill, capture of the quarry. How to tether, hoods, master's gloves and other accoutrements, field work, breeding, bathing &c." [source: removed ebay auction listing]

"This magnificent work was issued once in a single first and only edition, and is complete in five volumes. The first series: 3 vols. were published in 1877, followed by the second series consisting of 2 volumes in 1879. [..]
This marvelous work uses crushed mica as an integral part of the hand-made Washi paper. These tiny flecks of mica give a sparkle to the illustrations, and are especially effective on the feather portion of the falcons. Mica gives a realistic and "high-tech" touch to the wood-cut printing technique. [..] The collation of the set is: vol. 1,3,4,5, each have 10p.; vol. 2 has 11p. Every page is nicely illustrated, it contains some 111 illustrations in all. [..]

This work is the most comprehensive single monograph devoted to Japanese falconry ever published in the 19th century or in prior periods. Gyôsai's superb artistic skill and solid ability to capture the essence and feel of real and live Japanese falconry has yet to be surpassed in woodcut media. The application of mica dust is now a lost art, and never done. The work outlines the ancient methods and culture of the falcon. This work records the last of the ancient falconry methods of care, raising and training, again a lost art in Japan." [source]

• 'Ehon Taka Kagami' can be viewed at the Museum of Fine Arts, Boston.
• 'Falconry Illustrated' is a section of a Harvard University exhibition showing some Japanese falconry illustrations from before 1800.
• Tangential at best: raptors versus drones - *A New Golden Age of Falconry*.

The Coral Book, 18th C

Zoologist, lepidopterist and naturalist, Eugenius JC Esper (1742-1810), inherited his father's love of natural history which he pursued as a sideline to his lectureship duties in science at the University of Erlangen in Germany.

He would rise to head the Department of Natural History in Erlangen while expanding their zoological collections substantially (his butterfly collection still exists). He also published a number of copiously illustrated monograph collections relating to seaweeds, butterflies, coral, birds, insects as well as mineralology and general natural history.

The present work is entitled 'Die Pflanzenthiere in Abbildungen nach der Natur mit Farben erleuchtet nebst Beschreibungen' (something like: Natural animal-plants in colour with enlightened commentary) that was first published in ~1791. I get the feeling there were a number of editions or it appeared in excerpts and was subsequently republished as a collection with a variable number of illustrations.

The majority of the images above were sourced from the new natural history collection at the University of Heidelberg. (I've had that bookmarked for months waiting for it to be populated and it looks like almost all the authors have appeared on BibliOdyssey previously). Click on anything below 'Inhalt' at the 'Die Pflanzenthiere..' webpage and then click 'vorschau' to load all the thumbnail pages.

• Or, better still, see the Humboldt University Edoc server version of 'Die Pflanzenthiere..' here (that I only just discovered which has - to my mind - better quality illustrations : last image above)
• Wikipedia on Eugenius Esper.
• Panteek have/had a copy of 'Die Pflanzenthiere..' for sale for ~$38,000.
• 'Icones fucorum' (seaweed) at Googlebooks.
• 'Die ausländischen Schmetterlinge..' (butterflies) at the Internet Archive.
• On coral (Phylum Cnidaria, Class Anthozoa): Wikipedia --- Berkeley U & Tree of Life on Anthozoa.