Drag your pointer across the image to see the print before and after treatment
The Library's imprint of Albrecht Dürer's famous 1515 Rhinoceros woodcut was printed from the original block by Hendrick Hondius in The Hague around 1620. This print is considered the 6th edition (7th edition Dodgson[1]) out of eight editions[2]. Only the first edition was printed in Dürer's lifetime, in 1515.
Unlike the other editions with letterpress text above the image, the text of the 6th edition is in Dutch instead of German. Hondius's text corrects a mistake present in previous editions (the rhinoceros arrived in Lisbon in 1515, not 1513), but also creates a new mistake (that Dürer drew the rhinoceros from life, instead of from a second-hand account). Hondius also added text below the image[3], which was trimmed off the Library's print before accession into the collection.
The Dutch text immediately identifies this imprint as from the 6th edition, but if the top text had also been trimmed off, the condition of the woodblock -- evident in the imprint -- and the paper watermark can also help determine the edition. By Hondius's printing, the woodblock had developed cracks; the most significant crack spanning from the rhino's tail and hind leg across to the snout. This crack is visible in the Library's imprint.
A number of imprints from the 6th edition bear a single headed eagle watermark, but Hausmann has identified a fool's cap watermark as well for this edition[4]. The Library's imprint is on a paper with a single headed eagle watermark, similar to Meder 224 and Briquet 2096[5].
[1] Campbell Dodgson, Catalogue of early German and Flemish woodcuts preserved in the Department of Prints and Drawings in the British Museum. London: The Trustees of the British Museum, 1903.
[2] Walter L. Strauss, The Illustrated Bartsch Vol 10: Sixteenth century German artists. New York, Abaris Books, 1980.
[3] The Albertina Museum in Vienna has an imprint from the 6th edition with the text below the image.
[4] Oberbaurath B. Hausmann, Albrecht Dürer's Kupferstiche, Radirungen, Holzschnitte und Zeichnungen: unter besonderer Berücksichtigung der dazu verwandten Papiere und deren Wasserzeichen, Hannover: Hahn, 1861.
[5] Joseph Meder, Dürer-Katalog: ein Handbuch über Albrecht Dürers Stiche, Radierungen, Holzschnitte, deren Zustände, Ausgaben und Wasserzeichen, Vienna: Gilhofer & Ranschburg, 1932 and Charles Moïse Briquet, Les Filigranes: Dictionnaire Historique des Marques du Papier Dés Leur Apparition vers 1282 jusqu’en 1600, Paris: A. Picard & fils, 1907.
