
Book illustration or more likely a trademark with a coat of arms featuring a lion and a tower set within an arch
Anonymous, Italian, 16th century
An item at Metropolitan Museum of Art
Giustiniano degli Azzi Vitelleschi's article in the Mitteilungen der Gesellschaft für vervielfältigende Kunst (1929, nr .2/3, pp.37-45) describes a collection of woodcuts, including this print (number 4). Vitelleschi believes these prints are trade devices, not intended for book covers, but rather were used as covers to account books. In addition, these emblems were mostly found on the inside of the cover.
Drawings and Prints
An exhibit at Metropolitan Museum of Art
The Department’s vast collection of works on paper comprises approximately 21,000 drawings, 1.2 million prints, and 12,000 illustrated books created in Europe and the Americas from about 1400 to the present day. Since its foundation in 1916, the Department has been committed to collecting a wide range of works on paper, which includes both pieces that are incredibly rare and lauded for their aesthetic appeal, as well as material that is more popular, functional, and ephemeral. The broad scope of the department’s collecting encourages questions of connoisseurship as well as those pertaining to function and context, and demonstrates the vital role that prints, drawings, and illustrated books have played throughout history.