Portrait of Johannes Posthius
Engraving after Boissard, 1669

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Johannes Posthius. Archiater Palatin Ioannes Posthius
Jean-Jacques Boissard (1528-1602)
Theodor de Bry (1528-1598) (engraver)
Johannes Posthius. Archiater Palatin Ioannes Posthius
from Bibliotheca Chalcographica, hoc est Virtute et eruditione
clarorum Virorum Imagines, Partes 1-5
Heidelberg: Clemens Ammon 1669
Black-and-white engraving
6 x 4.25 inches
Sold, please inquire as to the availability of similar items.

Portrait of German poet Johannes Posthius within an oval surrounded by a Mannerist strapwork border with natural motifs including animals, leaves, flowers and beetles. This portrait comes from the Bibliotheca Chalcographica, a major collection of scholar portraits initiated in the 16th and Century which was published in its final form from 1652-1669.

Johannes Posthius (1537-1598) was a poet from Germesheim, Germany. He contributed summary verses in Latin and German to an illustrated edition of Ovid's Metamorphoses in 1563. Posthius was a physician as well.

This portrait was part of a large collection of scholar portraits expressing the humanistic ideals which began to take hold after the Reformation, as well as the blossoming of portrait art in the 16th and early 17th Centuries. The project was initiated by Jean Jacques Boissard (1528-1602) from Besançon, who accompanied his uncle, the Humanist Hugo Babelus (1474-1556) visiting many universities of Europe as a private teacher of young noble. Boissard then studied several years in Italy, became a house teacher and yard master of young noble which enabled him to continue his academic journey. In this way, he became acquainted with many scholars personally and collected portraits and biographic messages. He collaborated with Theodor de Bry (1528-1598), a Calvinist engraver and publisher who had left his hometown of Antwerp for Frankfurt. They published his collection in 1597-1598 under the title Icones virorum illustrium doctrina et eruditione praestantium ad vivum effictae cum eorum vitis -- 100 lives of learned men with engraved portraits. The project was carried on by De Bry's sons Johann Theodor de Bry (1561-1623) and Johann Israel de Bry (1570-1611) together with the Frankfurt man of letters Johann Adam Lonicer. As engravers and publishers the brothers were followed by Sebastian Furck (c. 1600-1655), Johann Theodor de Bry's son-in-law Klemens Ammon (1650-52) and Mathias van Somer from Holland. The gallery grew in book form until 1669 to nine parts with 438 portraits altogether.

The University of Mannheim in Germany has put the Bibliotheca Chalcographica online, including the portrait of Posthuis. (See Reference below.)

Reference:

Kredel, Heinz; Schibel, Wolfgang; Zuljevic, Emir. "Bibliotheca Chalcographica." University of Mannheim. 3 July 1997. http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/desbillons/aport.html and http://www.uni-mannheim.de/mateo/desbillons/aport/seite153.html (15 April 2002).