Heritage et AL

The map below is one of many beautiful and intricate hand-coloured illustrations and maps in Lodovico Guicciardini's book  on the Low Countries.  Sir George Grey Special Collection 's copy is a French edition published in Antwerp in 1567. It was donated to the library by Henry Shaw. The map is of Bolduch ('s-Hertogenbosch or the Duke's Forest) in the southern Netherlands. Iain Sharp notes in  Real Gold  that Guicciardini's book was one of the best sellers of the sixteenth century. Image ref: Map from: Lodovico Guicciardini.  Description de tovt le Païs-Bas, avtrement dict la Germanie inferievre, ov, Basse-Allemaigne. Antwerp: Guillaume Silvius, 1567. Sir George Grey Special Collections, Auckland Libraries, 7-C1964. The two main methods for printing maps in the sixteenth century were relief (usually woodcut) and intaglio (copper engraving or etching). The map pictured is a copperplate engraving. The intaglio technique involves engraving l...

The item in the image below belongs to a group of books collectively referred to as  incunabula  -- items which were printed (not handwritten) before the year 1501 in Europe. There are 106 incunabula in Sir George Grey Special Collections . Ref: Saint Birgitta. Revelationes . Nuremberg: Printed by Anton Koberger, 1500. Sir George Grey  Special Collections. Revelationes  was printed in 1500 in Nuremberg. Auckland Libraries'  copy  was a donation from Sir George Grey . Iain Sharp in Real Gold describes  Revelationes  as 'a blend of theological meditation, biblical lore and spiritual autobiography'.  Revelationes  was dictated to the confessors of Saint Birgitta, a Swedish mystic, over a period of twenty years. It is generally accepted that  Al brecht  Dürer  designed the woodcuts, even if someone else did the physical cutting of the blocks.