Libellus Novus Elementorum Latinorum

ENGRAVINGS

These are a series of unusual prints (titled Libellus Novus Elementorum Latinorum), in that they were designed by a Polish goldsmith Jan Christian Bierpfaff (1600-1690). They were then engraved by another Pole, Jeremias Falck (1610–1677). Apparently the goldsmith Bierpfaff worked as an apprentice for a family of metalworkers in Krakow, “who introduced the Dutch auricular (‘ear-like’) style of ornament into the Polish gold and silver workshops”. These gorgeously ornate letterforms blend the newly discovered shell patterns with grotesque botanical styling to produce extraordinary, abstracted figures in which the ornament itself comes to life.