Silbereinband - SuStB Augsburg 17 A 123

Description

Not only handwritten and illuminated, but also printed devotional books were sometimes provided with elaborate covers made of precious metal. The small-format volumes took on the character of precious objects that were reserved as sacral accessories for personal use in devotion and prayer. In the Imperial City of Augsburg, they mainly specialised in silver bindings with figural and ornamental relief decoration. An outstanding example of such a binding is the one acquired by the Staats- und Stadtbibliothek Augsburg in 2017, which encloses a prayer book printed in Ulm in 1720. However, the book was obviously only placed within the silver cover later; stylistically, the binding can accordingly be dated before 1720. The three upright oval fields show the personifications of the three theological virtues, namely faith (front cover), love (back cover) and hope (spine) in vividly detailed depictions. The decorative filling of the pendentives with angel putti, angel heads and acanthus tendrils is characteristic of Augsburg book covers from the late baroque period. The back, the endband and the two clasps also show the motif of angels' heads. Stylistically, the Staats- und Stadtbibliothek Augsburg's silver book cover is close to the work of the leading Augsburg goldsmith Johann Andreas Thelot (1655-1734), who excelled in the field of virtuoso chased reliefs. Datum: 2018