W cieniu symbolicznego drzewa. O sygnecie drukarskim Macieja Wirzbięty

English Title: In the shade of a symbolic tree. On the printer’s device of Maciej Wirzbieta

In: Biuletyn Historii Sztuki, 72 (2010), Nr. 1-2. pp. 93-112

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Translation of abstract (English)

Maciej Wirzbieta was a Calvinistic printer active in Cracow in the years 1555-1605. Throughout the period his publishing house operated, Wirzbieta consistently marked his books with a device representing a willow-tree. This was an obvious reference to the printer’s surname ("wierzba" being the word in Polish for willow-tree), and it provides an example from Poland of the then widely practised application of puns among printers. It may, therefore, appear that the meaning of Maciej Wirzbieta’s device can be deciphered in a straightforward manner without seeking references to the Bible, Greek or Roman heritage, mediaeval compendia, emblem books or any of the many other sources of knowledge from which publishers frequently drew inspiration to create their personal devices. The emblem under discussion does, however, refer to the symbolic language of the Renaissance.