Oraculum Anachoreticum

The series called Oraculum Anachoreticum consists of 26 engravings (including the frontispiece) depicting hermits, all designed by Martin De Vos and engraved by the brothers Jan and Raphael Sadeler in Venice. The work was conceived to be presented to Pope Clement VIII, to whom it was also dedicated, in the summer of 1600, when the Sadelers traveled to Rome for the Jubilee year.

The Sadeler Family was the largest and probably best known of the dynasties of Flemish engravers who predominated, in northern Europe, in the 16th, 17th and following centuries, both as artists and publishers.

Johannes I (Jan) Sadeler (Brussels 1550 - Venice 1600) and Raphael I Sadeler (Antwerp 1561 - Munich 1628) moved to Venice with the rest of the family in 1595, as Christopher Witcombe explains well in his essay on Privilege in Venice and Rome in the Renaissance:

“In 1595, in the wake of the bankruptcy of the Wilhelm's court in Munich, Jan and Raphael, accompanied by Aegidius, together with Jan's son, Justus, moved to Italy and set up shop in Venice. Aegidius stayed in Venice until 1598, when he was summoned to Prague, where he became imperial engraver to the court of Emperor Rudolf II, and where he died in 1629. In 1600, two years after Aegidius's departure, Jan died. Raphael remained in Venice for a few years after his brother's death, but probably in 1604 he returned to Munich where he died in 1632. Justus (or Jodocus), stayed on in Venice after the death of his father and the departures of his uncle and cousin, and ran the family's print publishing business until his death, in Leiden, while on a trip in the company of the Venetian ambassador to Holland, in October 1620 […].

Jan and Raphael had continued to issue prints jointly after their move to Venice. As they had done previously, they divided up between them the engraving of sets of prints. For example, in 1597 they published a set of six prints of allegorical figures, Schema seu speculum principum, where Jan engraved the title-page and the first two plates, and Raphael the remaining three. The engravings, all after designs by Giovanni Stradano, were printed at the Sadeler's shop in Venice ("Venetijs ex ofici Sadelery"). […]

Numerous prints issued by the Sadelers after 1598 continue to carry notice of the imperial privilegio but it is now frequently combined with the papal privilegio. Notice of the privilegio can be found on prints engraved by Jan and Raphael, as well as on those by Aegidius. After 1600, it also appears on prints by Justus.

Perhaps the first item issued by the Sadelers with the new papal privilegio was a set of fifty-one prints (including the title-page) treating once again the subject of hermits entitled Trophaeum Vitae Solitariae. Based on designs by Martin de Vos, twenty-five of the plates were engraved by Jan and twenty-five by Raphael. The title-page engraved by Raphael ("Raphael Sadeler Scalpsit Venetijs 1598"), carries a dedication by "Ioann. et Raphael Sadeleri fratres" to Cardinal Enrico Gaetano. Two years later, in 1600, the brothers produced another book of twenty-five prints of hermits called Oraculum Anachoreticum. This time, Jan engraved the title-page ("Ioã Sadeler scalpsit Venetijs") and thirteen plates, and Raphael another thirteen, all after designs by Martin de Vos.

Altogether Jan and Raphael together produced five books devoted to hermits (four of male her- mits, one of female), all after designs by Martin de Vos: Sylvae Sacrae; Solitudo Sive Vitae Patrum Eremicolarum; Trophaeum Vitae Solitariae; Oraculum Anachoreticum; and Solitudo Sive Vitae Foeminarum Anachoritarum. Four of the books were known to Giovanni Baglione, who commented on them with admiration. The plate following the title-page of the Oraculum Anachoreticum was devoted to a fifteen-line dedication by the brothers ("Ioh. et Raph. Sadelerii FS") to Clement VIII.

It is very likely that the Oraculum Anachoreticum was among those prints that Jan took to Rome in the summer of 1600 to show Pope Clement VIII. The purpose of the trip, in fact, may have been to submit new prints that Jan wished to publish with the papal privilegio for the required imprimatur of the Master of the Sacred Palace. No doubt another print included was the Portrait of Clement VIII engraved by Jan.

On 22 May 1600, before making the arduous journey to Rome, Jan left instructions in a document drawn up by a notary that in the event of his death the plates jointly owned by him and Raphael, which are named in a list, should not be sold by his heirs but kept intact: "Che non possino detti rami in alcun modo mai partirsi, o dividersi, ma debbano stare e servarsi ad uno, e unitamente, e a commun utile, e beneficio”. Interestingly, the list includes many of the prints which Jan and Raphael had issued with a privilegio. Some of the prints listed the brothers had published earlier in Munich, such as the Virtues of Christ and two books of prints of hermits, the Sylva Sacrae and the Solitudo sive vitae patrum eremicolarum. More numerous are prints issued in Venice. These include the Trophaeum vitae solitariae, the Oraculum anachoreticum, the Schema seu speculum principumт” (cf. C. Witcombe, Copyright in the Renaissance. Prints and the Privilegio in Sixteenth Century Venice and Rome, pp. 196-198).

The engravings depict the hermit in the context of a classical landscape, in the full style of Martin de Vos, engraved in typical Sadeler graphic style. In several of the engravings, the hermit is contextualized in a specific place. For example, in plate 2 depicting “S. Marinus”, an indication is given that the seascape in the background represents the city of Rimini. There are indications of Verona, Vicenza and, more generically, Switzerland, Scotland, Ireland and Hungary.

Beautiful impressions, printed on contemporary laid paper, trimmed to copper and applied to mid-17th-century paper mounts, minimal defects on some plates (visible from the attached photos), overall in very good condition.

Bibliografia

C. Witcombe, Copyright in the Renaissance. Prints and the Privilegio in Sixteenth Century Venice and Rome, pp. 196-198; Isabelle de Ramaix, “The Illustrated Bartsch”, vol. 70, Part 2 [Supplement], p. 273, cat. no. [7001].407-422); Dieuwke de Hoop Scheffer “Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts ca. 1450–1700: Aegidius Sadeler to Raphael Sadeler II: text”, vol. 21, cat. no. 437-462); Hollstein, Christiaan Schuckman, “Dutch and Flemish Etchings, Engravings and Woodcuts ca. 1450–1700: Maarten de Vos: text”, vol. 44, nn. 1050-1075.