This plate comes from the Mira calligraphiae monumenta (“Model Book of Calligraphy”), one of the most celebrated manuscripts of the late Renaissance. The imperial scribe Georg Bocskay wrote it in the 1560s for Emperor Ferdinand I; some thirty years later, Joris Hoefnagel — the last great Flemish manuscript illuminator — added a construction alphabet, painting each capital letter on a measured grid and surrounding it with fruit, flowers, insects and fantastical ornament in watercolor and gold.
The letter Z — the last letter of the alphabet — stands between two pink marble obelisks on a stepped pedestal, beneath a second grid showing its construction. A flaming brazier burns above it, a winged cherub crowns the page, and hanging oil lamps, candles and cherub medallions frame the scene. Fittingly for the final letter, the pedestal carries the Greek letters Alpha and Omega, “the beginning and the end.” The gold-lettered cartouche quotes Psalm 68: Zelus domus tuae comedit me, et opprobria exprobrantium tibi ceciderunt super me — “Zeal for your house has consumed me, and the reproaches of those who reproached you have fallen upon me.”
The page has been carefully restored from the original manuscript: surface damage and discoloration reduced, the parchment tone balanced, and the colors and gilding brought back to life, while keeping the hand-painted character of the original.
Find your initial. A single letter makes a meaningful gift — for a nursery, a newlywed couple’s new home, or a family name — and the full Renaissance Alphabet can be hung together as a gallery wall. (The Renaissance Latin alphabet has 23 letters: J, U and W were not yet in use.)
Available as a print-ready digital download in five frame ratios.
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