(14-02-2026, 12:51 PM)Bernd wrote: You are not allowed to view links. Register or Login to view.An interesting article exploring the conections between Fontana, Kyeser and Taccola:
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[quote=Pamela Long]Conrad Kyeser, the son of South German burghers, authored Bellifortis [Strong in War] between 1402 and 1405 while in exile in his home town of Eichstätt. A strikingly illustrated treatise written in Latin verse, Bellifortis is the earliest fifteenth-century technical book from the German territories. Kyeser was exiled in 1402 when Sigismund, king of Hungary and of Germany, defeated Prague, imprisoned his half-brother, the Bohemian king Wenceslas, and sent the court, presumably including Kyeser, into exile. Banished to his hometown of Eichstätt in Bavaria, Kyeser wrote his treatise in the last years of his life. The manuscript,of which there are at least fourteen exemplars, was illustrated by illuminators from the Prague scriptorium who were passing through Eichstatt after their own expulsion.
The question then becomes, is this chain remotely plausible (or even necessary)?
Prague scriptorium (pre-1402)
↓ [dispersal of illuminators]
Eichstätt/Bavaria (1402-1420s) → Bellifortis tradition
↓ [Council of Constance 1414-1418 as mixing point?]
Werkstatt von 1418, Strasbourg/Colmar (1418-1430)
↓ [personnel/stock continuity]
Lauber workshop, Hagenau (1427-1470)
↓ [exemplar/pattern book copied]
VMS zodiac illustrations (ineptly copied from Lauber-tradition model?)