Georg's Research

I get asked most about where to find appropriate images. I know it was the question I first asked when I went looking for them. I have since found a few books dedicated solely to prints or drawings, but at first I had to look through my regular illumination books. I have the standards like "Painted Prayers" and "Illuminated Manuscripts." Painted Prayers particularly has a few- these are usually smaller than the originals. Branching out to histories of the book, there are often a few woodcut prints that work nicely. I got one out of the library called "History of the Book" and it had several. I also acquired a book about Leonardo da Vinci's notebooks which had several nice charcoal/crayon drawings. And any book about Albrecht Duhrer will have the same. I have learned to look for catalogs of manuscript collections- they may not be in color, so they may decide to show pics of the black and white art. I have also found a couple of needlework books that have line drawn patterns on which needlework patterns were based.

Here are a few books:
"Six Centuries of Master Prins: Treasures from the Herbert Greer French Collection" Cincinnati Art Museum. 1993. ISBN 0-931537-15-0

"Gravures sur Bois: Illustrations de la Renaissance Florentine" L'Adventurine, Paris, 1996. (no ISBN)

Vecello, Cesare. "Costumes Anciens" Les Editions du Carrousel. L'Adventurine, Paris, 1999. ISBN 2-7456-0234-9

These latter two have lovely frames, and some of the pictures themselves are nice.

Swain, Margaret. "The Needlework of Mary Queen of Scots" ISBN: 0896762483 has the drawings as well as needlework. Includes a pelican.

Beck, Thomasina. "Gardening with Silk and Gold: A History of Gardens in Embroidery" David & Charles, 2002. ISBN 0715313665

Georg Bocskay, Lee Hendrix, Thea Vignau-Wilberg. "Mira Calligraphiae Monumenta: A Sixteenth-Century Calligraphic Manuscript" J. Paul Getty Trust Publications; Boxed edition (August, 1992) ISBN: 089236212X
If you can afford that, get it. Not only does it have some frames, it is an ultimate example of what you can do with just calligraphy to astonish.

Also look for fascimiles of block printed books, such as:
Colonna, Francesco. "Hypnerotomachia Poliphili: The Strife of Love in a Dream" translated by Joscelyn Godwin. Thames and Hudson 1999. ISBN 0-500-01942-8 (Original date roughly 1499).