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Original fileThe print features the dual coats of arms of Pirckheimer and his wife, Felicitas Rieter, supported by two large winged putti. The left shield displays a birch tree (a pun on the name Pirckheimer), while the right depicts a crowned siren with two tails, all surmounted by a crested helmet and decorative garlands. At the bottom, smaller winged figures engage in a playful mock battle below an inscription of the owner's name.
Willibald Pirckheimer was a central figure in Northern Humanism and a close associate of Dürer, serving as a key conduit for Neoplatonic and Hermetic ideas from Italy to Germany. This bookplate marked a library that housed essential esoteric and classical texts, including Pirckheimer's own Latin translation of Horapollo's Hieroglyphica.
SIBI ET AMICS.P. LIBER BILIBALDI PIRCKHEIMER
Translation
FOR HIMSELF AND HIS FRIENDS. THE BOOK OF WILLIBALD PIRCKHEIMER.
Willibald Pirckheimer
The owner of the bookplate was a scholar who translated Neoplatonic texts and Horapollo's Hieroglyphica.
Horapollo
Pirckheimer translated the Hieroglyphica, a key text for Renaissance symbology, which Dürer also illustrated.
Object
Rijksmuseum, Amsterdam
paper
height 149 mm x width 119 mm
emblem
Linked Data
AI AI-cataloged fields generated by gemini-3-flash-preview on April 1, 2026. Getty identifiers are AI-inferred and may require verification.