Abstract

In the 16th century book publishers not only used an illustration multiple times in the
same book, but they also decorated different books, sometimes about completely different
topics, with the same images. In the 1570s, Sigmund Feyerabend, a book publisher in
Frankfurt, published several Ottoman-themed books and chronicles illustrated by Jost
Amman. The reason for the peculiar eclecticism of the illustrations of the Turkish chronicles
(in many pictures there are people with ancient clothes and weapons, as well as battle
scenes with ancient war elephants and chariots) is that the publishing house also published
in these chronicles woodcuts from the richly illustrated work of the Roman historian Titus
Livius about the history of the Romans since the founding of Rome, also published by
Feyerabend in 1568. Some of the illustrations can also be found in the 1576 edition of
Sigmund von Herberstein’s travelogue about his travels in Russia. In 1999 an Austrian
book about Herberstein’s life and works was published, which had two illustrations the
authors believed depicted actual scenes from Herberstein’s life, Herberstein’s visits to the
Russian Grand Duke and the Turkish Sultan, however, they had also been included in
books about various topics published years earlier.

Keywords: book illustration, Jost Amman, Sigmund Feyerabend, Sigmund von Herberstein,
Titus Livius, Turkish chronicles, 16th century