Hieronymus Andreae, or Andreä, or Hieronymus Formschneider, (d. May 7, 1556) was a German woodblock

Woodblock

Woodblock may refer to:* The wood block, a percussion instrument* A woodblock or woodcut is used in woodblock printing, a method of printing in which an image is carved into the surface of a piece of wood, which is then inked, and the image is stamped onto a page* Woodblock graffiti is a type of...

 cutter ("formschneider"), printer, publisher and typographer closely associated with Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer

Albrecht Dürer was a German painter, printmaker, engraver, mathematician, and theorist from Nuremberg. His prints established his reputation across Europe when he was still in his twenties, and he has been conventionally regarded as the greatest artist of the Northern Renaissance ever since...

. Andreae's best known achievements include the enormous, 192-block Triumphal Arch

Triumphal Arch (woodcut)

The Triumphal Arch is a 16th-century monumental woodcut print, commissioned by the Holy Roman Emperor Maximilian I. The composite image was printed from 192 separate wood blocks...

 woodcut

Woodcut

Woodcut—occasionally known as xylography—is a relief printing artistic technique in printmaking in which an image is carved into the surface of a block of wood, with the printing parts remaining level with the surface while the non-printing parts are removed, typically with gouges...

, designed by Dürer for Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor

Maximilian I , the son of Frederick III, Holy Roman Emperor and Eleanor of Portugal, was King of the Romans from 1486 and Holy Roman Emperor from 1493 until his death, though he was never in fact crowned by the Pope, the journey to Rome always being too risky...

, and his design of the characteristic German "blackletter" Fraktur typeface ("Gothic" to most English-speakers), on which German typefaces were based for several centuries. He was also significant as a printer of music.

In the opinion of Adam von Bartsch, although Andreae never designed woodcuts (as opposed to designing typeface

Typeface

In typography, a typeface is the artistic representation or interpretation of characters; it is the way the type looks. Each type is designed and there are thousands of different typefaces in existence, with new ones being developed constantly....

s), the quality of his work was such that he, along with Hans Lützelburger

Hans Lützelburger

Hans Lützelburger , also known as Hans Franck, was a German blockcutter for woodcuts, regarded as one of the finest of his day. He cut the blocks but as far as is known was not an artist himself...

 and Jost de Negker

Jost de Negker

Jost de Negker was a cutter of woodcuts and also a printer and publisher of prints during the early 16th century, mostly in Augsburg, Germany. He was a leading "formschneider" or blockcutter of his day, but always to the design of an artist. He is "closely tied to the evolution of the fine...

, should be considered an artist.

Life and work

There is some evidence that he matriculated at the University of Leipzig

University of Leipzig

The University of Leipzig , located in Leipzig in the Free State of Saxony, Germany, is one of the oldest universities in the world and the second-oldest university in Germany...

 in 1504, although this might also mean that he worked for the university rather than being a student. He became a citizen of Nuremberg in 1523, although he had probably run a workshop there for nearly a decade by then. He also cut metal dies and stamps, including those for type and coins, and the design, and perhaps production, of print type may also have constituted a large part of his business, which was commented on as being very diverse. According to the 18th century historian Christoph Gottlieb von Murr

Christoph Gottlieb von Murr

Christoph Gottlieb von Murr was a polymathic German scholar, based in Nuremberg. He was a historian and magistrate. He edited significant cultural journals. He also corresponded with Leonard Euler. Von Murr reproduced in 1790 the book published in 1553 by Michael Servetus Christianismi restitutio...

, Emperor Maximilian regularly dropped in to Andreae's workshop on his visits to Nuremberg:

....this Hieronymous resided in Breite Gasse, in this city, and his quarters extended in the rear to Frauengässlein [i.e. "Women's Alley"]. It was he who cut most of Albrecht Dürer's designs into blocks, among them Dürer's "Triumphal Chariot" [or "Car"] of His Imperial Majesty. At that time, His Majesty drove almost daily to Frauengässlein to watch his artistry, so much so that it became proverbial that "the emperor has driven once more to the "women's alley"."

He worked as blockcutter on the Triumphal Arch from 1515–17, and he and his workshop cutters would then probably have been fully occupied on that one huge commission, the quality of which has always been recognised. He also cut the Triumphal Car and other works by Dürer for Maximilian, but he probably appeared on the Nuremberg scene too late to produce most of Dürer's other major woodcuts, which mostly predate 1513. His Fraktur script was first developed for the large texts underneath the image of the Car, and appears in its final perfected form in his (2nd) 1538 edition of Dürer's book on geometry. It was popular and became widely adopted, becoming the most widely-used typeface by Lutheran printers in northern Germany by the end of the sixteenth century. In the case of the Arch and the Car, the blocks, with Andreae's mark on them, survive in the Albertina, Vienna

Albertina, Vienna

The Albertina is a museum in the Innere Stadt of Vienna, Austria. It houses one of the largest and most important print rooms in the world with approximately 65,000 drawings and approximately 1 million old master prints, as well as more modern graphic works, photographs and architectural drawings...

. Indeed negotiations are documented from 1526 between Maximilian's heirs and Andreae, who refused to release the blocks for the Arch before being paid outstanding debts; he had meanwhile published an unauthorized partial edition himself in 1520, for which the city council had to apologise to the new Emperor, Charles V

Charles V, Holy Roman Emperor

Charles V was ruler of the Holy Roman Empire from 1519 and, as Charles I, of the Spanish Empire from 1516 until his voluntary retirement and abdication in favor of his younger brother Ferdinand I and his son Philip II in 1556.As...

.

The cutters of most "single-leaf" woodcuts (prints) produced at the period are unknown, as they were only rarely (usually if they also acted as publisher) credited on the printed piece. If the original block has survived these may be marked or signed, and are normally so in the case of Maximilian's projects, to ensure the right cutter was paid from the large teams. In the absence of other evidence, it is not usually worthwhile to speculate on the identity of a cutter based on style or quality, so much of Andreae's work remains untraceable in the large production of Nuremberg in this period. It is for example likely that Andreae cut the famous Dürer's Rhinoceros

Dürer's Rhinoceros

Dürer's Rhinoceros is the name commonly given to a woodcut executed by German painter and printmaker Albrecht Dürer in 1515. The image was based on a written description and brief sketch by an unknown artist of an Indian rhinoceros that had arrived in Lisbon earlier that year. Dürer never saw the...

 of 1515, with a lengthy inscription, but there is no direct evidence of this. With books there is more evidence, from title-pages. He was the cutter for the many illustrations and the printer of the books that Dürer was working on in his final years before his death in 1526: on geometry - the Art of measurement (1525) - and Fortification (1527), and Human Proportions (1528, for Dürer's widow).

Dürer returned from his trip to the Netherlands in 1521 with a number of gifts for friends, including an "exceedingly large horn" for Andreae. A Dürer drawing in the British Museum

British Museum

The British Museum is a museum of human history and culture in London. Its collections, which number more than seven million objects, are amongst the largest and most comprehensive in the world and originate from all continents, illustrating and documenting the story of human culture from its...

 (W 899) inscribed by the artist "Fronica 1525 Formschneiderin" may be of Andreae's wife (Veronica), as an old inscription on the back says. He was buried in St John's Church in Nuremberg.

Music publishing

After Dürer's death he became important as a printer and publisher of music, and a designer of musical type – in this field he tends to be known as "Hieronymus Formschneider", the name used on his title-pages. He published music in a partnership lasting between 1533-1550 with the bookseller Hans Ott, their respective roles probably falling into the typical modern ones of printer and publisher. Their most ambitious production was the Novum et insigne opus musicum, a two volume anthology of one hundred motet

Motet

In classical music, motet is a word that is applied to a number of highly varied choral musical compositions.-Etymology:The name comes either from the Latin movere, or a Latinized version of Old French mot, "word" or "verbal utterance." The Medieval Latin for "motet" is motectum, and the Italian...

s published in 1537-1538, of which 177 examples survive, more than any other such work published before 1550.

Formschneider created a single-impression typeface for music, which he first used in 1534; in this he was only the second in Germany, being preceded by two years by Christian Egenolff of Frankfurt, who printed Petrus Tritonius's edition of Odarum Horatii concentus in 1532. There is no evidence that Formschneider was himself a musician, or that he had any deep understanding of what he was printing.

Also bearing Formschneider's imprint is the enormous Choralis Constantinus

Choralis Constantinus

The Choralis Constantinus is a collection of over 375 Gregorian chant-based polyphonic motets for the proper of the mass composed by Heinrich Isaac and his pupil Ludwig Senfl...

, which appeared in three volumes in 1550-55. This was the largest sixteenth century collection of Mass Proper

Proper (liturgy)

The Proper is a part of the Christian liturgy that varies according to the date, either representing an observance within the Liturgical Year, or of a particular saint or significant event...

 settings, mainly by composer Heinrich Isaac

Heinrich Isaac

Heinrich Isaac was a Franco-Flemish Renaissance composer of south Netherlandish origin. He wrote masses, motets, songs , and instrumental music. A significant contemporary of Josquin des Prez, Isaac influenced the development of music in Germany...

, with the portion left unfinished completed on his death by his student Ludwig Senfl

Ludwig Senfl

Ludwig Senfl was a Swiss composer of the Renaissance, active in Germany. He was the most famous pupil of Heinrich Isaac, was music director to the court of Maximilian I, Holy Roman Emperor, and was an influential figure in the development of the Franco-Flemish polyphonic style in...

.

Trouble with the law

He was an early sympathiser with the ideas of Martin Luther

Martin Luther

Martin Luther was a German priest, professor of theology and iconic figure of the Protestant Reformation. He strongly disputed the claim that freedom from God's punishment for sin could be purchased with money. He confronted indulgence salesman Johann Tetzel with his Ninety-Five Theses in 1517...

, printing his prayerbook in 1527 (but omitting Luther's name, perhaps out of discretion for buyers in Catholic territories), and was then jailed briefly for sympathy with, and perhaps some involvement in, the German Peasants' War

German Peasants' War

The German Peasants' War or Great Peasants' Revolt was a widespread popular revolt in the German-speaking areas of Central Europe, 1524–1526. At its height in the spring and summer of 1525, the conflict involved an estimated 300,000 peasants: contemporary estimates put the dead at 100,000...

 in 1525. Described by Peter Parshall as "an opportunist of ... ambition and occasional unscrupulousness", he was often in trouble with the authorities. After Dürer's death he was accused, with Sebald Beham, of producing a plagiarized edition of the book on the proportions of the horse that Dürer never completed (a work very popular with generations of artists). In 1542 he fled the city to avoid two weeks in jail for failing to appear in court on a charge of slandering a member of the Council of the city, though he later returned.