Bry Theodor – Wikipedia

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Theodor de Bry or Thodyore the bry , also Dietrich de Bry , Johann Theodor de Bry , [first] Theodoor de Bry and Dirt the Bry (*1528 in Liège, † March 27, 1598 in Frankfurt am Main), was a goldsmith, engraver and publisher from the Hochstift Liège and was one of the main fathers of the Calvinist family of artists de Bry.

Youth in Liège and the time in Strasbourg [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

Theodor was born in 1528 as the son of the wealthy Protestant Protestant Liège family de Bry in Liège. He very likely learned the goldsmith and engraving in copper plates (copper sting) with his father Thiry de Bry.

In 1560 we found Theodor de Bry in Strasbourg, where he married a Catherine Esslinger and founded his household. The information for the reasons for the change from Liège to Strasbourg contradicts each other. Older sources point out that around 1570 Catholic Spain, which held the southern part of the Netherlands, began to pursue the Protestants. Theodor de Bry was allegedly accused of heresy, his possession and he was banished from his homeland. The fact that it was based in Strasbourg 10 years earlier makes an escape from the Liège spell unrealistic. At that time, Liège was a sovereign state as a Hochstift Liège next to the duchies Brabant, Luxembourg and the other Spanish Netherlands. However, the official religion was also Roman Catholic there and it may well be that the Protestant de Bry skeptically judged the future prospects. In any case, the self-employed Strasbourg was also wealthy at the time, but turned to Protestantism and had gained an important artistic reputation through the many faiths of faith: they made a flowering city of goldsmith and engraver art (engraving) from Strasbourg. [2]

The time in Frankfurt [ Edit | Edit the source text ]

Finally, in 1578, Theodor de Bry went to Frankfurt am Main with his family, founded a copper engraver and publishing company and applied for civil rights.

Between 1586 and 1588 he stayed in London for a while, worked with the geographer Richard Hakluyt and began to collect reports and illustrations of various European research expeditions. After his return in 1589, he worked out his plans for new publications with his sons.

From 1590 to 1634, the family of Theodor de Bry published two of the most important travel reports in the early modern period in Frankfurt. The West-Indian trips (also called “History of America”) and the Eastern Indian trips. [3] On Ganze Sammlung Kam unter dem titel “Collections of the Earth in India, East and India West 25 parts The work illustrated figures Aeneid Brothers of Bry and Merian “Heraus. Bei diesen sowie bei seinen Anderen Arbeiten wurde de Bry von Seinen beiden Söhnen Johann Theodor (1561-1623) und Johann Israel (1570-1611) Unterstützt.

In the then propaganda war between Catholics and Protestants, the Calvinist de Bry sat down in the service of the latter. In particular, the work of the Catholic great power in Spain in the New World was in the darkest colors and thus also contributed to the emergence of the Leyenda Negra. [4]

Theodor de Bry died on March 27, 1598 at the age of 70. His widow Katharina de Bry [5] And his two sons Johann Theodor and Johann Israel continued his company.

The two travel report collections published by Theodor de Bry in Frankfurt are among the most important of the early modern times and have justified his reputation for posterity:

He created the Arrival of Columbus in the New World . The West-Indian trips (Ed. 1590-1618) reported on the discovery and conquest of America by the Europeans, while the East Indian trips Holland’s rise to the trade power in Asia around 1600. Both series appeared German and Latin, were intended for a European audience and were richly illustrated with copper engravings.

Theodor de Bry was only able to publish six parts of his entire work. After his death, his sons Johann Theodor and Johann Israel, who also worked as a engraver, continued the work until 1634. In the end, it contained 25 parts and over 1,500 copper engravings. Sebastian Furck succeeded the brothers as the engraver and publisher.

With their globally created publishing project, de Bry developed a world of pictures that was shaped by the miracles and horrors of the newly discovered worlds as well as the stereotypes ideas and visual traditions of Europeans in relation to the other and strangers. This is how an image archive was created, which is still actively used today and still influences our idea of ​​early colonial history.

In addition, Theodor de Bry, together with Jean Jacques Boissard (1528–1602), published 100 scholars with copper stitch portraits (1597–1598). His sons continued the work that became known under the name Bibliotheca Chalcographica, which at the end of 438 scholarly portraits, continued together with the Frankfurt writer Johann Adam Lonicerus, a son of Adam Lonitzer.

  • Theodore de Bry: The fourth book from the Neuwen World. After the edition of 1594. Harenberg, Dortmund (= The bibliophile paperbacks. Band 10).
  • Michiel van Groesen, Larry E. Tise (HRSG.): America. Bags, Cologne 2019, ISBN 978-3-83657709-0.
  • Gerhard E. Sollbach (ed.): America 1590. Europe’s first pictures of the new world. The Virginia report Thomas Harrots with copper engravings Theodor de Brys according to the pictures John Whites. Phaidon, Kettwig 1992, ISBN 3-88851-154-2.
  • Margarete Braun-Ronsdorf: The Bry, Theodor. In: New German biography (Ndb). Volume 2, Duncker & Humblot, Berlin 1955, ISBN 3-428-00183-4, p. 693 ( Digitized ).
  • Henry Keazor: Theodore De Bry’s Images for America. In: Print Quarterly. Band 15, no. 2, (June) 1998, pp. 131–149.
  • Henry Keazor: ‚Charting the autobiographical, selfregarding subject‘? Theodor De Brys Selbstbildnis. In: Report, tell, master – perception and representation in the early colonial history of Europe. Edited by Susanna Burghartz, Maike Christadler and Dorothea Nolde (= Time jumps – research into the early modern period. Band 7, Heft 2/3), Frankfurt am Main 2003, S. 395–428.
  • Jennifer Speake: Literature of Travel and Exploration: Vol. 1, A to F , Fitzroy Dearborn (Hrsg.), Taylor & Francis Books Inc., New York 2003 Extract pages 134-135: Theodor de Bry and Catherine Esslinger
  • Traveling to Oriental India: Knowledge about foreign worlds around 1600, Dorothee Schmidt, Cologne, Weimar Vienna 2016.
  • Andrea Ubrizsy: Contribution to the knowledge of the works of Clusius. Istor, vol. 28, No. 4 (October 1975), pp. 361–370, stable URL: JSTOR: 23632092
  1. ↑ Attention: risk of confusion with his son of the same name
  2. ↑ See weblink biography Théodore de Brys in the art collection of the University of Liège
  3. ↑ Albrecht Sauer: Another stroke of luck for the bibothek: acquisition of the “big travel” (1590–1634) from the publishing house de Bry. In: German shipping 2011, H. 2., p. 21 f. With directory of the 8 titles acquired.
  4. ↑ Pérez, Joseph, The black legend of Spain , Parais 2009, ISBN 978-2-213-64304-5
  5. ↑ Katharina is named as co -editor of Jean Errard’s illustrated books