Collection Summary
Otto H. F. Vollbehr Collection of Printers' and Publishers' Marks 1490-1820
1536-1699
1490-1820
1536-1699
RB015001
Library of Congress. Rare Book and Special Collections Division
21 containers
Linear feet of shelf space occupied: 8.4
Approximate number of items: 15,000
English.
Collection material is primarily in Latin
Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress
Washington, D.C.
The Otto H. F. Vollbehr Collection of Printers' and Publishers' includes samples of such in nearly all of the major European countries. They chronicle the early example of printing through the seventeenth century.
Selected Search Terms
The following terms have been used to index the description of this collection in the LC Catalog. They are grouped by name of person or organization, by subject or location, and by occupation and listed alphabetically.
People
Vollbehr, Otto H. F. (Otto Heinrich Friederich), 1869-1946
Völcker, Georg
Subjects
Colophons--Specimens.
Engraving--Printing--Specimens.
Imprints (Publishers' and printers' statements)--Specimens.
Printers' marks--Specimens.
Title pages--Specimens.
Wood-engraving--Printing--Specimens.
Titles
Printers' and publishers' marks
Vollbehr collection of printers' and publishers' marks
Form/Genre
Engravings.
Woodcuts.
Provenance
Otto Vollbehr, the donor of this collection, was a German industrialist whose family had made a fortune in the dyestuff industry; he took up book collecting when his physician recommended that he adopt a hobby following a railway accident which left him with a serious nervous condition. In addition to collecting books he acquired “ready-made” collections of 15th-18th century book illustrations and of printers’ marks, which Vollbehr gave to the Library of Congress in 1928.
Processing History
This collection was put together by Georg Völcker, who organized the collection and inserted full-page printed dividers bearing his name. The printers’ marks, (for the most part single leaves and cuttings) were hinged to stiff paper backings, which had become quite brittle and have been removed. Multiple hinges on the backs of the leaves and evidence of earlier paper backings make it clear that Völcker’s collection was in part assembled from additional ready-made collections.
Single items in the collection were used occasionally for staff presentations, but the collection was not otherwise processed until 2010.
Copyright Status
The status of copyright in the Otto H. F. Vollbehr Collection of Printers' and Publishers' Marks is governed by the Copyright Law of the United States (Title 17, U.S.C.)
Access and Restrictions
The Otto H. F. Vollbehr Collection of Printers’ and Publishers’ Marks is open to research. Researchers are advised to contact the Rare Book and Special Collections Reading Room prior to visiting.
Preferred Citation
Researchers wishing to cite this collection should include the following information: Container number, Otto H. F. Vollbehr Collection of Printers’ and Publishers’ Marks, Rare Book and Special Collections Division, Library of Congress, Washington, D.C.
Scope and Content Note
The Printers' and Publishers' Marks Collection of Otto Vollbehr (1872-1945) spans the years 1490-1820, with the bulk of the material dating from 1536-1699. The specimens are organized into a single alphabetical series, by country, city, printer, and date.
The content of the volumes from which they were taken, to infer from the title pages, is primarily religious or legal. It is likely that these title pages and other cuttings were taken from volumes that were destined to be discarded; many of them are stamped as duplicates.
[
Printers’ and Publishers’ Marks
](series1)
Arrangement of the Records
This collection is arranged in 1 series:
- Printers’ and Publishers’ Marks (1536-1699)
Container List
Container
Contents
1 through 21
Printers’ and Publishers’ Marks, 1490-1820
1490-1820
Arrangement of the records:
Cities are associated with their current political unit (i.e., Gdansk is in Poland, not Germany.) Names of countries and cities are rendered in English (i.e., Cologne, not Köln.) Those marks which lack identifying information are filed at the end of whatever category for which there is information (i.e., a title page that lacks a date, but has country, city, and printer, is filed at the end of the examples of that printer’s work.)
The collection is arranged alphabetically by country, city, printer, and date.
1
Austria
Graz, Salzburg, Steyr, Vienna
Belgium
Antwerp, Bruges, Brussels, Ghent, Liege, Louvain, Mons, Ypres
Czech Republic
Carlsbad, Prague, Trappau
Denmark
Copenhagen
England
Birmingham, Cambridge, Eton, London, Oxford
2
France A-V (except Lyon and Paris)
Amberes, Angers, Arran, Avignon, Bordeaux, Bouillon, Caen, Carpentras, Dijon, Douai, Firmi, Gaii, Goa, Grenoble, La Rochelle, Liege, Lille, Limoges, Lisieux, Marseilles, Metz, Mons, Montpellier, Nancy, Nantes, Nice, Orange, Orleans, Pézenas, Poitiers, Pont-á-Mousson, Reims, Rennes, Rouen, St. Germain, Saumur, Soissons, Tetonville, Toulouse, Tournon, Tours, Trevoux, Troyes, Valence, Ville-Franche
3
France
Lyon
4
France
Paris
5
Germany A-C
Altdorf, Altenberg, Altona, Amberg, Augsberg, Bamberg, Bautzen, Bayreuth, Berlenburg, Berlin, Blankenburg, Braidenberg, Braunschweig, Bremen, Breslau, Büdingen, Bützow, Carlsbad, Celle, Coburg, Cologne, Colmar
6
Germany D-G (except Frankfurt)
Darmstadt, Dessau, Dessavia, Dresden, Duisberg, Düsseldorf, Eichstadt, Eisenach, Eisleben, Erfurt, Erlangen, Esslingen, Frankenthal, Frankfurt am Oder, Freiberg, Freiburg im Breslau, Freisengen, Geldern, Gera, Giessen, Görlitz, Goslar, Gotha, Göttingen, Greisswald, Groningen, Grottkau
7
Germany
Frankfurt
8
Germany H-K
Hagenau, Halberstadt, Halle, Hamburg, Hanau, Hanover, Heidelberg, Helmstadt, Herborn, Hermanstadt, Hildberghausen, Hof in Bayern, Idstein, Ingolstadt, Jena, Karlsruhe, Kassel, Kempten, Königsberg, Konstanz
9
Germany, L-M
Landau, Landshut, Lauingen, Leipzig, Lemgo, Liegnitz, Lübeck, Ludwigsburg, Luneberg, Magdeburg, Mainz, Mannheim, Marburg, Meiningen, Mengeringhausen, Mühlhausen, Munich, Neuberg an der Danau, Münster
10
Germany, N-S
Neuberg an der Danen, Nuremberg, Oettingen, Offenbach, Onolsbach, Oppenheim, Osnabruck, Passau, Pedeponti, Pforzheim, Posen, Quedlinburg, Raufbeuren, Regensburg, Reutlingen, Rinteln, Rodelheim,
Rostock, Schleswig, Schlettstadt, Siegen, Solingen, Speyer, Stettin, Stralsund, Strassburg, Straubing, Stuttgart, Sulzbach
11
Germany, T-Z
Trier, Tübingen, Ulm, Uelsen, Wahrenberg, Wandsbeck, Weimar, Weinheim, Weissenburg, Weissenfels, Wesel, Wittenberg, Wolffenbüttel, Worms, Würzburg, Zerbst, Zulichau, Zweibrücken, Zwickau
Hungary
Budapest, Eger
Ireland
Dublin
12
Italy, A-Fe
Alexandria, Alvisopoli, Amiterm, Ancona, Aquila, Arezzo, Bassono, Belluno, Bergamo, Bevagna, Bologna, Bracciano, Brescia, Cagliari, Camerino, Campania, Carpoi, Carrara, Cassalmaggiore, Catona, Cesena, Cheraseo, Como, Cremona, Cuneo, Este, Faenza, Fano, Fermo, Ferrara
13
Italy, Fl-M
Florence, Foligno. Forli, Fossamprone, Genoa, Gorizia, Guastalla, Gubbio, Imola, Jesi, Livorno, Loreto, Lucca, Lugano, Macerata, Mantua, Massa, Messina, Milan, Modena, Monteregali, Montisfuscoli
14
Italy, Ν-Ri
Naples, Orvieto, Padua, Palermo, Parma, Pavia, Perugia, Pesaro, Piacenza, Piombino, Pisa, Pistoia, Ravenna, Reconate, Reggio, Rimini
15
Italy, Ro
Rome, Roveredo
16
Italy, S-V (except Venice)
Siena, Sora, Terni, Turin, Udino, Urbino, Vercelli, Verona, Vicenza, Viterbo
17
Italy
Venice, A-L
18
Italy
Venice, M-Z
19
Luxembourg
Netherlands, A-H
Amsterdam, Arnheim, Delft, Deventer, Dordrecht, the Hague
20
Netherlands, L-Z
Leyden, Maestricht, Nijmegen, Rotterdam, Utrecht, Zutphen
Poland
Bunzlau, Gdansk, Krakow
Portugal
Coimbra, Lisbon
Scotland
Edinburgh
Slovakia
Trnava
Spain
Alcala, Baeja, Barcelona, Cadiz, Caragoca, Cartusia Maioricarum, Gerona, Grenada, Madrid, Medina del Campo, Orihuela, Salamanca, Saragossa, Segovia, Seville, Toledo, Valencia, Valladolid
21
Sweden
Lund, Stockholm, Uppsala
Switzerland
Basel, Bern, Biel, Einsiedeln, Geneva, Lausanne, Yverdon, Zurich
Ukraine
Lemberg
Unidentified