SŁOWNO-WIZUALNY SYGNET ERHARDA RATDOLTA NA TLE WCZEŚNIEJSZYCH PRAKTYK WYDAWNICZYCH
The Verbal–Visual Printer’s Device of Erhard Ratdolt in the Context of Earlier Publishing Practices

Summary/Abstract: This article examines and discusses the complex printer’s mark employed by the Augsburg printer Erhard Ratdolt from 1490 onward. In many respects, his mark was of a pioneering nature as the composition emerged from the combination of a concise epigram, functioning as a substitute for the traditional colophon, and a symbolic woodcut that, on the one hand, drew upon heraldic conventions and, on the other, derived its meaning from astrology. It was also the first devices to be regarded as an autonomous composition, which Ratdolt consistently impressed on a separate page, thereby highlighting it and accentuating its structural role within the book. His device exemplifies the innovations introduced by printers and publishers during the formative period of the printed book, when manuscript conventions were gradually being abandoned. Despite its markedly innovative character, it nonetheless engaged with a range of earlier traditions known from both manuscripts and incunabula. To clarify the origins of Ratdolt’s mark, the initial section of the article outlines two essential components of book structure: explicits and printer’s devices. The conclusion highlights the possible influence of “versified devices” on the emergence of the more widespread verbal–visual paratextual forms of the stemma and the emblem.

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