Lucas Jennis

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Lucas Jennis (born May 30, 1590 in Frankfurt am Main ; † after 1630; also: Lukas Jenis , Ihenis, also Laux Jenisch) was a German book printer , publisher , art dealer and engraver .

Life

Lucas Jennis was born in Frankfurt in 1590. His father of the same name Lucas Jennis (addition: the elder) (1575–1606), a wealthy Calvinist goldsmith , jeweler and copper engraver from Brussels , had left his home in the former Spanish Netherlands because of the religious handicap and persecution of the Calvinists and ruled in the Lutheran style Frankfurt recording found. After the death of his father († 1606 in Frankfurt) his mother married Johann Israel de Bry from the well-known Calvinist engraver and publisher family de Bry .

Lucas Jennis had studied engraving with the de Brys. He was 19 years old when his stepfather Johann Israel died in December 1609. His brother Johann Theodor de Bry had already left Frankfurt that summer and moved to Oppenheim . Lucas followed him and began a lively bookselling relationship with the printer publisher Baltasar Moretus in Antwerp, who continued the printing company founded in 1555 by his father-in-law Christoph Plantin . In 1616 Jennis started his own book publisher with two works that he had printed by Hieronymus Galler .

Jennis married the sister of the painter and engraver Joachim Sandrart , who like him belonged to the second generation of Calvinist Dutch immigrants in Frankfurt.

Contemporaries describe Jennis as a very likeable and charitable person with a talent for vivid copperplate engravings that can hardly be surpassed. It is controversial whether he was a member of the Rosicrucian Movement ; some assume it, others think it is unlikely. Many well-known alchemists and philosophers belonged to his close circle of friends such as Basilius Valentinus , Nicolas Barnaud , Johannes Daniel Mylius , Daniel Stolcius , Robert Fludd , John Dee and last but not least Michael Maier .

Works

The dragon Ouroboros in the alchemical work De Lapide Philosophico , published in 1625 by Lucas Jennis in Frankfurt

Lucas Jennis lived in insecure and intolerant times and, as a second generation Calvinist religious refugee, used the lower personal risk conditions in Frankfurt and Oppenheim for his work. This also applied to other specialized publishers, so that drawings that are several hundred years old and deal with occult , religious or philosophical topics originate to a large extent in the publishing houses de Bry, Matthäus Merian , Widow Hulsius or Lucas Jennis. Jennis was considered to be one of the greatest engravers of his time and was known for the alchemical and philosophical texts he published and which were entirely or partially engraved. Most of the emblem texts that appeared at the time come from him.

Around 1625, Jennis felt his interest in the occult sciences and turned increasingly to topographical prints and Bible illustrations.

Among the better-known books published by Lucas Jennis are:

  • Wise's water stone - or chemical treatise
  • De Lapide Philosophico
  • Musaeum Hermeticum , 1625
  • Philosophia Mystica: The Prophecies of the Prophet Daniel
  • Viridarium chymicum, 1624
  • Chymic pleasure garden, 1624
  • Tripus Aureus, Frankfurt am Main, 1618 (publisher Michael Maier, with the 12 keys of Basilius Valentinus)
  • Viatorium Spagyricum, 1625 (?)
  • Dyas chymica tripartita, 1625 (including the book by Alze and Lambspring)
  • Harmoniae Inperscrutabilis Chymico-Philosophicae
  • Das Artis Auriferae, 1613, (The Art of Making Gold)
  • Philosophia reformata, 1622

Authors

The list of alchemical authors published by Jennis with number and year:

literature

  • Josef Benzing : The book printing to Oppenheim . In: Hans Licht (ed.): Oppenheim, history of an old imperial city (on the occasion of the 750th anniversary of the city elevation) . Oppenheim 1975, p. 163–167 (Dr. Martin Held Foundation).
  • Ingrid Höpel, Ulrich Kuder (eds.): Mundus symbolicus: Emblem books from the Wolfgang J. Müller collection, p. 78 ( limited preview on Google Books ).
  • Edith Trenczak: Lucas Jennis as a publisher of alchemical picture treatises. Gutenberg Yearbook, 1965, pp. 324–337.

Web links

Commons : Lucas Jennis  - Collection of images, videos and audio files

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Baptism date
  2. ^ A b Walther Karl Zülch: Frankfurter Künstler, 1223-1700. 1967, pp. 390 and 613.
  3. ↑ see web link Höpel & Kuder: Mundus symbolicus
  4. ↑ a b c see web link Mödersheim: Domini Doctrina Coronat
  5. ↑ Article in English Wikipedia
  6. ↑ see literature Josef Benzing: Der Buchdruck zu Oppenheim
  7. ↑ a b c see web link Lucas Jennis, brief consideration of his work
  8. ↑ Wise's Water Stone. New edition from 1760.
  9. ↑ on the identity of the name see here at Friedrich Seck: On the 400th birthday of Wilhelm Schickard
personal data
SURNAME Jennis, Lucas
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Jennis, Lukas; Ihenis, Lukas; Jenisch, Laux; Lucas Iennisius
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German publisher, printer, art dealer and engraver
DATE OF BIRTH May 30, 1590
PLACE OF BIRTH Frankfurt am Main
DATE OF DEATH after 1630