Sebastian Vierheilig

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Johann Sebastian Georg Vierheilig (born May 8, 1762 in Würzburg ; † January 6, 1805 there ) was a German university bookbinder in Würzburg.

Family relationships

Sebastian Vierheilig came from a family of Würzburg university bookbinders. His father (Johann) Jacob Vierheilig (1721–1793) had moved from Mainz and had married Maria Barbara, the daughter of the university bookbinder Georg Joseph Fesenmeyer, on June 16, 1749, and acquired citizenship, having previously presented his masterpiece on June 2 would have. After the death of his father Sebastian acquired on 14. August 1794 , the civil rights . On May 8, 1797 , he married Barbara Striefler (born 1772), the daughter of the Würzburg master shoemaker Caspar Striefler and Magdalena, geb. Zorn, from Mergentheim. The couple had four children. Sebastian Vierheilig died of pneumonia on January 6, 1805 in Würzburg and was buried on the same day. Vierheilig lived in the (Domer) Pfaffengasse, today's Bibrastraße.

Live and act

Sebastian showed great talent for drawing from an early age. While his older brothers were studying theology and law , his father taught him in his own workshop . Then Sebastian went on the prescribed years of travel as a journeyman . According to the Würzburg bookbinding regulations , three years of wandering were required after the three-year apprenticeship, followed by one year of work with two local masters. For master sons - as far as Sebastian was concerned - the traveling time was shortened to two years and the working year was omitted. No archival evidence has yet been found about the years of travel. It is therefore not known in which countries he was staying. He was almost certainly in Vienna .

After returning to Würzburg, Sebastian worked in his father's workshop. After his death he was given the job of university bookbinder on May 22, 1794 . Now he used the different techniques of cover decoration that he had got to know on his wanderings and introduced his own style into the cover design. It consisted in the introduction of the classical decor , for which the terminology "Etruscan Style" is used. This type of cover decoration appeared in England in the 18th century and is an example of the reception of antiquity , which at that time was influenced by various influences (e.g. the collection of antique vases by the English ambassador in Naples, Sir William Hamilton , the picture cycles by the draftsman John Flaxman and Josiah Wedgwoods porcelain ).

Vierheilig invented a technique of adding classic figures to the book cover , a combination of etching and pen drawing on a stenciled central field. He kept this secret. He also equipped books with the painting of the cut in so-called fore-edge painting . Here, a painting is applied to the obliquely pressed book block, which cannot be seen under a gilt edge when it is straightened. Sebastian Vierheilig was the first bookbinder in Germany to practice this technique.

Due to the innovative technique of binding design he used and developed to perfection, Sebastian Vierheilig assumed an outstanding position as a German bookbinder around 1800. He had a large customer base at home and abroad, including Russia.

Numerous bindings from Vierheilig's workshop can be found in the Würzburg University Library . The Würzburg City Archives have the "Foundation letter of the Hueberspflege Foundation" (Ratsbuch 380), an extremely beautiful binding by Sebastian Vierheilig, which he signed with his name.

Workshop succession

Vierheilig's workshop continued to work after his untimely death, initially under the direction of the widow Barbara Vierheilig. She married her journeyman Stephan Ringelmann on November 19, 1805 , after he had become a master. However, he died in 1809 . Barbara Ringelmann, now widowed for the second time, ran the business again with the help of a journeyman, Franz von Paula Schwerdtlen. The business remained in the family: Franz Xaver Vierheilig, Sebastian's grandson and his son Georg were also bookbinders and, like their ancestors, worked for the university.

Literature and Sources

  • Angelika Pabel: "... To what extent my invention deserves some merit ..." The Würzburg bookbinder Sebastian Vierheilig (1762–1805) . In: Binding Research . No. 40 , 2017, p. 36-47 .
  • Angelika Pabel: Würzburg cover with Fore-Edge-Painting in the University and State Library Darmstadt . In: Binding Research . No. 37 , 2015, p. 27-30 .
  • Imprint, fold and onion fish. 525 years of book printing and book binding in Würzburg . Ergon, Würzburg 2004, ISBN 3-89913-366-8 .
  • Heinrich Endres: The Würzburg university bookbinders of the 18th century . In: Festschrift Ernst Kyriss . Hettler, Stuttgart 1961, p. 361-373 .
  • New Franconian Chronicle . Bonitas, Würzburg 1808, p. 387-388 , col. 726-728 ( bsb-muenchen.de ).
  • Gabriel Christoph Benjamin Busch : Handbook of Inventions. Second part. From painting to butter churn . Johann Georg Ernst Wittekindt, 1804, p. 269 ( onb.ac.at ).
  • Supplement to Nro. 121 of the Frankfurter Kaiserl. Reichs-Ober-Post-Amts-Zeitung . July 30, 1798.

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ↑ Death note , University Library Würzburg M.ch.f. 660-8, p. 183b
  2. ↑ Entry in the citizens' register (Würzburg City Archives, Ratsbuch 218, p. 584r)
  3. ^ Heinrich Endres: The Würzburger Buchbinderordnung in the version of March 21, 1682. In: Archiv für Buchbinderei 37 (1937) pp. 55–56, 62–64
  4. ^ Carl Jefferson Weber: Fore-edge painting: a historical survey of a curious art in book decoration. Irvington-on-Hudson, NY, 1966
  5. ^ Heinrich Endres: The Würzburg university bookbinders of the 18th century. In: Festschrift Ernst Kyriss. Stuttgart 1961
personal data
SURNAME Vierheilig, Sebastian
ALTERNATIVE NAMES Vierheilig, Johann Sebastian Georg
BRIEF DESCRIPTION German bookbinder
DATE OF BIRTH May 8, 1762
PLACE OF BIRTH Wurzburg
DATE OF DEATH January 6, 1805
Place of death Wurzburg