Notizbuch Kaiser Ferdinands I.; 5 Tafeln

The notebook was once owned by King (Emperor) Ferdinand I, whose initial is mounted on the front cover together with that of his wife, Anna Jagiellon. The inside cover is magnificently embellished with Ferdinand’s coat of arms, crowned and surrounded by the collar of the Order of the Golden Fleece. Significantly, his rulership over the kingdoms of Bohemia and Hungary is emphasized. The escutcheon contains the arms of the kingdoms of Castile, Aragon and León as well as the Austrian hereditary lands in a clear statement of the Habsburg ruler’s claim to power. The inside back cover shows an architectural perspective scene that according to the inscription was executed by the miniature painter Johann (also Joseph) Minsinger. The buildings depicted have been identified by several scholars as representing parts of the castle at Prague, where King Ferdinand I resided as Bohemian king from 1526. Inside are five slate tablets for writing on, bound with thread stitching. They still bear the traces of a text written in Spanish by the monarch referring to shortcomings in the administration and their elimination. Spanish was the archduke’s mother tongue; born in Madrid, he did not set foot on Austrian soil until 1521 and struggled with German for a long time. The writing implement, now lost, was a piece of chalk or a coloured pencil which could be stored in the hinged recess concealed beneath the pale blue tower. This magnificent notebook passed by inheritance to Archduke Ferdinand II, who preserved it in memory of his father in the book cupboard of the Ambras Kunstkammer.