Typographorum Emblemata

Justyna Kiliańczyk-Zięba

The Transition of the Printer’s Device from a Sign of Identification to a Symbol of Aspirations and Beliefs

Gutenberg and early printers produced their publications for a readership living in an “environment of great visual and significatory complexity”,830 where signs, images and symbols formed an important part of everyday communication. Coats of arms, personal blasons, badges and devices proliferated, as did merchants’ marks (Hausmarken) commonly used by tradesmen and craftsmen. Merchants’ marks – usually simple combinations of lines forming e. g. crosses or the figure four and including the owners’ initials or flanked by them – were similar to other contemporary symbols of recognition in that they could serve as signs ...