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Theodor de Bry | |
|---|---|
 Engraved self-portrait of Theodorus de Bry[1] | |
| Born | 1528 |
| Died | 27 March 1598 (aged 69–70) |
| Known for | Engraving |
| Notable work | Collectiones peregrinatiorum in Indiam orientalem et Indiam occidentalem (1590–1633) |
Theodor de Bry (alsoTheodorus de Bry) (1528 – 27 March 1598) was anengraver,goldsmith,editor and publisher, famous for his depictions of earlyEuropean expeditions to the Americas. TheSpanish Inquisition forced de Bry,[citation needed] aProtestant, to flee his native,Spanish-controlledSouthern Netherlands. He moved around Europe, starting from his birth on the city ofLiège in thePrince-Bishopric of Liège, then toStrasbourg,Antwerp,London andFrankfurt, where he settled.
De Bry created a large number of engraved illustrations for his books. Most of his books were based on first-hand observations by explorers, even if De Bry himself, acting as a recorder of information, never visited the Americas. To modern eyes, many of the illustrations seem formal but detailed.
Theodorus de Bry was born in 1528 inLiège,Prince-Bishopric of Liège (in modernBelgium), to a family which had escaped the destruction of the city ofDinant in 1466 during theWars of Liège by the Duke of Burgundy,Philip the Good and his sonCharles the Bold. As a man he trained under his grandfather, Thiry de Bry the Elder (died 1528), and under his father,Thiry de Bry the Younger (1495–1590), who were jewellers and engravers, engraving copper plates. The art of copper plate engraving was the technology required at that time for printing images and drawings as part of books. In 1524 Thiry de Bry the Younger married Catherine le Blavier, daughter of Conrad le Blavier de Jemeppe. Their son, Theodore de Bry, also became a jeweller and engraver.
Theodore de Bry became a Protestant, and in 1570 was sentenced to perpetual banishment and his goods were confiscated.[2] He moved toStrasbourg, along the west bank of theRhine. In 1577, he moved toAntwerp in theDuchy of Brabant, which was part of the Spanish Netherlands orSouthern Netherlands andLow Countries of that time (16th century), where he further developed and used his skills as a copper engraver. Between 1585 and 1588 he lived in London, where he met the geographerRichard Hakluyt and began to collect stories and illustrations of various European explorations, most notably fromJacques Le Moyne de Morgues.
In 1588, Theodorus and his family moved permanently to Frankfurt-am-Main, where he became a citizen and began to plan his first publications. The most famous one is known asLes Grands Voyages, i.e., "The Great Travels", or "The Discovery of America". He also published the largely identicalIndia Orientalis series, as well as many other illustrated works on a wide range of subjects. His books were published in Latin, and were also translated into German, English and French to reach a wider reading public.
In 1590 Theodorus de Bry and his sons published a new, illustrated edition ofThomas Harriot'sA Briefe and True Report of the New Found Land of Virginia about the first English settlements in North America (in modern-dayNorth Carolina). His illustrations were based on the watercolor paintings of colonistJohn White.[4] The book sold well, and the next year de Bry published a new one about the first French attempts to colonize Florida:Fort Caroline, founded byJean Ribault andRené de Laudonnière. It featured 43 illustrations based on paintings ofJacques Le Moyne de Morgues, one of the few survivors of Fort Caroline. The images and descriptions feature theTimucuans.[5] Jacques de Moyne had planned to publish his account of his expeditions but died in 1587. According to de Bry's account, he had bought de Moyne's paintings from his widow in London and used them as a basis for the engravings.
He and his sonJohn-Theodore made adjustments to both the texts and the illustrations of the original accounts, on the one hand in function of his own understanding of Le Moyne's paintings, and, most importantly, to please potential buyers. The Latin and German editions varied markedly, in accordance with the differences in estimated readership.
The verisimilitude of many of de Bry's illustrations is questionable; not least because he never crossed the Atlantic.Amerindians look like Mediterranean Europeans, and illustrations mix different tribal customs and artifacts. In addition to day-to-day life of the American natives, Theodore de Bry even included a few depictions ofcannibalism; largely thanks to the accounts ofAmerigo Vespucci this was already a very common element in images showing apersonification of the Americas. All in all, the vast amount of these illustrations and texts influenced the European perception of the New World, Africa, and Asia.
Among other works he engraved a set of twelve plates illustrating theProcession of theKnights of the Garter in 1587, and a set of thirty-four plates illustrating theProcession at the Obsequies of SirPhilip Sidney; plates forThomas Harriot'sBrief and True Report of the New Found Land ofVirginia (Frankfurt, 1590); the plates for the six volumes ofJean-Jacques Boissard'sRomanae Urbis Topogrephia et Antiquitates (1597–1602); and, with Boissard, a series of 100 portraits and biographies of humanists and Protestants entitledIcones Virorum Illustrium (1597–1599).[6]
De Bry had been assisted by his two sons,Johann Theodor de Bry (1561–1623) and Johann Israel de Bry (1565–1609), who after their father's death in Frankfurt-am-Main on 27 March 1598, carried on theCollectiones (expanded to voyages in Asia, reaching 30 volumes) and the illustration of Boissard's work and also added to theIcones[6] and other significant publications, like Robert Fludd's works on the microcosm and macrocosm.
His work and engravings can today be consulted at many museums around the world, including Liège, his birthplace, and at Brussels in Belgium. In France, they are housed at the Library of the Marine Historical Service at theChâteau de Vincennes on the outskirt of Paris. In the US, there are copies at the Public Library of New York, at the University of California at Los Angeles, and elsewhere. In Argentina, it is possible to find copies at the Museo Maritimo deUshuaia in Tierra del Fuego and at the Navy Department of Historic Studies in Buenos Aires. In Scotland, eleven titles are listed in the catalogue of Edinburgh University Library (Special Collections).
One or more of the preceding sentences incorporates text from a publication now in thepublic domain: Chisholm, Hugh, ed. (1911). "Bry, Theodorus".Encyclopædia Britannica. Vol. 4 (11th ed.). Cambridge University Press. p. 697.
