Dílna českobudějovického knihvazače Jana Benešovského

The bookbinding workshops operating in Bohemia and Moravia in the Jagiellonian period are often recorded in the Einbanddatenbank database; however, their location is usually not detailed. The first bookbinder documented in České Budějovice was Jan Benešovský (Hans Peneschauer). The study shows that Jan Benešovský can be very likely ascribed to a group of bindings from the workshop to which Einbanddatenbank attaches the Notname Lilien-Palmette II. The binding tools (32 stamps) helped to identify a total of 33 volumes that were bound by the workshop between the late 1470s and 1517. The provenance analysis of these manuscripts and early printed books determined beyond any doubt that the workshop had operated in the largest town in South Bohemia. The motif analysis of the workshop tools and the analysis of the compositional schemes of the decoration show that Jan Benešovský’s workshop would not yet adopt the Renaissance style of decoration. Further mapping of the activities of workshops outside Prague will hopefully clarify whether they were involved in the sale of printed books as actively as Jan Benešovský.