Two weeks after my post on tournaments, I have come across a few more prints on this subject, kept in a different location. Among Douce’s ‘miscellaneous woodcuts’, there are five hand-coloured illustrations taken from Ordenliche Beschreybung der Fürstlichen Hochzeyt… (Augsburg, 1568) by Heinrich Wirre:
Jousting was just one of the elements involved in any decent public celebration in the sixteenth century, as a quick look at the digitized copy of Wirre’s work in the Bayerische Staatsbibliothek makes clear:
Ordenliche Beschreybung der Fürstlichen Hochzeyt…
The prints owned by Douce are five pages from the book, cut and pasted on large cardboard mounts. In the example below, two horsemen wearing heavy padding and feathered baskets that cover their heads face each other (sort of) in the field of honour:
In Douce’s book of acquisitions, or Collecta, there is an entry that refers to a ‘German tournament book’ given to him by ‘Mr Ellis’ (probably Henry Ellis, Keeper of Printed Books at the British Museum) in February 1823. The book could be either of the two copies from Douce’s bequest now in the Bodleian (Douce W subt. 62 and Douce W. 261).