The Illustrated Bartsch

The Illustrated Bartsch collection offers more than 50,000 images of Old Master European prints (engravings, etchings, woodcuts, etc.) from the 15th Century to the early 19th Century, embodying the work of hundreds of printmakers. This collection should be of value to a wide range of scholars, ranging from specialists in European prints to students of early modern European history, as well as religious, social, and political iconography. The collection is derived from one of the great art reference publications of the past quarter century, The Illustrated Bartsch (96 volumes, Norwalk, CT, Abaris Books, 1978 - ). The inspiration of General Editor Walter L. Strauss (1922 - 1988), himself a distinguished scholar in the field of 16th-century German prints, The Illustrated Bartsch is based on Adam von Bartsch's (1757-1821) authoritative but unillustrated catalog of Old Master prints. The digitized collection presently offers all of the images (scanned mostly from 5x7 in. black-and-white photographic prints, made directly from the original prints) and cataloging information found in this authoritative reference work.