Border from Seven Blocks and Printer's Mark of Bertholde Rembolt c. 16th century

Editor: This is a woodcut border, anonymous but with the printer's mark of Bertholde Rembolt. It’s brimming with these intricate little scenes and text. I find the elephant carrying what looks like a lantern on its back especially intriguing. What do you see in this piece? Curator: Oh, this border is a whole universe in itself! It’s bursting with Renaissance ideas. See how the elephant, a symbol of wisdom and strength, carries the printer's mark? It tells you that even knowledge bears a certain…illumination, doesn't it? What do you make of the figures flanking it? Editor: I hadn’t thought of the elephant that way. I guess they’re sort of like witnesses to this… procession of knowledge? Curator: Precisely! It's a dance between the sacred and the secular, inviting us to ponder the weight and the wonder of the printed word.