EN
Maciej Wirzbięta was a Calvinistic printer active in Cracow in the years 1555-1605. Throughout the period his publishing house operated, Wirzbięta consistently marked his books with a device representing a willow-tree. This was an obvious reference to the printer’s surname (the Polish word wierzba meaning willow-tree), and it provides an example from Poland of the then widely practiced application of puns among printers. It may, therefore, appear that the meaning of Maciej Wirzbięta’s device can be deciphered in a straightforward manner without seeking references to the Bible, Greek or Roman heritage, mediaeval compendia, emblem books or any of the many other sources of knowledge from which publishers frequently drew inspiration to create their devices. The device under discussion does, however, refer to the symbolic language of the Renaissance. It is possible to find Mediaeval illuminations and 16th-century engravings whose composition and content invoke associations with the woodcuts from Wirzbięta’s press.