Ashmolean The Elements of Drawing, John Ruskin’s teaching collection at Oxford

The precise arrangement of the objects in this cabinet is difficult to determine, as Ruskin has left no record beyond the statement that these are 'Portions of the woodcuts by Hans Burgkmair, representing the Triumph of Maximilian I.' However - as noted by Hewison in his edition of the Rudimentary catalogues - only seven of the prints in this cabinet are actually from the "Triumph". The other prints are from Mair's "Bericht und antzeigen, der loblichen Statt Augspurg"; numbering fourteen in total, they neatly occupy seven of the frames in the cabinet if arranged in pairs, leaving six free to hold the prints from the 'Triumph'. Assuming that the arrangement of the prints as bound into volumes in the Ashmolean accurately reflects their actual arrangement in the frames, then nos. 26 to 28 and 36 to 38 were from the "Triumph", and 29 to 35 were from the "Bericht". However, this arrangement is at odds with Hewison's: he omitted the current WA.RS.RUD.026-028, and distributed the figures from the "Bericht" across ten frames, sometimes singly and sometimes with two items per frame, following the sequence of the illustrations in the original book, which differs from the arrangement in the Ashmolean volumes. The latter is followed in this catalogue, as more likely to be closer to Ruskin's arrangement.

Although Hewison cites a 1510 edition of the "Bericht", there is a reference on p. 55 (i.e. the verso of Rudimentary Series 35 a) to events of 1538. The edition from which these prints are taken is therefore presumably that of 1550, although this is described as 'folio' in the catalogues of the British Library and Bodleian, whereas these sheets seem more likely to be described as quarto.