Jan Targoyn: introligator poznański ery Odrodzenia
Jan Targoyn: Poznań-based bookbinder of the Renaissance era

Summary/Abstract: Abstract. Aim: the present article discusses the operation of the workshop of masterbookbinder Jan Targoyn – one of the most important, though still not properly recog-nised, Poznań-based bookbinder of the Renaissance era. Methods: using new approachesto bookbinding studies, the author discusses 40 book bindings produced by the workshopin question. Additionally, the bookbinding tools used by the workshop are also briefly scru-tinised. Conclusions: as a result of a close study of the historical material available, theoperation of the Targoyn workshop indicated in the literature of the subject and spanningthe years 1534–1544, should be expanded by at least one more decade, i.e. until the halfof the 1560s. The bulk of the bindings attributed to Targoyn is based on the material anddecorative solutions typical for and widespread in other bookbinderies in Poznań at thetime that draw inspiration and ready-made patterns from Renaissance German bookbind-ing techniques. Similarly, the tools used by Targoyn throughout his professional careerwere of the same provenance. The latter, used for decorative bookbinding, also enter intothe ornamentation repertoire typical for the then Poznań-based bookbinders. Moreover,a large part of them have their numerous, frequently even identical, counterparts that in-distinguishably resembled toolkits of tracing wheels and finishing tools (fer a dorers) usedin the Targoyn’s workshop.

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