Following in the footsteps of Friedrich Hollstein, who began producing volumes on the German school (in 1954) five years after his first volume on the Dutch and Flemish artists, Sound & Vision’s first volume of The New Hollstein German series followed three years after the first volume in the accompanying new series. Users of the other new series were familiar with the editors’ objectives, namely to update and perfect the information contained in the old volumes compiled by Friedrich Hollstein (1888-1957) himself. The improvements of the Hollstein series in recent years made the shortcomings of the early volumes unacceptable. Only about one-quarter of the catalogued prints were illustrated in them. This alone was enough to make the early volumes obsolete. Moreover, all the serious users agree that the information they contain is often incomplete and sometimes inaccurate.

The editorial board, which today consists exclusively of keepers of important German, British and Dutch print collections: Guilia Bartrum (The British Museum), Hans-Martin Kaulbach (Staatsgalerie Stuttgart), Ger Luijten (Rijksmuseum Amsterdam), Christiane Wiebel (Kunstsammlungen der Veste Coburg), is to entrust the research to German authors of choice. Often with alternate contributions being made by guest compilers who are experts on specific artists. Recently Rainer Schoch of the Germanisches National Museum joined this team.

It is well known that in German workshops specialisation as a designer or as an engraver/cutter affected the production of woodcuts far more than that of intaglio printmaking. Accordingly, the volume with intaglio prints after the designs by Hans von Aachen will not be followed by many more along the same lines, as is the case for the Dutch & Flemish series. The role of the woodcutters in the production of woodblocks after designs by Jost Amman and Lukas Cranach the Elder, for instance, is another matter, and will be duly addressed. Lavish use of illustrations in the new series will make the volumes particularly valuable, since until now only a limited number of reproductions were available. Kunz’s research on the Cranachs will add a monograph of the highest standards to the printmaking literature.