Title Page to History of the Warres of the Emperour Justinian

Art Historical Context

Step into the intricate world of 17th-century printmaking with Thomas Cross's *Title Page to History of Warres of the Emper Justinian*, an engraving published in 1653. Cross, a skilled English engraver known for his detailed book illustrations, crafted this 26.3 × 17.2 cm sheet as a grand introduction to a historical text recounting the military campaigns of Byzantine Emperor Justinian I (r. 527–565 CE). Justinian's wars, chronicled by the ancient historian Procopius sought to reclaim lost Roman territories, blending triumph with the era's brutal realities. Engraving, a precise intaglio techn...

About the Artist

Thomas Cross

Thomas Cross was an English engraver active in the seventeenth century, primarily known for his work in the London print trade during a period of lively commercial and artistic demand for illustrated books, maps, portraits, and broadsides. Though his precise dates of birth and death are not firmly recorded, documentary evidence places his activity in the second half of the seventeenth century, a t...