Part 16

‹f›Osculetur me osculo oris sui; quia Let him kiss me with the meliora sunt ubera tua vino.‹/f› kisses of his mouth, for thy love is better than wine.

‹f›Veni in hortum meum, soror mea sponsa I am come into my garden, my messui myrrham meum cum aromatibus sister, my spouse: I have meis.‹/f› gathered my myrrh with my spice.

‹f›Caput tuum ut Carmelus; collum tuum Thine head is like Carmel; sicut turris eburnea.‹/f› thy neck is like a tower of ivory.

‹f›Nigra sum, sed formosa, filiæ I am black but comely, O ye Jerusalem, sicut tabernacula cedar, daughters of Jerusalem; As sicut pelles Solomonis.‹/f› the tents of Kedar, as the curtains of Solomon.

The agriculturists of the upper illustration are in monastic habits: some are cutting and threshing grain; one is pounding the grain in a mortar and another is grinding it in a hand mill. In the open little house before the monk with a pestle, is a desk with two books. In this combination of agricultural work with the emblem or suggestion of study, Harzen sees an illustration of the daily work of the Brethren of the Life-in-Common, to whom he attributes the engraving and printing of this book. The brethren of this order were eminent as students and copyists of books, and had some distinction in the last quarter of the fifteenth century as printers, but their connection with this book cannot be established.[116]

The words at the top of one of the cuts are not the only Dutch feature in the book: the style of design is that of the Netherlandish school of art. The blocks have been drawn and engraved with much more care than those of the _Apocalypse_, or the _Bible of the Poor_. There is more of grace in the attitudes and draperies of the female figures of the _Canticles_, and less of that gross and unimaginative treatment of sacred personages which borders both on the ludicrous and the profane. But [p218] the designer of the book presents the oriental love story to his readers with Dutch accessories. The bride of the Song of Solomon wanders about the streets of a city supposed to be Jerusalem, but the dwellings have high-peaked roofs, Dutch gables, and overhanging upper stories; she is assaulted by an armed and helmeted cavalier who carries on his shield the heraldic black eagle of some unknown German potentate; the pope, two cardinals and a bishop, with drawn swords in their hands and shields on their arms, look with great composure over Gothic battlements on the assault below. Writers who are skilled in heraldry say that there is a peculiar significance in the presentation of the devices and the arms on shields which are found in many places in the book. Some German authors see in these devices the arms of the German Empire, of Wittemburg and of minor German principalities. Those who believe that the book was printed in the Netherlands, see in the shields the arms of Burgundy, of Alsace, and of Flemish towns and cities. From these trivial evidences, the conclusion has been drawn by one class of partisans that the designer must have been a German, and, by another class, that he must have been a Hollander.[117] [p219]

The engraved letters of this book are much more legible than those of the _Apocalypse_ or the _Bible of the Poor_. The Dutch final _t_ is frequently introduced. The paper-marks most frequently observed are the unicorn, the bull’s head, and the letter P; but no information of value can be derived from the paper-marks, and but little from the designs and engravings.

Although we do not know whether the _Canticles_ was printed in the second or third quarter of the fifteenth century, it may be admitted that it was printed in the Netherlands. We see the last trace of the blocks in the hands of the same printer who destroyed the engravings of the _Bible of the Poor_. A book, bearing the imprint of Peter Van Os, of Zwoll, 1494, has for its frontispiece the upper half of the first plate.

THE STORY OF THE BLESSED VIRGIN.

This is the bibliographic title[118] of a block-book which may be offered as a proper specimen of the popular religious literature of the fifteenth century. Sotheby mentions four distinct editions of the work. The one that has been most frequently described (whether first or last, is not known) consists of sixteen leaves, with four illustrations on each leaf, and a brief explanatory text in Latin. The designs have no artistic merit; the engraving is coarse, and evidently the work of a novice; the letters are legible, but they betray great inexperience in the use of the graver, and they do not, in any feature, resemble those of the block-books previously described. Some of them have mannerisms like those of Gutenberg’s Bible. It is possible that the letters of one edition of the book are those of movable types, or that they were engraved on wood from a transfer taken from an impression of movable types. In all editions the letters have German peculiarities, but there is no edition which has the appearance of a first experiment in [p220] printing. It is probable that all the editions were printed in Germany, and after the invention of typography.

The edition from which the annexed illustration was taken was roughly printed on one side of the paper, but in a very black ink. In other editions, which were printed from entirely different blocks, differing both in the size of the block and in the positions of the figures, the ink is of the customary rusty brown. The copy in black is supposed to have been printed on a press, and at a later date.

The object of the book is to show the reasonableness of the story of the Incarnation, and to defend the dogma of the Immaculate Conception. The bad taste of the author is more signally shown in the text than in the pictures. Arguments in support of the dogma are wrested from sacred history and heathen mythology, and the writings of the fathers of the church. The book is a curious compend of piety and unconscious irreverence, of high scholarship and gross stupidity, as will be more clearly shown by the following translation of the legends that explain the pictures on the opposite page.

_Temple of Venus, with a man _A man gazing at water that gazing at a lamp._ If the reflects the moon._ If light at the temple of Venus Seleucus in Persia finds cannot be extinguished, why [reflected] light from should not the Virgin generate the moon, why should not without the seed of Venus? the Virgin, pregnant by a _Augustine de Civitate Dei_, beautiful star, generate? XXI, 7. _Augustine de Civitate Dei_, XX, 6.

_Two Human Figures and a _Two men sawing a stone on Statue._ If a human being can which appear two human heads._ be changed into stone, why, by If man can be painted on divine power, should not the stone by the power of heaven, Virgin generate? _Albertus de why should not the Virgin Minoralium_, I, _in generate by the assistance of fine_. the Holy Spirit? _Albertus de Minoralium_, II, I.

The book begins with representations of St. Ambrose, St. Jerome, St. Gregory and St. Augustine. St. Ambrose, who is duly quoted from his _Hexameron_, book II, chapter 41, assigns reasons for the Immaculate Conception, by illogical reference to a bird without a mate. St. Augustine, who is represented as seated at a table, reading from his work, _De Mirabilibus_, book III, chapter 12, asserts the Immaculate Conception because many animals are produced without mating. St. Jerome and [p222] St. Gregory expound the same doctrine. Fifty-four illustrations follow, each explained by a proposition that enunciates with great formality some of the marvels of natural science. We are told of bees without fathers, of birds impregnated by the bill, of geese born from trees, of asbestos that burns forever, of pearls made fruitful by the dew, of the phœnix restored by fire, and of many other absurdities. The authorities cited seem to have been selected with a truly catholic spirit: we find among them Valerius Maximus, Peter Comestor, Terence, Boethius, Job, Livy, and Isidore.

One edition of this work contains an imprint in sprawling and almost unreadable characters, which bibliographers interpret as the letters F. W. 1470. The letters F. W. were no doubt the initials of Frederich Walther of Nordlingen.

The quality of the science taught in this _History of the Blessed Virgin_ enables us to form a just idea of the real value of the scholastic philosophy then regarded as the perfection of wisdom. The silly speculations set forth in the book were the husks upon which a devout people were fed.

AN EXERCISE ON THE LORD’S PRAYER.

This is the translated title of a thin block-book of ten leaves, which was intended to explain the Lord’s Prayer by illustration. The blocks are printed in brown ink on one side of the paper. The _Exercise_ is in the popular form of dialogue.

In the illustration No. 1, the monk _Frater_ begs the angel _Oratio_ to teach him the Lord’s Prayer. And these are the lessons that are taught:

2. _Our Father who art in Heaven._ Christ, the Monk, and the Angel kneel.

3. _Hallowed be thy name._ The Monk, the Angel, Christ, and the Church represented by a female figure, are kneeling. On the right the Virgin and Holy Child.

4. _Thy kingdom come._ A representation of Purgatory: in the upper part, the wicked surrounded by flames; in the lower part, Jews and Pagans in the fiery lake.

5. _Thy will be done._ The Almighty in the clouds, and before him the Angel and the Monk kneeling. On the right, a good Christian and an Angel. In the centre, two bad men who are rejecting the Eucharist. In the foreground, the Jews and Pagans throw down the cup and are pouring out its contents.

_Scroll in No. 5._ Frater and Oratio kneeling before God. ‹f›Fiat voluntas tua sicut in cœlo et in terra.‹/f› Let Thy will be done in Heaven as on earth. . . . _The Angel to the right._ ‹f›Qui stat videat ne cadat.‹/f› Let him who may stand take heed lest he fall . . . _The Good Christian._ [p223] ‹f›Gratia Dei sum id quod sum.‹/f› Thanks to God that I am what I am. . . . _The Jews._ ‹f›Quis est Jesus filius fabri?‹/f› Who is Jesus but the son of the carpenter? _The Pagans._ ‹f›Quis noster dominus est?‹/f› Who is our Lord? . . . . _The Bad Christians._ ‹f›Ducamus in bonis dies nostros.‹/f› We guide ourselves to salvation.

6. _Give us this day our daily bread._ In the centre, three loaves of bread on a table, around which is Charity, robed as a queen, with three other figures. On one side the Monk and Angel kneeling; on the other, a Knight in armor.

7. _Forgive us our trespasses._ Christ standing on the altar, the blood pouring from his side in a basin, from which several persons fill their cups.

8. _Lead us not into temptation._ The disobedient, proud, gluttonous and avaricious surround a table. Death carries away the foremost.

9. _Deliver us from evil._ A representation of Hell. The disobedient man in the power of the Devil. The damned making supplication to the Almighty.

10. _Amen._ A view of Paradise, with the happiness of the blessed. [p224]

Santander says that the book bears all the marks of the highest antiquity. Holtrop says that there is one copy of this work in which the Latin text is translated, and explained by engraved lines in Flemish at the bottom of each cut. Guichard describes a series of engravings on wood, consisting of eight designs like those just described, with a manuscript text in Flemish. It is, without doubt, a Flemish book. Of the many extraordinary commentaries which have been made on the _Lord’s Prayer_, this, surely, is the most singular perversion. The prayer which begins with a recognition of the brotherhood of mankind, which tells us to believe in the all-embracing love of the Father, which teaches lessons of dependence, forgiveness and protection, is made the text for a denunciation of Jews and Pagans, and for the teaching of doctrinal notions about the Eucharist.

THE BOOK OF KINGS.

In this book, two separate illustrations, with their explanatory text, are printed together on each page. The _Book of Kings_ might, therefore, be classified among the block-books without separate pages of text, but it really has a text of unusual length for a book of this class. In other features, it resembles the block-books previously described; its twenty pages are printed on one side of the leaf; the illustrations face each other, and are in the customary brown ink. The designs are rudely drawn, and are as full of anachronisms in architecture as the illustrations of the _Bible of the Poor_, but the architecture most frequently shown is in the pointed Gothic style. The engraving is coarse; every object is cut in bold and heavy outline; tints and shading lines are timidly used, and always in a crude manner. It was obviously intended that the illustrations should be developed by painting or by stenciling. The letters are drawn and engraved with more care than the pictures, but they are irregular in size and form. One of the peculiarities of the lettering is the final cross given to the small letter _t_, a peculiarity which is frequently [p226] noticed in some of the typographic work of Dutch printers. The leaves were not nested in sections one within another as was customary: each sheet of two leaves was engraved, printed and folded separately, so as to make a book of ten sections.

The book was intended to illustrate the more important events of the life of David as recorded in the books of _Samuel_, and in the _First_ and _Second Books of Kings_. The fac-simile on the preceding page illustrates Hannah presenting Samuel to the priests in the house of the Lord, and Samuel called by the Lord out of sleep. Sotheby classifies it with the block-books of Holland, but Falkenstein attributes it to Germany.

THE GROTESQUE ALPHABET.

This is a curious block-book of twenty-four pages, of the original edition of which not one perfect copy is known. The leaves of the copy now on the shelves of the British Museum are 3-3/4 inches wide and 6 inches high. Sotheby, who has carefully examined its construction, says that the twenty-four pages were printed in sections of eight pages on three sheets of paper, with a thin watery ink of a sepia tint. The margins and blanks have been written on with an ink of nearly the same color as that of the printed cuts.

Another copy of this work has been found at Basle, in which, on the letter A (not found in the London copy), may be seen the date 1464. Another copy, in a library at Dresden, has the same date. Renouvier says that these copies, by German engravers, and of inferior execution, are transfers of the original, which was engraved in the Netherlands.

The history of the book in the British Museum is unknown, but it has many evidences of long use in English hands. The cover or binding consists of a double fold of thick parchment, upon the inside of which, between the folds, is written in large English characters, “Edwardus Lowes.” On one side of the last leaf is the rough draft of a letter in the English language. The writing, which is found in scraps all over the book, is of [p227] the period of Henry VIII. Upon a sword-blade in the cut of the letter L is written in small characters the word London. In another place in the same cut are letters which are read by some as _Westmistre_—by others as _Bethemsted_. It is full of English writing, but it has not been proved that the cuts are the work of an English engraver. Chatto says of them:

——They were neither designed nor engraved by the artists who designed and engraved the cuts in the _Apocalypse_, the _History of the Virgin_ and the _Poor Preachers’ Bible_. . . . With respect to drawing, engraving and expression, the cuts of the _Alphabet_ are decidedly superior to those of every block-book, and generally to all wood engravings executed before the year 1500, with the exception of such as are by Albert Durer, and those contained in the _Hypnerotomachia_, printed by Aldus at Venice in 1499. . . . I perceive nothing in them to induce me to suppose that they were the work of a Dutch artist; and I am as little inclined to ascribe them to a German. The style of the drawing is not unlike what we see in illuminated French manuscripts of the middle of the fifteenth century; and as the only two engraved words which occur in the volume are in French, I am rather inclined to suppose that the artist who made the designs was a native of France. The costume of the female to whom the words are addressed appears to be French; and the action of the lover kneeling seems almost characteristic of the nation. No Dutchman [p228] certainly ever addressed his mistress with such an air. He holds what appears to be a ring as gracefully as a modern Frenchman holds a snuff-box, and upon the scroll before him are engraved a heart, and the words which he may be supposed to utter: _Mon ame_—My soul.[119]

The real object of this book is not apparent. The figures were not engraved for the purpose of teaching the alphabet, for the designs are quaint, elaborate, and above the comprehension of young children. When the book was first made, the letters had a significance which seems to have been forgotten.

THE APOSTLES’ CREED.

This is the title given to a lost block-book, of which only seven leaves remain. The annexed illustration is a reduced fac-simile of the page that tells the story of the Resurrection. The four angels about the circle are sounding the last trump, and the dead are coming forth from their graves. The figures in the lower corners are those of Zacharias and Judas. In this book, and in nearly all the block-books, the subjects most frequently presented are those that illustrate the marvelous and terrible. The designs have merit, but the letters are badly engraved. The pictures are explained by a few lines in German. The [p229] copy of the book described by Dibdin has on the fly-leaf the written memorandum V. W. 1471, but it is not probable that this writing has any reference to the date of printing.

THE EIGHT ROGUERIES.

This is a small block-book of eight leaves. Weigel places it among the earliest specimens of engraving on wood. The language in which the pictures are explained is High German. The pictures illustrate the Go-between, the Liar, the Cheat, the Counterfeit Goldsmith, the Cheating Merchant, the Church Robber, the Cheating Rope-maker, the Blacksmith that sells iron for steel. The designs are rude, but they are full of spirit and character, and the cutting of the figures has been done with ability and intelligence. The paper was printed on one side only and in dull brown ink. This book was found in the neglected library of an old South German monastery, in the heart of the neighborhood in which we find the earliest notices of printers and painters of images. As it is the only block-book of a decidedly non-religious character, it may be ascribed to some maker of playing cards, who practised the art of engraving before it was placed under the control of the Church.

[p230]

XII

Block-Books of Images with Text.

The Antichrist, with Fac-simile . . . How to Remember the Evangelists, with Fac-simile . . . How to Die Becomingly, with Fac-simile . . . Other Editions of this Work . . . Chiromancy of Doctor Hartleib, with Fac-simile . . . German Planetarium and Calendar, with Fac-simile . . . Wonders of Rome, with Fac-simile . . . Pomerium Spirituale, with Fac-simile . . . Temptations of the Devil, with Fac-simile . . . Life of St. Meinrat, with Fac-simile . . . Dance of Death, with Fac-simile . . . Mechanical Peculiarities of the Block-Books . . . All of Religious Character . . . Made for Priests, but seen by the People . . . Not Adapted to the Needs of the People . . . The Period of the Block-Books . . . Made in Germany and the Netherlands . . . Dates and Printers of the Books Unknown . . . Probably Made in the First Quarter of the Fifteenth Century . . . An Established Business before the Invention of Typography.

* * * * *

This, that is written in this little book, ought the priests to learn and teach to their parishes: and it is also necessary for simple priests that understand not the Scriptures, and it is made for simple people . . . . by cause that for to hear examples stirreth and moveth the people that ben simple more to devotion than great authority of science.

_Caxton’s Preface to the Doctrinal of Sapyence._

* * * * *

Der Endkrist, or the Antichrist. This book seems to have been written to warn men against the snares of heresy. Two distinct editions are known; each was printed from a different suite of blocks and by a different printer. The copy about to be described has thirty-eight leaves, twenty-six of which are devoted to the life of Antichrist, and eleven to a separate treatise known as the _Fifteen Signs_, which was bound up with the _Antichrist_, and of which it seems to be the proper sequel. The book is printed on one side of the leaf, in brown ink, and the illustrations face each other. The text begins with the words, “Here beginneth of Antichrist, taken and drawn out of many books, how and of whom he [p231] shall be born.” After a half-page wood-cut, which represents with needless grossness the birth of Antichrist, follow other engravings illustrating the more notable events of his life.[120] The fac-simile on the following page gives a correct notion of the lawlessness of the designs[121] of the book. It is obvious that they were not made by the artist who drew the illustrations for the _Bible of the Poor_ or for the _Canticles_. The text which explains the wood-cuts is in the German language, but it is in a very careless form of German writing. [p233]

The thirty-eight leaves of one edition are made up in one section. This bungling method of making up a book is sufficient evidence that the printer or engraver who placed these pages together had no education in practical book-making. But the bad method shown in the plan does not prove that the book is of great age. The copy under notice contains, in the German language, the imprint of _Junghannis, priffmaler_, or painter of cards, Nuremberg, 1472. Whether this Junghannis was the designer, printer or engraver is not known.

HOW TO REMEMBER THE EVANGELISTS.