The Ars moriendi (editio princeps, circa 1450) : a reproduction of the copy in the British Museum / edited by W.H. Rylands ; with an introduction by George Bullen.

Date:
1881
Catalogue details

Licence: Public Domain Mark

Credit: The Ars moriendi (editio princeps, circa 1450) : a reproduction of the copy in the British Museum / edited by W.H. Rylands ; with an introduction by George Bullen. Source: Wellcome Collection.

Provider: This material has been provided by Royal College of Physicians, London. The original may be consulted at Royal College of Physicians, London.

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    engraving. Baron Heinecken gives his opinion, Idee generale d'une collection complette des Estampes, in favour of the playing- cards, while Mr. Chatto, in his latest-published work on the subject, corrects the opinion which he had previously given in 1836, and expresses his belief that there were stencilled cards before there were wood engravings of saints. The Biblia Pauperum, a work intended for the instruction of the laity, by means of a series of illustrations of Bible history, accompanied by illustrative texts of Scripture, is generally supposed to have been the first of the block-books. It was in all likelihood produced in Holland, probably at Haarlem, between the years 1430-40. Of this there were several editions. The style of art appears to be decidedly of the Dutch School. In the Canticum Canticorum there is a decided improvement both in beauty of design and execution. The designs clearly belong to the school of the Van Eycks. The Speculum Humanse Salvationis also shows an improve- ment upon the Biblia Pauperum, although some writers ascribe to it an earlier date. Of the Ars Memorandi, the Apocalypse, and the other block-books, there is no occasion here to speak. The iVrs Moriendi is evidently a later production than any of those already mentioned. The manufacture of block- books, commenced in Holland and afterwards practised in Bel- gium, appears to have travelled, about the middle of the fifteenth century, into Germany, and fixed itself at Cologne, where this edition was in all probability executed. Herr Weigel's copy of