by Gertrude Burford Rawlings
New York D.Appleton and Company 1901
for the purpose. One side only of each leaf was printed, two pages being printed from one block, and the
sheets folded once and arranged in sequence, not “quired” or "nested." The resulting order was that of
two printed pages face to face, followed by two blank pages face to face.
The illustrations are of scenes from sacred history, and portraits of Biblical personages, accompanied by
explanatory Latin or German texts in Gothic characters. The original designer and compiler of this favorite
block-book is unknown, but he certainly worked on lines laid down by some much older author and artist,
for manuscript works of similar nature existed at least as early as the beginning of the fourteenth
century. The earliest known instance of a composition of the kind, however, is a series of enamels on an
antependium or altar-frontal in the St. Leopold Chapel at Klosterneuberg, near Vienna, which originally
contained forty-five pictures dealing with Biblical subjects, arranged in the same order as in the Biblia
Pauperum, and which were executed by Nicolas de Verdun, in 1181.
first Bishop of Hamburg, in the ninth century, others to Wernher, a
German monk of the twelfth century, but it seems unlikely that the
point will ever be decided. The Biblia Pauperum is usually supposed
to have been first printed xylographically in Holland, and type-
printed editions were issued later from Bamberg, Paris, and
Vienna.
To modern eyes the illustrations of this book are strange and
wonderful indeed. "The designer certainly had no thought of
irreverence," says De Vinne, "but many of the designs are really
ludicrous. Some of the anachronisms are: Gideon arrayed in plate-
armour, with mediæval helmet and visor and Turkish scimitar; David
and Solomon in rakish, wide-brimmed hats, bearing high, conical
crowns; the translation of Elijah in a four-wheeled vehicle
resembling the modern farmer's hay-wagon. Slouched hats, puffed
doublets, light legged breeches and pointed shoes are seen in the
apparel of the Israelites who are not represented as priests or
soldiers. Some houses have Italian towers and some have Moorish
minarets, but in none of the pictures is there an exhibition of
pointed Gothic architecture."
dating from about 1450. The middle panel shows Christ rising from the tomb, and the wonder and fear
of the Roman guards; the left-hand panel shows Samson carrying off the gales of the city of Gaza, and
the right-hand panel the disgorging of Jonah by the whale. The upper part of the text shows how that
Samson and Jonah were types of Christ, and the four little figures represent David, Jacob, Hosea, and
Siphonias (Zephaniah), the texts on the scrolls being quotations from their words.
The accompanying rhymes are as follows:
Obsessus turbis: Sapson valvas tulit urbis.
Quem saxum texit: ingens tumulum Jesus exit.
De tumulo Christe: surgens te denotat iste.
(In the midst of crowds, Samson removes the gates of the city. The anointed Jesus, whom the stone
covered, rises from the tomb. This man (Jonah) rising from the tomb, denotes Thee, 0 Christ !)
Another very popular block-book, of German origin, was the curious compilation known as Ars Moriend i-
the Art of Dying-or, as it is sometimes called, Temptationes Demonis, or Temptation of Demons. It
describes how dying persons are beset by all manner of temptations, the final triumph of the good, and
the sad end of the wicked, with suitable emotions on the part of the attendant angels, and the hideous
demons by which the temptations are personified. This work was greatly in vogue in the fifteenth
century, and after the invention of type-printing was reproduced in various parts of France, Italy,
Germany, and Holland.
The only block-book without illustrations was the Donatus de octibus jartibus orationis, or Donatus on
the Eight Parts of Speech, shortly known as Donatus. It was the Latin grammar of the period, and was
the work of Donatus, a famous Roman grammarian of the fourth century. Large numbers were printed
both from blocks and from type, but xylographic fragments are scarce, and none are known of any date
before the second half of the fifteenth century. Yet it is believed that probably more copies of this work
were printed than of any other block-book whatever. Besides its lack of illustrations, the xylographic
Donatus is unique among block-books from the fact that it was printed on vellum and not on paper, and
(another unusual feature) on both sides of the leaf. Vellum was dear, and had to be made the most of,
and no doubt was used only because a paper book would have fared badly at the hands of the
schoolboys.