Book/Printed Material Ars moriendi.
About this Item
Title
- Ars moriendi.
Summary
- Ars moriendi, or The Art of Dying is an important genre of book which reveals the medieval Church rituals surrounding the last rites of a dying Christian. The earliest known printing of the Ars moriendi is a block book edition produced in the southern Netherlands around 1450, though this date is still under debate by historians of the subject. By 1500, over eighty printed editions were produced from presses in Germany, France, Italy, the Low Countries, Spain and Great Britain. Hind wrote that its popularity probably comes from the fact that its was intended as a guide to clergy in giving comfort and counsel to the dying. It is composed of ten scenes organized in pairs depicting the countervailing forces of grace and temptation, faith and despair, and good over evil. This copy contains the bookplate of A. A. Renouard.
- Printed in black ink. Bound into this copy is a leaf from Biblia Pauperum and two additional woodcuts from a later edition of an Ars Memorandi was designed as an aid for semi-literate clergy in remembering the lessons of the Gospels by meands of symbols. Block books were printed from carved wood blocks, incorporating both images and text on only one side of paper.
Names
- Renouard, Ant. Aug. (Antoine Augustin), 1765-1853, former owner.
- Lessing J. Rosenwald Collection (Library of Congress)
Created / Published
- [Germany, 1466]
Headings
- - Death--Early works to 1800
- - Block books--Specimens
- - [Germany]
Genre
- Incunabula--Germany--1466
Notes
- - Block book.
- - Printed in black ink on one side of leaves only, so that pairs of printed and blank pages alternately face each other.
- - Schreiber, W.L. Handbuch der Holz- und Metallschnitte des XV. Jahrhunderts (3. Aufl.), IV, p. 261, 267-312 (ed. IV A)
- - Catalogue of books printed in the XVth century now in the British Museum, I, p. 4 (IB.23) (leaves printed on both sides)
- - Library of Congress. Lessing J. Rosenwald collection, 20
- - LC copy has inserted: leaf 18 (sig. s) of the Biblia pauperum, Nördlingen, 1470 (block book with German text; cf. Schreiber, IV, p. 93, 98, col. 1) and 2 late impressions from early wood blocks (one being a copy of the illus. on leaf 3 from another ed. of the Ars moriendi). Provenance: A.A. Renouard (bookplate).
- - Gift of Lessing J. Rosenwald, 1943-1975; bookplate of A.A. Renouard.
Medium
- [24] leaves. 11 illus. 28.7 cm.
Call Number/Physical Location
- Incun. X .A874
Digital Id
Library of Congress Control Number
- 49038880
Online Format
- image