[Footnote II-88: “Nostrum vero libellum, cujus gratia hæc præfati sumus, intrepide, si non primum artis inventæ fœtum, certe inter primos fuisse asseveramus.”--Amœnitates Literariæ, tom. i. p. 4.] [Footnote II-89: Heineken had seen two editions of this book, and he gives fac-similes of their titles, which are evidently from different blocks. The title at full length is as follows: “_Ars memorandi notabilis per figuras Ewangelistarum hic ex post descriptam quam diligens lector diligenter legat et practiset per signa localia ut in practica experitur_.”--“En horridum et incomtum dicendi genus, Priscianumque misere vapulantem!” exclaims Schelhorn.] [Footnote II-90: Heineken, Idée Générale, p. 394.] “It is worthy of observation,” says J. C. Von Aretin, in his Essay on the earliest Results of the Invention of Printing, “that this book, which the most intelligent bibliographers consider to be one of the earliest of its kind, should be devoted to the improvement of the memory, which, though divested of much of its former importance by the invention of writing, was to be rendered of still less consequence by the introduction of printing.”[II-91] [Footnote II-91: Über die frühesten universal historischen Folgen der Erfindung der Buchdruckerkunst, von J. Christ. Freyherrn Von Aretin, S. 18. 4to. Munich, 1808.] The first cut is intended to express figuratively the first six chapters of St. John’s Gospel. The upright eagle is the emblem of the saint, and the numerals are the references to the chapters. The contents of the first chapter are represented by the dove perched on the eagle’s head, and the two faces,--one of an old, the other of a young man,--probably intended for those of Moses and Christ.[II-92] The lute on the breast of the eagle, with something like three bells[II-93] suspended from it, indicate the contents of the second chapter, and are supposed by Schelhorn to refer to the marriage of Cana. The numeral 3, in Schelhorn’s opinion, relates to “nonnihil apertum et prosectum circa ventrem,” which he thinks may be intended as a reference to the words of Nicodemus: “Nunquid homo senex potest in ventrem matris suæ iterum introire et renasci?” Between the feet of the eagle is a water-bucket surmounted by a sort of coronet or crown, intended to represent the principal events narrated in the 4th chapter, which are Christ’s talking with the woman of Samaria at the well, and his healing the son of a nobleman at Capernaum. The 5th chapter is indicated by a fish above the eagle’s right wing, which is intended to bring to mind the pool of Bethesda. The principal event related in the 6th chapter, Christ feeding the multitude, is indicated by the two fishes and five small loaves above the eagle’s left wing. The cross within a circle, above the fishes, is emblematic of the consecrated wafer in the Lord’s supper, as celebrated by the church of Rome.[II-94]