The Invention of Printing.: A Collection of Facts and Opinions, Descriptive of Early Prints and Playing Cards, the Block-Books of the Fifteenth Century, the Legend of Lourens Janszoon Coster, of Haarlem, and the Work of John Gutenberg and His Associates — John Shaqi
The Invention of Printing.: A Collection of Facts and Opinions, Descriptive of Early Prints and Playing Cards, the Block-Books of the Fifteenth Century, the Legend of Lourens Janszoon Coster, of Haarlem, and the Work of John Gutenberg and His AssociatesDe Vinne, Theodore Low
History
The Invention of Printing.: A Collection of Facts and Opinions, Descriptive of Early Prints and Playing Cards, the Block-Books of the Fifteenth Century, the Legend of Lourens Janszoon Coster, of Haarlem, and the Work of John Gutenberg and His Associates
De Vinne, Theodore Low
Incunabula -- Bibliography; Printing -- History -- Origin and antecedents
The illustration on the opposite page is the reduced fac-simile of
an old print once known as the _Indulgence Print of 1410_, and then
considered as of greater age than the print of Saint Christopher. The
inscription at the foot of the indulgence; which is in old Dutch or
Flemish, is to this effect:
“Whoever, regarding the sufferings of our Lord, shall truly repent
of his sins, and shall thrice repeat the _Pater Noster_ and the _Ave
Maria_, shall be entitled to seventeen thousand years of indulgence,
which have been granted to him by Pope Gregory, as well as by two
other popes and by forty bishops. [This has been done so that] the
rich as well as the poor may try to secure this indulgence.”
That this print was made in Flanders is apparent from the language,
as well as from the peculiar shape of the letter t at the end of
words. The perpendicular bar dropping from the top of this t was so
seldom used in Germany that it may be regarded as a very old Flemish
mannerism. That the print was engraved in 1410 is extremely improbable.
The Pope Gregory here mentioned is undoubtedly Pope Gregory xii, who
reigned from 1406 to 1415. It was once believed that the two other
popes mentioned in the indulgence were the rivals of Gregory, the
anti-popes Benedict XII and John XXII. It was supposed that this print
was published during this period,[20] and for this reason, it has
sometimes been called the _Indulgence Print of 1410_. [p078]
M. Wetter, a learned German critic, has pointed out the absurdity of
the belief that three popes at enmity with each other should unite in
the promulgation of this document.[21] It is now understood that the
two other popes mentioned in the indulgence are Pope Nicholas V, who
reigned from 1447 to 1455, and Pope Calixtus III, who reigned from 1455
to 1458. The publication of the indulgence is therefore placed between
the years 1455 and 1471. Consequently, the print is of no value as an
evidence of Flemish priority, for it was made more than thirty years
after the St. Christopher.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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