Our illustration gives a reduced representation of a page from the
second edition of the _Biblia Pauperum_, 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
gates 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: Sampson 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, O Christ!)
Another very popular block-book, of German origin, was the curious
compilation known as _Ars Moriendi_--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
partibus 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.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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